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Skies to Observe for the upcoming Goldwell Residency



Rackstraw Downes  Mixed Use Field on Texas Coast, 1987, oil on canvas on board, 11 x 58 inches

As someone soon to be facing how to paint a large desert sky spread across a large desert panorama, I’m circling the question of the possibilities available.* The Goldwell Foundation, where …

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Hanneke van Oosterhout and Adriaen Coorte



20 x 30 cm detail from ‘Longing for Pondicherry’, Linen on wood, 70 x100 cm, in progress

Hanneke van Oosterhout just emailed me a detail from her latest painting showing a watermelon resting in an earthenware bowl. When I first discovered Hanneke, she was painting roses. I am able …

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The Small Project: A Cautionary Tale



On August 23 I finished the seven-panel plein air oils of The Diamond Grade. On September 10, I’m still working on putting together a small card with a fold-out version of the panorama. This is a project I thought to complete in a couple of hours. Instead, it’s taken weeks.

There …

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body image

Noticing that prolonged standing at an easel and painting with the right hand results in a twisted torso, it seemed a good idea to spend time to learn sketching with the left hand to twist the torso in the opposite direction and thereby, hopefully, realign centrally.

Remembering that da Vinci …

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golden ratio

Art supply companies sell pre-stretched canvases, wood and hardboard panels with only a limited number of dimensions. Standard width/length ratios are 1 x 1, 1 x 2, 2 x 3, 3 x 4 and 4 x 5. If I want to use a photograph of my camera as …

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Mirages, the Moon Illusion, and Painting the Void

The upper frame is an inferior mirage of the Farallon Islands. The second frame is the Farallon Islands with a green flash on the left-hand side. The two lower frames and the main frame are superior mirages of the Farallon Islands. The superior mirage went from a 3-image mirage (inverted …

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Modest Progress with the Spindle Series

I’ve shown the likes of these previously. The going has been slow as I have had to sort through a lot of possibilities and pick up some skills.  One thing remains unchanged as I am still stacking balanced elements on a common axis.

The summer a year ago I had stepped …

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Musings on Sfumato versus Outlining

The power of sfumato, the blending of colours or tones so that there is no perceptible transition, was used by Da Vinci and Gerhard Richter to represent an idea of female beauty and the expanse of a seascape, respectively.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci, c. 1475

Gerhart Richter, Seascape with …

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waves wogen vagues

The depiction of waves is a cherished painterly activity. Here is one of my studies depicting double waves.

SBD080709, 16 x 12 in, 41 x 31 cm; oil on board

Researching the manner in which 19th century artists depicted waves, I came across these:

JMW Turner, 1835 Shore scene …

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Textile Art, Deserts, and Decisions

In a few months, I’ll be back in Nevada, tackling the Amargosa Playa again. This time I want to do a set of painted panels, five 5×5 foot ones (25 horizontal feet). I have various notions of how this might work out in paint, but will have to wait until …

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