I’m back at it hard and weeeeeird pictures are tumbling off of my brush. Loving it! Apparently, I’m still stuck on snapping turtles and BIG, splashy blooms. Must wear out these compulsions so I can move on.
What a terrible fate, huh? So sad that I must keep painting things I have such fun with.
Hey ya –
Had to take a little working break to write and photograph an article for a fishing magazine. Paychecks are nice.
I can’t show you what I did until it’s published. Here are photos I’ve done for past articles – enjoy!
If I’m gonna tell it true, the only way to really paint snapping turtles is to go wild with them!
Not sure why I keep painting crooked tree trunks and scrubby foliage – just seems to be the thing I need to do. More and more, I am wondering if what I’m supposedly painting pictures of doesn’t matter as much as the marks I’m making. Hmmmm. . .
Let’s look at blooms on this drizzly, gray morning! You know, I might be in trouble: it’s only the end of October – Spring and Summer are a looooooong ways off. Gonna miss ’em until they return!
This morning you get an ant that looks like it might be fire breathing and two snapping turtles, one of which could be more of a dragon. And then there are strange blooms too! All I can say about this is mark making so often has it’s own reasons, and the pictures that result are kinda incidental!
Good Morning!
Here’s a quick picture done while I was chatting with a friend on the phone yesterday.While there is truly lovely, quiet veining and grainy detailing in the wing, I may like the close up “trimmed” version better (above).
I actually printed the wings! My printing “plate” was a sheet of paper on which I used a scratchboard tool to scrap the veins. Then I quickly spritzed water onto the sheet and rapidly painted right into the wet over my scraping. While the surface was still saturated, I laid a new, dry sheet on top, briefly rubbed the back of it and peeled it off – thus transferring an imperfect but REALLY interesting image of wings!
Here’s a small grab bag of pictures I’ve done in the last little while – many more to show you still!
Have an enjoyable Sunday –
Your Buddy Bill
Had fun with these strange little ants misbehaving!
A lot, lot, lot of gooooood ink slinging has happened since the last time I showed you anything. Been making pictures of blooms and trees and snapping turtles and – – – wait a minute – – – snapping turtles? Yep, and I’m tooling up for a fine, hard Autumn/Winter of major landscape painting.
Oh yes, it’s gonna take awhile to catch up. Here are a few to get us started – – –
Some of these new paintings of mine have turned into real weeeeirdos. Love it! Check this next one out – – –
And this is a little closer look – – –
I particularly love the tree coming up. Keep in mind, all of these photos are just a quick snapshots, so no justice is done to the truth of the subtle grays and textures. I have a terrifying amount of scanning to do.
Sometimes, a picture starts out so well I have to leave it at its beginning. Below is another crooked tree that was my first start at making a picture that I hoped would end up something like the previous one. Do you see what I mean? Glorious silhouetted mark making – walk away!
Wow – okay – that was a little more than a little break! Did everything I told you I was gonna do – and much more. Then I went back to work – hard! So hard that I blew off posting for a bit. Sorry.
The good news is that now I HAVE A TON OF NEWS AND SHOW-N-TELL!
A truly wonderful exhibition is has opened at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History – featuring not only my own work (photo above) but also a selection of Japanese woodblock prints and block-printed volumes from my collection. Here is the Poster for the show:
And this is the front and back of the postcard the museum printed for me!
The exhibition is incredibly well presented, and I am deeply grateful to the gallery’s curator, Linda Miller – and to the exhibition designer, Marian McKenzie. Wow – just wow!!!
Let’s take a quick tour – I took these photos the morning before the Preview Evening – – –
The preview was sooooo well attended and it was such a blast that we ALL forgot to take pictures. Oops!?! The curator actually had to retrieve me from a deep conversation with a group of lovely, interested folks and gently usher everyone out so that the museum could finally close. Time went so fast and it seemed like we were just getting started – now THAT is my idea of a GREAT PARTY!
THANK YOU SANTA BARBARA!
It’s time to run away for a bit. Gonna do a little fishing and exploring! Gonna hang with friends too, recharge and just enjoy the summertime before starting my big Autumn push.
I’ll begin posting again in September! Hope you have the finest summer too!
I love it when trees take over my brain! They always seem to do it when my painting ability jumps up a notch. Interesting, huh?
Well hello!
I’m still doing exaggerated, abstracted blooms, although an occasional single leaf also happens. And now, trees and blooming branches are popping up again too – but that’s show-n-tell for my next post!
How strange – work done just months ago already seems so old. I guess that’s what happens when I move this fast!
If I told you how many pictures I’ve done this week, you’d say, “Nope, that’s not possible!”
But it is, and the week’s still going. Many of these were done as a last response and quick sketch of older unfinished work that is being consigned to the scrap pile. What a great way to have a few more moments with what I liked about work that otherwise failed.
Hope you’ll pardon the quick studio snapshots – I’m on a roll and it’s better to have a brush in my hand than a camera! Some of these still need a little fussing and several more are on the boards this morning, So – keep an eye out – much more is coming!
Weird ants are still hanging around. Every time I think I’m about done with ’em, I’m wrong!
I especially like this first one – really, really nice marks!
Am having some fun these days – and there’s muuuuuuch more to come!
