The lower painting has along way to go; the raw umber ground is still visible beneath the figure on the lower-left and other places. It’s 40″ x 56.” The upper painting is nearing completion. It’s called “Explain” or “Plain” or some such. The lower one is titled “Dinner in Trenton,” by the way.
Two Cakes is 48″ x 48″. Unfinished, of course, as are most of the paintings shown in the “In the studio” posts. The left-side of the small container holds my standard medium: cold-pressed linseed oil+turpentine, + drops of copal varnish and coutrai drier. When I want firm, and fast-drying passages, I put the same mix…
Here is a photo of some recent work. The top painting is my son John aboard The Betty Jane. I applied paint to the large, middle painting or the first time yesterday. I spent the two previous days working on the drawing exclusively. It’s called Dinner in Trenton. The bottom painting is a small-format version…
I worked on “The Call” these past two days. It’s getting there-it’s beginning to make my eyes happy when I look at it. The parts finished are the ground, pediment, water bottle, crumpled jacket, and left-hand tree. I might change the title to simply “Calling.” I oiled this workhorse easel on Saturday; the wheels were…
Here is some recent work. Saturday was a light work day because of family functions. The top painting is titled “Explain,” and I think it’s far enough along now that you can get a sense of what it’s about. The lower painting–“Jane With Her Hand on Her Hip”–is of, well, Jane (It’s also about blue,…
Here is some work from this morning. The bulk of the day was given over to removing three rooms of carpet from our basement. We got water in the basement during that sudden thaw 10 days ago (we’re back in the deep freeze now, though). It was only an inch or so but enough to…
The large (42″ x 68″), unfinished painting is titled Conversation. The smaller (36″ x 48″) painting, Whispers, was finished yesterday. Two paintings of people talking while outdoors? A coincidence (I think), although I have been surprised in the past on discovering groups of paintings that share the same unplanned theme. A few years ago I was surprised…
Here is recent work. The lower painting is from something I saw earlier this winter during my last trip to New York. In the upper painting, “Whispers,” I am using zinc white. Lead white is my preferred white but it is getting scarce and expensive. A 225ml tube of Old Holland cremitz white is $200–on…