PCC Memories

 I've been working on this for about a month, off and on. It started with the foreground guy's eye and worked its way outwards, with no clear direction known.  I have no idea what it's supposed to be about beyond the obvious subject matter, but for some reason it has held my interest long enough to get this far. It's now at the point where I could tweak it indefinitely, but would be unlikely to improve it significantly and would probably introduce regressions. I'll let it marinate a while. I'm thinking of using it as the basis for my first larger etching.

Slideshow of its various states of development and revision.

Self Portrait at 70 with New Hat

I just turned 70, and my beloved gave me a very spiffy new hat! My old hat had rendered many years of faithful service but had clearly been through the wars and was ready for retirement. Anyone who does outdoor artwork needs a serviceable hat, weatherproof, flexible, and with a broad brim to defend against the elements and shade one's eyes against the glare.

Double mirror setup I used for the drawing,

Old hat

New hat

First test of the new etching tank

I added some lines to the same plate I used the test the press, and bit it in the new tank. It worked fine. The next step is break out a fresh plate and try one for real.

Etching tank

 Having gotten a larger etching press, I needed a larger etching tank. As far as I could tell, the official vertical etching tanks on offer were larger than I needed, expensive, and requiring a lot more ferric chloride to fill them up. My friend Chris Wirth tracked down this cereal container which is the right size, but I wanted to make a different top with a slot to hang the plate through. 

After making a couple of kludgy prototypes based on replicating the oval shape of the top, 

I ended up making a box to hold the tank with a slotted top and a little bridge to stick the end of the tape suspending the plate to. Next step is to try actually biting a plate - should accommodate plates up to about 9" x 12".

Path into the woods

The last time I visited this place it was July and hot as Hades. Today was warmish for November but the sun was already to set behind the bare trees at 2:30 PM. I just had a short time to catch the light in the foreground, the shadow in the woods, and the beckoning light farther down the path.

Abandoned Getty station

 Today I am thankful that they didn't tear down this skeevy old abandoned Getty station before I had a chance to paint it again. I did a little watercolor sketch back in April and always wanted come back and do a larger oil painting. This what I was able to do in about two hours - the drawing and overall block in.

Happy birthday Benoit B Mandelbrot

 Today is the birthday of Benoit B Mandelbrot, the pioneering French mathematician who discovered fractals and changed forever the way we think about clouds, coastlines, and screen savers. This vision of self-similar cereal came to me in a dream, from which I awoke LMAO (my hypnopompic brain is easily amused).

Triptych

Three small plates, of which the bottom two were originally one till I cut it in half, printed together on the new etching press.

They make an enigmatic statement , no?

New etching press, first print!

Just got my new etching press, and pulled a test print using a plate I had started at a workshop last spring. The drawing itself is no great shakes, but the print quality far exceeded my expectations given the number of variables (pressure, paper wetness, ink consistency, etc) any one of which can scuttle the whole operation.

The press is an RLV A3 size (12" x 17") bed, from South Africa. I've been gradually working up to this investment for some time, starting with drypoints on plexiglass printed by rubbing with a spoon or baren and then tiny etchings printed with an Open Press Project press. I need to get or make a few more things to actually etch larger pieces but then I should be turning out prints up to 8" or 9" wide.

Lake Warner Shadow

I was struck by the bright light on the yellow tree and the cast shadow with hot colors glowing out of it.

I worked on it over two visits to the site in my kayak, Sketchpad*L, with additional touching up at home. I'm calling it done for now - it's at that dangerous stage where I'm tempted to do little tweaks and details that could lead to killing the original feeling. I'll let it marinate for a while and see if there is really anything that needs to be added or subtracted.

Oil on linen panel

6" x 8"

UMass goal posts

 I started this while waiting for a friend and worked on it some more at home. I lost some of the feeling while chasing after the literal details.

 "Farmall" won the 2nd place award for graphics in the 5th Annual Northeast Fine Arts Exhibition in Ware, MA. First photo shows the scratchboard in situ; beneath it is a classy metal plaque reading:

Northeast Fine Arts Exhibition

2023

2nd Place Drawing/Graphics

"Farmall"

Also on display is "Sunscreen," hung high on the wall, so I didn't get a good shot over people's heads. There was a great turnout at the opening and lots of good artwork. Stop by if you can.

