Illusion of Butler Near Nevins

A 9x12 charcoal and pastel drawing.

W. H. Auden maintained that "art is an illusion of an illusion" according to Arthur Kirsch in Auden and Christianity.  Art certainly is an illusion.

Butler and Nevins - Disorder Reconfigured

A 9x12 charcoal and pastel drawing.

Richard Rohr in his daily meditation for today writes, "...the pattern of redemption...is evil undone much more than evil ever perfectly avoided.  It is disorder reconfigured in our hearts and minds -- much more than demanding any perfect order to our universe."  I like to think that making art is reconfiguring disorder.  Note that it's still disorder.

Hopper and Greylock

Greylock reminded Melville of Moby Dick, except the mountain was known to him as Saddleback and he saw it from a different direction (from Pittsfield), so he could not see the Hopper.  This is the view from the Sweet Brook Farm, where the alpacas live.  I am going to switch off to other subjects for a while until the season changes at Sweet Brook.  It's a 14x18 oil.  The above view is from earlier this summer.

Entrance

Another 14x18 oil, this time of the entrance to the Sweet Brook Farm.   The entrance is entrancing.  One immediately encounters the Hopper in the distance.

King of the Hill

A 14x18 oil of an alpaca who stands on a rock before a much taller unattainable mountain in the background (Mount Greylock).   A friend asked me yesterday if I was still under the sway of "alpaca madness".  I only have a few more to do.  It's an interesting situation for an artist to have, to take on a self-imposed project, like deciding to run a half-marathon.  There's a point where you have to see it through but it has its lessons.

Back Side

A 14x18 oil of the back side of the barn, with its stacks and sap tank, devoted to making maple syrup.  Not an alpaca in sight.

White and Black

A 9x12 charcoal drawing.  I had the hardest time getting these two to stand still!

Three Alpacas

A 9x12 charcoal and pastel drawing, part of a continuing project.  It's like Degas' dancers and horses, except they're alpacas.

Under and Through the Roof

Another 14x18 oil of the Sweet Brook Farm.  This is the opposite view from the painting below.

Alpacas, Barn Yard and Monet's Taches

Another 14x18 oil painting of alpacas in the barn yard.

I've been reading, among many books, Monet: Nature into Art by John House.   House writes that Monet instructed Lilla Cabot Perry to paint with taches or touches of paint (I call them 'marks'), thus: "When you go out to paint, try to forget what object you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever.  Merely think, there is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you."

Sweet Brook Farm Alpacas

The top oil painting of alpacas and house is 14x18.  The bottom two 9x12 drawings are charcoal and pastel.  Yes, I am temporarily alpaca nuts.

Moving Inland with Monet

A 14x18 oil.  I have moved inland to continue my other project, though I might sneak out to the coast occasionally.  This is a view of the Hopper from the Sweet Brook Farm.

Lately, I have been reading the catalog The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings, which has a lot of information about Monet's early years, which is not available in most if any other Monet books.    The writers, James Ganz and Richard Kendall, make the case that Monet's early and extensive caricatures substituted for his not attending an art academy.  "Representing the opposite of the academic ideals of classical beauty and proportion, and concentrating on the unique features of the modern face rather than the idealized anatomy of the nude body, they nevertheless display the draftsman's proficiency in modeling the tones of flesh in black and white."

Irregular

Another 9x12 oil on mdf panel of the coast line, though the line is irregular.

A Close and Distant View

Another 9x12 oil on mdf panel of the Ogunquit coast.