N i c h o l a s - W i l t o n

What makes us feel alive?

2011-11-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

I often try and think about what makes someone connect with a work of art. What is it that stops us in our tracks and makes us reconsider, even in a small way, how we see the world or feel about it? Sometimes this happens when we see a work of art, read a great story or just come across anything at all that moves us. Often it is not planned or expected. This video of two friends out on a boat ride so perfectly captures that moment. Life can be so rich, so unbelievably surprising that all one can do in the end, like these two girls, is just laugh and be thankful.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Costello Childs Gallery Opening

2011-10-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Thought I would post some shots of how the work looked in the gallery....It was wonderful to meet many of the designers and art consultants who have purchased my work for their clients as well as some of the local collectors. Scottsdale has a wonderful art community and everyone turns out to see what is happening...Whenever I do a show, work like crazy to make the paintings and then take a week off, show up in a new town and then walk in to the gallery, I always get some kind of insight or fresh realization about my work. This time I saw that the black and white more simple paintings I had made were very strong. I wasn't so sure about it when I originally made them. There is something about making paintings that are very simple, not only compositionally but color wise as well, that increases their potency. Less is often, more. I plan to do more like them in the future.

New Paintings for Solo Show

2011-10-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of my studio towards the end of finishing 12 new large paintings for a show at the Costello Childs Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. The show opens Oct 19th and runs through Nov 23rd. This body of work represents the biggest creative effort I have given in a long time. I don't think I have ever made so many large paintings at one time. I know the large studio has helped me work better at scale as I can get back from the work and see it in context with all the other paintings. One painting starts to improve and then all the others seem weaker which in turn makes me push the others till they are at the same level. I was expecting to be exhausted once the delivery truck came and took all the paintings away but oddly I am not. I walked back into my now empty studio and just pulled out a bunch of blank panels and started in again. Either I am mad or this art-making thing is addictive. Maybe a little of both.

Artplane Evening Series Begins Sept 6th!

2011-08-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is possibly within driving distance of Sausalito, CA. I thought I would post the info for the Artplane Evening Series.
This 6 week course is an abbreviation of the longer 5 and 7 day workshops we hold every year. They have been lots of fun so far.
The photo is of the texture making tools that everyone uses. I painted them all red because when we travel to various art studios to teach we invariably lose a few because they blend in so well....

ARTPLANE EVENING SERIES

Upcoming 6 week series: Tuesdays 6pm-9pm Beginning Sept 6th!

Thanks again to everyone for making the last session so much fun. Please pass this email on to
any of your friends who might enjoy the class. Word of mouth is my only advertising!

Come join the next 6 week series of studio classes taught by Nicholas Wilton in his
studio located in Sausalito, California. This ongoing course will be especially helpful for
those artists who are sometimes challenged by maintaining creative momentum and
achieving goals in alignment with their personal vision or creative path.
Beginning students as well as those who have already completed an Artplane Workshop
will find this weekly touchstone incredibly supportive and inspirational.
Not only will our small group be working together in class but we will also be
clarifying a practical process to develop a cohesive body of personal work.
We will be working on 12" x 12” wood panels using primarily acrylic paint.
For more advanced students alternative materials and sizes can be substituted.
Included in the class will be demonstrations, slide presentations, great music and of
course the tremendous energetic lift that comes from working with friends.
Basic materials are included but can be supplemented with your own.
Come prepared for a whirl of self expression, and the very likely possibility that your
art can, in fact, become much more central in your life.

Course Fee $250 Please submit payment by mail or paypal to enroll. Additional info
will be sent upon enrollment.

Nicholas Wilton Artplane Creativity Series 480 Gate 5 Rd Ste 300W Sausalito, CA
nick@nicholaswilton.com studio 415 601 8447 www.artplaneworkshop.com

Nicholas Wilton Paintings Book!

2011-07-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a new book on my paintings! You can preview it here or better yet purchase one for your art library!

Nicholas Wilton Collectors Edition 2011 by Nicholas Wilton | Make Your Own Book

Artplane Creativity Workshop 2011

2011-05-17T12:01:00.001-07:00

We just returned from teaching a 7 day Artplane Workshop at Esalen along the Big Sur Coast. We had a tremendous group. Some participants were working artists, others had little or no experience, but by the third day all were making amazing work and from where i sat, having a tremendous amount of fun doing it. It is hard to imagine a better blend of things: Art making, eating delicious food (that you do not have to make or clean up after), laughing, wine, chocolate, good friends, and floating in hot springs at the end of a full day beneath a blanket of glistening stars.
While our workshop was going on there also was a workshop led by Kim Rosen on Poetry. It seemed everywhere you went on the property her students were handing everyone poems on scraps of paper. They were even floating them in the hot springs. It was quite delightful coming across a poem in your day or having someone just come along and present you with one. We all had them in our pockets and, as a result, decided to use the poems in our workshop. To offer a visual response, an answer to the poem elves generosity. We cut our 10 x 10 boards down to 4 or 5 in square and took fragments or lines of these poems and used them as inspiration to generate imagery. Below are a sampling of some of these poem boards made in the workshop.

I am going from memory so I apologize in advance if your artwork happens to not be here or is credited incorrectly. From top to bottom:
Diana Arsenian, Sharon Virtue, Christopher Chaffin, Sharon Virtue, Nancy Worcester, Jennie Oppenheimer, Barbara Kyle, Sharon Virtue, Nicholas Wilton, Ashley Jones, Jennie Oppenheimer, Nicholas Wilton, Jennie Oppenheimer.

Stremmel Gallery Show

2011-04-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

Thought I would post a few pictures from my recent show at the Stremmel Gallery in Reno. The opening night turned out to coincide with the arrival of the worst storm of this last winter. I braved the mountainous drive to get there even though by the afternoon it was snowing pretty bad. I figured it would just be me and possibly the road snow plow guy at the opening. I had never shown at this gallery so when I walked in I was delighted to see how beautiful the work had been hung. This particular gallery has the spaciousness of a museum and the director, Turkey Stremmel and her crew are particularly good at designing shows. They understand how to use white space. Lots of open space between paintings only makes them look that much better. The gallery also have a consistent following so by the time the doors were opening there was quite a crowd for such a stormy night. Much of the work sold which made being snowed in Reno the whole next day perfectly ok. You never can tell how things will turn out.

New Studio

2011-03-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

I have not written here since end of January...I have been incredibly busy the past 2 months moving into a new studio. After 15 years at least, working in and around my house in West Marin, I finally decided to move to a studio space that is more centrally located, one that has other working artists in it, a harbor complete with sailboats, seagulls and a general feeling of happy activity. I think, no I know, that many artists deal with feelings of isolation. Of course making art for most people is a solitary activity. This actually is a good thing. The difficulty comes when your left to work alone for ever and ever. I know for myself that staring at my own work for too long or maybe just working alone for too many days in a row starts to wear you down a bit. I remember when I worked in NYC in a small apartment, (If your not going out and your not seeing anyone all day then there really is no reason to get out of your pajamas...see how bad it can get?) and how, when the fed ex guy would come to pick up something, I would just talk his ear off. I would just try to keep the conversation going as long as he would stand there. When the only human contact you have is with the UPS or fed ex guy then it probably is time to change your working environment. This studio, I originally was going to share with someone and then greedily kept all 1,300 sq ft for myself, is located in the ICB Building in Sausalito, California. It is an enormous 3 story building that originally was used to manufacture sails for sailboats. There are literally hundreds of artists all piled in the building. I now work with one door open and have all the pleasant interruptions I want all day. Anyway, once I got here I wondered why I had waited so long. I never could justify a move for so many practical reasons such as having to drive, the cost, etc. But I possibly overlooked the one reason that should of trumped all others...I would be happier! Duh...

