"Passion" complete

My series, "Passion" is coming to an end. If only to say I've run out of canvases to pilfer, I've run out of cash and I feel like I have a respectable amount of paintings to show a cohesive body of work during open studios.
Once a series feels as if it's come to a natural end, I need to move to the next idea and inspiration. Of course, that begs the question, what is the next idea and inspiration? From where does it come? Age old question. How does an artist answer?
Travel? sometimes. Life's experiences? Many times. Observations? often. Often the next series happens from the last jumping off point.
Liz, who owns Gstudio, is hard at work selling my paintings and has a client currently very interested in work that's available. This can sometimes be that jumping off point. Last fall, when I completed my portrait of Giacomo Puccini, that was a jumping off point to other portraiture. I know that the jumping off point is the passion series, but to where? I'm still in the midst of it, enjoying it but to where do I go from here? I could easily paint more of these paintings because I feel like I have many, many more in me, but I've run out of cash and run out of old canvas. Reality takes hold and I have to think practically.
Napa Valley Open Studios: You're officially invited but I have to figure out how to attach the PDF file so you can view the catalog. Stay tuned.

"definitely monday"
24x30
oil on canvas

All you need is gum...Gum is all you need

Visiting my parents with my kids up in the great Northwest this week. Of course the trip is never complete without a trip to Pike Market and specifically Golden Age Collectibles, buried deep inside, two floors down, west stairway...who cobbled together this maze? I love it.
Bisecting the market is Post Alley, a bit of an underbelly approach to the market, as one enters into the market through a virtual tunnel, of well, gum. There's a giant gum wall located directly under the Post Alley sign, presumably to welcome visitors. My son Terzo was more than happy to oblige.

"I could while away the hours..." scarecrow

I'm nearly finished going through ten years of unsold paintings that I have stashed, hid from view or otherwise shunned due to their supposed unsaleability. (this is doubtful as a word, not unlike impactful. So. not. a. word.)
What I've done with those ten years of unsold and unworthy paintings is to paint over them, using the canvases for this new series of "passion"
Collective gasp.
I know, I know, painting over another painting?! Is nothing sacred?!
It's actually what I consider a high form of reuse and recycling. As a sometime expert in both garbage/waste management and Feng shui practices, it is a near spiritual act of a higher calling to embrace the once cast off canvas with the new life and rehabilitative energies that lie within the pigment of the oils. Once this is done, new found energies emerge from the canvas in the form of a visual journey known as "passion".
Did I really write that? I am so full of shit.
It must be five in the morning, because I write my best (worst) at this early hour.

I am a virgo (yes, my birthdays coming, send all gifts to gstudio) and by definition, a die hard planner. The passion series is so out of character for me because of the spontaneous nature in which I began the series, painted the art and feel whilst I am in the act if you will, of painting them. I generally plan everything in my life, write lists, check off items and add yet more. But, I've been able to let go of some of that control with these paintings and it's felt good to go with my passions. It's been a long time since I've done something like this. Dare I say...never?

"passion"
oil on canvas
16x20

Into the home stretch

And by that I mean to say that the Open Studios event is right around the corner here in the Napa Valley. The event is the last two weekend's of September and it's much sooner than one might think. I'm taking my boys to see their grandparents in Washington next week and then after that, it's all about open studios and getting prepared. I've begun to go through the studio and examining all of the paintings from the garden series or what I am beginning to call the "passion" series. I can't take credit: a friend of mine calls it the passion series and I must say that I think it fits. Passion seems to be what this is about...Or more specifically, following ones own passion...?
Are you following your own passion?

"dirty fun" final rendition

work in progress as a painting

Back this week from a vacation in Mexico. Visited the area known as the Mayan Riviera. As has been the last seven trips to Mexico, the most lasting impression for me has always been the water of the Caribbean. I now have a solid mental snap shot that I plan to apply to a painting sometime soon, but for now, I am focusing on two things: finishing up the garden series that I'd started back in early June as well as a beginning a commission portrait of Stravinsky.

As a working title, "work in progress" is all I have right now. I went to the studio at 5:30, and usually am able to not let fatigue affect me through out the day after working in the studio that early, but I painted until about 12:00 pm, only having the distraction of sitting down for a short while. That time spent sitting relaxed me to such an extent, I am now feeling quite sleepy and can only wish for a nap.

With that, a title is born:
"afternoon nap" (work in progress)
36x48"
oil on canvas

this week at the studio

In the last few days thinking about the beach, isolated stretches of sand, long moments of thought.
windy, windy days...I love the wind.
"breathless"
16x20
oil on canvas

who among us has found clarity?

"breathing room"
12x30" oil on canvas