Another Painting today

New work up today:
Pasquotank River, N.C.

I drove by this scene frequently for years, until one evening I happened to have a camera, some time, and the right light. I have no idea what the purpose was of the little shack. Fishing? There was an awful lot of junk and rotted dock around it. It was off the end of an old pier, and the pilings in the background are of the sort used to tie off big ships, although the river itself is shallow.

An interesting discussion started today on LinkedIn, by artist William Zuback who asked, "What do you think of changing the original intent of your art for a client? See more at http://tinyurl.com/wmzubackblog."
I wouldn't change an original, but I would offer a commissioned work that met the client's needs.
One responder commented that art becomes not-art, but craft when the wishes of another drive the creative process. I'm not so sure that I'd go to the wall over the issue of whether an artist must work with absolutely pure independence and integrity for that work to be pure art. What about some of the great collaborative works. What do you think?

Three more

I've been working again. Three new pieces in the gallery today:
(top) Ruby Beach, Washington
(middle) Valledolid Square
(bottom) Bodie Car Lot


At Ruby Beach, the driftwood piles high above the surf line, not carted away to a woodstove somewhere, and the storms and waves wear away the rock down to tall obelisk sea stacks.

Valledolid and the Yucatan are such an interesting mix of old and new: The church is hundreds of years old, and out in the country, the people still live in palm thatched shelters, but they have satellite TV!

In Bodie State Historical Park, as part of the 'arrested decay' policy, they've put a new roof or two on some of the more in-tact structures, but these old cars still slowly settle into the landscape where their owners abandoned them.

Home again, home again

Ain't it great to be back when you get called away unexpectedly. Through sleet and snow, over Donner summit and through Sacramento traffic, family comes first. Now it's back to work.

And just got the stitches taken out today, result of a kitchen mishap just before the sentence above.

So we're still finishing the studio. The walls are done, with just the trim to go.

Looking at my gallery thumbnails, I'm thinking I need to adjust my standard pallette. All my dark greens seem to be a little on the cool side. I've been using a deep green made with Prussian Blue/Sepia. I may bring in Hooker Green Deep more often, or possibly try . . . something else. We'll see. You'll see. Tell me what you think.