Artist Process
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January 08, 2022 – New 16×20 Inch #Acrylic Upload @FineArtAmerica – Fantasy Landscape
This is one of those works I didn’t “see” the landscape til I saw it from another room, lol! But I’d immediately liked the colors and sway of texture, and though it’s kinda rough is spots, it’s part of what makes it work I think. Usually I’ll hold a very new work like this for…
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January 05, 2022 – Lyrical Abstraction? Never Heard of It, til Now!
I came across this term just recently, something I’d never even heard any inkling of – Lyrical Abstraction, and the tiny bit I’m coming across is intriguing me —
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January 04, 2022 – Pondering the Past and Present of My Art – 2 Landscapes 17 Years Apart
Besides being 17 years apart, there’s a lot both separating the two yet joining them both. I’ll admit, the 2004 oil is far more developed than it’s younger brother from this year, lol! But, it did take me 4 years of effort to get to the point of painting an oil at that level. It’s…
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January 02, 2022 – Reblog / Review : “Oral history interview with #JoanMitchell, 1965 May 21” via the #Smithsonian Archives of American Art
There’s a level of self-reflection or recognition that seems to put a lot of truth into her words, Joan’s words. This is a keeper article, the Smithsonian’s, not mine, lol! There’s a reality I get each time I re-read it ☺️ It’s un-pretentious. It’s real. It’s live ❤️
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December 28, 2021 – Found One of My 2005 (or so) Gesso / Oil In-lays on Canvas With a Landscape Relief Texture That Pre-figures My Light Molding Paste Painting Experiments I’m Doing Now!
So there, in the 3 images above, between my featured image of my gesso-textured oil layin from 2005, my current watercolor / acrylic from 2021, and my 1986 acrylic, is a pattern of mine of searching for how best, or at all, to not only work in texture into my painting, but to actually have…
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December 22, 2021 – New 6×6 Inch #Acrylic Upload @FineArtAmerica – Mesa Verde in the Beginning
I’ve just recently begun letting myself acrylic-free-wheel experiment on what I 1st began experimenting with my watercolors on, little 6×6 inch gallery wrapped canvases, much like my recent post on another painting from this same new batch – The Smile in the Moon . Mesa Verde in the Beginning is much more abstract, and the…
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December 19, 2021 – 3 Videos of New Acrylic Work, Assorted Sizes and Colors – #Abstracts, #FigureArt, #Florals
An important post with lots of new images, mostly all completed or near finished. I haven’t had time to format and upload all these images, but am working on developing an image page of my available art work. I’ve a lot I’ve been figuring out, and should have a preliminary post on the project fairly…
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December 18, 2021 – How I Came to Like and Finish My Little 6×6, The Smile in the Moon
This was a real challenge for me, how to keep the bulk and integrity of this small pink work, a work I really really like, but felt was a touch too stark.
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December 17, 2021 – 3 Ways (so far) I’ve Found (that I like) For Signing My New Heavy Textured Paintings, But Still Searching
I like my sig on my work to fit, relatively easy to see, and not difficult to find either, lol! The problem arises to begin with because I’m filling the surface of my canvas in a way I also don’t want to disturb the work, otherwise, I can paint my sig when finished, carve it…
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December 16, 2021 – Destroyed 2 Small 6×6’s I Was Liking and, Experimenting, Created Two I Like Better – #theAdjacentPossible?
It’s a little hard to tell in the smaller images above which ones I circled in red (unless you tap on the image & see full screen). The one shot image below, with the two left paintings circled are what I did have; and the single shot image below it, with the two end paintings…
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December 15, 2021 – Reblog : Quotes and Paintings, via #JoanMitchell, That Speak to Me, via #TheArtStory
Joan Mitchell’s work has begun to appeal to me more and more, ever since I started reading Ninth Street Women (she’s of that time) and I haven’t even gotten to much about her in that book yet, lol! Though I did do a reblog ’bout a short video of her work here –
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December 14, 2021 – What I Used To Want My Art To Do; What I Want My Art To Do Now
A friendly warning, this particular post is chock full of image of work in-progress – full shots, detail shots, etc 😊 As probably should be the case, this being more a talky-about-me and my relationship with my art. Some introspective, some of wrestling with memories dealing with how I’ve felt about my art at differing…
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December 11, 2021 – A Gift Horse? Maybe! An Experiment I Just Might Expand On – Yellow #ImpressionistAbstract 1
I’d been searching for a way to experiment with the Light Molding Paste I use a lot recently in my newer acrylic & acrylic / watercolor painting, and kept reading ’bout one can mix paint directly in with the paste. But that’s all I’d get, info wise, lol! So, I had an errant 12×24 1.5…
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December 08, 2021 – My New Minimalist Art Experiment, “#AbstractMinimalism 2” – Umpteenth Photo Capture, lol! 3rd Upload Version to #FineArtAmerica! I May Have it!
