New "Seaweave" triptych on paper

Here are 3 new works on paper, the Seaweave series. Each is acrylic on paper, 30" H x 22" W.

Triptych completed

Here are the three pieces in my latest triptych; each is acrylic on canvas, 30" inches square.

End-of-year reflections

This is the time of year when we look back on the past 365 days. If you have the time and inclination, you carefully analyze what worked and what didn’t, and make your plans for the upcoming year accordingly. If you’re a super-busy person, you simply try to figure out what the heck just happened.

I had many career successes in 2009. I sold 13 paintings, and I participated in 4 group shows: 2 were in college galleries; 1 was alongside such talents as Michael Mazur and Piek Larsen; and the fourth, which included such luminaries as Agnes Martin and Richard Serra, was reviewed in a Boston Globe article that included a mention of my work. I am thankful for having had so many opportunities.

I taught my heart out this year: 3 college classes, 3 workshops, 4 teen classes, 3 professional development classes, 6 adult education classes, and private lessons. I consider it a privilege to be a teacher, and to have the opportunity to help my students to develop their technique (beginners) or to find their own voices (graduate students). After all these years of teaching, I still feel honored to look up and see my students working contentedly at their easels.

Four of my reviews were published in the New Bedford Standard-Times during 2009. I have had to let my writing career slide lately, because I’ve simply been too busy to devote the time. But I adore writing about art. I believe it is a chance to honor the artists I write about, give them much-deserved attention and excite my readers about their work, as I am excited.

But what I am most proud of about 2009 is what I did in my studio, my Heaven on Earth. The things I learned, visually and technically, and the inner vibrations that I expressed through my painting … these are things I can’t articulate verbally. While the tangible results of the time I put in appear on my website, the finished paintings can’t quite convey the joy I feel inside at having created them. There aren’t words to express the realization that you wanted to say something, and you picked up a brush, and you managed to say it. It’s a true blessing to have this opportunity.

However you choose to look back on 2009, with a fleeting glance or with careful consideration, I wish you a wonderful and very happy 2010!

Happy Holidays!

Still painting a bit here and there, but Christmas activities are filling much of my time this week. Petey has been helping us with our decorations, as you can see.

Happy Holidays to you, and a splendid New Year!

Series finished

Just finished up a series of 9 pieces, each 10 inches square:

A worthy recipient

I dropped off my painting "Presto" (acrylic and spray-paint on canvas, 28" square) at the Art Connection this week. It will be donated to the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights at the Boston Medical Center, an organization that "strives to create a healing environment where refugees and torture survivors can connect, feel safe, and renew their lives."

I am honored that my artwork has been chosen by such a worthy recipient, and hope that my painting will brighten the Center, and provide interest and inspiration to the patients and employees.

I love the Art Connection! Working with them always reminds me of the power of art to bring good to the world.

Web site updated!

My website has been updated with my latest paintings, thanks to the talents of Jeanne Williamson. Please click here to see the "new look."

Success (finally!) with image transfers

I am thrilled to report that I have FINALLY figured out how to make image transfers!

I have been trying for literally YEARS to get nice clean images like the examples in the numerous "how to" books I've consulted, but mine always came out too light, or they tore, or the image was uneven. A number of my students have shown me their examples that looked great, and assured me how easy the process is. So I would try again, but I always came up with unsatisfactory results.

This week I realized that I HAD to figure out how to do this, because I'm teaching a mixed media class this winter and I want to be able to teach my students how to make (and incorporate) image transfers.

So I turned my studio into a laboratory. I tested six different approaches, using different thicknesses and brands of acrylic mediums. I varied something with each one to see what worked best: either the length of time I let the acrylic dry, or the amount of detail on the image I used, or the amount of pressure I used to rub the paper off, or the surface I used to rub it off with.

Here's the combination of steps that worked well for me: apply a layer of Dick Blick brand acrylic gel medium onto the surface of your artwork, press the Xeroxed image gently into the gel, leave it to dry for at least two days, soak it in water for at least 5 minutes, then rub off the paper very gently with your fingers under constantly running warm water.

I'm so happy that I finally figured this out! But it worked only because I disregarded MOST of what I have read in how-to books about how to do this.

Two finished in new series

I've finally wrapped up two in my latest series, shown in their first stages here:



Here's a detail:




Here's the final version of another piece. These are all 30 inches square.



Here's a detail:

More work on series

Worked some more today on this latest series of 30 inch squares, which has gotten a boost from the new Golden colors I just bought, including Quinacridone Violet and Violet Oxide. The QV sweetened up the reddish painting, and the VO burnished the yellow painting. Golden's rocks!







Here's a detail of that last painting, with less surface reflection:

Hotel purchased 10 pieces

Wonderful news! I'm very happy to report that the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston has purchased 10 of my artworks: 3 works on paper and 7 acrylic/fabric collages on board. Here is one of the collages, 10 inches square:



The three works on paper are shown on my Career News blog, here.

New series continues

Here are 3 new paintings from the latest series. I'm currently working on a silver one and a burgundy-reddish one.

Fresh series brewing

Working on a new grouping of 30 inch squares. This blue one is a finished example ...



and I'll be doing variations with these techniques but different hues/degrees of value change. These two are in the initial stages: