"Push it.  Examine all things intensely and relentlessly.  Probe and search each object in a piece of art; do not leave it, do not course over it, as if it were understood, but instead follow it down until you see it in the mystery of its own specificity and strength."

-Annie Dillard


It's been a really long time since I've posted any drawings, which is ironic given the title of my blog.  I was flipping through an old sketchbook the other day and came across this one.    It's a self portrait I did in ball-point, probably about four years ago.  It's kind of weird looking back.  You see mistakes so much more clearly, but you also see things you like that you didn't appreciate at the time.

"Be careful that you do not write or paint anything that is not your own, that you don't know in your own soul." 

-Emily Carr

 

  

"There is no difficulty in painting detail, the real difficulty lies in getting the general truth of tone and tint." 

- John Collier

These are a few paintings from this week.  I returned to the same spot three days in a row and painted three different compositions.  I was trying to focus more on color, and found plenty of it in the sage and sumac of the local hills.  The paintings  are 10x14 and 10x12 oil on panel.