Send In The Clowns

"Where you been man?"
"I Know, it's been a while, here's what's happened."

Holidays...blah, blah, blah, painting prep, new track lights (I can see), TEW "Top 25 show", WI-Fi in the studio (Pandora radio and distractions galore), charity event at Hahn Ross Gallery (4 small pieces), "Cake" commission,"Oxford American" magazine illustration (Southern Music issue pg. 15), more prep, etc..."You know?, stuff"... Now?
Working on an April show, which will be held at the Red Line Gallery in Knoxville, TN. More on that next time.

Checked the stats for my blog and noticed an uptick in page views since Nov. (550 last month), I would say 75% of those were "accidental". The other 25% were interested in what was happening here in the studio, so for you folks, I will attempt to be timely with my updates. Thanks for looking.

Stephen Sondheim, flipping genius, is there a bad version of this song? Don't think so, try this one.

Top: Arrival Of Fun (Part 2) oil on panel, 12x14", 2012

Cotton Candy Painting

"Where do your ideas come from?"...This is the question most often asked these days (used to be "What does it mean?"). I think it is safe to say that painters are image junkies, always on the lookout, radar up, for visual input to be added to our mental hard drives. So...here's the answer to the question based on the image above.

I picked up the circus tent from a music score my daughter was carrying around for her voice class, ("Annie Get Your Gun"). It was a small illustration on the cover. I copied it into my sketckbook and began doodling possible paintings..eh..nothing was coming up.

Couple months later...I was sitting in the stands at a Braves baseball game, just chillin'. My eyes caught the guy selling cotton candy, he was good, instead of just standing there, he would run from the top of the aisle down to the bottom, with the confection piled onto a long pole, clouds of pastel sugar bouncing in the air...bingo.

Now I had my two main elements, drew those onto the canvas. Next, what to add?, color choices?, mood?...etc. basically trial and error from here on. The couple was needed, balloons, very peaceful scene, so at the last minute I added the animals, borrowed from Edward Hicks.


Above:Circus (Cotton Candy) 35x30 oil canvas 2011

Dream Police

Red Line Gallery in Knoxville, Tn. has a show opening Nov. 5th. called "Small Hidden Doors", curated by Lara Dann, the theme..dreams and their interpretation. I will be showing the 2 paintings you see in this post.

I've never been a big sleeper, 6-7hrs. is about all I am good for, but once I'm out I am gone. As a kid I was a bit of a sleepwalker and had bouts of "night terror" (not fun), but dreams or night travel as I like to say, are a feature of sleep I have always enjoyed. I don't try to analyze them, to me it's just a show, sometimes elaborate and lucid, other times misty and..well..dreamy. I have never painted my dreams but painting is a lot like dreaming, there is a freedom in the process of "making stuff up" similar to the subconscious storyline of dreaming. A painting has it's own truth, as does a dream.

Police hardly ever enter my dream world or my "waking dream world" for that matter..hmm..always loved this song by Cheap Trick.

Top:Night Travel (1) 11x12 (17x18 Fr) oil panel 2011

Bottom:Night Travel (2) 11x12 (17x18 Fr) oil panel 2011

Summer Roundup

This summer has been very active, with few "studio" blog posts, so.. thought I would restock the image bank for those of you whose only exposure to my paintings is this blog. These slipped through the cracks, enjoy.

Froze my %&@# off at the Braves game last Friday night and my big box of Luzianne ice tea bags is just about empty..looks like summer is done.

Top: Campfire Song (Moon) 14x12 (20x18 Fr) oil pane

Middle: Sunny Stage 18x16 (24x22 Fr) oil panel
Bottom: Baptism In Song 14x16 (20x22 Fr) oil panel

Below: Velvet Moon (Sunday Evening) 18x20 (22x26 Fr) oil panel

Redid the cake painting, found it a nice home in Nashville

Nashville Skyline

If you "googled" the Dylan album and ended up here, scroll down..

My show opens tomorrow at the Arts Company in Nashville, this will be my 5th exhibition with Anne Brown and the gang. Anne has an insightful blog post about my work, read it here, also "Nashville Arts Magazine" put me on the cover of the September issue (my second cover, thanks Paul), check it out here. See ya.. gotta pack... oh? the Dylan album..

"Nashville Skyline" was the "gateway drug" to becoming a Dylan fanatic for people my age (54). When he was putting out the classic '60's disks we were preocuppied with the Monkees and Beatles. Somehow "Skyline" got on the radar of my 13 year old ears. FM radio was cranking up then and the stations were an eyeopener, "Lay Lady Lay" was played often. I bought the album a couple of years later, wore it out (that Cash duet!!). "Blood On The Tracks" was next, I was hooked..still am.

Acorn Man

This is an image that has been bouncing around my sketchbook for a year. Like many of my paintings, "Acorn Man" started as an idea for a sculpture (sculptures I never make), which is not a bad way to envision a picture. What kept me from putting him in a painting?..well... humor is a consistent element in my work, would this be skating too close to "silly" though? But it is summer, right, not a time for "heaviness" and this was going to be the last painting for my upcoming show in Nashville so, what the heck. I kept the landscape pretty bleak to counter the cute, kinda like a last man standing image. "But that squirrel?.. man" Hey, I like painting squirrels, couldn't resist.

Above: Keeper Of Acorns, 28x25, oil/canvas 2011
I noticed my face contorting weirdly while painting his face.

Art In Chicago

A recent visit to Chicago confirmed something I have suspected for years; when it comes to the aesthetic enjoyment and the appreciation of viewing art, "context is everything". Well "duh" you might say, but many would argue that great works hold up regardless of placement. To make my point and to keep this post brief I have a few very bias opinions on what I observed at Chicago's Art Institute: Cubism, esp. paintings by Picasso and Braque (1910-15), couldn't look at them, they seemed to disappear from the walls (they look stunning at MOMA and in Paris), even Matisse caused a shrug (heresy!) accept his large "Bathers By The River". The Picasso that stopped me was his huge "Mother and Child", a neoclassical painting of heavy-set figures on the beach, amazing. Highly conceptual, contemporary art takes a hit in a museum such as the Institute (this work needs a whole separate building to do it justice). I tried reading the wall text that explained the photographs of curtains.. but there was a Poussin waiting in the next wing, sorry. What worked the best?, (besides the obvious, Seurat, Hopper,etc.)..late Philip Guston (above), almost a full room of them, not fussy or too cerebral, just raw paint, power and emotion, perfect for Chicago.

Top:Red Box, Philip Guston 68x96" 1977
Middle:Looking at Nighthawks

Below:An abstract painting of mine from 1985, relatives had it hanging in their house in Chicago, hard to believe I painted that, I must say, it looked pretty good there by the kitchen, nice to see it.