Show Dates and Times:

September 23rd to October 8th, 2023

Fridays | 4 to 7 pm

Saturdays & Sundays | 1 to 4 pm

Workshop 13

13 Church St

Ware, MA 01082

 Railroad crossing signals on Wason Ave, Springfield MA. A couple more attempts at a scene I did back on August 30. That one I touched up at home with corroborative detail from memory and photo; these are all done on site. The first one is from today, I'm pretty happy with it. The second one, from two weeks ago, was actually going OK until my water brush blorched diluted ink all over the place. It's a good exercise in getting the scale and proportions down.

 Cori, Zoe, and Shed Roof on display at the 30th Regional Piedmont Art Show in Somers, CT.

It's a nice show - check it out if you're in the neighborhood.

Show hours

Sept 21 - 22 12:00 - 4:00

Sept 23 - 24. 10:00 - 2:00

Sept 28 - 29 12:00 - 4:00

Sept 30 - Oct 1 10:00 - 2:00

Piedmont Hall

604 Main St

Somers, CT 06071

 Sketched this tree in watercolor today. It was up hill, so my eye level was roughly at the tree's base. The second pic is what I got down in 45 minutes or so on site. It was hot, and the watercolor dried instantly. Not sure if all my subsequent overworking made it any better.

 "Cori," "Zoe," and "Shed Roof" have been accepted for the 30th Regional Piedmont Art Show in Somers, CT.

Cori got a Merit Award.

Cori

Pencil, gouache on toned paper

12" x 9.5"

Zoe

Pencil, gouache on toned paper

9.5" x 9.5"

Shed Roof

Oil on panel

10" x 12"

Opening reception

September 17 2023 1:00 - 3:00

Show hours

Sept 21 - 22 12:00 - 4:00

Sept 23 - 24. 10:00 - 2:00

Sept 28 - 29 12:00 - 4:00

Sept 30 - Oct 1 10:00 - 2:00

Piedmont Hall

604 Main St

Somers, CT 06071

RR Crossing signals

RR Crossing signals on Wason St, Springfield, MA.

Pen and ink, ink wash, touches of white ink

6" x 4"

5th Annual Northeast Fine Arts Exhibition

 "Sunscreen" and "Farmall" have been juried into the upcoming 5th Annual Northeast Fine Arts Exhibition in Ware, MA.

Sunscreen

Pastel

13.5" x 24"

Farmall

Scratchboard

9" x 14"

Show Dates and Times:

September 23rd to October 8th, 2023

Fridays | 4 to 7 pm

Saturdays & Sundays | 1 to 4 pm

Opening Reception

Saturday, September 23rd | 1 to 4 pm

Awards, 3 pm

Workshop 13

13 Church St

Ware, MA 01082

Railroad bridge and power plant

 Back to the river view with railroad bridge and power plant, this time in watercolor. The second pic is what I was able to get in about an hour on site, blocking in the main shapes and noting the ripple patterns on the water. The details were added later from memory.

A Vermont Farm

 Rooting around in the dusty archives I came across this early landmark in my artistic career. "A Vermont Farm", pencil on lined notebook paper, done when I was in fourth grade and probably should have been paying attention to long division. It won first prize in the 1962 NSA (yes, that NSA) Children's Art Show.

Railroad bridge and power plant on CT River

 Another depiction looking south from the North End Bridge overlooking the Connecticut River in Springfield MA. There were dark and light clouds scudding across the sky and plenty of atmospheric haze at ground level. My usual practice is to try to keep the lights and dark separate, with paper tone as the middle value, but this time I tried scumbling the white gouache over the dark ink wash to indicate the haze in front of the distant trees. I used a similar approach to suggest the water, which had still, reflective areas interspersed with opaque ruffles.

Railroad Crossing

Pen and ink, ink wash, white ink

4" x 6"

Connecticut River levee

 While my daughter and her entourage were selecting her wedding dress(!) I went out behind the shopping mall in search of something to sketch. Satellite imagery had shown that the mall backed up on the Connecticut River, separated by what appeared to be a strip of rough grass; on the ground this turned to be a very high levee, which is a good thing as the river has been running high and there has been a lot of flooding in the area. Anyway, I went ahead and did this watercolor of the levee and the line of darling violet flowers shining in the sun against the dark tree shadows.

Access road

 I revisited this access road in a wooded area I had sketched back in May, now with even more intense light and shadow in the shimmering heat. I could feel the sun burning my sandaled toes, so I didn't stay very long, and finished it at home from memory and photo ref.

New Sketchbook

 Process pix from the making of a new Montanapolitancroptic sketchbook, along with a few faves from the old one.