Finally, with a particular lighting, and using my Canon compact, and – adjusting the photo a bit with both my iPhone’s image settings and in Affinity Photo, I think I have about as close as I’d get without a professional scan.
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December 07, 2021 – My New Minimalist Art Experiment, “Abstract Minimalism 2” – So Subtle I Can’t Capture an Accurate Shot!
You can see, above (1 pic) and below ( 2 pics, in differing frames ) how different they each come across!
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December 03, 2021 – I Am Tired, But I Am Happy; I’ve Been Painting, A Lot!
The above pic contrasts below with this earlier pic shot shot in November —
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December 02, 2021 – My Minimalist Art Experiment, “Abstract Minimalism 1 (in-progress) Part 2, Major Shift
The large blue area (which I loved) had to be muted (or change the other orange/red areas). Blue bottom areas were also muted. The white/yellow glaze over the blue area tinting it into green. But, do I want to do more? Do I need to do more?
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November 26, 2021 – Working on Paintings; In-Progress : 2 New Lay-ins ( “Heart Fragment” and “Approach” ) Based on Details from Two Existing Paintings
This has been something I’ve toyed with and talked about for a bit now — finding / picking a detail fragment of an existing painting (or photo etc) from which to base new work on. And I shoulda caught on to how well this might work for me, in terms of creativity and viewership, with…
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November 24, 2021 – Working on Paintings; In-Progress : Valentines 2022, In-Progress Since Early October, lol!
Not quite finished, but looking fairly good, especially considering back in early October I thought, “Yeah, I can finish this quick then save it for early next year.” Now, I’m thinking, really? Will I really finally get this finished by January next year, lol!
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November 20, 2021 – Working on Paintings; In-Progress : Night Dancer, or Possibly, Duet, Part 2
Though I did start a watercolor pencil line drawing on a blank canvas of (male) Night Dancer’s partner (left side of a potential duet combo painting, nothingto show of it yet), I couldn’t let go of working this painting yet. My sorta solution?
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November 19, 2021 – Working on Paintings; In-Progress : Night Dancer, or Possibly, Duet
First, I did work on my previous in-progress post’s work, Butterfly Starburst, adding some grey-greenish lighter tone streams to the white streams on the left side of the painting. I’ll give my eyes a rest from it, see it new in a few day, then see if maybe it’s done 😊 Second, regarding the iffy…
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November 18, 2021 – Working on Paintings; In-Progress : Butterfly Starburst
I’ve mentioned a few posts back I now have “lots” of paintings in progress – a good thing, a fun thing, and a slightly problematic thing for me in re to blog posts, well, my blog posts, lol! What I’m gonna try, with a day or 2 lag on the in-progress work posted (I’d like…
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November 16, 2021 – When Framing a Painting, Don’t Act Like You Have a Screw Loose (because you really might!)
