A Couple Blowfish Drawings

  Blowfish in my Studio 12"x9" graphite

That Blowfish Again 9"x12" graphite

Here are two drawings of a little studio presence, a blowfish I got in Florida years ago. The first one I completed in about 3 or 4 hours, but the second one took about twice that long. 

I recently started an evening job, which has been helping me to feel more free in my work. I've been drawing just for fun lately, not caring so much whether what I'm doing will result in a sale or not (which is a quick way to kill your creativity). I'm not even sure if I should post these as for sale or not!

Halved Acorn Squash

oil on masonite 8"x6"

click here to bid or purchase

Whew.  At last I'm coming out of a major block against working from life, which started several months ago. I'm not sure if it's because I was getting too used to the convenience of working from images, or the increased possibilities of interesting subject matter, but I sure have been having trouble setting up a still life and feeling like I care.

I love painting vegetables, fruit and flowers, fish and seashells and other typical still life subjects, but I realize that in order to feel strongly enough about these small things to paint from them, I need to really push unusual viewpoints and dynamic lighting- whatever it takes for me to feel like they have something to say. Notice I wrote "they", not "I", because I honestly feel like this beautiful acorn squash is the one talking here. 

I find the great photographer Edward Weston's images of vegetables to be especially inspiring. Here are some of his sensual interpretations of common vegetables:

 Cabbage Leaf 1931

 Pepper 1930

White Radishes 1933

Dream Cityscape

graphite on paper 10"x10"

click here to bid or purchase

This is part of an unknown city with a major thoroughfare snaking its way to a graceful bridge over an unknown river. I wanted it to seem dream-like. 

Every time I begin a graphite drawing I feel vaguely guilty, because most people want to see paintings. I've had this itch, though, to continue my theme of aerial views of various cities, and I can best express what I want to say in graphite.

There is something about a view from a great height that really captures my imagination. Looking down with a birdlike- or even godlike- view of a complex city seems to me to be like being able to contemplate the course your life has taken with sudden clarity. When I draw these kinds of scenes, lines from Jane Hirshfield's poem It Was Like This: You Were Happy always come to my mind. Here the speaker has at last been able to look clearly, but without regret, over her life:

Now it is almost over.

Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.

It does this not in forgiveness—
between you, there is nothing to forgive-
but with the simple nod of a baker at the moment 

he sees the bread is finished with transformation.

Meanwhile, my Mom's been encouraging me to paint the more cheerful subject of flowers, so I'm off to the market to have a look.

Manhattan Water Towers

graphite on paper 5.5"x12"
click here to bid or purchase

I've become bored with still life, but I remember the days when I'd spend three or four hours arranging fruit and folds of cloth until I was satisfied with a composition. These days I much prefer to look for satisfying arrangements of things that has happened naturally, or if constructed, without much aesthetic consideration.