A Day in the Studio

Prints arive in Madison

2010-04-01T19:20:00.002-04:00

The prints arrived in Madison today, and I am elated to share with you an email from Valerie Kazamias, President of the Madison Print Club that commissioned the project. "My God...they are great!!!!Thank you, thank you. I am speechless, they are all so beautiful...WOW. You should be VERY proud. Thanks, Valerie" I am so excited I'm taking tomorrow off from work, and settling down for a long, spring nap.

The Last Shall Be First

2010-03-30T19:45:00.005-04:00

It's a sign of how tired I am at this point that I'm not even sure I can explain the irony of this piece. It was one of the first I printed, and one of the last into which I drew, bringing the project to 140 images. . . . .but wait a minute, it's not over yet. We still have the trip to Madison to present the series at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. There will be lots more to share, so please return to this blog. The above image shows the dimensions of the sheet size - 26" x 20".

12-7-09-7

2010-03-30T19:41:00.003-04:00

This was one of the last prints into which I drew.

The scene of the crime

2010-03-30T19:35:00.003-04:00

Here is the scene of the crime - the Lahouillier Farm along Route 15 in Johnson. The car is parked in front of what used to be the Painted Caravan, my friend Isabeth Hardy's former studio and gallery. That was the scene where I was practicing my printing on Isabeth's Whelan Press, and where I realized the MYSTIQUE of the Sterling Ridge, which is now immortalized in the Lamoille Project. In this picture, Howard has captured it as it was - my sitting in the passenger seat, with the oil sticks spread out on the driver's seat, preparing the plates.

Packing the prints

2010-03-30T19:13:00.002-04:00

Friend Paul Gruhler came over on Sunday to help me wrap and package 120 pieces to be shipped off to Madison. It took us over 6 hours, and here is all the work, piled up on tables in the living room. Now maybe I can have my living room back!

Helen Does Inventory

2010-03-30T19:08:00.003-04:00

My friend Helen Lewis came over on Saturday to help with the inventory of the prints = 140 minus the 20 I'm keeping for myself equals what? We went over and over and over every single piece, to make sure they were all accounted for. Without a doubt, Helen counts better than I do!

Shipping

2010-03-30T12:08:00.003-04:00

I've just returned from shipping 120 pastel monoprints to Madison, Wisconsin, bringing this 3 year project close to its conclusion. It must feel like sending your kid off to college, though there is still a great deal to be done. . . . . including posting the entire series in the glory of its completion, writing the presentation speech, selecting the images for projection, and CELEBRATING! Anyone who wants to celebrate this momentous occasion with me, come'on down, and please return to this blog soon to see the conclusion of the project, and notes about the presentation.

12-29-08-3

2010-03-07T18:07:00.002-05:00

I had not expected to be drawing this weekend. In fact, I thought the drawing phase of the project was finished until yesterday when I counted the number of finished pieces, and came up 9 short. Let's not speculate as to how that happened, except to say, I'm glad it did. In the last day and a half, some of my very favorite images in the entire series resulted. What a high on which to conclude the project.

12-29-08-4

2010-03-07T18:02:00.003-05:00

What a surprise this piece turns out to be. Originally a "ghost" and pretty weak looking - it gives evidence to what I cherish about this process. The ghost gives clues to a reality far more complex than what I drew on the plate.

1-1-09-1

2010-03-07T17:57:00.003-05:00

This piece provides another reason why I am so happy to have mis-counted and could add 9 more pieces. This piece was originally declared finished long ago, with minimal pastel. However, every time I looked at it, it made me unsettled. So I removed it from the series, but put it in a place to consider it often. Luckily, it made it through on the last day, very different from the original monoprint and from the first finished solution.

4-19-09-3

2010-03-07T17:53:00.002-05:00

This is such an unexpected piece because in fact the monoprint hadn't made the first cut. Then this afternoon, when I was looking for one of the last pieces, I was positively haunted by it. What an appropriate image for April, a month of promise and disappointment in these parts.

