Memories

Its a rainy day here in Hawaii. I'm looking out the window remembering back to how this "painting thing" started. Working at the family sign shop, back in New York state, 36 years old, telling my dad how I was going to be up and running as an artist by the time I was 40. Well I'm 54 now, and I can turn out a pretty decent painting. Most of the time I feel I have something worth while to say when I'm painting. Somewhere on this stretch of the road, the money is supposed to start rolling in, right? Right??
Well, anyways........Here is "Belly Buster" 12 x 16. Makes me think of my sisters kids for some reason.........back when they still were little kids when I left town.

A "little" Lobster

Thought I might try dinner before desert today. Actually this is a little 8 x 10 study called "Lobster" done in anticipation of a larger piece. I liked the way I just picked up some red paint, and started painting......no sketching, just right to it. For the big piece I'm going to change the table cloth, and possibly add some utensils too.
What a nice way to start the week.

Strawberry Season

I spent about an hour today looking for something new. Something red! And here it is........Strawberry Shortcake 11 x 14. Reminds me of strawberry season back east, when mom would take all of us kids out to the local "pick your own" strawberry patch for a few hours. After that it was jam, pie, and shortcake!!

Back under the Big Top again

My first day back on Island and in the studio after a 2 week stint on the mainland. Its a tough adjustment for me, working 2,500 miles away from home. I called the Bay Area home for 4 years before taking the leap to Hawaii and have a lot of familiarity with it. I've lived in Hawaii for almost 5 years now. The shifting of routines from Mainland work to Hawaii art studio creates a very disjointed feeling.......like "routine jet-lag". I never really settle into one mode. Kind of like having 2 half lives instead of one whole one. Needless to say it takes a bit of time to readjust once I'm home and do something positive.
My first effort back in the studio is usually anything to just get me painting. I find that most of the time its an expression of my emotional struggle to readjust. So here is "The Blue Elephant" 14 x 18, because "the show must go on!"
Now its time to put my big boy pants on and get to work. :)

I've had alls I can stands and I can't stands no more!

I remember the first time I set foot on Hawaii. How wonderful and friendly everyone was. It really made you think how nice it would be to live here. But unfortunately, unless you can live in a resort hotel, Aloha takes on a whole different meaning as soon as you leave the resort boundaries behind.
As an artist, I sometimes find it necessary to display my anger in my work..........to expose truth in a way that might make someone sit up and take notice. And co-incidently my painting ability has arrived to the point where it can communicate in a rather direct manner. That being said, I give you "Aloha, from Hawaii" 24 x 30.
A picture really is worth 1,000 words!

Flowers for...........me, I guess

Whenever I start a painting, I'm trying to find something that I feel I want to say, that meshes with something someone else might want to hear. If things get too personal.......... well no one wants to hear that. If its too generic, it gets lost in the blah, blah, blah of the art world. These next 2 paintings are of a bit more personal twist. I like yellow. Its like sunshine. But its hard to really achieve that high yellow note, as Van Gogh used to say. So I paint yellow just for me. Nice and bright.
I call this "Jamie's Flowers 14 x 18 and the only reason I painted it was to make myself happy. And that's the fun part of my development as an artist, I don't have to worry about how to paint anymore........I just have to think about what I want to say.
The second of these 2 personal paintings will show a more "critical" view of my subject matter. I'll save that for tomorrow.

Unhappy Time

As "unhappy time" unfolds here in Hawaii, I am slowly getting up enough free attention to start to paint. I am keeping things small, and fresh, as my ability and desire to concentrate on painting are a bit distracted at this point.
But you know........this was a pretty neat result. "Lime Sorbet and Cookie" 11 x 14 started out a bit on the ho-hum side, until I ran that streak of red around the tops of the sorbet......then POW. Really simple with the complimentary color kick. This color is like music to my ears!

Where do I go from here?

This is my first new piece in about 3 weeks, as some serious personal problems have consumed all of my attention units, leaving me nothing to paint with. I needed to try and get back into some sort of positive energy flow, so I picked up a brush just to see what would happen.
I call this"Orange Sherbert" 12 x 16 and it was simple enough to paint with small attention, and gave me a much needed distraction. Hopefully this will get me back on my feet, and into the game.

And then I died

I like this. Its a painting from about 6 months ago. Why........because its fearless.....takes some chances, and is fun to look at.



Honest....I will have some new work up soon. TY to all, if there is an all out there. j