This past weekend, the Modern Marine Masters exhibition/sale opened at the Mystic Seaport Gallery in Connecticut. Click on the link on their home page to the Maritime Gallery and take a look at the body of work in this current showing, including two works of mine. The show will hang through mid June, so if you are passing through the coastal area of Connecticut, stop in and browse!

http://www.mysticseaport.org

'Putting It Together'

And finally . . . the surprise work . . . maybe not too much of a surprise to some who have sort of guessed or known some of the contingent components of this work from the beginning. But, in any event, after a couple hours of finishing up this morning, the work, 'Putting It Together', is done. The image is just shy of 14" x 15".

And, as some have guessed, that is me sitting among the rocks, sketching those bridges. Some astute observers of this blog will recognize the bridges in question as those that I sought out back on Easter Sunday, March 23 (check my blog posting for that date) in Luray, Virginia.

This scene plays out in one of the photographs of O. Winston Link, whose magnificent black and white photos will hang also at the Woodson Museum at the same time as my drawings, later this summer. I specifically wanted, as I noted in the March 23 posting, to find this spot and make reference to it in one of my works to see if viewers of the upcoming two exhibitions will make the 'connection' between the photo and my drawing.

As I thought about how to approach this work and make it into something that would be fun to do, I opted to make it a self portrait of sorts, something which I have never done before . . . do a drawing with me in it . . . and as my ideas coalesced into the composition, it all began to be 'put together' into what I think has become an interesting work. I have added a couple other points of interest by including a friend's dog as well as two of my favorite artist friends.

And then . . . there is the book! Open to the pages that show the two photos that Link shot at this location 50 years ago, I thought this would be the perfect point of departure for the rest of the composition.

And so, 'Putting It Together' (which by the way, is the title of the lecture that I will be presenting at the Woodson on Sunday, June 29) will be framed later today. Tomorrow, it will be on to begin the final work for the exhibition.

Well, I will post yet another little snippet of the current work, just to appease those who are champing at the bit to see what this one is all about! Of course, I will be posting stuff that is rather 'unimportant' in the grand scheme of the work, for now. And now . . . time to get to work.

OK, I have been inundated . . .

well, alright one email has come in . . .

with requests to post at least

some small part of the

current work on the board . . . so,

here is a small part of the

current work on the board!

When it Rains, it Pours!

No, I have not slipped off the face of the earth, nor have I gone off to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (though at one time in my life, I would have liked nothing better than to have done just that), nor have I lost interest in blogging! No, I have not been able to get on line for the last few days after some terrific thunderstorms that passed through my neck of the woods on Sunday afternoon

When the power came back on, after about two and a half hours, I realized that I could not connect to the Internet any longer. After repeated tries to reconnect through my wireless router, I was totally dumbfounded by the entire situation. It was apparent to me by the end of the day, and after hours of tries, that my wireless was not responding and with my very casual knowledge, or lack thereof, about such things, I decided to call it a day and went to bed.

On Monday and yesterday, I continued to fiddle around with things, to no avail. Finally, I contacted the router maker's hot line service people this morning and after about a half hour step by step 'walk through', I was back on line! Thanks to the guy at Linksys Help for a relatively easy process that made me think, almost anyway, that I could be a computer maven! Not!

Anyway, I have thought much this morning and yesterday and before slipping into sleep on Sunday night about how reliant I and I guess many, have become on their computers and access to the Internet. It seems strange to me, now that I do have access once again, just how much I went into panic mode on Sunday afternoon.

Well, the positive side of all of this has been that I spent a lot of time sitting at the drawing board yesterday and Monday at work on the current piece and really progressed quite far with it. What does that say about my usual time spent on the computer? Oh well ......

The current work is something a bit on the special side, for me, and I will not be posting in progress shots of it as I want it to have a surprise finish. It is the penultimate work for the bridge show, so be assured that a bridge or two will be showing up. But I will keep the other subjects to myself, for the time being. Keep an eye out, as I hope the work will be done by the end of this coming weekend, or at the latest, early next week.

In the meantime, maybe I will post some of my favorite recipes? Not!

'Ice Follies'

The work, completed.

Image size is 24" x 11".

Today's work. Getting to the upper part of the work now and having to stand and lean over my drawing board as this is such a tall work (finished image height will be 24"). Not the greatest position for my back, so have to break often to relax and keep from straining, so the going has slowed down somewhat but I still hope to complete this one by week's end.

Tax Day 2008

My contribution to Tax Day, 2008 -

a tax quilt, with thanks to

Snoopy and Charles Schulz.

And, here is today's work on the

ice!

OK, now you can get an idea of the full composition - the bridges finally make their appearance.

Not much work time this weekend, doing taxes and you all know what that's about! Anyway, here is an update on the current work. I'd say that I am just shy of about the half way point.

It feels real good to be 'skating on the ice' today as the temps here on the outskirts of Washington, DC have hit the mid 70s. I have to say, I am really having great fun with this one as it grows and grows. There is a bridge in this one (actually there will be two)!

It may be 66 degrees outside today, but it is pretty darn icy in the studio this afternoon!

A little window (or porthole) into

the current work. An icy piece,

for sure.

'Truth Is . . . '

15" x 16"

'Construction' continues. Probably another five or six hours on this one and it will be ready for framing.

Putting It Together

Yep, putting it together, bit by bit, piece by piece . . . the current work begins to take shape. Now all the puzzle pieces will begin to fit together in what, I hope, will be an interesting composition and maybe have some thought provoking things to offer when all is said and done. Stay tuned!

(And yes, good ol' Nancy and Sluggo from yesterday's 'April Fool' posting, were not really a part of the puzzle after all!)

Today's little piece of the puzzle . . .

and the work continues . . .