Plein Air Painting on Galveston Island

 10 x 8 Acrylic on canvas

8 x 10 Acrylic on canvas

Studies of the beach and variable weather conditions.  Hurray for long weekends at the beach.  One of the great joys in life.

Fun with Dick and Jane and Livestock

"Fun with Dick and Jane and Livestock"

triptych 8" x 24"

Acrylic and Collage on Boxed Panels

$200

Just a little collage triptych for an upcoming juried exhibit in Taylor.  The theme for the exhibit is "Fun with Livestock"????  Grade school imagery seemed the best way to keep it clean. :)

Illustration Friday - Golden

Unfolding

20 x 20

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

It just worked out that a painting I was finishing up this week also happened to work moderately well for this weeks Illustration Friday prompt "Golden".  This painting started out as an assignment for my painting students.  The object of the assignment was to create a collage out of found images and then to use that collage as the starting reference for a painting.  The result is that the final image has the feel of a collage but has no mixed media in the final work.   We spent a lot of time talking about how images that seem to have no relationship to each other can be combined to create new meaning.

Rebirth

Rebirth

Acrylic on Canvas

18 x 24 inches

A lot of starting fresh in my household.  This insect symbolizes a lot of things that I am not even able to talk about yet on my blog but he will be a good reminder to me of all the new possibilities that arise from things NOT working out the way you had hoped.

Illustration Friday - Voyage

Stories I Tell Myself About Reality

8 x 8

Acrylic and collage on box panel

After a long absence, I am returning to my blog and weekly Illustration Friday submissions.  The last year and a half has been (and continues to be) a long and arduous voyage, full of loss, fear, disappointment, guilt, and unexpected moments of hope and courage.  We experience life as an ongoing narrative that we tell ourselves to explain how events fit into our personal story.  I like the metaphorical strength of collage as a narrative device and hope to produce an ongoing series of collage works based on the theme "Stories I Tell Myself."  

I feel like Odysseus..... 

Illustration Friday - Space and the Everson's 60/60 Event

Blue Tree 2

9 x 12 inches

Pastel on Pastelboard

 

 As promised I am posting the artwork that I completed for the Everson Museum of Art's 60/60 event in Syracuse, NY.  Happily the image also worked pretty well for this weeks Illustration Friday topic.  I have painted this tree before in a much larger acrylic on canvas version, so I decided that I was comfortable enough with the image to feel like I could complete a smaller pastel version in a 60 minute time frame. I chose to use pastels so that I wouldn't have to worry about paint drying (or not drying) due to the weather and humidity.  I did take the risk of working with my brand spanking new set of Pan Pastels that I had purchased just that morning.  I have never used them before, and they are absolutely yummy.  They lay down intense color extremely well without using up the tooth of your surface and they blend beautifully.  I also used NuPastels by Prismacolor and a few Rembrandt soft pastels.  The finished painting was raffled off at the end of the event as part the museum fundraiser.

Even though the focal point of the image is the tree, it is its isolation in space that has always drawn me to it.  This is a tree that is in a field near my previous home in Texas.  I drove by it frequently and stopped to take pictures of it throughout every season of the year.  So not only have I photographed it repeatedly, but I also seem compelled to return to it as subject matter in my art.  I supposed it is a self portrait of sorts.  I'll let you sort out the psychological meaning of it all.  Below is the acrylic painting that I completed last year.

Blue Tree

36 x 48 inches

Acrylic on Canvas

Illustration Friday - Return

Balance 4

acrylic and mixed media collage on canvas

48 x 36 inches

A return to Illustration Friday after a somewhat lengthy absence.  A return to and overdue completion of another piece in my "Balance" series.  In a little over a week I will return to my beloved Texas for my Master of Arts in Art Education final exhibit and presentation at Stephen F Austin State University.  It is a return for me because in the course of this semester I have managed to sell my house and farm in East Texas and move to the charming village of Baldwinsville in Upstate New York.  Big changes all around!

Illustration Friday - Silent

Conceptual Self Portrait

acrylic and collage on board

5 x 7 (unframed)

This week's Illustration Friday topic is a bit more introspective and philosophical so I decided that this conceptual self portrait, completed about a week ago, worked perfectly.  The quote that came with this weeks topic is by Emily Carr: "I think that one's art is a growth inside one.  I do not think one can explain growth.  It is silent and subtle.  One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows."  

I also completed a more traditional self portrait image recently.  This one is colored pencil on a primed panel behind mirrored glass.  I made a comment recently in a class that I hate pink.  I realized after I said it that I really don't hate pink, it is just a difficult color to use effectively, and I hate seeing it used badly or without purpose or thought..  So... I decide to make a few pieces where pink is a dominant/important element.  I like the kitsch of the pink painted frames. Click on the images if you would like to see them larger.

Migraine

colored pencil on panel with mirrored glass

19.5 x 12.5 (framed)

Welcome to Somewhere off Center

A new direction in life calls for a new blog, so this is where you will find current information and postings about my artistic endeavors and discoveries.  I will post fine art pieces as well as illustrations to this site. In my mind, there is only a slight distinction between the two art forms.  Illustration often crosses over into fine art, and fine art very frequently contains a strong visual narrative.  I consider myself a visual storyteller, so the marriage of art and illustration makes perfect sense to me.

Below you will find the first three canvases of a new body of work I call "The Balance Series".  These are large mixed media pieces dealing with man's utilization and manipulation of the earths resources.  Visual/compositional inspiration comes from Egyptian hieroglyphics as well as the work of Joseph Cornell. I hope that this theme will keep me busy for some time and will result in a group of works that will be exhibited on a broader basis than I have pursued in the past.  Please let me know what you think.  I love to receive comments and constructive criticism.

 48 in. x 48 in.

Mixed Media on Canvas

 48 in. x 48 in.

Mixed Media on Canvas

48 in. x 60 in.

Mixed Media on Canvas