There’s a lot of good reasons, despite the apparent monetary savings, most of us prefer not to frame our own paintings, photos etc. Time is one. Fear is another (and sometimes justified, lol!) The most aggavating for me though is churning happily along, literally taking for the well worn process for granted (I framed pics…
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November 12, 2021 – New #Acrylic #Watercolor Upload @FineArtAmerica – Walking in Light
Back near mid-October I posted about beginning a couple of new projects and featured my initial layin image below-left. The simple shift to the final image is a bit deceiving, as both the foreground and background had more of the intense coloring, some of which came off when I removed the masking fluid I’d applied.…
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November 10, 2021 – Following Up with Helen Frankenthaler’s “How to Be an Artist” via Alexxa Gotthardt at #Artsy
Yesterday’s reblog/review, also via Artsy, but by a different author, went into a indepth look at how the art market has been responding to Helen Frankenthaler’s work for nearly 3/4s of a century now. Along the way, I found the article’s included informational description of her creative process the most interesting to me. Artsy, it…
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November 09, 2021 – Reblog/Review : How Helen Frankenthaler’s Color-Soaked Canvases Won Over the Art Market, via Justin Kamp at #Artsy
There’s lots of reasons I like reading about artists whose lives are considered successful, in one form or another – money, fame, critical acclaim, etc. But the biggest reason I’ve found for myself, whether reading about Monet or Renoir or Berthe Morisot or a contemporary of, Helen’s – Joan Mitchell (which I recently reblog/reviewed an…
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November 05, 2021 – New #Acrylic Upload @FineArtAmerica – Dance
An exuberant slash of color and shape swimming with colors and shapes, Dance is a new acrylic abstract I last worked on nearly a month ago in early October. I let it sit, hang on the wall, lean in a corner; recently wired and framed it, and never saw what my wife says she’s seen…
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November 03, 2021 – Handy Creative Benefit While Waiting for More Time to Paint : Prep a Canvas with a Potential Image in Mind
I forget that, whether working oils or watercolors or acrylics, where one dries ultra slowly and another fairly quickly but is re-wet-able and the other dries super fast anyways, I can – and now that I’m again into some kind of stream of painting more consistently – I can and should and am lucky to…
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November 02, 2021 – Reblog/Review : “Low Water” by Joan Mitchell via #bofamasterpiecemoment at the Carnegie Museum of Art
This was a terrific video for me to start off with, perusing Bank of America’s series of artist profiles – Masterpiece Moment on YouTube. I get email alerts for new episodes and have finally, gladly, gotten to watching one 😊 I must admit, I chose this short “moment,” featuring Joan Mitchell, to see 1st because…
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October 29, 2021 – Reblog : via Artnet – “Studio Visit: Painter Jo Baer on the Exercise Gear (and Chili) That Are Her Secret to Making Large-Scale Artworks at the Age of 91”
I’d saved the tweet below a few months (date shows it 1st was tweeted late last year, Nov 2020) thinking this would be an involved article with lots of interesting info on Jo’s process working with large-scale art. I was 1/2 right 😊 First, the part I got wrong was….
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October 27, 2021 – New Masking Fluid/Light Molding Paste #ArcylicAbstract Project Completed – “Angel”
Difficult to get this image close, much less “right” digitally for me, but this is very close; well, except for the texture, but hope the close-up crops below help 😊 First though, a before / after side-by-side look of my Angel looked like with my masking fluid layin hidden under my 1st paint pass through…
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October 26, 2021 – I’ve Been Reading, and It’s Triggered a Realization on My Part How Important the Surface of a Painting, My Own Paintings in Particular, Are to Me….
…tinkering with the surface of my current art work. I enjoy doing that, immensely. The surface of my work often being as important, or I should say, as interesting to me, as the image as a whole. And of course now I want to make the image as a whole, whether seen from a short…
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October 25, 2021 – New Masking Fluid Project – “Angel”
Continuing with more new paintings I’ve recently set in motion, Angel appears to be a dark swirl but is actually hiding some carefully but casually placed masking fluid lines. I’ll be showing some detail shots of “Angel”‘s more recent state tomorrow, but am still working on the painting as a whole. This particular masking fluid…
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October 23, 2021 – New #Acrylic Upload @FineArtAmerica – Mother and Child
It’s been quite a development for this painting, growing from an idea of a previous work with a less defined at the time unrealized depiction of a younger and older person. Probably the most important development is my own realization of that development, lol! Frankly, though I often saw a realization-glimpse of that sort even…
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October 18, 2021 – A Good Problem, Lots of Interesting Pics and Posts Developing in My Blog Pipeline! Part 3, 1st Completed Work of 5 – “Playtime, Mother and Child”
I’m also breaking a bit of tradition in terms of my routine and going ahead and posting my completed image, not as good a resolution etc as I’d like (yet), and also not yet uploaded to Fine Art America. It’s simply a time choice. Paint and create. Or paint less but massage the photo capture…
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October 15, 2021 – 2nd Time Out Sketching with Austin’s #UrbanSketchers Group! Still a Treat! #PeasePark
Though immensely more challenging this time around for October’s outting with Austin’s Urban Sketchers chapter (heat indexes near 100 – hopefully a forerunner to an expected cool front; traffic challenges due to Austin City Limits festival), and, not particularly enamored with my resultant efforts this time around — — it was so good to talk…
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October 13, 2021 – A Good Problem, Lots of Interesting Pics and Posts Developing in My Blog Pipeline! Part 2
Recently I posted 3 other canvas paintings I’ve been working on, and here I’m showing the 2 I’d mentioned in that post but didn’t have photo captures of yet. Both are 18×24 on canvas, with light molding paste from Golden, but, at this stage applied slightly differently.
