“The Visitor”

Silverpoint Drawing
4.5×7″ lavender-gray prepared paper

A “ordinary” feather - one of Nature’s exquisite designs. Silverpoint Drawing is such a meditative medium. For me, a great way to quiet the mind is to sit with my silver stylus and a feather, seashell, flower, or a beach stone…and tune out our high-speed world for a while; no blogging, texting, tweeting. Better yet, to sit outside with the real tweeters and relax, especially after periods of intense creativity.

See other feather posts: “Soft Landing” is an oil painting, posted on September 2, 2008. “Arrival” is a silverpoint that was posted on June 24, 2009.)

Please email me if you are interested in this drawing.

“Field of Sunflowers”

Oil Painting
8×10″ panel

Here’s something I keep returning to - a field of sunflowers. It’s a breathtaking site to happen upon, which I did near Stockton, NJ. This is the fourth variation that I’ve painted of this particular scene. I started this one last year but got sidetracked. I find that it really is good to come back to a painting and work from memory anyway.

Please email me if you are interested in this painting.

“Life Lines”

Acrylic Painting, graphite
6×6″ panel

Continuing the theme of meditations on Nature, I’ve been focusing on striped beach stones at the moment. They’re all over my small studio, inside and outside, along with seed pods, tree bark, shells, skulls, wood carvings… These treasures constantly stop me in my tracks. So, I give in and stop for a moment to study what it is that could have that effect. The words timeless…elegance… mystery come to mind and it seems I encounter a curious part of my own imagination. Suddenly a long, shapely seed pod becomes a canoe; stones become mountains, a clear sphere is an eye, me wondering at this magical world. As I play around with compositions, a word or a thought always comes clearly to mind, so I go with it. That becomes the title of the work. This is the essence of my ever-expanding Meditations series, which I’ve come to understand as my personal iconography.

You may have noticed that I work in both oils and acrylics. I have separate easels and separate brushes set up in my studio for these two mediums that serve different purposes. When working in acrylics I like painting on panels instead of canvas, using layers of glazes and then adding some details in graphite pencil. In oils, I don’t use pencil but do use panels, stretched canvas, or canvas that I mount on panels.

Please email me if you are interested in this painting.