Recent Works

Ships of the Desert 12 x 16 Mixed Media on Canvas
Study for larger work

Been a while since I have used this format to post new works of art. Been a while since I have produced any new works. I seem to work in spurts. But also my studio was in total chaos for a couple weeks before the Been There/Done That Art sale. I am currently working on almost ten pieces in one state or another. I have been actively working the five smaller canvases and just yesterday finished two.

Monument Path 10 x 18 Mixed Media on Artist's Canvas
Preliminary photograph

The above picture is not the best possible of this work. It is a painting I do not know if I am quite done with. And one of the ways I determine that is to photograph it and see what sticks out at me. Another way is to have it sitting around the studio where I will see it every time I walk in.

The top picture is a study for a much larger work - 24 x 36 I believe. The "cartoon" is all laid out and masked off and I have not dared to apply paint yet. This is primarily because of the clouds. I wanted to see if my mental image of the clouds could be carried onto the canvas.

I also, inadvertently, discovered something else when doing this study; I did not want to do Shiprock Monument as realistically as I had conceived. I am living with this work too for a while before I begin doing its big brother. Easier to change things now on a study.

Today I will work on two other little works and begin another medium work. I am still undetermined how to fix another little painting I am working on or if it is time to just chuck it. It could become an experiment in gessoing over and existing canvas.

I was asked by a magazine writer recently how an artist continues to grow. My question is how does one remain the same?

The New Challenge

Probably the next hardest thing to paint beyond a hole in rock is a tower of rock in the middle of a flat plain. Actually there is more to Shiprock than just this tower. There is a long ridge that runs out both directions. But to show that then you paint it from a direction other than the one most people are familiar with.

Still I have wanted to paint this landmark in the northwest corner of New Mexico for a while now. I have the canvas for it. I have been thinking dutifully about the sketch. So easy to just copy its all too familiar profile. But it hit me as I was driving back from my sister's house that what probably is the most striking thing about Shiprock is the nothingness around it. Here in the middle of nowhere is the pinnacle of rock rising up out of the Colorado plateau.

That and the sky that surrounds it.

So that will be my painting.

The emptiness that is Shiprock. And the vastness of the land.