"Separation"

2011-01-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

I just saw the work of an artist friend of mine, Carrie Leeb, at Ampersand, a small gallery in San Francisco. One of the more interesting pieces in the show was, for me "Seperation" a found rock installation. It is not really apparent from this photo (taken with an iphone no less) the actual scale of the rocks. The large ones are actually bowling ball size - probably the size limited by what was physically possible for her to carry to her car. I know, for a fact, that the artist drove somewhere up in Northern California and actually found these rocks. Found them all in this very same stage of division, of splitting, freshly apart, driven into two by the forces of nature. Possibly from this years especially cold Winter or perhaps Springs unannounced frosts. I know she spent many hours walking alone amongst the river stones searching for these particular rocks. I can imagine how it began ..a walk upon the edge of a river and stumbling upon a singular rock, unlike all others broken in two. And then this poignancy becoming reconfirmed again and again as still more are found. Oddly, there are possibly thousands of these same rocks all sharing this same instance of seperation and division. These gathering of stones remind me of the pivotal, rare moments in many people's lives that feel earth shattering, momentous, meteoric in the change they catalyze. I wonder if these rocks make a sound when they break apart after possibly millions of years together; that a heart doesn't in fact let out an audible cry when it lets go of things it has always held. Separation always seems to be nuanced by aloneness, a sense of sadness perhaps. However, Carrie's display, her meticulous stone gathering upon a wintery river bank has given us a reminder that in fact change is rampant in the lives of many people and that there are countless others just hidden from our view that are possibly navigating the very same kind of change. There is a small degree of reassurance in the notion that those of us who find ourselves in the wild storm of change are, in fact, not alone.
Ampersand "Walking on Thin Ice" January 21-Feb-18 1001 Tennessee St San Francisco

Life as Art

2011-01-12T22:09:00.000-08:00

I was going for a run early one morning and I went past this guy setting up tubs of water and strings on the sidewalk. It was really early on a Sunday and no one was even around. I came back through town a couple of hours later and here was this same guy just making these extraordinary soap bubbles. It was still early in the morning so he was without an audience. I watched for awhile from my car and it became apparent that he was completely involved with it, just making these for the sheer joy of doing it. It's rare you see someone doing something for just this one reason. It's such a simple idea. That in the end, it is really one of the only reasons to do anything worthwhile. I walked across the street and stood next to him and when he was in between bubbles I just said "thank you" and without missing a beat or even breaking his bubble making he responded "your welcome"

Organizing Messy Things

2011-01-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

Sometimes in all the information one comes across on the internet you find a little something that is helpful--the following post might be one of those, especially if you are a painter. The paint organizer shown below is a very helpful tool for the studio that I now cannot imagine being without. Basically it is a holder for all those messy paint tubes! I make them for my smaller acrylic paints and my large tubes of oil paint.
To make this yourself, take PVC piping (from the hardware store-it's very cheap) and cut off segments all the same length. For my oil paint I made the PVC tubes 5" tall--and the width the pipe comes is 2 1/4 ". You can get it almost any width to fit various paint tubes. Once you have all the segments they can be easily glued together into blocks of 16 or 20 using pvc cement. It dries in a minute and is very strong. In my studio I use 2 blocks of 20 and I keep all the cool colors on the left and the warm colors on the right. It makes it incredibly easy to find the right color, which at least for me, makes it just a little bit easier and faster to create the painting.

Potency of Place

2010-12-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

I came across this abandoned farmhouse in Point Reyes, Ca. This incredibly beautiful area is bordered on 3 sides by the sea and Tomales Bay and is now a national park. Coast Miwok Indians lived here for Milllennia, and then in the 1850's immigrant dairy farmers arrived by boat from Switzerland, Denmark and the Portuguese Azores turning this area into one of the most productive dairy regions in California. Most of these farms are no longer operating but many of the buildings and barns of this time are still there. Although the houses and barns are empty now I can easily imagine those who struggled to make a new life in such a windswept remote landscape.

The older daughter is getting her hair cut on the porch whining to be done already, to be let free to go out into the fields of flowering clover, wild sage and blackberry. The din of bumblebees beckons her, the hum of an Indian summer that has gone on too long and especially the fragrance of alfalfa from the dairy, several fields away. Summer will end soon. The father is painting the house himself. Too proud to hire someone but also too poor. Planting the palm tree while his wife, holding their youngest child laughingly remarks that he will never be here to see it become full grown. He promises her it will grow fast. At least as fast as their two daughters, the second of which has now pulled free from her mother's hand, and is pushing her small perfect toes into the fresh turned soil of their new home. He pats the dirt around the base of the small slender palm with the back of his shovel. She holds onto her fathers left work boot and laughs. Her white cotton dress is darkened from the fresh earth. He wipes the sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve and as he looks out across the fields towards the sea, realizes he is smiling.

Parts are Excellent

2010-10-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

As I was putting together another email announcement of a show the other day I was thinking about how, depending on my feeling about my work at the time, this process can be easy or rather hard. I am not sure if most everyone understands that part of the process of making things, creating things is not really knowing sometimes where you are going. This is how it is for me. It helps to look over your shoulder at what you have made to give yourself direction but really it isn’t so important what was made in the past but rather what is being made presently. So how honestly can one be doggedly extolling the virtues of what you’re doing all the time even though part of the time you aren’t entirely sure? I have come to accept that you need to be lost sometimes if you are to change, to breakthrough, to improve. In fact out this struggle sometimes comes my best work. It seems to me to be somewhat of a deception to be constantly putting out the message that you have arrived when actually you got off at the wrong station and are just simply lost. I never want to admit it. I will be painting furiously for several hours and even though I do know a tremendous amount about what I am doing, I can get to a point where I can look at my painting that’s as big as me- (over 6 ft) and realize that I actually have no clear sense of what I have just done. It hits me so hard that I sometimes just have to sit down and stare at the ridiculous amount of intention, the sheer effort it took to wind up here, in a place that seems foreign and unfamiliar. Humbling is an understatement. It’s one of the great aspects of doing art that no two efforts are the same. Each comes with a new challenge, a new problem to solve. Sometimes it falls into place other times not. On a day when it doesn’t it is a difficult time to self promote. It’s challenging to encourage collectors to come to your upcoming show or to talk to a gallery about raising your prices. And actually, I don’t think we are hard wired to endlessly go on about ourselves and things we have done in the past. I tell my students that the hat of the promoter has nothing at all to do with your art, that it is a second kind of side business that is there only to insure the viability of the first. So it’s a challenge, I feel, that surely plagues many creative people but curiously it is rarely spoken about. I guess admitting unsure ness, hesitation runs counter to the assurance and brilliance we are all trying so desperately hard to convey.

Color in Nature

2010-10-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

These photographs by Chris Jordan were taken on Midway Atoll in the middle of the North Pacific. These photographs document the remains of albatross chicks that have been fed, unintentionally by their parents, floating plastic garbage collected from the sea. Thousands of these baby birds die every year as a result. In Nature, all color harmonizes with all other colors. However, in manufactured creation, such as the making of plastic, the color often ends up being uncomfortably bright and as a result, unrelated to everything else in it's environment. Nothing demonstrates the unsettling nature of synthetic color juxtaposed with the sophisticated color of Nature better than these exquisite photographs.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#about

Principle #6 Soul

2010-09-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

A Lemon Lemon

2010-09-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

My Mother in Law picked this lemon off her tree. It obviously has some kind of different genetic coding than other lemons.
It just makes me wonder how it is that things stay as normal as they actually do.

