Oranges with Cobalt Vase, A Work in Progress

 

Oil on Panel, 18" x 36"

A little day by day progress.  Most of the recent work is on the cloth, trying to make it seem both soft and textural.  Hard to do for me.  The fold exiting from the bottom of the vase looks a bit too heavy and might leave the impressing that it falls off the edge of a table.  In fact this whole space is flat.  

Oranges with Cobalt Vase: Work in Progress

 

Oranges with Cobalt Vase

I've been working on this piece for about 3 weeks.  It is another large piece that will be offered to Rogers Gallery when time comes to switch out the Mink Cove Diptych.  This piece is 18" x 36".  And I intend to do a companion still life of the same dimensions.  Right now I'm considering using Honey Crisp apples because of their beautiful markings.  

Chickadees Speed Dating

 

Speed Dating Chickadees, 2021, Oil on Panel, 9"x12"

The chickadees have returned in full force.  I thought they would be perfect metaphors for the human practice of speed dating.  They flit around so quickly like the ADHD of bird world.  

On Seeing

 

Spring, Mink Cove Marsh, 2021, Oil on Panel Diptych, 36"x48"

I painted a single canvas of this view many years ago and decided to take a new go at the same view when my gallery (Rogers at the River Shops) requested some larger works for a specific display.  Under new ownership and associated more closely with the attached design studio, the gallery will set aside an area for my work and display it in a vignette that illustrates how the work would appear in a home.

Below is a section of a poem I came across by Fernando Pessoa.  

The essential thing is knowing how to see,

Knowing how to see without thinking,
Knowing how to see when you see,
And not thinking when you see
Nor seeing when you think.

But this (alas for those of us whose souls wear clothes!)
This requires long study,
An apprenticeship of unlearning.

Fernando Pessoa

Bandit Series: Red-winged Blackbird

 

Bandit Series: Red-winged Blackbird, Oil on Panel, 8"x8"

Bandit Series: Red-winged Black Bird, A Work in Progress

 

Bandit Series: Red-winged Black Bird, Oil on Panel, 8"x8"

Today I worked both the ribbon, the head and a bit on the back.  I'm at that stage where the next session will allow me to strengthen the value contrasts. 

Bandit Series, A Work in Progress

 

Bandit Series: The Red-winged Black Bird

I'm always trying to think of some way to make the bird paintings more than just an ornithological work.Here I initially thought to have two birds holding a ribbon between them in their beaks.  Then, to have one holding the ribbon.  Finally, I decided the ribbon should be draped to create more movement.  My House Critic's first take was, "that looks like a worm."  (Hmmmm.  Thought for a future series.). This series will be called Bandit and include items a bird may have taken for nest building.  This guy will be very busy nest building as the bird is a highly polygynous species with as many as up 15 female mates.