Today I worked on these paintings. Both are titled ‘Main Street.’ Each is taken from a one-block area of–you guessed it–Main Street in our small town. #1 (bottom painting) might end up being called ‘Antique Shop,’ or some-such. While not identical, both are roughly the same size. As you can see from the photograph, both…
Due to the bad weather, the usually crowded Cleveland Museum of Art cafeteria was practically deserted today. The fare isn’t good enough to fight jostling lines, but today’s peace made the none-too-good food perfectly acceptable. Especially hungry, my designer salad was delicious, piled delightfully high with anchovies and blue cheese. After lunch, I did my usual tour, storing away much to think about and study–stolen treasures.
What could be better than lingering over lunch with a beautiful young lady? My daughter Jane and I had lunch in a cozy restaurant near the Baldwin Wallace campus. Jane started her second semester there this week. Over Philly-cheese steaks and fries, she described her courses for the semester: religion, philosophy, psychology (taught by her roommate’s uncle, nonetheless), music, and English. The class sizes are small (which is one of the reasons we picked BW), and she is enthusiastic all about all of them.
For Christmas, my son and I built new computers. For ease of maintenance, both computers have the same specs. We used Haswell-type motherboards (Asus Z87-A) and, of course, Intel processors–Core i5 4670 (4670K for my son). I’ve had good results with Asus products in the past, and I love my Nexus 7 tablet (Google brand but manufactured by Asus). We’ve built our own computers before, and it’s a great father-son project.
The latest version of the study shows the painting much advanced. The modelling is done on the cement bench and pediment. The figure modeling needs more refinement, as is evident in this detail. I am still painting according to plan–more or less(!) After a plan is complete, there is always much to be done, especially…
Why do I remember?
I’ve carried this,
and now–see?–here it is.
Guided by a compulsion (that has never left me)
I painted the walls of my mother’s house
the entire length of the hallway;
floating above the floor–I was light.
You’ll laugh, but it was art.
That’s the simple truth.
My mother didn’t see it that way,
in fact, she was outraged.
Again you’ll laugh, but I was flabbergasted.
I didn’t understand her.
After 8 years and $350 million, the Cleveland Museum of Art has–finally!–completed its ambitious renovations. The long awaited (by me) opening of the new West Wing’s China, India and Southeast Asia collections means all collections are once again on view after the long hiatus. I am a fervent admirer of Asian art, especially painting, so I stomped…
This winter is shaping up to be brutal. We took advantage of Sunday’s sunshine by taking a trip to the Brandywine ski resort. Brandywine is just an hour from our house in Vermilion. We all had a wonderful time, especially our two sons. But the weather has taken a dramatic turn for the worse since…
The long shadows from the afternoon sun transforms Lake Erie into an otherworldly landscape. During the winter the sun is in the southwestern sky. In the summer it moves over the lake; by June it would be visible in the photo’s left edge. The predicted high temperate for next Tuesday is -3–that’s not windchill, either.…
For us winter really starts when Lake Erie freezes. The snow-covered expanse beyond my backyard is the lake. Yesterday, believe it or not, there was no snow or ice out there. This all happened overnight. Extended cold weather makes the lake sluggish as the surface begins to freeze. The lake behaves bizarrely at those times;…
What better way to start the new year than in the studio, eh? I was up at 5:00 as usual (no late night revelry for me!) and pitched right in. ‘Main Street #2’ is part of a small series. ‘Main Street #1,’ subtitled ‘The Antique Shop’ is slightly smaller and has 5 figures compared to…
I hope you and yours had the best Christmas and Santa brought you everything you wanted! Children at home always makes Christmas memorable.
During my weekly visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art I was pleasantly surprised to see a newly-hung lithograph titled Blackburn. In the lithograph by Ron Adams (an artist heretofore unknown to me) I instantly recognized my former mentor Robert Blackburn. Adams portrays Robert doing what he was always doing: working a printing press. I…
This recently finished sketch is on a canvas board that was prepared as I described in an earlier post. I deviated from my normal medium with the addition of a small amount of stand oil. We lived close to the State hospital in Trenton for several years in a neighborhood called Hilltonia. Hilltonia is a…
I like the sensuous lines in this simple pose. My daughter Jane is used to her dad snapping photos at any time. She was helping me at the marina when I took this. I can’t remember what we were doing or why I had my camera with me. About 20% of my photos get into…