"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.

"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

-Albert Camus


It's been absolutely beautiful this week, and being outside painting in the evenings has been great.  I also had the chance on Saturday to visit the studio of local landscape painter Eric Merrell, who was very gracious in sharing his time and the insights he's gained as an artist.  You can see his work on his website ericmerrell.com.

"It's strange that words are so inadequate. Yet, like the asthmatic struggling for breath, so the lover must struggle for words."

-T.S. Elliot

"Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist." 

- Edward Hopper

Here are a couple of paintings from this week.  8x10 and 10x14 oil on panel.

"If one really loves nature, one can find beauty everywhere." 

- Vincent van Gogh


Here are a couple paintings from the last week or so.  I've been spending some time painting along the river just below Los Feliz.  Such a cool area, with lots of stuff to paint.

Well I looked into the sky for my anthem 
And the words and the music came through 
But words and music can never touch the beauty that I've seen 
Looking into you -- and that's true

-Jackson Browne

"If you hear a voice within you saying, "You are not a painter," then by all means paint... and that voice will be silenced, but only by working." 

- Vincent van Gogh

Here are a couple of paintings from this week.  Its been pretty breezy lately which has made conditions beautifully clear.  Driving home each day I've been really drawn to the foothills looming over Pasadena and tried out numerous new locations in hopes of painting them, but I couldn't get anything to compose right.  The clear air got me looking for longer views but that never really panned out either, and working in the wind proved to be quite challenging at times.  A few strong gusts almost had me fishing my tripod out of the L.A. River.  Anyway, painting is difficult and sometimes you wrestle with doubts about what your doing, but I guess you just have to keep going.  These are both 8x10 oil on panel.

"Rembrandt and Shakespeare, Bohr and Gauguin, possessed powerful hearts, not powerful wills. They loved the range of materials they used. The work's possibilities excited them; the field's complexities fired their imaginations. The caring suggested the tasks; the tasks suggested the schedules. They learned their fields and then loved them. They worked, respectfully, out of their love and knowledge, and they produced complex bodies of work that endure."

-Annie Dillard, "Write Till You Drop"


These are a couple of paintings I did this week.  Work has been pretty busy lately, so spending some time after work painting by the water has been really nice.   I actually did a couple more of this  bridge and overpass, but they didn't quite come out.  These are both 8x10 oil on panel.