No Horses Today

Another 14x18 oil of a scene at Sweet Brook Farm.

Denis Donoghue in his short biography of Emily Dickinson quotes the following:  '"All her life," R. P. Blackmur wrote of her, "she was looking for a subject, and the looking was her subject, in life as in poetry."'

Alpaca Barn

I'm a sucker for compositions like this that appear from just looking, and where one is lucky to be standing.  I'm referring to the opposing mountain side and the roof slant.  A 14x18 oil.

Opposite Direction

Main Street in Manchester, Vermont looking north in the opposite direction of the painting posted a couple days ago.  This one has a counter-balanced composition with repeating triangles.  Just chance.  18x24 oil.

Number 28

A 9x12 pastel.  I am working on a large painting (not a seacoast) which should be done in another day or so.

Night Drawing

A night drawing, from the 80's, done at night.

Three More and Counting

Recently, I saw a fine exhibition of three-dimensional collages, which the brochure called "relief-like paintings," by Joseph Montgomery at MASS MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA.  They are colorful and painterly, but what else caught my attention is that Montgomery titles them "Image One Hundred Fifty-Seven" and "Image Ninety-Six" etc.  So now I am up to Ogunquit 25, 26 and 27, so I have a way to go, and it's been done before.   The above are 9x12 oils based upon the pastel versions.

Main Street Manchester

Finally, this 18x24 oil is a view of Main Street, Manchester, Vermont, near where "Up for Breakfast" is located.  It's not Brooklyn, but still wonderfully 'urban'.  Also I was struck by how the shadow on the roof was a reverse of the mountain shape in the background.  But that's just the beginning...

Day Drawings

Next,  a while back I started a series called Night Drawings, which was supposed to consist of my older drawings done at night, that I was reframing, and using the occasion to photograph them.  I have started doing the reframing again, but not all the drawings were "night" drawings.  These are two done during the day, sometime during the mid 1980's.

More Monhegan

Today is bonanza day (at least for me).  First, another Monhegan 9x12 pastel.

A New Series

This is the start of another parallel series, still seacoasts, and still 9x12 pastel, and still on Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper, but this time from Monhegan Island.

Twenty Three and Twenty Four

The top 9x12 pastel was done on Pastelmat paper, while the bottom 9x12 is Canson Mi-Teintes Touch.  I'm still letting the paper lead, though I did a pastel wash underpainting, which might be more of a leader.

Number 22

This time I let the paper (Canson Mi-Teintes Touch) guide me, and I used a slightly larger size for this 9x12 pastel.

Ogunquit 21

I'm not fighting this paper any more,  8x10 pastel of the Ogunquit seacoast.

Ogunquit Study

An 8x10 pastel.  At this point, I am treating these as studies for oil paintings, which I am making directly from the pastels.

Ogunquit and Corot

Another 8x10 pastel seascape.

In his short biography of Corot Jean Leymarie writes about Corot's great oil sketch of the Bridge of Narni, "The turbid river flows between rugged banks, dappled with vivid greens and yellows, then suddenly turns blue in the shadows cast by the arches.  By bringing into the foreground a plane remote from the beholder Corot transposes the factual data of reality into the domain of art in this consummate evocation of the life of Nature, her nearby tumult and her ultimate serenity, and the never ending dialogue of light and shade."  I was struck by the phrase about transposing "factual data of reality in the domain of art..." It sums up the mystery of painting, while still keeping it a mystery.

Final Square

For the moment, since I have run out of square canvases.  12x12 on Underhill near the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.  Man's great machines next to a plywood wall.

Seascape

Another view of Ogunquit,  8x10 pastel, this time on Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper.  Previously I had used either Uart or Wallis for the Ogunquits.

Another Square

While working on this one, I realized that nobody (the parkers) paid attention to the hydrant.  Maybe it was defunct, since it had an open valve.  It's a 12x12 oil, and the view is located on St. John's Place near Washington Avenue.

A Square Painting

A square painting of a corner at Carroll and Third in Brooklyn.  12x12 oil.

See Coast

Another Ogunquit seacoast, 8x10 1/2 inch pastel.  I did get back to Brooklyn.  I'll post those tomorrow during the snow storm.