1-1-09-2

2010-03-07T17:51:00.003-05:00

Here's a winter version of the one above. This particular bank of trees only pops out of the scene in certain light, and this was one of those days. I expected it would happen more frequently in the course of the project, but it happened only occasionally.

12-28-09-1

2010-03-07T17:49:00.003-05:00

Can you feel it? There's a winter weather advisory that goes along with this one!

3-18-09-4

2010-03-07T17:43:00.002-05:00

This piece and the one that follows utilize a rather limited palette, which I suggest maximizes the coldness of the image. I'm also rather pleased with the low range line in both pieces, particularly as white and gray define both the skies and the mountains.

2-7-09-5

2010-03-07T17:39:00.005-05:00

What I particularly like about this piece is the linear aspect of the mountain tops, achieved by removing (scratching) paint from the monoprint plate.

12-29-08-6

2010-03-07T17:30:00.003-05:00

I want to say, "You have to have been there," because yes, I realize this piece looks a bit fuzzy. Blame it on the photographer (me,) and on the delicacy of the image, which just doesn't lend itself to quick digital scrutiny on a Sunday afternoon.

8-23-09-5

2010-02-14T17:03:00.002-05:00

I am always so grateful for 3 day holidays because they give so much latitude to the process in the studio. Had I only 2 days this weekend, I might be a little less relaxed than I have been with this work. Still, these seven pieces did not come easily, and there was a great deal of pushing and pulling and tearing my hair over them. In the end, I can tell that the series is coming to a conclusion because I'm getting jittery as I approach each one.

10-17-09-10

2010-02-14T16:58:00.003-05:00

This was another piece that really challenged me to finish it. Autumn can be like that! Is it any wonder so many artists prefer not to paint at the height of the foliage season?

7-5-09-3

2010-02-14T16:57:00.003-05:00

In July, the air can get quite thick, and so it is with this piece - I hope.

12-30-08-3

2010-02-14T16:53:00.003-05:00

Can't you just feel the cold, even though the sky is so blue? It gets that way here in winter - blue, blue sky, but such frigidity in the air.

2-8-09-4

2010-02-14T16:51:00.002-05:00

This was particularly fun to work on because the monoprint was printed almost exactly a year ago, give a week. So that same hardness of the land was right out my window, making it quite easy to conclude this piece.

12-30-08-4

2010-02-14T16:48:00.003-05:00

I am particularly pleased with this piece because it went through its "disaster phase" before it came to this conclusion. Last night I was having dinner with a bunch of artists, and we were talking about "hitting walls," and without an exception, all talked about "working through it" when it happened. That was true of this piece. I almost gave up, but in not giving up, I gave myself license to come up with a bold solution.

1-11-09-3

2010-02-14T16:46:00.003-05:00

I was reading something earlier today about the "exhuberance of winter," and that thought spilled over into the three winter pieces I finished today.

Happy 95th Birthday, Lucile

2010-02-07T18:33:00.003-05:00

This is our mother on her 95th birthday in Los Angeles. My sister Teresa and I had a splendid celebration with her.

4-18-09-1

2010-02-07T18:12:00.005-05:00

I missed last weekend in the studio, due to a trip with my sister to California to celebrate our mother's 95th birthday. Among its perks was a visit to the Pasadena Museum of Art where we saw two exhibits: Wayne Thiebault, who has always been one of my favorite artists, and Frances Gearhardt, an early 20th century printmaker. I came home with catalogues from both shows (thank you, Teresa,) and dove into them this weekend before going into my studio.

As disperate as Thiebault and Gearhardt are from one another, both are colorists, and both infuse their work with the temperature of the day. I felt the impact of their respective visions this weekend, as I attempted to pick up the momentum of finishing these monoprints. It was slow going at first, but eventually I got up to speed.

8-22-09-3

2010-02-07T18:10:00.002-05:00

The silvery sky of late summer. . . . .

