Art

Today is the day that I meet with our painting group, down at the Art Center. It's a 9 to 12 meeting and once a week. We have said that we would do it 5 days a week if circumstances permitted it...but they don't. It's a nice sized room for the 8 of us and there are tables and even some easels if you wish to use them. A small number of us (only 3) met today as the others had medical issues or real estate problems. Did I mention that I'm the only male in the group? There used to be another, but he died recently. He was the one that opened the room each Tuesday and locked up afterwards. I now have that job. Should I be worried? The pay and the retirement plan stink!

One of our members was going through her old paintings and putting them in the trash. She pointed to one as the kind of paintings she was tired of because they weren't worth the trouble to frame. I looked; I liked it and asked her to give it to me. But, I told her that she had to sign it first! Reluctantly, she did. I found a mat for it when I got home and I will look around for simple frame.

Sure, it's just a pleasant and well crafted watercolor and really not what excites my soul. But it reminds me of the artist and that's important.

This Tuesday found me painting something from a far different school of painting; Abstract Expressionism was my choice for the day. Joan Mitchell (1925 - 1992) is one of the artists I admire. Jackson Pollock speaks to me. Franz Kline's works are exciting to me. Emil Nolde and Mary Heilman are not always Expressionists and do some wonderful work as Abstract Impressionists. I could go on...but I won't.

I have 3 paintings in my 'studio' that are close to being finished. This morning, just before I left to meet with my friends, I grabbed a paintbrush and added something to one of the paintings. It was something I visualized while having my coffee a few hours earlier.

Here is a snapshot of my work from today. I will be doing something with them later. I always set a painting here on the hearth and just let it 'be' in the room for awhile.

You can't see the richness of the colors in the painting on the left. It's there...trust me. The one on the right reminds me of Joan Mitchell's work. That wasn't my intention, it just came out that way. The one on the left reminds me of Emil Nolde's paintings. His darkest paintings always contained a light that I would like to duplicate. No, this is not a duplicate. I wasn't thinking of his paintings while I was working. Perhaps I was 'channeling' him? And I may be comfortable with this one without doing much more to it. The one on the right needs blue. That's all I know so far...