Michael Kessler Studio Visit

2010-09-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

When I was out in Santa Fe I visited Michael Kessler, an artist who lives just outside Santa Fe, NM. He came to my opening and I had actually just seen his work on you tube. He is extremely prolific not only with his paintings but with all aspects of his business. His videos are pretty great and he has made a lot of them. Thousands of people view and comment on them on YouTube. Whenever I visit artists I am always inspired. His work is beautiful but it was especially interesting to me to see a vetaran artist who has a pretty good sense of the business side of art. Michael has organized his studio so he can make his art panels, paint on several at the same time, photograph them, and crate and then send his work all without leaving his studio. All of these steps he does himself. I think people in art and businss get in the mindset that they have to hire people to do everything that they are not experienced at doing. I know I do. Michael, however, seems to have adopted a different attitude about the process of making art…he loves EVERY step and wants to do it all himself. As I drove back to Santa Fe I thought about how extroardinary this mindset is and how it can shift the entire way artists, or anyone for that matter, can think about their work. That not one part is better or easier, it’s just all one seamless journey, a highly personal process developed from passionate hard work.. …What I learned or maybe re learned that day was this: The entire process of making art can be as personal and as important as the art itself.

To see Michaels work: http://www.michaelkessler.com/

Show at Selby Fleetwood Gallery, Santa Fe

2010-08-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

This year I had made all the paintings for the show "Life Fortune" almost 5 weeks early as I was out of the country for all of July. It was especially nice to not be painting up to the last minute - sending paintings barely dry. It also provided me with a fresh view of my work when, after not seeing it for over a month, I arrived at the gallery and was able to walk into a room and see it all hanging. The owners of the gallery, Selby and Eddie, had designed the show and it looked great. I had forgotten about the gallery walls actually being made of adobe and as a result have a gorgeous earthy brown color that sets off art beautifully. I really enjoyed getting to meet some of the people who have followed my work. The fact never escapes me that without those interested in my work, those people passionate enough about art that it must be a part of their lives, I wouldn't be able to afford to do what I love. Gratitude is not really a big enough word for how it makes you feel when someone supports and believes in what you make. I forgot to take pictures during the opening but snapped a few the next day. The sculpture standing below my painting is by Joe Brubaker.
I love his work and especially how this one looked standing next to my painting.

Standing Still

2010-08-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

What is it about leaving your life for awhile, that makes everything seem so different, but the same upon your return? is it possible that just changing your background, your surroundings that shifts everything? When I am traveling I feel so artistically fulfilled and perfectly content to just look at things...To learn about new places, people's lives, to try to understand why things are as they are. My need to make art diminishes when I travel. I wonder if it is all about change? Change being the required ingredient in a fulfilling life-if your seeing new things constantly- such as when your traveling, then your fulfilled, content and pretty close to happy. At least this is the case with me. Put me in one place,( home) repeat the same experiences, the same drives, stores, etc and then I start making things again. The art is just more necessary to make when I am standing in one place.

Center for Children's Happiness

2010-07-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Our family has just returned home from Cambodia where we spent a couple of weeks with 150 amazing kids at an orphanage in Phnom Penh. Most of these kids are orphans and have been rescued, often around the age of 5 or 6, from living on the garbage dumps just outside of the city. The orphanage is a very uplifting place covered in decorations and photos of visiting friends who have helped this organization over the years. At the the head of this family of 150 children is an extraordinary man, Sokha who, along with his wife, look after and imbue these kids with love and a startling sense of self worth and respect not just for themselves but each other as well.
One of the projects we did with them was to write and illustrate your dream. What the future might hold if their dreams come true. The kids are all very clear about wanting to get educated and each have very clear ideas already about becoming doctors, engineers, english teachers, etc. At the Center for Children's Happiness, they are educated and many are eligible for scholarships to universities upon graduating high school. I have never experienced a more harmonious, kind and grateful group of young children in my life. We did artwork, photography, read books, sang and generally just spent time getting to know as many as we could. Our last night with them we had a party in the small cement courtyard of the Center. The kids danced and sang with such joy. It was so triumphant, so inspiring to experience. I will never forget it. This kind of happiness and gratitude maybe only comes from those who have been given a second chance at life.
The first 3 photos of the garbage dump below were taken by Sambath, one of the promising young photojournalists who lives at CCH. The photos below do not show the magnitude or the actual number of those living at the dumps. There are about 900 people who live and work there, picking through the city's refuse for recyclables and food. The two american girls in the photos are my daughters. To find out more about CCH and how you can help...http://www.cchcambodia.org/index.html

Buddhist Cave Dwelling

2010-07-20T03:24:00.000-07:00

On our trip to Southern Thailand we came across this limestone cave which doubled as a dwelling for local Buddhist Monks. They lived very simply underneath an immense limestone overhang. Upon the walls were very old paintings. The seasonal rains had worn down the paint creating this beautiful surface -part stone, part paint. The monks lived here and as they do not value possesions did not mind us photographing them. They had very little. Their orange robes drying on a line, old books, a clock some basic kitchen items. Each monk slept in one of these small houses, just big enough to lay down in. In Buddhist countries you often see monks. Rarely, however, does one get a peek into the personal, the intimate aspects of their lives. Lives of committed simplicity and quiet contemplation.

Sand Drawings

2010-07-14T03:49:00.000-07:00

We are in Thailand right now. Last night we walked down the beach and came to this huge stretch of beach that looked like someone had made hundreds of abstract drawings all over the beach. It turned out that it was actually a small neighborhood of burrowing crabs that were simply rolling up balls of sand and pushing them out of their holes in the sand. The tropical breeze would shift directions re arranging them into these beautiful shapes.

Promotion

2010-07-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

So often Ads in magazines for shows or announcements fall short- either the color or the design is off or sometimes the opposing page has some disastrous image on it that clashes with your own work. I was very impressed with this ad that The Costello Childs Gallery http://www.costellochildsart.com/index.html is running in the new magazine "Luxe" http://www.luxemagazine.com/digital-editions/This is a fabulous very high end design and interiors publication. The artist's from Left to Right are Erik Gonzales, Chuck Johnson, Nicholas Wilton and Patricia Sannit.

Artplane Workshop at Esalen

2010-07-02T23:29:00.000-07:00

Another fantastic week at Esalen. We stayed up till 3 am painting every night, ate more than our share of chocolate and wine, created amazing artwork, laughed a tremendous amount and from the steaming hot springs, watched the moon come up over the Big Sur mountains. Thank you all! We will post the dates of the next Esalen workshop up as soon as we finalize it--most likely Spring 2011.

Principle #5 Risk

2010-06-12T10:38:00.001-07:00

This is an excerpt from a book I am working on about Creativity. The book, like the workshops we teach, utilize 6 Principles as a framework, roadmap to allowing more artistry, more creativity into our lives. This excerpt is taken from the chapter on Risk, Priciple #5. -NW

Almost every painting I make ends up somewhere along the line involving some kind of risk. What follows is the typical scenario. This example is just my process, just something that I have noticed again and again in the way I work, the process I often go through in making paintings.

When I initially set about to make a new work often I am spurred along by someone – perhaps a gallery saying or encouraging me to do something similar to a painting that “everyone seemed to like” and that in fact has just sold. Of course, I like to believe that I am not influenced at all by the outside response I get from people, that I am divinely inspired from a higher authority, a genius that doesn’t need or require kibitzing from the sidelines. But sheepishly, I admit that this is not the case with me, with my particular fragile ego. Like most people, I do like to get a positive reaction from an audience. It feels so good. We are social creatures after all and even though I work alone I do consider art making to be a socially minded endeavor. “Well, to re do a painting should be easy enough, I say to myself, as I have made the original painting just last month. I basically am just doing another version of this same painting. I know exactly what to do. In fact I could do this again and again, garnering more and more positive responses…My life could be filled to the brim with positive remarks, lots of sold paintings, bigger and better shows, leading to some kind of celebrity status, an artist to the stars perhaps. But then I snap out of it and realize that it is only Tuesday afternoon – I have practically zero celebratory status and the fact remains I still have a blank canvas in front of me and I have to re create something as good or better than a previous work. In reality it’s not always so easy to do.

I begin the painting that I already know will be successful before I have even started. My mind is clear and dead set on a certain outcome. This goes pretty well at first- I can lay in the basic composition knock in the colors so by the end of the first day I have a reasonable facsimile- a rough version of what my gallery called one of my best paintings. This one is looking good – doesn’t really have the same feeling as the original one…. I quit for the day and think I am just tired- Start again tomorrow- then I will be able to see, to understand what is missing. I have dinner and then pop my head back in the studio on the way to bed, as I just want to see if I do in fact like it better after eating. Paintings rarely get better when your not working on them and this time is no exception.

The next day arrives and with it comes a fresh determination to force this artwork into obedience, wrestle it’s look into the very same thing I made before—I want it, everyone else wants it so I am going to get my way. I even printed out a color copy of the prior painting, the one that just sold, so I can see where exactly I am going to end up. Hours roll along and it seems the painting is getting more similar to my print I have thumb tacked to the wall. But I feel tired, worn out a little bit. Something is missing here. I don’t’ feel particularly good anymore about this ugly stepsister of a painting. I stop to eat lunch—food is always a good distraction and often after eating lunch- giving it a visual break, I can see more clearly what is missing. This doesn’t work this time although I did manage to get involved in making a salad of such complexity that I was preoccupied for well over an hour…so I definitely am no longer hungry, but my painting is still not quite working. I plod on pushing paint around. The whole process is becoming tiring. Why do I want to paint what I have already painted before? Whose idea is this anyway? Yes but that’s what they want- that’s what everyone likes. Somewhere around 3:30pm I get the realization that like my painting before me, my interior, my insides the very core of my being is actually bored to death. This is not fun, not interesting- It’s like “fill in the colors” but with not very good ones. What do I do? I feel hemmed in, stuck on a mind-numbing course of my own design. I finally surrender and sit down in my paint-splattered chair I reserve for such moments. I usually work standing up and feel it’s important, at least for me, to utilize the whole body, but when I become defeated I sit down, rest and take a good long look at my situation. I might not figure it out at first or it might take several more painful days to realize what has gone so hopelessly wrong…But then I get the inkling, the remembrance of what I already know I know. That what is missing in this whole silly business of doing things that are too safe, trying to formulize art, trying to game this business of art making into predictability is simply, Principle #5, RISK. That thing that is always pushed outside the door, that has no place inside a factory that makes cars, a restaurant, a dry cleaners, no spot really anywhere inside our business work lives or for that matter our personal lives either. This thing called Risk is simply unwelcome most everywhere it shows up. Except in Art. And the closest I have ever gotten to wrapping my understanding around what makes one thing art and another just a regular thing has something to do with this crucial ingredient called Risk. It is simply essential to the making of Art.

Finally, left with no other option, humbled to a small shadow of my former self- I throw out the damn notion altogether of making art to get attention, to sell something or gather favorable reviews. I banish all those people standing around with me in my studio, the gallery owners, the beaming art collector couple, the adoring fans, the art critics and lock the damn door behind them. My pulse quickens, I just am going to do whatever the hell I want to do for a change. With a degree of frustration, anger really, anger at myself for thinking I can dabble around the edges, only go in up to my ankles-to actually not Risk something and think I could come up with something worthwhile. Who needs another pretty picture anyway? Is that what I am about? What do I want? What am I willing to say? No I need to reassert- to throw care to the wind and the only way I know how to do this is to sabotage this whole painting in front of me- to wreck it, destroy its pathetic overworked surface and take the chance that I can make something better in it’s place even if I don’t know what that will be. Before I even pick up the 5-inch brush and the half-gallon of black paint I am suddenly feeling better. Giddy more like. The excitement, the sense of aliveness in the room is palatable. I have no idea of what I am about to do – I am afraid, but even this feeling is way better than everlasting boredom. I don’t even want to make art if I have to be that bored ever again, I think, as my brush loaded with black paint hits the surface. I roll a thick wide brushstroke right across the canvas, covering over all this picky work I just spent 2 days doing. It feels right, instinctively – I can sense myself coming alive again…I don’t know where I am going but it doesn’t matter. I can feel this is right…paint is literally flying off the palette now suddenly I am squeezing colors out I have not used before-I am so excited that I don’t stop to put the caps back on –the possibilities are infinite- this painting can go anywhere now. It turns out the gate was unlocked the whole time and I just needed to give it a push. Within minutes this ugly painting starts to change- it’s moving, it’s alive and I am too. I am working too fast to even think about outcome now. I could care less. I am just in it all the way. There is no turning back, this painting is teaching me about who I am, what kind of a person I have become- even what kind of a father I am to my daughters, my insecurities, my smallness my dreams and my fears– its’ all here with me now in the room, in this painting...Its completely engaging, utterly transporting and to a small degree frightening.... And then I stop and step back, my shoes are covered in paint, my blue latex glove has torn and my thumb, uncovered, has been tinged with viridian green and maroon. This painting is strong. I can see that right away. There is a sense of immediacy about it. It resembles nothing I have ever made before.
My dog peers in at me from outside the studio glass door. Her nose steaming the glass. It’s dark outside now, I check my watch. I have been painting for 5 hours non-stop and in front of me quite possibly is one of the best things I have ever made. This appearance of excellence will, of course, change in time but for today I am happy. There is no one to tell. So I ease back down into my painting chair and smiling quietly tell the painting that now you look better. That that is what a real painting should look like.

The Cheese Box

2010-04-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today, my neighbor, Lila Friday ( http://www.lilafriday.com/) knocked at my door carrying a Swedish cheese box from 1770. She purchased it from a friend who purchased it many years ago in San Francisco. I guess these were used to carry cheese before cellophane was invented or even cars for that matter...She just had to show me because it reminded her of my work and thought I would like it too. Well I did. Very much my colors, if I can be so presumptuous, and, yes, I especially loved how worn out it had become in all it's carrying of cheese, probably back and forth across oceans aboard sailing ships. The colors, in fact, were very similar to a painting that I just had finished. She stood there next to the painting, holding the basket, looking at me, looking at the painting and then back again at the cheese box. She was smiling. I did too. The rain had finally stopped and there were squares of sunlight on the studio floor. I felt slightly very happy. And then I realized I was having one of those moments. A small little thing, an interaction, a gesture perhaps or even a cheese box that somehow takes an ordinary Tuesday and turns it into an especially good one.