5-3-09-4

2010-02-07T18:07:00.003-05:00

Ah, the lusty month of May! This piece shows me the strong and recent influence of the early 20th century California woodcut artist, Frances Gearhart, whose work my sister and I discovered last week at the Pasadena Museum of Art. The rich saturation of her work inspired me to go for that same abundance in this piece.

7-5-09-4

2010-02-07T18:04:00.002-05:00

Detail of below.

Feels like summer to me. . . . .this is a piece that defies the Vermont summer when everything is just so green, it is virtually unbelievable. So every once in awhile it is good to tackle that green.

12-7-09-1

2010-02-07T18:00:00.004-05:00

Ah-ha! This piece in its monoprint form tantalized me for weeks and weeks, and getting the courage to work into it was daunting. I decided to "go for it" today with the thought that I probably would ruin it. . . . and thought I had ruined it at one point (nothing like negative conditioning.) However, I just continued drawing into it sparingly. When I stopped and stood back, an involuntary shiver went through me, and I knew it was finished. Nothing like the visceral aspect of making art! Among the uniqueness of this piece is the use of the white paper, next to white pastel.

8-31-09 ghosts

2010-02-07T17:56:00.003-05:00

This is certainly one of the most unique pieces so far, as the monoprint image was made up of ghosts of 7 pieces, ranging in dates from 1-31-09 to 8-31-09. As most of the dates were in August, the finale of the monoprint was summery and sultry, and upon reflection that 1-31-09 image was a mere shadow. However, the additional pastel propels this piece into the mystique of late summer, as the mist rises.

8-22-09-1

2010-02-07T17:54:00.002-05:00

There is very little pastel on this image. (There is one more post from this day - click on "older posts" immediately below.)

7-11-09-1

2010-02-07T17:53:00.002-05:00

Can you feel the heat of this day?

Saturday and Sunday in the Studio

2010-01-24T20:11:00.003-05:00

2 days of gorgeous light makes for 7 new posts and one happy artist! Actually, it was a weekend of fits and starts, including one piece you won't see because it was so overworked, I removed it from the series. The first piece you will see is a mixed metaphor, as the ground appears white, and it is a summer piece. So it will be reworked. Then there was the piece pulled from oblivion, as it wasn't working, until I left it alone for awhile, and eventually worked back into it. All in a weekend.

7-5-09-5

2010-01-24T17:38:00.002-05:00

There is something intrinsically wrong with this piece, which I realized as I was posting it - that appears to be snow on the ground, when in fact it was intended to be light bouncing off the water in the field. Oooppppssss, but I'm posting it nonetheless to give you an idea of the process. Obviously this one isn't finished, and will be adjusted and posted again sometime soon

12-6-09-4

2010-01-24T17:36:00.003-05:00

A day of ice and rain.

10-17-09-6

2010-01-24T17:32:00.003-05:00

Another piece from that autumn day I called this the "calico mountain." What the picture shows little of it the detail of the whiteness of the sky. Looking over all of the monoprints from this day, I realize the sky progressed from blue to milky as I worked.

12-30-08-7

2010-01-24T17:29:00.002-05:00

Detail of below. Can't you just feel the cold?

12-30-08-5

2010-01-24T17:28:00.002-05:00

I call this one "low mountain."

12-7-09-2

2010-01-24T17:24:00.004-05:00

Detail of below

Ohmygosh, I pondered over this piece. At the beginning of today, I almost removed it from the series, but after lunch, all that protein helped me to solve it! It is ironic that at this point in the process, I am going back into more and more of this work, after I've declared it "finished." This is probably a sign that the bar has been raised!

3-15-09-1

2010-01-24T17:19:00.002-05:00

This is the only piece I actually have pictures of as it was being printed. These pictures are posted on this blog, way, way back at the beginning.

