Back in the Studio

The week before vacation and the week after vacation always seem to be so busy! I was able to pick up where I left off in the studio and get some work done. I have to, because I'm feeling the rush of only having 5 weeks left in my studio before summer. I worked on this large oil, but I'm not sure if it's done?

People always ask me "How do you know when it's done?" It's a gut reaction, you feel settled. If you feel restless when you look at it then it's not done. It seems to be calling to get your attention while you work on other things. I think this is what is happening here, but I don't know what it wants. I think the center needs some color variation but I'm a little scared to work on that area. I know you should never let fear hold you back from moving the work forward.

I also worked on a few encaustic paintings this week. This one I declared done a while back, but I knew I could make it better if I was willing to lose what I had to get to something better. Here is it after I worked on it. Is it better? I don't know, maybe I should have left it alone. This is the risk you take.

This seems to be a metaphor for life. You can get to a better place if you're willing to let go of where you are and what you have, to get there. A concept that is so hard to accept and actually put into practice, don't you agree?

Bubbles and Abstract Photos

Here's something you don't see every day. This is my niece Kim in a bubble, blown and held in place by her brother, Ryan. The kids had alot of fun with bubbles in the pool.
















I had a lot of fun taking these abstract shots. Inspiration for new paintings as soon as I can get back in the studio.

Living in the Moment

I'm off to Florida for a week! Here is my favorite encaustic painting , for the moment at least.

The title is Bubbling Up and it's 6 x 6 inches. I just sent some images to a gallery in Philly and this was one of them along with a new artist's statement. The statement took days to write, and feels good, for the moment anyway.

Artist Statement 2009

My artwork acknowledges my love of nature and my childhood spent immersed in it. I view nature as a metaphor for human experiences and emotional states of being.
Recently I’ve been working on a series of works that explore the many properties and characteristics of water. Water can be either still, tranquil and peaceful or stormy, rough, and raging. Water supports life and yet can be responsible for the loss of many lives as in the case of a natural disaster.
I’m interested in depicting the energy and life force of this natural element to elicit an emotional response. This desire has led me to explore and invent many techniques to apply and manipulate the mediums I use. I’m pouring and splattering, in the case of oil paints and inks or melting layer upon layer of wax then heating it to let the under layer bubble up in the case of encaustics. I feel akin to nature by making art in the same way the earth came to be, and continues to evolve. Volcanoes erupt and pour molten lava down the mountains to form new land masses and glaciers melt to feed bodies of water. Everything in nature is constantly changing and I try to depict this in my work.

Open Studio

April 3rd, at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, 5-9 pm.

Art on the Town Opening

I hope you can make it because I'm heading out today to finish cleaning. Cleaning is so painful but feels so good when you get it done. Check out a few things in the side bar, a new link to a video of my Dec. 2008 Exhibition as promised and a link to photo stories of 4 paintings (thanks Larry)and the stages they went through from start to finish.

These are new large oil paintings. I think they're done. Leave me a comment with your thoughts.