Photography

 I have been working on  Industrial photography lately.  I recently purchased a new Nikon point and shoot pocket size camera for traveling.   It's not the most expensive camera, but for me, as long as I can get a great resolution, and some options with the f-stop, that is all I need.

I am attracted the patterns of geometry in the architecture or design,  and the splashes of color that develops from natural decay, age, or graffiti.  I am fascinated by all the colors or textures that occur naturally, and overlay the original design. 

I found this post while I was walking and it intrigued me with it's splash of pink coloring.   and the yellow. 

I am not painting as much...but still working through some ideas.  I have not finished anything new to post, but with the summer and sunshine, I want to be outdoors as much as possible. 

Chapter: Winter to Spring

Oil on Canvas 11x14



It has been a long winter, and I'm ready for spring. Not only are spring temperatures beginning to return but the spring of rebirth. I have been talking very often about traveling again, but now I have a plan that I feel comfortable that I can bring to fruition.

I am still continuing my Waterscape paintings, and more ideas are coming to me, especially an idea for a larger painting. Not too large, but large enough to express new ideas and thoughts.

Another Chapter

 

Oil on canvas- 11"x14"

I am still working on working on these small canvas's.  I am not working as often as I would like to work on them. I want to produce as many as possible to see them all together, and finally see the story that they create together.   They are all in my thoughts each day, and waiting for each new one to take it's place next the one previous.

Short Stories



Oil on Canvas 11x14

Recently I was inspired by a friend of mine who is also an artist to work in a smaller format.   This was an important moment for me because until I saw the body of work he had produced, I was giving up painting and being an artist.   In the past few months since my last post, painting represented to me not a labor of love but labor to prove my value and worthiness to call myself an artist.  Without any new inspiration, I closed the door to future work. 



Oil on Canvas  11x14



 

It has been refreshing for me to work again in these small canvas's.  It's a quiet passion.  A smaller work that does not come with the rewards of seeing a large canvas come to life, but gives me the satisfaction of moving forward. I am still passionate about my Lake Scenes, or now they have become just "Water Scenes".  This format lets me continue to work with my mind's eye freely and without justification. 

Calm Lake- Verison 2

Calm Lake- Rough Waters     Oil on Canvas 48" x 60"

 This is the second version of the Calm Lake painting that I posted earlier.   There were many tears shed, much anxiety, and confusion felt while I labored on this canvas.   When it was finally completed I felt relief that I still know that I can move forward.  I may be slow to move, but at least there is advancement.  

I have been planning a trip over seas again, to Italy and Nice.  It has been almost 1 1/2 years since my last trip.  I am ready for a new adventure.  

Looking at the Past

Water Color on paper 9"x12", 2003

(Inspired by my journey to Oran, Algeria 

and the earthquake that occurred in Algiers May 21, 2003)

I have had a version of writer's block, "painter's block" since May.  I have a painting that I am working on, and I am very excited for the work I want to do with it, but it has been very tough for me to focus and concentrate.   I feel very distracted.  

There are things happening in my personal social, work, love life that have me reflecting back to other times, comparing my life now to then.  All of it has been wearing down on my spirit.  A feeling of being overwhelmed by life, and not enough stregnth in my dreams to carry me forward.   

The painting above is a water color that I worked on in 2003, another time in my life that I was without oil painting.   I did this water color as quick attempt to explore other medium in my own style.  When I worked on this, it too was an emotionally trying time in my life.  I was feeling out of sync with life, and continuing on the daily path.  I was not expressing myself enough then, and now, I feel maybe in some ways, I have felt my expression stifled? 

Water Color on paper 9"x12", 2003
(Inspired by my journey to Oran, Algeria 
and the earthquake that occurred in Algiers May 21, 2003)





Whether the reasons for feeling this way are reasonable or of my own fabrication, the end result is that I am still feeling stifled, or closed in. Life feels like it is going backward, but at the same time it has moved forward in small ways.  

I am still painting but one step at a time. 





Calm Lake

52"x64" Oil on Canvas

This is the oil painting version of a charcoal referenced as "Calm Lake Scene".    I am  working on a second version of this that appears to be more of a "Stormy" lake scene.   

This painting references a trip that I made to Northern Michigan, staying in a cottage on a small secluded lake late August 2012.  In some respects,  this lake was and is still a part of my home.   I made my first understanding with water and the peace that it gives me today at a very young age in this location.  

When I was young I would look out over the water of Lake Michigan and imagine the vastness and history of the storms, the waves, and the travelers who in perilous journeys crossed the icy deep lake waters .  Even though it is not visible to the eye,  I knew somewhere there was land on the other side.   

When looking out at the Sea, I feel the same feelings of the immensity of its water and the dangerous journeys that many explorers must have made.   They were seeking land and civilizations they could not see just on the other side of the horizon.