Daylilies 2015

Some daylily and landscape studies from this week.

Daylilies and Chair, 24" x 18" oil (2015)

Clair, watercolor (2015)

Daylilies, 24" x 18", oil (2015)

Barn study with Bee Balm and Daylilies, 18" x 24", oil (2015)

New Piece (borrowing Vince’s chair)

I have started a new (relatively small ) painting that depicts an object on a chair…sort of reminiscent of another work. 

This is an earlier stage of Vince’s chair- with something a lot of Dutchmen my age (and a little older) might recognize.

And at a later stage… after I brushed over everything with a turpentine wash…the geometry of the FAL is difficult to get correct. There is a lot more work to fal(low)

This is where it’s going after this evening (Sunday, June 6)

I have been wanting to settle down and work on something more objective after the last paintings, but I think that I need to move to a larger scale, or (as Gerry Herdman told me almost thirty years ago) get smaller brushes.

after some work last night.

All of This IV

Completed mid-September, 2008 42" x42", (acrylic and oil paint on canvas)










In the early stage (self-portrait, acrylic on canvas 42" x 42")

This began as a goof-off piece. I was waiting for another piece to dry and I noticed my shadow being cast by three different spotlights. I traced the shadow, said to myself, "this is sorta cool" and leaned the canvas against the wall for about six weeks. Later, I toyed with the idea of changing the colors to gradations of blue, and then thought about painting the same blue fabric as seen in some of the other paintings from this summer. Eventually, I made stencils for the fabric pattern and the painted the self-portrait in late August/ early September.

I want to pull figuration, expressive paint, stencils, and strong color/shape together.

All of This III (revision)

I repainted this piece over the past month, and now it conforms more to the interior paintings than the stencil works. A painting more akin to the stencil works is coming along as well.

In Progress- New painting in studio/barn

Here is a new work-in-progress from the barn. The title is The Guest Seat (oil on canvas, 50" x 50"). I am trying to work out some things with space and shape, and color that have been getting to me for that last couple of years. One of the "things" is trying to paint specific ( even hard) shapes that stay distinct while at the same time do not seal themselves off from the rest of the painting. It has more to do with space than anything...I guess that I am after a kind of natural fluid space with specific and recognizable individuals,forms and objects.

This "fluidity" for lack of a better term is always present when I begin my paintings, but as the painting becomes more developed, the shapes become tight and stagnant. So the process becomes a sort of wrestling match between finished and unfinished, developed and under-developed. The goal is to retain the freshness of a good start and satisfy what the painting needs simultaneously.

So much for figures

Some new paintings are in the works since I can't paint the figure right now. I am trying to work through a lot of different things. Some very very personal, some on a more aesthetic level. Either way, every day in the studio seems to be a fight or battle of some sort.

I don't quite understand why I can get more work accomplished when there is a personal crisis, but I suppose that I should be happy that I have an outlet.



The first piece, Lonely Chair, was done shortly after visiting Italy. The second painting, Empty Chairs, was finished about two weeks ago (late April 2008). I never figured on painting chairs again. I usually turned to chairs in interior spaces when I was alone, had no model, or was stuck...


I guess that I shouldn't listen to the Beatles so much.

Painting of Jess Miller (Miller, Jess)

The painting, Miller, Jess (2006) 48" x 40" oil on canvas was sold last week. Ordinarily I would not mention something like this, but it has been more than ten years since any of my figure paintings sold, and this is a much needed shot in the arm.







I remember a gallery owner telling me twenty years ago that I should never paint the figure because no one wants to buy a picture of someone they do not know.

Well, go figure.

Miller, Jess oil on canvas 2006