Sunset Ceremony (Stage 1)

"Sunset Ceremony" 24x36 oil on canvas (final version on display at Susan Pitcairn Gallery, Sedona AZ)
This represents a "first stopping point" for this painting. Next week I will publish the next stage. There is no telling what goes on between a beginning and an end. Usually though it is something difficult. The difficult middle. Though at this stage it is the intent to "keep it all fresh", to not make it difficult. To not make the 'will to finish' something that goes too far. Bonnard said a painting is best when it is two-thirds done. What is your opinion?

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Splash of Light

16 x 20 oil on canvas $300
This is probably the 4th time I have worked with this basic composition and it is the second time on this canvas. It started out as an acrylic and got heavy even then. I sanded it down (with a power tool) and have now reworked it in oil.

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Magic Land

12x16 oil on canvas SOLD
Again exploring planes with a limited palette.

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Toward the Sky

12x12 oil on canvas (final version on display at Susan Pitcairn Gallery, Sedona AZ)
Warmer in tone than most of my work, but I think it feels more expansive.

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Tower

16.5 x 16.5 graphite on paper $150

I have done a couple paintings at this spot in the past. A recent trip to the Grand Canyon shortly after the snow led to this drawing. Maybe another painting to come. I like the square format on this. When working on paper I allow the composition to grow or shrink as needed. This strange formation actually exists pretty much as portrayed though a layer of snow is making the path out to this promontory seem more walkable than it really would be.
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At the Edge

24x30 oil on canvas SOLD

This work is on display at the "Sons of Sedona" exhibition at the Sedona Arts Center. I worked on this in the studio, enjoying, as a painter, the architectonic treatment of space that the Grand Canyon can inspire.
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Sedona Sunrise

"Sedona Sunrise" 6 x 9.25, oil on board, $85

This was a quick plein air painting at one of those spots you see as you are driving around and then have to find the closest place you can paint from that is not in the middle of the road. Sedona is one of those places that really wants to be portrayed a bit panoramic.

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Persephone Rising

"Persephone Rising" 36 x 24 oil on canvas $750

This vertical diptych developed as a way of joining two unlikely scenarios, but then finding a gestalt experience through the integration. It was then included in an exhibition on Greek Myths as "Persephone Rising". I was thinking of it as "A Fathers Anxiety as a Daughter turns 16" (she, the daughter was originally depicted on a tight rope). It was the shows curator that identified the Persephone theme. Persephone rises in the spring from Hades where she is held captive all winter. This initiates the cycle of the seasons. She has to return to Hades each year as part of complex bargain struck between quarreling gods.

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Summer Haze, Moran Point

24" x 30" oil on canvas (on display at Susan Pitcairn Gallery, Sedona AZ)
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This is a studio work based on some studies done over the summer, I enjoy the intense shifts in palette and tone created by the dramatic atmospheric perspective at the Grand Canyon.

Boynton Canyon

18" x 24" oil on canvas (on display at Susan Pitcairn Gallery, Sedona AZ)
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One of my favorite spots near Sedona. After doing some plein air studies I did this studio painting.

Sunday Life Drawing III

18" x 24" charcoal on paper $50.00
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This was a loose and bold linear study in soft charcoal. The head ended up looking a little small, though I measured and double checked the proportions. It might be the way it is sourrounded by the dark hair mass. It was an interesting angle, the same pose for the last three drawings.

Sunday Life Drawing II

18" x 24" charcoal on paper $50.00
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This was an image I just worked into the sheet where I had been doing all my gestures, charcoal is so flexible...the most flexible of all mediums I think.

Sunday Life Drawing

18" x 24" charcoal on paper $50.00
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A twenty-minute life drawing session. This is done at an open studio drawing opportunity we have on Sundays at the arts center. It is such a popular session that we had to create a wait-list on which I am an alternate...so every once in a while I get a call inviting me to come in...

In Certaldo

9x12 oil on canvas $125.00
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We went to the nearby town of Certaldo and painted in the upper 'old town'. This is the quintessential small medieval town on the hilltop sourrounded by protective walls with gates and full of intimate little alleys and shops.

The Experience

I'll share a couple photos of the teachers demonstrations in the days to come.

Tuscany Vista

12 x 16 oil on canvas $300.00
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At last full sunlight! I dragged everything I owned in Italy out into the grapevines and spent the entire afternoon.

Window at the Villa

9x12 oil on canvas $125.00
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This was done on the first rainy day at the Villa, soon though the sun comes out...

Balcony at the Villa

9x12 oil on canvas $125.00
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Another composition from the balcony. We had a couple of rainy days but it was possible to work from the balcony without getting wet and then capture light from breaking clouds.

La Terraza

12x16 oil on canvas panel $350
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The terrace in the morning with a lemon tree and geraniums in the forground and a back drop of grape fields, cypress and olive. The Villa Fattoria Bacio has that rich feeling of generations of accumulated history.

From the Balcony

6x8 oil on canvas panel $85
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From the balcony outside my room at the Villa, I was able to see the little town of Fiano in the distance.