Slideshow

A slideshow being down isn't very serious, but it's annoying. Something was missing from this page that should be here flickering on the side. I investigated the situation and found I wasn't alone, a lot of Google bloggers were complaining. I added my two cents and then spent some time organizing the My Art Picasaweb blog album--add this, delete that, move this here, move that there. My sorting and adding was like jurying my work for an art show. What was acceptable? What should be rejected?

The categories that turned up went across the board: portraiture, florals, abstractions, landscape and still lifes. Portraits were most abundant. Still lifes, least. Portraits, I always did, but florals and landscapes showed up when I moved to this condo in the middle of a nature preserve, in the middle of a city and at last had studio space--enough room to spread out.




Before that I lived in a couple apartments. In one space, with no room to be loose with the paint, I painted a nine foot by two foot geometric like a monk would--on unstretched canvas that I worked inch by inch across my desk like I was penning a scroll. I did it for my own decoration. It was couch art that was reflected at night in the giant windows over looking the city. From my seat on the couch, I could see the painting, the night lights of the city and watch TV at the same time. I chose nine feet because it would be great over my seating arrangement and that's as big a canvas as the elevator would take after it was stretched--I was thinking more like a designer and space planner than I was as an artist.

In the second apartment, I don't recall doing any painting at all except elaborate perspective drawings and specific furniture designs for clients. Those concept drawings sold for quite a bit--in the thousands--they were the documentation of building projects, without them, no construction. The remodeling/residential construction business was booming then, as was the real estate market and I was designing everyday, all day.




Then we got here and I got room to spread out and be me. The first painting I did is the one featured on top, Wall Street. I always did like cityscapes. They're architectural. They related to what I was doing in residential renovation. I did two more renditions before painting Gaillardia, florals. Glad to be back where there were beds to garden, my flowers became my main subject on studio weekends. Also my grandchildren who lived long distances away. In the evenings, I did pencil drawings of them to bring them closer. Pencil was neat and welcome in the great room while watching TV with Honey. AND I was a hell of a lot better with it than I was with knitting needles.

And here I am, pretty much out of design work, blogging and drawing or painting daily to occupy time till what? Wall street settles down, everybody feels secure, jobs return to Michigan, and the real estate market recovers along with construction? I have my doubts.

So my slideshow disappeared and I got a chance to take a hard look at my artistic efforts. I like the portraits--heads primarily. Good for small works. Then the draftsman/designer in me likes square canvases,(grid system mentality I suppose,)and multiple unit paintings. I can build with these, use color and canvas structures spatially, and be playful if I want. Out of the jungle, happily in my studio,I really like playful--and apparently pastries.