Baby Al

Baby Al, born yesterday, probably has a real name by now.  I did the bottom drawing earlier today in preparation for a painting, but then realized that the image doesn't give any idea that the newborn is only about three feet high.  So I did the 11x14 oil painting above, where the baby is surrounded by adults.  If you go to the Facebook page for the Sweet Brook Farm in Williamstown, MA, you can see a short video of the birth.  Pretty amazing.

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.

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.

Al and His Pal

Here are two 9x12 pastel and charcoal drawings of alpacas at the Sweetbrook Farm, part of a larger project I am working on.  They've been shorn, so are a little thin below the face.  They have interesting personalities.