Juno Beach Sunrise 04-16-2011 (40"W x 32" H)

It took an entire month to complete this pastel painting, but it is finally done. I wish I could do more of these works more quickly.

Robert Longo did a drawing a day for an entire year and made an exhibition of the work in 1996, titled "Magellan 366 Drawings." And I know that many artists make it a point of doing one work each day. How amazing they all are!

Ah well, I like the finished product anyway.

The Waterworks

Small Works, Pastels

Atlantic Ocean Sunrise

I finished this small pastel painting this afternoon, and it will be one of several small pastel paintings of Atlantic Ocean Sunrises. These are 8" x 8" just like the small mixed media distressed paintings for The Waterworks. As the recession continues despite all reassurances from the government and other sources that it is over, most of us continue to save rather than spend. Unfortunately that means most people are unwilling to buy larger more expensive artworks, though I continue to believe that my work sells at bargain basement prices. Also, friends assure me that making smaller artwork means that people can find a space to hang it more easily.

Like a Prayer: south Florida Sunrise

This work was a commission, which means that I worked closely with the client to meet her needs. Fortunately both she and I agreed on just about everything from the first moment – “I want the picture to be just after the sun rises, the way everything glows.” I immediately thought of the second-generation Hudson River School “Luminist” artist, John Frederick Kensett, particularly his painting of Lake George from the 1860’s. Of course, I have to add all the super brilliant color and detail possible, but the client chose me because she likes the way I work in an almost hyper-real style. She also wanted the full moon visible, and at least one bird. “Sunrise is the most spiritual time on the beach,” she said. “I often go for walks on the beach at sunrise.” I definitely identified with her feelings about the beach because I have felt as though I was in a “living prayer” when walking on the beach, and I said so. The client immediately said, “That’s it, that’s the title of the painting!”

Photographing the Sunrise

I’m not an early riser, but one morning back in February I got up before sunrise and trundled to the beach, camera in hand. It was the first morning warm enough to sit on the beach in shirtsleeves and shorts, and I sat in the sand waiting for the golden orb to begin its assent. First the sky glowed a fire opal blue. Then an electric sliver appeared, and I started snapping one photograph after another as the sun slowly rose into the sky. There were so many layers of clouds in the sky that glowed in front of and behind one another, and the bowl of the sky was lit in a curved value scale of cascading colors. I was amazed at how lucky I was to choose that one morning to take photographs, and I decided then and there to make the early morning excursions if not a habit, at least a bi-monthly exercise.

The final work is based on 3 photos, the first taken that morning. The second photo was from my morgue of photos, sub category, birds. * The third was a photo of the moon that was a bit blurry, so I made up the mottled surface, and worked transparent luminous clouds across it.

* Called a morgue because it is a file of dead photos of everything and anything, alphabetized for an artist’s use. The difference between my file and most other artists’ morgues is that I take all the photographs for my file.

Cumulus and Lake Gerar

"Cumulus and Lake Gerar, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware."  Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, DE are so different from most mid-Atlantic Coastal beach towns precisely because the downtown areas are still SMALL TOWNS with small town atmosphere. Lake Gerar is about 4 blocks off of Rehoboth Avenue and just behind the last boardwalk block of the beach. This pastel painting is one of my smaller works, only 16" x 24," It is one of several paintings of the lake I hope to complete based on a set of 87 photographs taken in July of this past summer. It is part of the WATERWORKS exhibit I hope to put together and show in 2011 - 2012.

Father and Son Day at the Beach

So, after struggling with this image for a month, I fix it in humid weather like a dummy. Now it has little tiny dark gum balls all over it. I will have to spend an hour at a time cleaning and reworking it during the next 2 to 3 months while working on other projects. The moral of this mess is to never do anything in a hurry. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!

The drawing is 44" long x 30" high and is based on several photographs of the thousands taken on South Florida beaches. Two of the seagulls were in one photo, The sailboat in another, the father, son and chair in still another, and the sky is from still another photograph. All photographs are my own. The color is applied with individual pastel strokes rather than the standard rub and blend layering technique. Even blended areas are done with the pastel itself as the blending tool. This technique allows me to produce pastels of greater color intensity.

Blue Blue Water

I’m not entirely happy with this one.  I thought it might be cool to have the two women looking off the left side of the picture plane and I tried to balance attention with the boat near the middle of the drawing and the guy on the other side of the picture plane looking slightly to the right of center.  I’m thinking about rubbing the women out, and redoing them in a reversed position so that they are looking directly at the boat.  Never the less that will be in the future.  Opinions Yes or no change, are welcome.

Meanwhile, I’m moving on to the next drawing.

Beach Sounds?

The latest pastel painting is based on a combination of 2 photographs, the first shot in South Florida last year on the most perfect day I’ve ever spent on a beach. The second was of a young man wired for sound on the beach in Cape Henlopen, Delaware about 5 or 6 years ago. He had a CD player, but I changed it to an iPod because the CD player looked so bulky and old fashioned. I also changed the guy’s bathing suit, head and facial features based on several other photos of beach people so he would not be recognizable. I’ve spent a month on this drawing, so I’m happy to be finished. I think it should be named “Beach Sounds,” but I’ve not decided. I’ll take suggestions, and if I use your title, I’ll make a small pastel drawing just for you.