In this picture, the drawing looks a little shrill to me, which is not in the case in person. This is actually also only one of two pieces from the month of March, cause that was the month I had pneumonia, so little got printed.

12-6-09-3

2010-01-18T17:00:00.003-05:00

Today is the MLK Holiday, so I have had this entire day in my studio, and it has been a significant day for breakthrough. Dealing with white paint vs white pastel vs white paper - particularly on the winter prints - is often a complex confrontation. So I am pleased that today I hit the confrontation straight on. Here are four pieces from this day of concentration.

12-6-09-2

2010-01-18T16:58:00.003-05:00

I was working on this while NPR's Fresh Air aired a piece about the pioneer baseball player, Satchel Page - a wonderful observation for MLK Day.

12-7-09-7

2010-01-18T16:55:00.003-05:00

I'm back to looking at my iconic source book, Jennifer Bartlett's "In The Garden." What I see in this piece is the confidence to wed two opposite approaches, top to bottom, which one can see in some of Bartlett's Garden pieces, though I didn't realize it until just now.

12-6-09-1

2010-01-18T16:51:00.004-05:00

You know I'm getting a little punchy when I tell you what is really going through my head as I finish this work, and after all day in the studio today, the punchiness is to be expected. Did you watch the Golden Globe Awards last night, and if so, doesn't the texture of this print remind you of Tina Fay's dress? I think so! I thought that was a pretty gawd awful dress, but the fabric was interesting. Guess I was trying to make something of it, and guess it's time to conclude this day in the studio!

PS: Two pieces from 2 days ago "progressed" today. 5-17-09-3 got a further workout today, and still isn't finished to my satisfaction. I've decided not totouch 3-15-09-2, and in fact am really pleased with this piece. See below, about 3 and 4 images down.

10-17-09-5

2010-01-16T17:10:00.004-05:00

This piece was originally a ghost of 4 other pieces, and is one of the more successful "multiple ghosts" in that it required very little pastel to make its own unique statement, for which I am pleased and grateful!

This day in the studio was plagued by murky light - a soupy, gray day in which the lines I was drawing were disappearing in front of my eyes. I had the lights on to little avail, and finally had to stop two pieces in mid-progress (see below) because I just couldn't see what I was doing. This is not to say my eyesight is failing as much as it is to acknowledge that the light required in order to get subtlety of line needs to be intense, and it wasn't today.

7-12-09-2

2010-01-16T17:07:00.003-05:00

This piece was posted as "finished" a week ago, but a friend noticed an area which seemed out of focus with the rest of the work. There was wisdom to that observation which I realized working back into the piece today.

5-17-09-3

2010-01-16T17:03:00.004-05:00

This piece is so different than anything I envisioned, that I am not sure it is finished, but want to leave it alone for a few days to see what is revealed in better light. It certainly has that element of fragile spring light that I hoped it would have, but beyond that, it is much more ethereal than intended.

3-15-09-2

2010-01-16T17:01:00.001-05:00

Finished or not?

Starting today at Howard's

2010-01-10T18:11:00.004-05:00

Howard Romero is my friendly, neighborhood fine art photographer. Doesn't every neighborhood have one? He lives up the street, and we met this morning: 1-10-10 at 10 AM, an auspicious time to photograph 42 more images for the Lamoille Project. It is always a good time working with Howard as he is a selectman for our town, and full of stories and ideas. We also started talking about the conclusion of this project - how to prepare the final disk for presentation in April. It seems so soon to be talking about the conclusion of this project, but that's because I'm really "into it," even as I realize I've been working on it for more than a year.

12-7-09-4

2010-01-10T18:08:00.003-05:00

This was another piece that was a daring monoprint in the first place, largely because of the color of this December day - after snowfall, but with the grass of the foreground still a squeaky green. Is it believeable?

