I've never been comfortable with "Lots of Blue"

Well, the book only said that I have to jot down 3 ideas a day in my art journal. And it expressly stated that they did not have to be good!


The first idea, which is closely related to the third, is an idea I have been thinking about for quite some time. To preface: I developed a body of work, a series that I have been working on since 2002, the Sticks & Stones series. Select paintings in this series may be viewed on my website in Gallery 3. It is relatively popular, I had an exhibit of this series at Remmi Fine Art Gallery in Denver last September, and a couple of them sold. Two more were purchased by an art consulting firm called McGrath & Braun (the biggest in Denver!) Except that they wanted me to "expand" the designs to include additional paintings but the catch was that they all had to look like they were one painting, in other words, painted at the same time to appear as one cohesive piece. A challenge, to be sure, but the commissions were completed and turned out amazingly well (please see Gallery 10 on my website). So now Time Warner's corporate headquarters has a Sticks & Stones hanging their lobby and Jackson Life Insurance has one hanging somewhere within the walls of their office building. AND, I almost forgot to mention, that commercial posters of #10, #28 and #29 are available and can be found almost anywhere at online art poster sites. Just Google my name, plenty will come up. Also, recently a good friend of mine has reported seeing them at Z Gallerie in Tampa.

The thing is, the Sticks & Stones series has traditionally been executed in an abstract style, and I have never deviated from this. But, having a background as a realist, I have often thought that the Sticks & Stones would lend itself nicely to a realistic interpretation. Earlier this year, I found myself yearning to return to realism and in fact did for three figurative paintings (see Gallery 2 on my website) and this idea came full-force once again for the Sticks & Stones. So these 2 little sketches are basically the same concept, just different thoughts on how the layout should go. The first involves positioning the sticks and the stones on some interesting, natural papers. In the second sketch, I thought that using a plate as a prop might be interesting.


Now the middle sketch (detail above) came about as Image Conscious, the poster company that makes open-ended editions of my paintings, has requested that I attempt some abstracts in a new color scheme. Ugh! Hence the title of today's post. But I like today's painting (shown below).


I am a bit self-conscious to share these, but then, that was the whole point of starting this blog! So here it is, my first entries in my art journal, and a resulting painting with "Lots of Blue".