After a quick review this morning to make certain that there would not be need for some last minute adjustments, this one was finished up late last night. 'Teaming Up' measures 6 3/4" x 24 1/2".

"Backbones"

A bit of lateral movement this morning as I take a slight detour from the usual to offer a few personal remarks on a quote I read this morning, posted on Facebook by an artist friend, thus . . . 'Most representational artists know strong abstract design underlies every piece of representational art, and values are the bones. So, interesting shapes and design, held in unity by values, are the backbones of all good paintings . . . '.

This quote came from Bill Davidson, whose work I was somewhat familiar with, having seen it in issues of Southwest Art magazine over the years and occasionally stumbling across it on line. But, I never really took an in depth look at his body of work till this morning, when I decided to seek his work on line and found his wonderful blog, Reflections.

Digging deeper into dozens of his paintings, his words above, really resonated with me and in such a brief statement, spoke volumes about not only his personal approach to painting but the underlying 'bones' of how I tend to construct my compositions with what I always hope are 'interesting shapes' and designs. I've spoken about this on numerous occasions before and especially a number of years ago when I was deep in the midst of preparing for my solo exhibition, Unknown Bridges, with the Woodson Art Museum. I talked then about how I was struck by the very abstract nature of bridges and their structure and wanted to somehow incorporate that abstraction into my art. It dawned upon me then, that I had rekindled my youthful desire to be an abstract expressionist artist within the confines of the realistic manner in which my graphite work had evolved.

Reading Davidson's words this morning reinforced what I had understood deep down, ether consciously or subconsciously, all these years since my expressionist painter days in art school and proved to me that I was not alone in that understanding.

Though Davidson is a painter and uses values of color to organize his shapes and designs, my organizational framework in graphite also depends greatly on the opposing values of light and dark, sharp and soft, and intense and subtle to bring to life the shapes and designs that form in my mind's eye.

I've often spoken about how new ideas for work materialize, for me, out of basic geometric shapes a good percentage of the time; overlapping shapes of variations in grey, circles over triangles over squares butted up against rectangles in unique and appealing 'structures', the variations posible in juxtaposing positive and negative spacial relationships - black over white, white over black. All of these elements of good design, present even in abstraction, play into thoughts and compositional arrangements within the context of my figurative and representational subject matter. This is the stuff that always gets my creative juices flowing!

If you take a few moments and look at Davidson's paintings, you become quite aware of his well thought out placement of all elements and shapes; the well balanced positive and negative spacial relationships; his use of cool and warm values to move things forward and back - developing great depth and dimension. All of this is accomplished with very loose brush work, bold, non-fussy shapes, and lost edges which are structured over a basic skeleton of abstract forms within the confines of his canvas. Sure they are 'pretty pictures' but they have far more bones to them than being just a nice representation of some inviting scene in nature.

The well thought out work of art should and will grab your attention much deeper and with greater intensity than the lesser planed work. You may not know why, but you will know that it speaks more strongly to some emotion than other works might. The time spent by an artist on finding the 'right' placement of subject matter, the right intensity of light and shadow, the right attention to focus and detail - leaving out what is not needed and including only what is, and basically building upon a set of bare bones shapes, should result in a most engaging work which, if representational in feel, when eyes are squinted and the view is fuzzied, can pass for a totally abstract formulation.

Today's work . . . 

Today's work and showing the entire composition now.

A bit more work yesterday . . .

. . . taking a break today to enjoy the Holiday. Hope you will too!

OK, yes . . . there actually is work going on in the studio. So, here is a little snippet of a much larger work taking shape on the board right now. Working for gallery exchanges now and for the coming weeks. I do believe this subject matter has been seen on these pages before! (Oh! Do I love those hats!!)

Here is today's small, reduced price work up for grabs. $150 will put this work in your collection and will include the cost of shipping to a continental US address via Priority Mail. The first person who contacts me will own this little work! A big 'Thanks' to those who have already purchased some of these most recent posted works. I hope they will bring joy for many years to come.

SOLD

Here is today's small work for purchase at a special, reduced price. As with yesterday's piece, this one is a bit more involved than some of the earlier works, a bit larger too, so it is being priced at $175 for purchase by the first person who contacts me for payment through Pay Pal. The cost, as before, includes Priority Mail shipping to a continental US address.

SOLD

Today's small work up for purchase at a special reduced price of $175. This one is priced a slight bit higher than the previous several as it is a bit more of involved work. The price, as before, includes the cost of shipment to a continental US address via Priority Mail and will go to the first person who contacts me for purchase through a Pay Pal account.

SOLD (as of 4:20 PM Eastern)

The third small work up for purchase in my current offering at $150, which will include the cost of Priority Mail shipping to a continental US address. The work will go to the first person who contacts me for purchase through a Pay Pal payment.

SOLD (as of 4 PM Eastern)

Here is the second of the smaller, reduced price works I will be posting over the next several days. 'Sundowner' depicts one of my favorite subjects, elephant as well as the wonderful African baobab tree. It will go to the first person who contacts me for purchase at $150 and will ship to a continental US address via Priority Mail. It's framed as shown and ready to hang on your wall! I will be most pleased to accept your Pay Pal payment.

As I noted several months ago when I last posted some smaller, framed works at a greatly reduced price, I am once again going to offer several of these small scale works at a special price which will include shipping to a continental US address with preferred payment through Pay Pal. 

This first work up is Stonington Mist, which was done from material gathered along the coast of Maine. I am offering this one at $150 which will include the cost of shipping via Priority Mail as noted above to a continental US address. I will be posting one work a day for the next several days both here and on my Facebook art page. This work will go to the first person who contacts me for purchase. Good Luck!

Just a quick 'Thank You' to all who stopped by and spoke to me at the Waterfowl Festival this past weekend. It was a wonderful weekend, very fall-like in Easton on the beautiful eastern shore of Maryland. I was pleased with sales and hope all who purchased works will find them to bring pleasure for many years to come. A breather today and then it will be back to work later this week on new gallery pieces and maybe one of my two entries for next year's Birds in Art jury, though I have not one single idea as yet floating around in my mind for that!

Later this month, Howard/Mandville Gallery in Kirkland, Washington will host the opening of their 22nd Annual Small Works Show in which I have several new works included. It is a fine assemblage of work from 90 plus nationally known artists and they have posted a number of the works on their site already for review. As the weeks progress toward the November 17th reception, more works will be added as they arrive at the gallery. I am honored to have my work hang alongside those of some of the country's top fine artists. Take a look . . . you might find that perfect work of art to add to your collection.

Four days and counting down . . . The Waterfowl Festival opens with a gala invitation only reception on Thursday evening for benefactors and badge holders to have a first crack at all the wonderful art on display. Public hours begin on Friday morning and run through 4 PM on Sunday afternoon. Easton is a pleasant drive from many of the major mid-coast cities in the DC area, so why not take a break this weekend and enjoy some good food, great entertainment on the streets of historic Easton, MD and check out the sculpture, fine art, crafts, carvings and more scattered throughout town. Almost everything to see is within walking distance and the several outer venues are easily reached by fast and convenient free bus service throughout the weekend. And now, time for me to start gathering up all the new works I've done for the show and get things ready for the trip across the Bay later this coming week. See you there!

Perhaps the last of the new works for next week's opening of the Waterfowl Festival on Maryland's beautiful (it still is even after Sandy!) eastern shore. Another of the smaller works, this one is just over 6" x 4". I might get yet one more work done before I leave for Easton next Thursday but my inventory for the show is pretty good at this point. We'll see how things go this weekend.