Studio

2010-04-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

I took this about a week ago and it's fun to see how much I have already changed these paintings. Some are done now. The one on the way left on the wall being cropped out is a painting commissioned by a friend. It was especially challenging as this painting had to go into their home and I wanted it to work. Thankfully they have wonderful taste and their house colors are wonderful. That pea green painting, the one on the floor with the red lines totally changed. I got rid of almost all the colors and ended up with a grey painting with bits of colors coming through. What's crazy is that this process always challenges me. When I took this picture I did not know what to do on several of these. Eventually I figure it out but one would think it would get easier with time. I keep making paintings, over and over again. Actually the one with the red dot in the upper right came very quickly and pretty much looks like it did last week and now it's done.

Ritter Center House Cover

2010-03-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

When I finished my house I spent a fair bit of time adjusting this photo in photoshop. I deleted the background and made it white, fixed the proportions so it looked in perspective and even added a drop shadow. I thought that this would make it easy for it to be chosen to be included in some promotion of the event. As an artist, one of the fringe benefits of doing "volunteer" work is sometimes getting your name out there in addition to helping a cause you care about. When I was in the hardware store in town the other day I saw a stand of these publications which featured my house on the cover using this same photo that I had created earlier. There was a pretty good article about the project and some of the various houses that are being displayed around the Bay Area. Unfortunately the publication didn't credit my name with the work in the publication. Oh well. It's all still pretty great.
Here also is a Channel 2 segment the local news did on the project.: http://www.ktvu.com/video/22712153/index.html

The Redford Center

2010-02-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

I am involved in this amazing new organization, "The Redford Center" http://redfordcenter.org/ Robert Redford and his family have created this non profit to inspire positive social and environmental change through the arts, education and civil discourse. Besides doing great work in areas of the environment and social justice, what I feel is particularly potent about the Center is their group process they utilize to create dialogue and change. Along with all relevant experts in the particular field of concern, Robert Redford's long standing personal vision of also having artists involved in problem solving and discussions adds an out of the box thinking that can help catalyze solutions.
Last week was one of their first public events in San Francisco. It was an evening of discussion led by Redford Center's Director, Lee Bycel and Robert Redford. In additon, during the evening they honored two local actviists: Avery Hale, a young woman, 16 yrs. old who has started a organization" Step by Step" http://www.stepbystepforshoes.com/ that delivers shoes to poor villages in South America. Also honored was Victor Diaz a principal at Berkeley Technology Academy, a high school continuation school.http://www.berkeley.net/alternative-hs/
A particularly moving moment for me was when Robert Redford was describing early influences in his life. He told how he was a terrible student, and that he was rarely interested in what was being taught. He was constantly doodling in class. The teacher, in an attempt to shame him, forced him to stand in front of his 6th grade class and explain why his drawing was so much more interesting than what she was teaching. Totally humiliated, but lacking any recourse, he began to describe his drawing to the class. His drawing showed B-52 war airplanes shooting at cowboys who were driving a group of Indians off a cliff to their demise. To his surprise, the class actually found it very interesting too and were riveted. In a moment that could of gone either way, the teacher, recognizing the magic that was occurring in her now attentive classroom allowed him to continue. Putting her ego aside, she offered Robert a 15 minute time slot every Wednesday, at the end of class, so he could come up and describe and narrate his stories. As we all know, this is the work he still does today. Storytelling.
I was honored to be able to design the awards that were handed out that evening as well as having my work projected as the backdrop to this event. painting shown "May" 70" x 90" Oil and Beeswax on Panel.

Ritter Center House Finished

2010-01-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

I finished it. I was happy that there was only 3 sides and not 4. Painting a house is,well, like painting a house...there is a lot of space on the outside of a house!...I am happy that the figure feels like the house and to me really adds something dynamic to the shape. The inside is very open- pale blue sky in feeling to contrast with the density on the outside of the house. Up high, on the inside where very few will look, is a blue angel.

Ritter Center House Roof Detail

2010-01-28T20:22:00.000-08:00

This is a detail of one side of the roof. The snakes and ladders are from the original game that later was turned into chutes and ladders- a board game that deals with fate and luck. I created a board game, calendar motif on the house to symbolize the passage of time and the unknown twists and turns in one's life. The numbers represent the days of the month and the passage of time. The house is 49" x 48" and is made with plaster, acrylic and oil paint. The sculpture is mahogany and oil paint.

Rooftop Man

2010-01-26T17:02:00.000-08:00

After I got the figure more defined I ran into a little problem with the hand held disc sander I started with..I couldn't define any details and it wasn't allowing me to carve as carefully as I needed. I called up Joe Brubaker Joe Brubaker - Sculpture a sculptor who also is in Donna Seager's Gallery. His work is amazing and Joe is exceptionally nice. I went over to his studio - a fun space loaded with odd found objects of metal and wood. Remaindered parts of things, half started sculptures of heads and gorgeous miniature bronzes he has had cast of his work. He leant me some tools and told me what not to do and this made all the difference in the world. I especially loved painting the figure as suddenly I was back on familiar territory again, having never carved anything before. It is so fun to paint sculpture because no matter how you paint the form it will always resemble the figure. You are no longer trying to create an illusion with paint. The shape is fixed, but the color is not. I loved painting it. I wanted this figure, that is going to float above the Ritter Center House, to feel as is it is 100s of years old. Very primitive, simple and universal.

Carving the Man

2010-01-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

My neighbor gave me this huge chunk of mahogany. I cut out the general shape of the figure and now I am trying to refine it. It's interesting to just be removing and not being able to add anything back on...sculpture is like that--just take away all the parts that don't belong and then you will be left with what you imagined. Easier said then done. I think I will paint on this figure once he is finished. Maybe a dark color, a rich patina. He is going to float above the house like a weathervane on a roof. I will make it so he can move in the breeze.

Ritter Center House -Spoken Words

2009-12-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

I am starting to scratch some of the sentences that I have pulled from peoples experiences of being homeless into the walls and roof of my house. So many homeless people talk about how hard it is not having anyone who knows or cares about them. This desire to be connected to people seems almost like a requirement of being human. That without other people in you life it is barely possible to exist. Like food or water. One thing I never thought about is that once you are on the streets there is a kind of loose community of people who are already there. Those people who, for whatever reason, haven't been able to hang on to their homes, jobs, whatever.... What is incredibly moving to me is that these people tend to support each other. They all know that they each represent possibly the last chance of anyone showing up for one another. This one woman writes about this community and what it means to her: "They care about me and miss me if I don't turn up and that makes me feel really special, well at least to someone." I am using a sharp needle like tool to scratch through the paint to form these sentences. Like the dark lines going around the house these words will spiral up around the sides of the house. I still haven't figured out how to carve the figure at the top.

