A season for work

There can be some anguish these days amongst us painters as we try to balance our creative work with the need to pay life's relentless invoices. For myself the lack of sales activity pushes me to examine what is important in life and then to jettison the superfluous and focus on the essentials.

I like old Solomon's observation after much soul searching; "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God."

Better to dive deep into the work rather than be blown about in a world obsessed with the clever and the trendy. Funny that for all my worry about making ends meet I haven't missed a meal since I was about nine years old.

My time is divided between portraits and landscapes so here are a few current examples.




You may remember this scene. I painted from the same spot about three weeks before this one. The first snow had fallen between sessions and a good view is a good view.



This lovely young girl/woman is Sarah, another of my portrait project sitters. I asked her to pull up her hoodie which effectively transformed the composition . She has a kind of Madonna (saint not pop star) thing going on now. I used pinks and greens to model her face rather than obvious value shifts. In deference to her parents I refrained from including a halo. I like the result and it was fun to do.


This original sod roofed house is on a local orchard; co-incidentally our family lived on this farm for a few years when the children were small and the earth was cooling. This image is a bit too yellow because of my photography but gives you a sense of it.

The building is surely over 100 years old . Simpler times. Do you suppose the inhabitants had the luxury of worrying about how to sell their art? More likely they were kept busy providing themselves with food and drink. I appreciate how blessed I am to be able to pursue my painting.

Back to it. Until next time.