The Honey Jar 3   oil    8x6

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beginning bid $75

The last honey jar. I particularly like painting what I see through glass.  The distortion keeps the tightness away. As your heads moves what you see can drastically change, so I have to make choices and stick with them.

The Honey Jar 2   oil 8x6

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beginning bid $75

 One of my students was interested in painting a jar with honey in it.  I poured one and worked out some of the issues of refraction and transparency. I think it basically comes down to "paint what you see."

The Honey Jar   oil    8x6   
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beginning bid $75

Painted this one with a student in class.  I'm very interested in the reflections, refracted light, shadows, and bakelite silverware.

Piece by Piece    oil   8x6

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$100

A demo set up for my students. I love the glow, not always easy to achieve. 

The Last of the Crabapples  8x6  oil
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Our internet has been out for a few days and now we're back on. Sorry for not posting.  India diagnosed a broken modem from India and turned the new one on from India. We're so 21st century. 

Painting glass again.  Starting in January I'll be teaching a class on Thursday evenings called "Painting the Light".  We'll be doing some glass and reflective surfaces. 

Me and My Shadows  oil  8x6
sold

Trying to keep it loose, and  not describe in detail.  What do I see with squinted eyes? How big a brush can I use? The starting bid is $50.

Red, White and Blue   oil  8x6

sold

I have to say that I'm really most intrigued by shadow shapes.  The thingness of whatever I'm painting doesn't  affect me as much as the reflections and the cast shadows.  Unless, of course, it's a portrait.  Perhaps I'll just do a series of shadow shapes, with a hint of the object.  Here's part of the above painting cropped.

In a Sea of Beans oil  8x6

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Jelly beans and a slice.  The lesson of this one is that the slice of apple is perpendicular to the light source and so is the highest value in the painting.  It's actually pretty hard to see that because the paper is white and if something is white our brains automatically see it as the lightest value. I think making the slice the highest value gives the painting it's sense of light

Cut Up   oil   8x6
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I've been trying to paint down my stash of oils so I can switch to water miscible oils. I came across some alkyds and have been using the white.  Wow, it dries so fast, paint it in the morning and by evening it's pretty dry.  Don't really like it.  I'm finding my edges are too tight.  At least I'd like to blame on the materials.

The Window Box  oil  8x6
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The nasturtiums were in full bloom. Maybe I need a few nasturtium recipes for the cookbook.

Tools of the Trade   8x6   oil
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Painted this one with my students.  A good example of "really, anything can make a fun subject".

Cherries Squared   oil   8x6
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It's the bounty of summertime.  Saw both of these in their separate bowls on the counter this morning and had to commingle.  I messed with three different background colors- first black, then yellow/ green then this high chroma green. I thought about going back to the yellow green and decided to let it go.  Another painting of more cherries and cherries I think. Some paintings just fall off the brush, others-not so much.

Equal Balance oil  8x6
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The 6th egg painting.  I think of this one as the third in a series with the other two 'egg in a glass' paintings with the dotty pink background. I like working with the shifting view point. This one has upstage theatrical lighting.

In the Glass  oil  8x6
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The second egg painting. I was so enthusiastic that I did three today. I'll be posting them in the next few days.

We went to a little film this evening on women cartoonists.  In celebration of Linda Barry, I put the egg in a glass on a patterned background I created.  I call them "Pook" patterns.  Years ago I received a set of ceramic dishware with patterns glazed on- they became known as the Pook Plates.  All broken and gone now, but not forgotten. I usually paint the pattern first and then the surrounding color.  That way you can pick up the edges of the pattern in each additional stroke and integrate it as a whole.

The First Egg   oil   8x6
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I had the idea to make this painting about the unwrapping of a present- just a peak at the egg.  Seems like maybe a bit too much narrative, but I always have a difficult relationship with narrative.

I'm writing a cookbook and plan to do a series of food paintings that are vaguely related to the recipes-just enough to give some structure to subject matter. This is the first one. (I usually wipe the first one of whatever I'm painting).  I've been collecting recipes for a few years from a dear friend and fabulous cook- really gifted. The first chapter is about eggs. I will probably post only one recipe a week as this is an art blog and not a food blog. More eggs coming: boiled, fried, raw, whole and broken, alone and in tandem.

Simple Morning Light  oil  8x6
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This is a northern Wisconsin painting. Went out with my backpack and paints to the end of our dirt road and was met with a confusion of trees (is that like a gaggle of geese?) and undergrowth.  I feel good about this one- I wiped the first one. It was quite the task of abstraction and simplification. And green.

 Sliced  oil on cradled wooden box  8x6
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Painted this one with a student. Next week I'm going to start a new series based on a cookbook I'm writing. There will be many more vegetables in my future. This coming weeks I hope to be doing a bunch of plein air.

 Feel the Delight oil 8x6
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Flowers in a jar- what could be more simple.  I'm always trying to maintain the looseness and it's not always easy, but this one makes me pretty happy.

Looking In  oil 8x6
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A little plein air in my neighbor's back yard. I love the mysterious window.

Blue Bottle oil 8x6
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I loved the way the shadow is cast on the surface of the flower as it turns away from the light.  I particularly like the stem seen through the bottle- nice and loose and juicy. More striped fabric from asia-this particular fabric makes many appearances.  It's subtle, but nicely divides up this space and gives some movement to the background.