7-11-09-4

2010-01-10T18:00:00.003-05:00

I cannot tell you how long this piece in its monoprint stage has hung on my studio wall while I got up the courage to attack it with pastel. It was a seriously courageous monoprint, largely prepared with palette knife. How to add the softness of pastel to the hardness of that palette knife surface, was the dilemma I had given myself. So today was the day, and uncharacteristically, I went into it expecting defeat. Wrong again! I went into it totally as a colorist, which can be either a route through, or a muddy disaster. Mercifully, the piece practically finished itself.

7-12-09-2

2010-01-10T17:58:00.003-05:00

Earlier today I was looking at some pictures of California foliage, and I fear some of it crept into this piece - at least the light, but it is the light of July in Vermont - for about a minute. Perhaps this was the minute.

10-17-09-1

2010-01-09T22:32:00.003-05:00

Detail of below.

After a couple weeks of snow, the light today was quintessential Vermont radiant light. What a great day to be in the studio, and to tackle two pieces that were challenging.

This monoprint image above was saturated with rich color, and how to break into the intensity of that saturation was its challenge. The image below was equally challenging because it was a July day in which everything was perfect. So how does one add an atmospheric edge to "perfect," or is it even desirable to do so?

By the end of the day's natural light, I had solved only these two pieces, but I had been avoiding these two, so I am grateful for the progress. Tomorrow, it's off to the photographer with 42 more images. I am feeling dangerously smug.

7-12-09-4

2010-01-09T22:29:00.002-05:00

Detail of below

When it wasn't raining in July, the clouds were fleecy.

6-21-09-3

2009-12-29T17:12:00.005-05:00

Detail of below

This piece took hours! The softness of this moment in June was an elusive goal while winds drove the wind chill into the minus degrees this afternoon. I had to close myself to the clanging world outside and concentrate only on the warmth of a summer's day. It was worth the effort, and you can't tell, can you, that I almost gave up several times on it?

5-3-09-3

2009-12-29T17:07:00.006-05:00

Detail 1 of below

Detail 2 of below

How can you tell, it's spring?

BTW: May 3 must've been a mesmerizing day as there are many pieces, originally printed this day that have been completed, providing endless variation to this day - one hint of how you can tell it was spring!

10-17-09-2

2009-12-29T17:04:00.004-05:00

Detail of below

The use of diagonals in this piece is rare for me. Must've been the movement in the sky that day that made me do it.

Studio window

2009-12-28T17:45:00.003-05:00

It snowed all day today, from the moment I went into the studio through to the moment I left. This is the window over my drawing board. It was a good day to be inside. I'm not sure it was a great day in which to work in the studio however, as the light was elusive all day, and faded so quickly.

5-17-09-2

2009-12-28T17:42:00.003-05:00

My photographer is going to hate me for this, but the final marks in the sky were made with a thin veil of metallic gold pastel - a fine art photographer's nightmare. However, it was the solution that gave the sky it's early spring resolution.

8-22-09-2

2009-12-28T17:35:00.003-05:00

The calm before the storm. What I see when I look at this piece is the end of summer.

10-17-09-8

2009-12-28T17:33:00.004-05:00

Detail of below

There is a fragility to this piece that almost frightened me as I began to work on it. In fact, the sky is primarily monoprint, very pale and milky, appropriate to this day.

7-12-09-3

2009-12-28T17:29:00.005-05:00

Detail of below

This piece was a major effort, including a great deal of pastel coverage in the sky and on the mountain, but much minimally so in the foreground. I was looking at Emile Nolde, and brought his color saturation into this piece.

10-11-09-3

2009-12-28T17:26:00.002-05:00

Looking back over the other pieces done on 10-11-09, I recall it was a day of moving light and sky. Can't you tell? Bright, but moving.

8-30-09-2

2009-12-27T22:48:00.002-05:00

Detail of below

Most of the white in this sky - the clouds - is monoprint, and overall, this piece is about 50/50 monoprint/pastel.

5-3-09-5

2009-12-27T22:38:00.002-05:00

This was a day of contrasts in the studio. Two pieces, including the one above, ended up getting minimal pastel drawn into them. There are a few marks, but they are probably difficult to decipher. Likewise, this piece above was one of the first images made up of multiple ghosts.

