Still Here

Again, I seem to be lax in my posting. I have been busy however. I have another still life for my portfolio and I have moved on to landscapes. I visted New Mexico last spring and took lots of pictures. I noticed a theme in my photographs of “dead wood.” This has a meaning for me in that I am now about 5 semesters away from retirement and many professors that are that close to retirement are considered “dead wood” as in no longer publishing or being productive. I’m not being unproductive, but the label is still interesting to me. As I perused the pictures I took, I realized that dead wood can be beautiful in a rugged sort of way, and I am fascinated by how it adds to the landscape of the desert.

The still life was an effort to add more cloth, and get a shine on the cloth. I’m not sure the picture of the painting makes that clear but I think I was successful in doing that.

My first dead wood painting with more to follow:

Finally, I have been watching a tv series from the UK, “The Landscape Artisit of the Year.” It is a contest, and you watch 6-8 artists paint various landscapes in four hours. I’m not sure I can do much in 4 hours, but I gave it a shot. I sat outside and worked on a small canvas hoping to move to plein air painting, where you paint what you see outside in real time. This time I used a photograph. It is one of mostly greenery which I have learned from the show that most artists struggle with, which in some ways made me feel better. This isn’t quite finished, but I thought I would show you anyway. This is the 4 hour version: