Lull Before Storm

2005 - Ridge 3 - 24 x 24

Back from the lake, a productive couple of days that took us out of the really hard work realm and into 'making pretty' by putting together a real bed and making a comfortable retreat from sawdust and general dishevel. Since we work at a snail's pace compared to years past, it's most important to have this refuge when it's too cold or otherwise uncomfortable to be out on the deck. The weather was tepid but rainy, being on the warm side of the cold most of the nation has been experiencing. I'd forgotten one of the benifits of the extra wide eaves, you can actually sit outside in the rain and stay dry up against the house! I love it!

But one overnighter was enough and we were glad to return to a normal house... just as we'll be anxious to leave again in just a few days. It's a working balance. Not really motivated to return to painting for upcoming shows just yet so I've been working on a 6'x8' landscape diptych which, as usual, has been giving me fits. I'd put a cluster of tall pines in the foreground to camouflage the break in the two canvases and it just wasn't working compositionally. So wiped them out and simplified the whole shmeer... and it's working much better now. Not well enough to digitalize and show the world, but with a little luck, maybe soon. Unless panic grips again and the trauma of deadlines takes over my life. Lots of swearing off of anything resembling a future show commitment usually follows.

The painting above is on paper applied to cradled panel which was covered with canvas. I'm hearing that works under glass are in fashion once again so maybe this step won't be necessary. I'd like to eventually be able to pull off the simplicity of this type of landscape on a much larger scale, but I'm seldom satisfied with such a sketchy painting on larger sizes.