CHECKING IN

After a little more than a year I'm back with  a new post.  This has been a busy and satisfying year for me, ... and... my painting. Many shows, often using older paintings but, now,  a new show ending tomorrow after a three week run. 

 The interesting theme of this show was "The Artist Incountering Himself "

I began with work that demonstrated my beginnings: work with the human body, drawing from a live model, use of various materials, etc...

  The geranium, the watercolor below, not my usual human body, here because it marked my first real show away from home and far from the usual scholastic atmosphere of "end of year" shows. It was held in the Botanical Gardens of the University of Pavia in northern Italy and changed my entire outlook and aims in painting. 

This painting is part of a series which used the 7 chakra or energy points as theme. I was searching for a cure for severe back and spinal pain in alternative medicine, massage, homeopathic cures when I came upon  the chakra which each have their own color and position in the body.

 This next painting is on a wooden panel using oil and cold wax as technique. This requires a hard surface in order to apply many layers and scrape and scratch over it all. 

This final painting, actually two together (dyptich), is the newest work after months of negative studio time. Still my figures but stretching out to the four corners of the canvas as if wanting to escape, to fly.