"Millie"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 6" x 8"

Posthumous pet portrait week continues at the studio. This sweet little beagle is, or should I say was, Millie, faithful companion to my friends Tom and David. and side kick to Chloe the Jack Russell terrier represented on these pages a few months ago. Chloe has a new cohort in beagle form named Penny who has the same endearing (?) habit of nesting on the top of the sofa cushions. I wish this was a better photograph of the painting. The subtle nuances of the color got lost in translation. C'est la vie.

"Sezza"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 6" x 6"

Self Portrait - Green Black and White

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 5" x 7"

I was invited recently to participate in a fledgling artist challenge blog started by artist Alice Thompson. It is called the Calypso Moon Artist Movement. Here's her first challenge:

1. You may use only 1 color (mixed with Black and White). That's right, only one so choose wisely. Remember the importance of contrast. Your base color can be black, white or a gray shade in between mixed with your color.

2. No nudes. I want to see a little more than just your face. Upper body and shoulders carry a lot of character. Give us that. Check out Van Gogh's self portraits to see what I mean.

3. When you post the image on your blog you must tell us how and why you choose the color that you did.

Perhaps not quite following the spirit of the challenge or perhaps because I have a more graphic nature, I choose to isolate the hues. For me - adding black and white to one hue would create a monochromatic (duh!) portrait and I wanted more intensity. I could have brushed more greens into the portrait and indeed contemplated doing so but that would have obfuscated my vision. Why Green? Irish heritage would be the easy answer. I have been described as a somewhat too tall, impish leprechaun. But I wanted something with punch and red was too obvious. I am not a red kinda guy, except around Christmas (for obvious reasons - Ho, Ho, HO!) Purple is my favorite color but I didn't think it would work in this application. In a former life I was known as "Markus the Green" having been a Lord of the Rings apostle in the 60's - long before it was turned into a major motion picture. So green it is.

"warm up exercise"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 6" x 8"

It seemed appropriate that I paint ice today since I have been looking at, shoveling, blowing and chipping snow and ice for the past two weeks. I live just north of metropolitan Baltimore and we recently had back to back blizzards. Two feet of snow followed a week later by two more feet of snow. Today was good fun shoveling the snow from the roof of my new house as water dripped down from a speaker in the ceiling. Is it any wonder that I haven't done much in the studio? I thought painting these colorful little guys would get me get back into the swim of things.

"RibN Redux"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 8" x 10"

I went to a Super Bowl party yesterday at the home of my friends, the Jokesters. Bless them for the invite, as we don't have television reception where we live. It's the price we pay for living in paradise. We are trying to get cable to come down our road but so far Comcast is not receptive to the idea. I don't really miss TV except for things like the Super Bowl and the Olympics, well, and the Food Network. Given that New Orleans is our second home, I need hardly say, a good time was had by all. Whoo Hoo! - Way to go Saints! Laissez les bons temps rouler!! Cheering on the Saints with us was one of the sweetest dogs on the planet, Marianne and Steve's Australian Shepherd named RibN. His appellation is derived from a ribbon of black fur that dissects his right side (or is it his left?). Aside from his good nature, he is a thing of beauty and I thought today would be a good day to reacquaint myself with the breed.

Well that's settled...

Our old house that is. We settled on our old house last week - lock, stock and barrel and now have furniture to sit on - yea!. It has been said that moving is one of the most stressful events in one's life and I am here to tell you that is a huge understatement. We have 16 years of wonderful memories from that place and hope the new owners enjoy it as much as we did. All this is my feeble attempt at an excuse, albeit a good one, for not painting for so long. The work of opening boxes, hanging artwork and organizing goes on but without the hectic pace of getting our old house ready to sell. I have covered the paralyzing, debilitating fear of the "cold start" ad nauseam on these pages so I won't bore you again with the details. Suffice it to say that I am suffering from it in a big way just at present and am attempting to work through it. I swished a little paint today just to test the water. I'm not sure I am happy with the result but I thought I would put it up for edification. You can't say it isn't energetic.

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 8" x 10"

Post Script:
In the sober light of day this painting of Mac McDoodle is not without charm. It was fun to splash around in all those colorful curls. Thanks, Mac.