Two of the other pieces worked on this day are heavily laden with pastel, and one piece is about 50/50. It is not necessarily "faster" to finish a piece with minimal pastel markings. Sometimes it takes a long time to muster the courage to let a monoprint piece be without further marks.

8-23-09-1

2009-12-27T22:23:00.004-05:00

Detail of below

This piece relies heavily on the textural contrast between the milky, lyrical sky, and the sharp monoprint lines of the terrain.

7-11-09-2

2009-12-27T22:19:00.003-05:00

Detail of below

This piece is 98% monoprint with just a few pastel marks. So far, this is the 4th piece with minimal pastel.

10-11-09-1

2009-12-27T22:13:00.005-05:00

Detail 1 of below

Detail 2 of below

This sky is primarily pastel while the terra is defined by the monoprint.

8-23-09-4

2009-12-26T17:37:00.004-05:00

This is the last of 6 pieces I worked on today, which goes to show what the luxury of momentum in the studio can do for you. The light was falling, moving me to work faster and dwell less, of which I am very pleased with the results.

Two things about this day are that first, I looked long and hard at Emily Mason's "The Fifth Element" before and while working. She is the most refreshing abstract painter, and every time I look at this book, I see something new in it. Second, every piece I finished this day, I thought to myself, "This is my favorite piece today." Well, now since this was the last, this is my favorite, but scroll down to see what I mean!

5-3-09-1

2009-12-26T17:34:00.005-05:00

I was a little concerned that the purple in the sky appeared too dark when this photograph was in the camera, but on my computer, it serves its purpose as a reflection of the mountain, rather than a dark cloud hanging over it.

7-5-09-6

2009-12-26T17:32:00.004-05:00

Detail of below.

I particularly like this sky. While it completely dominates the space on the page, the mountain makes it point!

7-6-09-2

2009-12-26T17:27:00.004-05:00

I am starting to deal with a number of pieces where the very sharp contrast between an idyllic sky and a stark mountain is what the piece is about. They live side by side, and must, without either side outweighing the other. That is one of my disappointments in so many landscape painters today (starting with some of the Impressionists, dare I say?) when the sky is a "toss off." Don't get me started - this is one of my favorite topics!

8-30-09-4

2009-12-26T17:23:00.002-05:00

This piece reminds me of the Fauves - not so much its palette, but its action. I am always surprised at what is emphasized in the published photo that may not be as apparent in real life, and in this case, it is the burnt orange color, which seems to me to be much more defined in person - at least I hope so. Better go back and check it out!

9-27-09-5

2009-12-26T17:18:00.004-05:00

This piece began as a ghost of 4 other pieces, printed on the same day. It fascinates me that I ended up treating the ridge line of the mountain in this piece, in a manner not dissimilar to some of the other prints, originally printed on the same day, but drawn into at different times. This treatment is more eerie, but that ridge line gives all the pieces a graphic exclaimation.

10-11-09-2

2009-12-26T17:14:00.002-05:00

I stole an hour from Christmas Day, yesterday, to spend a little time in the studio, resulting in this piece.

10-16-09-4 reworked

2009-12-23T18:07:00.005-05:00

Last week

Re-done today.

You may remember I asked the question whether this piece was "finished" a couple of weeks ago, as I felt unsettled with it. When I get to the conclusion of a work, I usually leave it on the wall of my studio until the next time I come in to draw, and that can be overnight or a couple of weeks later. So this piece got "visited" several times before today when I realized I was simply not satisfied with it, and wanted to work on it more. Often, such a decision can be a kiss of death, because a piece gets "over-worked," like over-cooked meat - tough and dry. So what do you think? Should I have left it alone?

