Heading out to mow my green weeds, well I guess there are a few blades of grass amid it all . . . anyway, here is where things stand now . . .

As I sit down to work a bit today, here we are . . . the noodling, oh! the noodling . . .

Here is where things stand at this point. No work today, but wanted to post the entire composition so far. A balancing act going on between large splotches of black and large splotches of white! And then a lot of plain old splotches of dark and light in between.

Time off yesterday. Spent a wonderful couple of hours at the National Gallery in Washington DC with a collector friend. We went in to see one of the current exhibitions, selected works from the Chester Dale collection entitled From Impressionism to Modernism. The exhibition runs through the end of July and is a fantastic assemblage of works from many of my favorite artists and such a fine juxtaposing of portrait work and landscape. Just a tempting few of the masterpieces included are shown here. Dale and his wife, Maude, collected hundreds and hundreds of works by some of the most noted and well respected artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I never walk away from spending time like this without feeling greatly inspired and anxious to get back to work, while dwelling upon what visual treats I have just experienced. It never fails to jolt me into new ways of thinking, when observing how some of my favorite artists developed their works or composed their subjects. Seeing works by Bellows and Braque, Monet and Modigliani, Cezanne and Cassatt, and Lautrec and Leger to name but a few, hanging side by side, you can really see influences, inferences and the ways in which these masters all took from each other. How can we as artists not be inspired by each other?

If you are going to be in the DC area in the next few months, you should really spend some time with some of the finest works produced over a 50 year period, included in this outstanding exhibition.

Later today, it's back to cows for me!

Earth Day 2010

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And what better way to celebrate Earth Day but to spend it with some curious bovines.

Back a couple of weeks ago when I was out and about with artist friends in the countryside of central Maryland, you will recall I posted some shots of us photo'ing a group of cows. Well, with that material fresh in my memory and considering that I have not done a good sized work with cows in it for a bit, here goes!
MOO!

There's the rub!

Now that my Birds in Art entries are out the door and several other jury considerations have flown the coop, it's time to concentrate on works for several upcoming summer gallery events - McBride Gallery's 30th Anniversary celebration in June and a July opening at the William Ris Gallery celebrating their new artist additions, one of whom is yours truly.

So, what to do, what to do? No, I've not been sitting and twiddling my thumbs for this past week, I've been hard at work digging through reference and sketching out ideas for all that upcoming work. A new piece is starting today and I will be posting in progress shots as time passes. I hear the 'moos' calling me to the board, so off to work I gladly go!

For those who did not catch this on my Facebook page late yesterday afternoon, here is the finished piece. The image size is 11" x 8" and this will be my entry for this year's Maritime International next month. Fingers crossed!

For those who look in frequently, you know that if there is anything I really enjoy, it's noodling texture. When I get to a point like I am at now on this particular work, things just seem to flow and go quickly. I love the linear quality to these particular rocks along the Maine coast. I believe this one is going to finish up this afternoon.

Only was able to get a couple of hours of work in this weekend, so here is where things stand right now as I sit down to an afternoon at the board. Now, the fun stuff, for me at any rate, begins . . . all that rock noodling!

As I sit down to work this afternoon, I am reminded of a question that is asked of me many times at a gallery opening or large group show - 'Where do you begin a drawing?' Depends. Depends on what it is that I am about to start work on; depends on the composition. Depends on the comparison of darks and lights. Depends on my mood or what phase the moon is in! In essence, each drawing starts off differently from the one just before it.

Here, I have about four and a half hours into this one as I begin today and it was started at the top. As there is a lot of dark areas to come in the foreground and mid center of the work, I wanted to go ahead and establish some of the distant shadows so I can judge the value of dark that I want to use in the foreground areas. So far, most of the shadow areas are H, HB and a touch or two of B for dimension. Don't want to go too dark, as I want all that foreground shadow to read stronger and if necessary, I can always go back toward the finish and deepen what needs to be deepened.

Yes, you might think that after all those cows of the early part of the week, I might be at work on something a bit more . . . farmy. Well, I have a couple of 'required' works to get off the board this month before I can be a bit less commanded by jury requirements and more specific subject matter, but cows will turn up soon enough.

What do you see in a cow's eye?

A question I was trying to answer on Monday!

Now you know what was on the other end of my camera's lens.

Friend and sculptor extraordinaire, Karryl, is down from PA this week visiting with artist friends. Yesterday, three of us roamed the central Maryland countryside looking for . . . whatever. As a final stop before heading in for dinner, we 'met with' a very friendly, inquisitive and most photogenic group of cows. As noted below, Karryl and I had some encounters of the closeup kind! Hmm, I foresee some cows showing up on my drawing board real soon.

Right before I left to meet up with Karryl and Paula Waterman for our afternoon jaunt, I spied a nice spring time gathering at the bath in the backyard. Two minutes of clicking and I walked away with a nice group of images that will make for good reference material for upcoming works. Ah, spring time!

Finally done. This one is 10" x 13" and will head to Bennington, Vermont this summer for the Center for the Arts' American Artists Abroad exhibition.