At the Edge of the River

This is a selection from a series of small studies I have been doing of the river's edge. These places can be six to ten feet under water at times, but not right now. The river's edge is like a lost place, an in-between place. I always have a residual dread of coming across something I don't want to see. Usually all I find are old fishing junk, other trash, and footprints, both human and animal.

Late Afternoon on the Canal

The canal is completely changed. The leaves are gone from the trees, except for a few. The water plants have disappeared. The sun reaches through the trees now.

Another November Canal

Another canal view looking toward the Grant Street Bridge.

Back on the Canal

It's fall, and maybe I tried to hard to make this more intense than it is. At least I didn't sign it 'honey'.

Last Lemon and Honey

That's my new signature, just like "Vincent". I never said I was a purist. Getting to this pastel has been a good exercise. Now I can return to landscapes.

Lemon and Grapefruit Halves with Bowl

This small 5x7 pastel is for Vince and Terry.

Back at It

I have a hard taskmaster, who gives me no respite.

Park and Canal in November

I took a break from the still life studies.

Last One for a While

A pastel painting and a charcoal pencil sketch in preparation. Scale has been an issue. I added the larger objects to avoid the lemon looking like a grapefruit.

Ein Anderer

No remarks today.

Getting Closer

The next one may be it.

Obsession

Occasionally, I get obsessed with something, like painting something over and over. Lemon and honey are my haystacks, except the time of day and the light is always the same.

En Maison Air and Monet

My latest 5x7 Lemon and Honey painting done indoors en maison air.

I have been reading the excellent exhibition catalogue Monet in the 20th Century, in which Paul Hayes Tucker writes:

"When Sargent came to see him at the Savoy in 1901, the American expatriate was more than a little amused to watch him desperately search through more than eighty canvases stacked up in his suite trying to find just the right one when the effect he was working on happened to change. Even Monet knew it was a little absurd.

It is therefore understandable that he worked on many of these paintings as much in Giverny as he did in London...His decision to complete them in Giverny, however, cost him some public-relations points; a reporter found out and leaked that the great impressionist was painting his Londons away from the sites and, worse yet, was relying on photographs. When Monet learned of the article, he erupted in a rare display of public anger."

Honey and Lemon 3

I spent part of yesterday roaming through the galleries of the Denver Art Museum. One space had a short film on the artist Daniel Sprick, in which he said that it's a myth to think you are working for yourself. "If you're doing it for yourself, you wouldn't show it to anyone." This still life, like the previous two, is 5x7 inches.

Honey and Lemon 2

Another small still life. I am going to do variations with a few objects until I get it right.

Honey and Lemon

I have plenty of materials for landscapes, but it's time to do a few still lifes. This is just a warm up.