Ritter Center House

2009-12-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

I am now working on a project that will benefit The Ritter Center. This is an organization located in San Rafael, California that serves low income families and the homeless. Link: The Ritter Center - Marin Homeless Safety Net - Home There are about 20 artists all making unique houses. When they are done they are going to be installed in public spaces and then auctioned off- all proceeds going to help The Ritter Center. My house is still being figured out but what I am doing so far is creating an upwards path going from the bottom of the house up to the roof. This line will metaphorically represent the long road both out and into homelessness. Like a weathervane floating above the house I am also going to create a figure in balance. Maybe this will be carved out of wood..not sure yet. Symbolizing the buoyancy of the human spirit to transcend but also the very real precarious reality of our lives. I have been reading several blogs on the web, all written by homeless people. It is quite extraordinary that now, not only can we read first hand what these people are going through but we can comment and have a dialogue by leaving comments. Us in our homes at our computers and them at pay per view internet cafes on the other side of the world. Here is a link to one that is really quite amazing. Link: The Adventures of Homeless Girl

I am taking some of words and ideas that seem to be occurring repeatedly in the stories of people who find themselves on the outside edges of society. Ideas such as feeling invisible, needing to be missed and the difficulty of living on the street and I am writing them into the surface of the walls of this house. Although the subject is a difficult one, I am focusing the look and feel of this house to be one of hope fullness. These pictures below are of the house in it's beginning stages.....

Kiwi Vine

2009-11-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

In this painting I wanted to keep a very simple composition, but also to have a portion of the painting be detailed but quiet and subtle. Outside my living room window is a huge kiwi vine that I planted several years ago. The wind blows and the branches of this plant are always waving at me. When winter comes all the leaves die and blow, one by one, away.

Delivery Guys

2009-11-20T00:10:00.000-08:00

One of the hard parts, for me anyway, about being an artist is all the time alone. I can get busy and not leave the house for several days. Things start to become weird after about a day and a half... sooner if I don't change out of my pajamas till lunch...but why bother dressing - no one is around. We live in a rural area, so apart from the dog, it can become pretty quiet. Then the dog barks and a truck pulls up. The crunch of gravel, a door slam and footsteps up to my door. Normally they just knock and leave it, but today I open it before he has a chance to knock. A UPS delivery person breathing hard from trudging up my driveway with a huge roll of paper ( we make art prints sometimes) is standing at my door. We talk - anything to have a conversation- a bit of news, a remark exchanged about a baseball game that I actually have not seen or particularly care about, but feign I do just to enjoy the banter on the subject. We talk for a few minutes then "See ya! "off he goes. Today I ran with three women friends and they all were talking about how the UPS drivers are really by FAR the most attractive of all the delivery guys because they wear those cute brown shorts. I wondered if UPS figured this dress code would increase their business with their women customers.

Sometimes it's just better to leave the studio and go out into the world.

Collages

2009-11-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

I have been making these tiny paper collages in preparation for doing 3 of them quite large on panel. These are about 3" or 4" I have so far made 10. These three seem to go together and are my favorite ones so far.

70 x 60 Problem

2009-09-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

Thought I would stick this half made painting up here. So many times I get to this point. This

painting could go either way--kind of predictable, maybe a tad boring or somehow I am going to push it into something significant. The only problem is I don't know what that is yet.

Point Reyes, California

2009-09-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

My friend Grant, took me to a secret beach located at the very far end of Point Reyes National Seashore. To access the beach you have to climb down an old rope, but once there we wandered along the deserted beach. The fog was coming in so the light was particularly beautiful. Granite stones being tumbled smooth by the endless rhythm of the sea.

Side of Dumpster

2009-09-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

Driving to my daughters school this morning I passed this dumpster. Whoa. This is a detail of the door.

Studio Work

2009-08-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have been working on several large paintings. These are on canvas which is new for me as I usually work on panels. The wood panels when over 5 or 6 ft get very heavy. I also have been using two up turned 10 gallon buckets on the floor to prop up my paintings while working on them. It puts them at a good height for me to work and the slight angle makes it a bit easier as opposed to being perfectly flat against the wall. So simple. Lately I have been so busy with trying to fit everything in that when I come across something that is so simple and easy I am especially appreciative of it. The same idea has been happening in my painting. Simplification. I am trying to show the paint's own character more and less of the heavy handedness of my own agenda. The clue to this idea comes every day when I am painting. Every time a drip of paint falls off my brush by accident it seem to land in the perfect place in the painting and actually make it significantly better. How can this be?

Cropping

2009-07-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

Often parts of a larger painting can help me see what I might want to focus on in my next painting. Here the looseness and variety of textures and shapes coupled with the subtle grid lines practically could be an entire painting. Less is almost always more. Especially in painting.

Artplane Workshop at Esalen

2009-06-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

Just returned from another Artplane Workshop. I don't think Jennie and I have ever worked with a group of people who managed to paint so much in 5 days. Every night there was a group who stayed up till 2 am working in the "Art Barn" Painting is usually so solitary. I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group. They also ate more chocolate and drank more wine than other groups in the past. I already miss them.

Top Photo, Amy Johnson, 2nd year Artplane student painting mid week.

Christina Byrne and Elizabeth Hudson working late in the afternoon.

Bottom Photo, Jennie Oppenheimer giving an end of the week critique to the students.

Searching Continues....

2009-05-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately. Here is how this one went...it got very dark for awhile.....

Starting

2009-04-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight I just decided to skip pretty much everything I usually do and try, in one session to go from blank white canvas to something that is graphically strong. I can't re paint too much as the under color is wet and it darkens the light. Quickly lay in what a finished painting could look like from very far away. Not even sure how much of this will stay like this but it did seem like it wants to be this kind of a painting. It's as if it already knows what it is going to be.

The Art Plane

2009-04-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the very thought of making or writing something can become the barrier. When it becomes like this I just start. Like now. I have no clue what to write, just the growing frustration that I am not. Why this plays out time and time again for me (and I suspect others) always amazes me. It eludes me. The longer it is put off the bigger it becomes-the fact that nothing is happening-and then finally I just start. I don't think the mind can create AND procrastinate at the same time. Creativity usually wins out and then suddenly it's no longer an issue. Amazingly, the doing is the antidote. This relief coupled with the stimulation of what is happening on the canvas or paper shifts everything. Time slows down, concern gives way to gentle excitment. I call it the Art Plane...it always felt to me like this space or place was a distinctly separate plane. It's always available. All the time. Sometimes I can get in it but mostly I'm on the ground looking up at it wondering why I'm not. Spending too long out of it, at least for me, is not a good thing.

Shades of Gray

2009-03-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have been intermittently working on this painting for about a week....not crazy about this yet.

Although when I look at the post from before this seems way better. I usually don't have an opportunity to look backwards.

Just Shapes

2009-03-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Arranging and re arranging shapes in a square could take up days and days of my time. I try and look at it and see if it can get it any more poignant or more noticeable. How can this be more perfect, more thoughtful, more memorable?--Does this feel how I want it to, even if I don't fully understand the feeling yet? Without subject matter that relates to anything specific, these kind of paintings are deliciously open. They are, for me, the most difficult. Sometimes I play around with a jpeg of the image on the computer to see if I can problem solve the particular painting if I get stuck.....This one below is working now, although the actual painting is more dull and drab than this jpeg. This is where I want to go with it tomorrow.

Three

2009-02-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

I went off on a bit of a tangent and did these small square 24" x 24" paintings just using minimal color. I tried to work on them all together and imagined them all hanging in one group. I wanted to see how simple I could get them so from across the room they looked interesting and graphic but then upon closer examination the texture and the subtle markings would reveal themselves.

I write or scratch words in my pictures which are often metaphorical or mean nothing at all but they do give the "idea" of communication even though it is vague. A word is so specific and actually really powerful so I tend to use ones that are obtuse or diluted by an overlay of texture or even upside down or backwards.

Temptation

2009-02-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

For Valentines day I bought my daughters small tins of gourmet jellybeans. Hannah left for a week on a school field trip to Quebec and accidentally left it in my studio. This is a temptation too great for any person, especially me already weakened by the prospect of facing a difficult painting. I have already gone through the mandarin orange ones...incredible and now I discovered the pina colada ones...It is only Monday and she won't be back till next Sunday.