8-30-09-1

2009-12-23T18:03:00.004-05:00

This piece, and the following piece are from the same August day. I rarely set out to do the finishing pastel work from the same day of printing. However, the two vastly different perspectives of these pieces made for a double challenge this day.

8-30-09-3

2009-12-23T17:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about having been unintentionally influenced by a Chinese painting I'd looked at earlier in the day. Today I am pleased to realize that a gouache by one of my favorite artists, Jennifer Bartlett, held a spell over me while I completed this piece. The gouache (opaque watercolor) surface was the influencing factor from Bartlett's In The Garden #26, while at the same time the closeness of her colors in that piece played right into the August day I was attempting to revive in this piece.

10-17-09-4

2009-12-22T16:52:00.003-05:00

Today in the studio is most unexpected. I had expected to be in California, flying out yesterday to be with my 94 year old mother for the holiday. However, I ran into the impact of the storm which paralyzed the east coast last weekend. My plane was due to miss the connection in Philly, and it would have taken 3 days for a space to become available on another flight to Los Angeles. So I am looking upon this disappointment as an unexpected bonus to have time in the studio, where there were surprises today, as well. This is only the second piece I am including in the series with no pastel over the monoprint, whatsoever.

. . . .by the way, in the event you are concerned about my mother, my sister's flight did take off, and she's on her way out there right now. So Lucile will not be alone for Christmas.

10-17-09-3

2009-12-22T16:48:00.003-05:00

This piece has very little pastel on it. The monoprint was complete unto itself except for the roughness of a couple of edges which were distracting, and now have been smoothed with pastel.

8-23-09-3

2009-12-22T16:37:00.003-05:00

Be careful what you look at, before going into the studio. . . .or at least that's how I explain this piece, which has an unexpected Chinese feel to it. Earlier in the day, I had examined a picture of a Chinese Painting at the Met, and well, I guess it just stuck with me, though unintentionally so.

10-16-09-2

2009-12-13T17:05:00.003-05:00

Pastel over monoprint

Dare I admit to being somewhat enamored of this piece, the way the dome of the mountain (largely a mark in monoprint) emerges out of the October mist? Having not posted for the past month does not indicate a lack of industry about this project - quite the contrary, as I have been printing and organizing, and opening the Making Their Marks exhibition. However, now is a good time to start finishing some of these pieces, especially as the Year of Printing comes to a conclusion at the end of December.

10-17-09-9

2009-12-13T17:02:00.002-05:00

Pastel over monoprint.

I went back to the Dove-O'Keeffe exhibition catalogue that had intrigued me previously for some hints about dealing with the rolling quality of this October mountain.

10-16-09-3

2009-12-13T16:59:00.003-05:00

Pastel over monoprint.

Nothing like an October wind storm. It's when you start believing in ghosts.

Are these finished or not?

2009-12-13T16:51:00.005-05:00

10-17-09-7 pastel over monoprint - I call this one the "Calico Mountain" though none of these pieces are supposed to be titled.

10-16-09-4 pastel over monoprint

10-11-09-4 pastel over monoprint

One of the challenges in the fading light of this snowy day has been - simply put - seeing. I cannot tell whether these three pieces are finished or not. In the light of my drawing station, they seem complete unto themselves, but once moved across the room, I'm not so sure. So they may be re-visited later into the project. Suffice it to say, this was a dark December day in which I dwelled in October imagery most of the time.

12-28-08-4 A second look

2009-11-17T18:11:00.004-05:00

Think you've seen this image previously? Look again! Actually, you'd be right if you are referring to the image below.

What's the difference? A friend commented that the trees in this second image, posted a couple of days ago, looked as though they were leaning to the left, while the clouds looked like they were moving to the right. So a correction ensued, as these things go. Of course, the disperity could have been caused by one of those creative Vermont whirlwinds, but I'm glad I made the change.

9-27-09-4

2009-11-17T18:07:00.002-05:00

This is one of the clearest examples of where the pastel stops and the monoprint starts. Detail below. Nothing like late afternoon light to offer clarity to parts of a scene.

