This a redux of a painting I did a couple of years ago. She has been sitting on the easel staring at me for weeks.

Was a better painting day today, I allowed some space around my disgruntledness of yesterday, no resistance. Things began to flow. Allowing for happiness by being aware today, bringing the light of consciousness to today’s activities.

and: lovely words snagged from my friend Mei Noel:

you may not go home and paint a painting and get it in the louvre. but you can go home, paint, just do it, love it, and hang it on a coffeeshop. or share it online. or give it to someone who will love it.

you may not become a concert violinist, like you wanted to since you were 9, but you can buy a violin and take classes and enjoy it and learn to listen to music in a new way (this happened to me)

you may not be able to go home and write the next great american novel, but you can go home, write, love it, get it published, and write some more.

every moment you paint, draw, make music, sew, write, etc etc is a moment in which you are living the life you love, and just because you may also have another job that you need to pay bills does not mean you are not also, in those moments, living the life you love the most.

Started a series of Pez Heads last year and just now starting to flesh them out, this one went very quickly, tomorrow some glazing and a bit more color.

I prefer very few items cluttering up counters anywhere in our home and a sense of spaciousness, which you would not know by looking at my studio :b where a whole different vibe occurs…a vibe of unbridled creativity, random bouts of expression and impromptu manifestation of ideas aside the painting corner full of tubes and pigments and brushes and turps and mediums and crumpled rags and paper towels and a big crusty loaded palatte sounds like heaven, must be heaven. Which, is nothing at all compared to the state of say Mr. Francis Bacon’s (my all time favorite painter) studio:

The genius in his environs

His posture seems to be hunched in as if overwhelmed by all the clutter yet, this is how he worked always, using anything within reach for a palette and in complete irreverence for the ascending piles of debris accumulating around him while in the throes of raging creativity. I’m utterly in awe of that focus and ego-less determination. Sterile, pristine studios speak to me of control and and anal engineering type retentivity, a space for designers, architects, and restrained types of expression not suited for the serious fine artist. (now, I know there are neatniks who will disagree with me, and no offense). Bacon had the ability to express the most intense, visceral aspects of the human condition and had no inclination to conform to any predesignated standards of mainstream presentation.

This has some good shots of the studio and Bacon at work.

My own efforts at painting seem so very small and immature and unsophisticated in comparison, at the same time, Bacon makes me swell with the desire to be a better artist.

I was possessed when I started this painting. It was not intended to be a pug, but something took over and boom there she was! Possessed I tell ya!

If you would like to see the progression of this painting click on the link to flickr in my sidebar.

and um, there is a little spot on her cheek that I accidentally made with my brush before photo documenting.

finished! 18 x 24 oil on canvas

acyrlics dry so fast, these new paintings happen quickly or at least much more quickly than the oil paintings, but need to be careful about too much build up or the surface gets slick and the tooth that gives a fresh brushy appearance disappears. The marks, though spontaneous need to be made with care

acrylic on canvas

I was fretting and fussing over a recent oil painting, it put me in a bad mood. So, I decided to start a different one, using acrylics which dries so fast, and just making fresh marks. Having fun with it and the little monster is what resulted. He didn’t start out as a monster…