There will be no happy ending here. It is simply too late for that.

Overturned Stones

2009-02-12T21:39:00.001-08:00

This idea of crappy painting in the beginning always reminds me of Anne Lamott, the Bay Area writer who said "I always do a shitty first draft" I think about that a lot when beginning a painting. It's much easier and in the end, because you don't care, there sometimes results

some remarkable passages of paintings. Although then those become precious and then I spend all morning painting around the good parts which in time wrecks them. So I try to extend the period of time that I "don't care" and try not to think too hard. All parts of the painting at all times are open to change or destruction. No parts should be off limits. I think about how sensitive I can be..How can this feel more raw, more alive? What the hell am I doing? Sometimes I feel like someone is going to blow a whistle and cart me off to a more typical job. One with boundrys, a coffee machine and maybe even an elevator I can take up and down to work. Total insecurity coupled with absolute certainty. This much I know to be true.

Mermaid

2009-02-11T21:43:00.001-08:00

In the beginning I just lay down whatever I am thinking about...

trying not to judge whatever it is or wether it looks good or not.

This painting is at the stage that I don't really like too much

of what is presently there. It feels simplistic, thin and overly

decorative. This is early in the painting process-there is not much

paint on this painting. Once I start covering up and re working

the painting it generally gets better. Most of this will probably

change. I find this the hardest part and it kills me to stick it

on this blog as generally it's nice to only show the best work

as if you never make duds. Often I find the paintings of

others, when they are not working, the most interesting.

The Littlest Song

2009-02-01T21:19:00.000-08:00

This is where I ended up. This was an interesting

painting for me. The darks had to be really strong as

they are not particularly dynamic shapes. I wanted the eye

to bounce around and then have the quieter elements softly

converse... Two conversations going simultaneously. This

composition almost feels musical to me.

I was listening to Jolie Holland singing "The littlest Birds"

which inspired the title. A fabulous song if you have never

heard it before..

.YouTube - The Be Good Tanyas - The Littlest Birds

Late Bloomers

2009-01-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

A recent article, passed along by a friend, written by Malcolm Gladwell

(The Tipping Point), illuminates this idea that some artists are

fiercely direct and quick with their art. No experimentation, no

search- just an incandescent manifestation of work--Picasso. On

the other hand, there are those, the "late bloomers" (me too) that

sort of grope our way along. Never really sure, but trial and error,

and repeated mistakes eventually lead to some clarification, some results.

Gladwell asserts that Cezanne was one of these types. Never satisfied,

persistently frustrated, although steadily getting better over the course

of his life. The story goes that when Ambrose Vollard, the sponser of

Cezanne's first one man show, at age 56, hunted down Cezanne in Aix

"He spotted a still life in a tree, where it had been flung by

Cezanne in disgust."Gladwell emphasizes the vital importance that

the outside patrons , friends, family etc. are for the survival of these

kind of "late bloomers" I have a hunch this is true for most artists.

How many times has a friend said "I love this!" as they pull a painting

out of the garbage can, instantly redeeming it to one of your recent

favorites. The article ends "We'd like to think that mundane matters

like loyalty, steadfastness, and the willingness to keep writing

checks to support what looks like failure have nothing to do with

something as rarefied as genius. But sometimes genius is anything

but rarefied; sometimes it's just the thing that emerges after

twenty years of working at your kitchen table"

Red White and Blue

2009-01-18T21:33:00.001-08:00

I am staring at this painting on the bottom and I

can't figure what is bugging me about it for the

longest time and then I realize it's the colors. I

hate when a painting starts going red white and blue.

I don't know what it is about those colors--I even like

our flag since we elected Obama....but anyway,

I shifted the colors. When your at a very bright

color it always amazes me how much you can

grey it down and it still seems so bright. Color

is funny that way. The red is SO red in this painting

that almost everything has to quiet down or else

it's going to be very tutti fruitti. And then again, now

I see the before and after I am not sure which is

better....which would mean that I went possibly

backwards all evening. Hmmm.

Surface and Time

2009-01-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

This is a detail from a painting I just finished. Sometimes

parts of paintings are better than other parts. This kind

of density of surface is what I am after. Shapes and forms

disappearing and emerging simultaneously. Similar to

life...memories fading and new experiences arriving,

never perfectly clear, always changing and often just out

of reach.

New Years Day 2009

2009-01-01T22:57:00.001-08:00

Rocks on the shore of Stinson Beach, California.

Starfish

2008-12-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the newly opened Academy of Sciences. So many people, so many exhibits...this 11 legged starfish

was encased in resin along with a whole slew of other creatures along a back wall. They actually were plaques that acknowledged those who gave large financial gifts to the institution. The fact that this was floating all alone in a foreign white void, apart from it's normal habitat was striking to me. Lost in whiteness, but so exquisitely beautiful. This notion, pulling from nature, re ordering, re presenting so that ordinary things can be seen new again is potent. I try for this in my art.

Dog and Painting

2008-12-21T21:25:00.001-08:00

I like this painting or at least the start of it, but then I didn't and ended up painting it all red....This is Maizy my dog who runs trails with me.

Olema Barn

2008-12-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

"Olema Barn" 84" x 72"

Barn in West Marin

"Between Lines" 40" x 36"

These old barns are all over West Marin.

The subtlety of the lines and textures of the boards

contrasting with the hard darks of missing ones

seems to give these buildings a quiet strength.

Studio Work in Progress

2008-12-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

I work on about 7 paintings at the same time.

My process involves layering of paint and since it is oil

I have to let it dry before it can be covered over. I am so impatient

and so all I can do is start working on another one while the first one is drying.

It's best for me to not work too long on any one painting on one particular day.

After awhile I can't see the painting clearly. Today went well as I like the way these paintings

are going. The three on the right are strong starts--the green one on the left is already totally

repainted. I liked this start but couldn't figure out how to finish it. so I covered it up with paint.

"Kalahari"

2008-08-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

'KALAHARI' 60' X 60' OIL AND BEESWAX ON PANEL

BAOBAB TREE IN BOTSWANA

Painting when you feel different creates different paintings. I wanted to make a painting that felt like but not necessarily was a representation of the feeling of Botswana. The rawness and extreme earthiness of the place was what I was after. I cannot look at this painting without it reminding me of Africa. This painting came very easily. The palette here is different for me.

I kept asking people in Botswana how old are these magnificent trees were...no one seemed to know as no one has ever been alive long enough to see one die from old age. It's possible these trees are several thousand years old. This one tree was here when the pyramids were being built. It has a hole in it half way up that was used as a kind of post office so early explorers could leave messages that would be taken back to Europe by others who happened to pass on their return home.

AFRICA

2008-08-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

AMAZING PLANT FORMS....

Just returned from a month in Africa. Jen and I brought our two daughters

Lyla (14) and Hannah (12). Besides seeing amazing animals on Safari we spent some time volunteering at The Esibonisweni School, an Elementary School in South Africa. It was truly inspiring to feel the warmth and kindness of these children.

I just drew in my sketchbook, took pictures and tried to soak in the heart and soul of this wondrous place called Africa. I have a feeling we will be going back.

Paintings Leaving for Show

2008-07-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

"Tangerine" 60" x 60" oil and beeswax on panel. #8309

Paintings waiting outside to be picked up by the delivery truck.

