Deli Grocery

Another 18x24 oil of the Bergen and Underhill corner in Brooklyn.

Arnheim writes, "The eager searchers who hope to find the secret of beauty in mathematical proportions expect that the golden section or some other ratio will offer them a recipe for how to design a successful building or painting.  Actually, all that such measurements can do for the artist is to sharpen relations he has selected intuitively.  If he wants to find the middle of a canvas or facade, a yardstick can help; but it is the artist, not the yardstick that indicated the middle as the proper answer to a compositional question.  Le Corbusier's modulor never made a success of anybody who lacked the genius of its inventor."

Back To The Hills

Back to the hills.  12 x 24 oil of the Five Corners site looking south towards Stony Ledge.

Interlude

A Brooklyn interlude. 11x14 oil.   When I walk around Brooklyn,  I always seem to visit this intersection.

Five Corners Study

8x12 pastel.

Rudolf Arnheim writes: "The question is not, Why did Cezanne not use correct perspective? but,  Why should he have?  The tradition of naturalistic representation has made us forget that every pictorial device calls for justification--including the conformation to nature."

Five Corners View

Another in the series.  8x10 pastel.

Early Hopper

12x16 oil.

Hopper Study

I have always wanted to do a series of paintings of the spectacular view of the Hopper and Mt. Greylock from Route 7 near the Five Corners, but have shied away from it because ...  it's a spectacular view of the Hopper and Mt. Greylock from Route 7.   Scenic views don't always make for great paintings.   I could paint something like 7 x 10 feet large in the mode of Bierstadt, but I won't.   Though this view needs a bit more space than provided by the 11x14 oil above.   In any case,  I will attempt the series.  It's a beautiful spot, but also kind of sad, since the apple orchard seems to have been abandoned.

Mountain Edges

This weekend I spent a lot of time wandering at the edges of mountains,  the bottom edges.  This drawing I did while sitting on a beautifully manicured lawn that is the footpath up the hill.  After hearing so much talk about a particularly large bear being sighted everywhere,  I also kept looking over my shoulder, another variation on the theme of "looking back".

North Hero

A view of North Hero, Vermont, on Route 2, just north of North Hero House.  9x12 oil.