“When I had emptied to the dregs the cup of human suffering, I was led to consider the wretchedness of this world, and the fearful consequences of our first parents’ disobedience. Then I saw that there was no hope of repentance for mankind, that they were getting worse day by day, and that for their impenitence God’s everlasting punishment was hanging over them; and I made haste to withdraw myself from the evil world, to bid farewell to it, and to devote myself to the service of God.” ~Basil Valentine

Booth is finally coming together!

My first indoor show =) This was at CityArts Festival in Dallas a week ago. Unfortunately, this was a terrible show! Most of the artists I talked to at the show said it was one of the worst shows they had ever attended.. the word was that the promoters, a group called The 500 Inc, totally dropped the ball on this one. The date and location of the show had been changed from previous years, and apparently they didn’t feel compelled to advertise. We were told to expect a crowd of 150,000, and I would be surprised if we saw 10,000. The upside to this fiasco was that I met some outstanding artists, and it was actually really awesome to see everybody taking care of each other in light of the less than desirable circumstances. Several of us had zero sales, and all of us committed to not returning. But I am thankful for the experience and amazing people I connected with.

And now I can look forward to the show this Saturday at the Art Post, back to where it all started for me. Good times!

This made me really happy.

Well, the new year kind of got off to a slow start, but I finally managed to get back to painting a few weeks ago. It’s funny that I’ll spend a month or two stressing because the inspiration just isn’t coming, and then suddenly one day I catch fire and a few weeks later I’ve got a whole new body of work taking shape. And so I begin to see how my crafty genius operates.. at the end of last year I had finally embarked on a much sought after departure from figurative art. Three decades of learning to paint what I see was great and well worth the time, but I really wanted to start painting what I was feeling, and I recognized that it was the shapes, colors, and overall movement in the subject matter that would play me like a harp. Light falls from unknown sources, and motion is almost exclusively upward. I really have a thing with depicting light in dark areas, it’s a deep rooted phenomenon for me, and it’s not so much the contrast as it is the portent. So after a few months worth of fermenting on this, I am finally seeing more of these qualities surface in the art. And I have come to understand that the downtime is as important as production time. The evolution is totally unpredictable, but massively welcome.

The piece above was the first in this series and has set the tone for all subsequent works, and once I frame it I’m not entirely sure I’ll be letting it go.. I find that I’m feeling that way more now about my work than I have before which may be a good omen. The works that affected me in this manner from the last series have all sold, so no reason to complain. And interestingly they were all departure pieces. Maybe I’ll just hang onto a few for a while.

SO, I’ve finally had a chance to collect myself and get the ball rolling again, the end of last year was nothing less than tumultuous and taxing in all the best ways. I attended my first festival at the Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria, and although we had freakish weather for the entire weekend, I still managed to recoup my booth fees and walk away with some profit, not to mention the experience itself which was well worth the effort. My booth was far from professional, but I was motivated to remedy this quickly, and with any luck and a bit more effort, I will actually have a decent booth shot ready to go over the next couple of days.

Again the feedback I received was highly encouraging, folks really like the departure I am making from the more figurative pieces towards impressionistic, and I am excited to get back to painting this week in order to explore this. I have big ideas that are ready to come forth..

AMOA booth. You can't see the rain, but it's there. For two days.

One half of my show

So I am in the middle of my first show here in Austin, and I am admittedly overwhelmed by the reception of my work. I was completely unprepared for this level of response. I’m taking lots of deep breaths and pausing for reflection as often as I can, and in so doing have become aware of a few things..

First, I am realizing that I have inadvertently achieved a personal goal of mine through the artwork. I am drawing people towards a more intimate connection with nature. I live a life rich in the cultivation of living things, and I want to be able to share the excessive joy I receive from doing this.. I feel that everyone can benefit to some degree from the experience of encouraging life and appreciating living organisms. The plants I am painting are alive and growing happily in pots, and my depictions of them are up close and personal. Finding a place where I can get lost in the plant, I attempt to reproduce what I am sensing while being present there. I enjoy offering an alternative to works depicting cut flowers or picked fruit, man-made objects, and even landscapes, which do afford a view into nature but still keeps the viewer at a distance. I want to portray the living force in all of it’s majestic radiance.

The second and most enjoyable aspect of this experience by far is interacting with the people that are attracted to my work. I had no idea what to expect from this. I’ve watched many people as they were completely turned off by my work and I can’t explain why, but for some strange reason this always makes me smile and feel content. And then, there are the folks that have come through and been completely taken with the paintings, and I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. And it’s not because they like my work, it’s because of what they are radiating. My work seems to exclusively attract really happy, enthusiastic, super-positively charged people that are an absolute joy and comfort to be in the company of, and for the first time in a long time, my soul is being fed by people instead of drained by them. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect connection to other human beings. Who knew?!

I am without question one of the most fortunate people walking this planet.

This genus is certainly highly attractive to me… I realized after getting halfway through Jung’s autobiography that perhaps the mandala-esque quality of these plants is what I am contacting as I dive further into my subconscious caverns. The fact that these plants also bear an uncanny resemblance to the lotus flower that the Hindu deities are seated upon has not escaped my attention..

Occasionally a painting will reveal its name to me before I even start it. This one demanded the title of “Labyrinth”. Clearly it looks like David Bowie : )

After finishing the piece I am currently working on, I will move on to a larger painting of this beauty.

No landscapes ablaze in reds, oranges, and yellows here. But at least I can go into the garden every morning and see some color. Some of these even change color as the temperature cools and light wanes.

I am excited about this piece, I’ve finished the first pass, and I am frequently tempted to stop here, I really like the loose abstractness at this stage. This is one of my prize plants, the Echeveria subrigida, fairly rare, extraordinarily beautiful.. it took me a while to find one, which I purchased on ebay, shipped from California. I intend to do 3 works with this plant, hopefully I can convey its brilliance with the pigments…

Finally some time to catch up online, these are the most recent works, completed over the past week. I’m geting lazy with the titles…

I thought it would be FUN to post some pieces as I work on them. Everyone else does. They will however be short posts, I don’t seem to have as many steps to show… hope I’m not missing anything.

The first picture is the beginning of my first pass, and in the second picture I’ve completed the first layer of color. At this stage I spray some fixative on the piece and then apply my final layer of color, which I get to lay on thick. No more fixing after the first stage, otherwise the pastel particles lose their magical quality : )