Clearing out the studio of all the paintings I have been working on for Santa Fe.

This orange one, done last and as "extra credit" is my favorite. There is a looseness and an out of control aspect to the way this was made that is refreshing. The easiest painting and, of course the best. There is something here.

Artplane Workshop at Esalen

2008-05-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

The organic gardens at Esalen.

A demo painting done at Esalen

Some of the class of 2008.

This years workshop was tremendous. 18 people came together

and we painted till late into the evening for a week. I always find it so hard to get away to do these workshops but as soon as I get there I re remember. Full moon by the sea, Friendships made and getting inspired from watching people overcoming fears of art. And then of course there is the food, hot springs and always much laughter. I return renewed and re inspired....

Dog wants to go for a walk

2008-05-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

#8302, #8303, and #8304, finished.

Many other paintings going on besides these but I have to free up time for the dog who

waits all day long outside my studio door to go running. Maizy, rescued from a kill shelter in Oklahoma.

Forever grateful, she is wonderfully sweet.

Time

2008-05-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

#8283 Finished

Still going, ended up destroying the middle one for something else...

Been very busy now for several weeks. Posting these after the fact....seeing paintings that were covered over that were pretty good. Making it difficult just to make it difficult.

Tuesday Afternoon

2008-04-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

#8302, #8303 and #8304

#8305

#8283
Getting 8305 close --not quite sure yet.

Friday

2008-04-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

Continued on these 5 paintings.

New Panels

2008-04-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

#8302, #8303, and #8304

#8305

#8283
Today about 15 new panels arrived. So I started in on some new ones a set of 3 24" x 24" and a 36" x 40". The green striped one, 8305 is quite hideous at this point but I just wanted to get something down to respond to later after this layer dries. The 3 24 x 24s are a bit better, at least from a distance. And then since I had a big pile of paint I made a giant blue square on #8283. I am thinking of small light shapes on this dark background--maybe very very tiny marks on a dark field.

Raining

2008-04-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

#8157

Kept going on 8157. Almost everything gets re painted over and then by the time I come around to paint it again it is done in a different way. The ghosting of under painting is very interesting when it is contrasted with a thickly painted shape nearby or on top of it. I tend to work on parts of the painting that are easy to reach--the bottom part takes more effort so I notice I leave it more empty. I need to add more screws in my wall so I can hang the painting higher up. Today I bought 5 months supply of paper towels. These have a new pattern on them that leaves a kind of grid mark when I press it in the paint. Kind of fun.

Saturday Afternoon

2008-04-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

#8157

#8283

Today I kept working on #8157 and #8283-both of which have changed into very different paintings than the way they started.

One thing that I find difficult is putting marks on a painting when I know that they are not right. But the very act of being careful creates a mark that "feels" careful -which is usually boring. When I find myself spending more time looking at what I have done than actually making changes to a picture then I know that I am holding back. Sometimes I have to plod for awhile till something strikes a chord and then I re remember. I am trying to be thoughtfully out of control. Carefully careless.

Falling Backwards

2008-04-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

#8157

#8165

Heard the poet Billy Collins last night. Wonderful...he left me with the feeling that having no plan or direction might just be viable. He described the importance of writing about nothing in particular- a found chess piece, a bit of string or maybe a hippo. Stumbling along, bumping into things along the way. The delightfully randomness of life. It is in the in between moments that matter and sometimes illuminate. In a strange way this seems applicable to this practice of painting. However, realizing this has made the starts on several paintings seem thin and not at all juicy with life. So I repainted and started several over.

Barn Roof

2008-04-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

"Spring Rain" 48" x 96" #8296

I spent the first part of the week painting another painting from this one pictured here--This is a diptych-2- 48" x 48" panels that hang together. Another "Weave Painting". In a way it has been easy but it has also allowed me to see more clearly where and how the pattern and balance can be more refined. Shown here is a barn roof I drive by on the way to Bolinas. I love this roof.

West Marin

2008-04-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

"Madrone" 70" x 90" #8269

I drive by these water tanks all the time out here in West Marin. I finally took some pictures and it's amazing how similar they are to some of the recent "Weave" paintings I have been making.

Nature has corroded and weathered these surfaces in much the same way as the layering of paint and washes that I use in my work. The formal grid lines of the construction of these barns and water tanks are beautiful contrasts to the out of control degradation that is occurring year after year from the natural elements.

Re Re Worked

2008-04-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Re Re painted today......

Oak and Bay

2008-04-07T12:47:00.000-07:00

8300 "Oak and Bay" 70"x 63"

Finished 8300. Kept it more raw and direct. These colors are also more subdued for me but they actually feel richer than a lot of my other work.

push

2008-04-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

I drastically changed the paintings today. It was beginning to feel tiring-when I feel as though no part of the painting can't be worked on then the whole painting begins to look more cohesive. All parts are considered. Took me all week to really let go and risk.

wednesday

2008-04-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

#8300

#8157

#8283

Introduced these roundish shapes on #8300. Not sure I like it. Worked awhile on this and it might have gotten worse. Can't really see it clearly yet. Moved on to the "Sand Shapes"-#8157 re do and #8283, the 36" square-tried to paint as loose and as bold as I could after feeling like the larger painting kind of stalled out--I think they are getting better. Lately, I have been using the paint very thin in washes and this soupy application is impossible to control which ends up being a good thing.

Lines

2008-04-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

#8300

Went back to #8300 from last Wednesday. This time I started by drawing lines on top of the existing composition. Starting a secondary conversation--quiet but seems to take the eye around in contrast to the extreme vertical composition of the shapes. Soft Curves add some relief. Such a little thing, adding lines, but actually I have never done this on a painting in quite this way. Still surprised that something happens at all when I have no plan and sometimes not as much drive to show up at all. This painting is still getting better and it's been extremely easy so far. I hope that I can keep it from getting too precious. Then it will surely lose some of it's strength.

monday morning

2008-03-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

#8165

#8283

Started back into the two small paintings-#8165 and #8283 from last Wednesday. Trying to paint every mark while being cognizant of the whole. Trying to stay as loose as possible. The last hour it went better.

goopy painting

2008-03-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

#8301
Overslept and got into the studio late. Started on the 84" x 72" #8301, as my brushes were all still messy as I forgot to clean them yesterday. The painting is so large that it is hard to passively paint. Liking it better where it ended up today. The paint is thicker and goopy. It got all over the floor and me.

over painting

2008-03-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

#8157

"Sand Shapes" # 8157, 60 x 48, was painted several years ago. I liked it at the time but it sat in Galleries in San Francisco and Santa Fe and now it is back in my studio again. I flipped it on it's side and decided to paint over it. It felt good to finally work over this painting. I like the start and am excited about where it could end up. Also started a 84" x 72 " canvas. I can barley reach to the top and I am tall. No idea where I am going ... just covering canvas at this point hoping something turns up.

Minimal Color

2008-03-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

#8300

#8165 and #8283

This morning I started a new painting- #8300, 70" x 63". It went incredibly fast or at least to a point that I began to start liking it....often I struggle much more to get this far. Trying not to think about if it is good or not so I can remain destructive and bold with it as I continue to refine it.

Went back into 2 smaller paintings-#8165, 22 x 18 and #8283, 36 x 36- that were done or at least I thought they were...neither had sold and both have been sitting around for a long time. It felt good to go back into these and am sort of excited about the prospects for them both. The small one still has a ghost image of a flower that for some reason I had painted in the corner about 2 years ago.