recent studies

There is a young-ish artist in south London who paints copiously and continually.  One of his mantras is "paint quick, think slow".  Another is "just keep painting".  I am trying to follow his mandate by making quick studies without worrying too much about "finish".  Here are two - one started in London and worked on back home in New York, the other, all New York - a bouquet of lovely roses from the corner bodega.

day 2 - morning painting

I was going to paint this same subject abstractly this afternoon, but realized I really don't want to paint in an abstract way, much as I admire the work of a number of painters who do.  So I think I am going to do an hour long self portrait this afternoon using the little dabs of paint left on my palette from this morning. I got that idea from the artist Ben Hope who paints in an almost pyrotechnic way with the Dulwich Art Group. He said his motto is "paint quick, think slow" which I have to rephrase to myself as "paint quickly, think slowly".

start of a daily practice

This is a quick, two hour still life, painted while I listened to The New Yorker Radio Hour and Wait, Wait. It has its flaws, but what pleases me is that it is looser than the small daily still lifes I used to paint and sell on Etsy.  That era - the painting a day thing - was very useful to me in that it supplemented the on and off classes I was taking and in some ways was the best teaching tool of all. But I don't want to paint so "tightly" any more.  And I feel this is a start.  It is 8 x 10 on a linen covered wooden panel - I may just leave this set-up in place and try to loosen up even more tomorrow!