9-27-09-1

2009-11-16T18:22:00.004-05:00

Of the three late September pieces I worked on today, this was by far the most successful, according to me. You can bet I will be working into the next two, while this one will probably stay as it is.

Today I delivered MAKING THEIR MARKS - all 63 pieces - to Green Mountain Fine Art Gallery for installation. As I drove toward the gallery, I could feel a weight lifting from my shoulders. This work has been 3 years in the making, from the earliest experimental pieces to a couple of pieces I finished this year to round out the series. It is certainly work that prepared me to undertake this project, the Lamoille Project, and so many of the lessons I learned, working in the square format, have been put to use in The Lamoille Project. If you haven't seen for yourself, visit http://www.makingtheirmarks.blogspot.com/ for nightly updates between now and the opening of the exhibit on November 20.

9-27-09-3

2009-11-16T18:06:00.004-05:00

One of the more challenging elements of the autumn landscape is often the color of the sky - in this case quite black and white and gray, against the very brilliant color of the landscape. A detail is below.

9-27-09-2

2009-11-16T17:59:00.004-05:00

You often hear plein air painters say they do not like painting the height of the fall foliage season in Vermont, because no one would believe it. That is certainly the case with this piece, and explains to me why I was not eager to venture out into painting the fall landscape. In fact I note that yesterday I worked back into 5 winter pieces, and today in the same amount of time, I completed only 3 pieces. Chances are I will work some more into this one. Above is the entire piece, and below is a detail.

12-28-08-4

2009-11-15T15:58:00.005-05:00

New today, I've taken some detail shots of some images, where the fine lines that aren't obvious, contribute substantially to the imagery.

2-7-09-4

2009-11-15T15:55:00.004-05:00

I don't know how obvious it is from this photograph, but most of this image is monoprint, surprisingly. A detail is posted below.

2-8-09-1

2009-11-15T15:50:00.003-05:00

This piece was worked on over a few weekends, and I almost thought I had it last time. However I left it posted on the studio wall, and grew impatient with it. So today, I returned to it with much more flourish, and got what I was aiming for. A detail is posted below.

2-22-09-3

2009-11-15T15:31:00.003-05:00

This was an icy day, and 90% of this image is monoprint, with very little pastel. I'm not sure this picture conveys the complexity of the image, so below is a detail which serves to enlarge some of the technique.

A breyer was utilized on a large portion of this image.

1-11-09-4

2009-11-15T15:23:00.002-05:00

I worked on this piece over a couple of weekends. Its imagery depends on the fragility of the winter mist, and I looked at the work of my pastel heroes to become confident with handling the mist.

Howard Romero photographing the project

2009-11-09T18:51:00.002-05:00

Howard Romero is my neighbor, and also an ace fine arts photographer - doesn't every neighborhood have one? He has been photographing my work for a million years, and will be photographing the Lamoille Project in three segments of which the first segment was yesterday - 57 pieces. Gradually I will be posting his photographs in place of my own, so as to give a clearer picture of the project, but the transition will be gradual because, you know, the top priority is to make more new images.

August 31, 09 - 1

2009-11-03T08:03:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted images on this blog, but not for lack of working on them! The transitory nature of the early fall compelled me to stay in my studio and/or at the site of this project whenever possible, and so posting on the blog became a luxury. Here are 7 images, posted today, finished over the past couple of weeks, and there will be more momentarily.

August 31 09 - 2

2009-11-03T07:58:00.003-05:00

You can tell from this image, the image above and the following two images that the clouds were moving very quickly through the sky this evening. I couldn't have been at the site longer than a half hour to capture the light on the clouds as it fell into the night. That's what I mean about the "wait a minute" quality of this scene - something different to see every minute, even on a lazy late summer evening.

August 31 09- 3

2009-11-03T07:57:00.003-05:00

August 31 09 4

2009-11-03T07:55:00.001-05:00