Not Nearly Frightened Enough

Ode To Poe - oil on illustration board, 8" x 14". (Done for a McGraw-Hill elementary school-level  compendium of Poe works).

Being scared for the fun of it has never been my favorite past-time. I do understand that some people absolutely love it, and would probably give their left arm to be a real zombie (sorry, ha ha), but I've never equated such grimness with humor or lightheartedness. People such as Poe and Lovecraft were masters of the genre, and it's really hard to find any humor in their tales. That's the kind of scary that I appreciate more.

That said, I really feel like Halloween is for the kids. Costume parties for adults are fun and all, but leave this day for the little ones. They dress up all the time, and this is the one day where this creative impulse is rewarded - so let them get the glory... or sugar rush, as is the case.

Last Leaves

Autumn's Fallen - oil on illustration board, 14" x 16"

I found this marsh warbler dead after it presumably hit a shop window in town. I don't think anyone saw me pocket it, but if they did, I'm sure it made them wonder. I don't normally do still lifes, so this is an unusual painting for me in that respect, but the bird was such a cool thing to have on hand to study, I wanted to compose a full piece out of it. The rugosa roses were the last blooms of the season, so, with the leaves and the bird, the whole piece is really focused on the beauty of things as they pass on. Perhaps this beauty represents a glimpse of the glory of rebirth? As far as the natural world goes, these kinds of things click into place so beautifully.

I hadn't mentioned it before, but I've been back at drawing room a few times since the end of summer. This past Monday yielded a few good drawings, and I have some others from weeks prior that I like. I'll post them here soon. You can always come by the studio to see these new things if you're in the neighborhood, of course. There's a First Friday coming up on the 7th, where I should have a few new drawings up. I'll make a more formal post about that later.

This weekend looks good for me to have some serious studio time, finally. Hopefully I can make some headway with either this one small work that I have set up, or the study for the larger figurative project I've been going on about. We'll see which I am in the mood for, I guess.

Fire and Water

Laurelin - oil on panel, 14" square.

If you're familiar with Portland, you may recognize this tree. Autumn's fine colors are gorgeous this year, and have peaked this week on the southern Maine coast. If you're wondering at the name, you'll have to read the first part of "The Silmarillion" again, I'm afraid.

I have been in and out of the studio quickly these days, unable to put in a lot of time on any one project. There have been quite a few social and familial obligations to fulfill, and I was hoping for a slowdown this fall, but to no avail. Even so, I have concepted out quite a few paintings for the future, and I am through the preliminary setups on two of them. One is the study for the painting with Molly, the other is more akin to the series I'm off-shooting from the successful "She Dreams." I'm very excited about this stuff.

Again, I wonder a bit about the efficacy of doing these figurative works, but hey, I don't need to move them as fast as I would were a gallery asking me for paintings. I would be eschewing the figure for landscapes, no doubt. Not that there's anything wrong with pure landscapes - I enjoy painting them dearly - but, as I'd said before, my vision is leading me towards the figure. Since I currently have the wherewithal to entertain this direction, I'm going to go for it.