Daily Archives: August 18, 2024

After so many early summer activities – gardening, hosting company, chores around the house – I’ve finally be able to get back to doing something fun for me. Mostly painting for upcoming exhibits.

I don’t usually lack for ideas. Quite the opposite – too many ideas. But when I hit a dry spell, I sit with my notepad and just start brainstorming. Sometimes I think of a theme, or a location, or something that’s just a challenge. Not all of the ideas I consider reach fruition. Some turn out quite awful, to be frank, but you don’t see those. Maybe it’s a quick glimpse of a cloud or weather formation. Or maybe I want to try some new materials. I really like to do landscapes and to capture human forms. Not much into capturing ugly (to me) – rusty old implements or derelict buildings. But any of this could change in the future, maybe next week.

The past few months I’ve been capturing my travels to California this past spring. Totally different landscape for me. I mostly just did simple sketches, watercolor with pen and ink. But this inspired me to try some bigger, more finished paintings in acrylic on canvas. Many of these were challenging, even to the point where I asked myself why I decided to even try them. But I usually finish what I start as I’ve encountered that messy part of working on a painting about 60% of the way through where it all looks like garbage. Funny how that often works itself out.

Here are a few pieces that I’ve done the second half of the summer. And loads more ideas to come. There just aren’t enough hours in a day.