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October 11, 2021 – A Good Problem, Lots of Interesting Pics and Posts Developing in My Blog Pipeline! Part 1
And the 3 images above do not include 2 more 18×24 semi-abstract semi-figure works, lol! Which is great for my painting and fitness interests, but leaving me a tiny bit in the lurch blogging-time wise – but – with a wealth of new material, well, materializing 😊 It’s my intent to have a blog post…
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October 08, 2021 – Girl on Bicycle Study 1 v2, #Watercolor on Paper; Masking Fluid Removed, Minor Adjustments = Similar Yet Different Picture : Calling it Done!
I’m sensing a strong pattern right now in any of my work with masking fluid involved – ie, nice image with my paint overlay over the masking fluid, and a differing yet pleasing picture emerges. I continue to be concerned though, because I’m liking my painting overlays incrementally more each time.
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October 06, 2021 – Abstract Study 1 Turns Out to be A Nice Pattern for Gifts @FineArtAmerica!
Though, as per my recent blog post, of how I “messed up” this small 9×12 watercolor on paper, I also realized, after seeing it propped up in my art room, half crumpled, that the design itself was decent! So I digitally cleaned it up and uploaded it onto Fine Art America, where I’d sometimes lament…
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October 05, 2021 – Girl on Bicycle Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper; 1st Paint Lay-in Over Masking Fluid
In contrast to my prev post – describing a disaster with an abstract study on paper 😯 – I hope to shorten this one quite a bit – taking wife to dr appt then groceries then returning home before Austin City Limits’ festival kicks off and we won’t have a place to park near our…
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October 04, 2021 -Accidentally Wrecking One of My Painting Efforts (Abstract Study 1) Helped Focus Me
Actually, I accidentally wrecked it, mostly because I surged forward wanting to do too much too quickly with too much paint & masking fluid, on paper – and – not enough patience to have thought this out 😏 In my own defense, some of those “too much’s” I didn’t realize were too much! 😊 Like….
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October 01, 2021 – Sunflower in Dappled Light Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper – 4th Rendition; Lessons on the Evolution of This Painting Study
Sunflower in Dappled Light Study 1 turned out to belie itself in one important regard – it shoulda been a larger canvas work. Where it did shine, for me, creatively, is the dazzling combination of styles I managed to squeeze out of me and onto paper to try and get the expression I wanted for…
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September 30, 2021 – Reblog : A Visual Problem-solver or Just Getting It Right? (Andrew Wyeth’s Brown Swiss) via Dianne Mize
This is, it turns out, a reblog of a reblog, lol! First posted by Dianne Mize about this time last year (Sept 2020), she’s kindly reposted, and I’m very glad she did! I’ve recently been “experimenting” with light molding paste, acrylics, watercolors, line art, figure art, and even masking fluid. Again. As I have over…
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September 29, 2021 – Sunflower in Dappled Light Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper – 3rd Rendition; Wanna Finish, But Can’t, Not Yet….
My 3rd rendition of Sunflower in Dappled Light Study 1 has veered away from me like a giddy 2 year old confident mommy or daddy is nearby and can go explore the world with a glee and squeal – then tripped on a pebble the size of a finger tip, crashed to the ground, and…
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September 28, 2021 – Sunflower in Dappled Light Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper – Removed Masking Fluid, Debating if Finished
Though my 2nd rendition – masking fluid removed from the sunflower and it’s surrounding abstract color space – is much more to my liking, it’s also obvious to me – as per the comparison images below, that I could have done more. Should have applied much more masking fluid…I’d gotten too timid I think, after…
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September 27, 2021 – Sunflower in Dappled Light Study 1, #Watercolor on Paper; 1st Paint Lay-in Over Masking Fluid
A 9×12 on 140lb x watercolor paper, like my previous (and 1st study subject) – Walking in Dappled Light Study 1 (1st rendition), Sunflower in Dappled Light Study 1 also seems quite lacking in dapple-ness, lol! (see comparison images below)


















































