DANCE OR SPORT?

Seems like it has taken years for me to come to the exciting project of painting a series of canvases that have to do with the idea that dance and sport have similar gestures and come under the concept of movement as being composed of force, time, space and flow.

My first task at hand is to line up opportunities for getting on the playing fields of football,volleyball, soccer and tennis during practice to sketch as close as I do in the dance rehearsals I'm attending now. Eventually I would accumulate notes and experiences that will nurture this project for however it last.

It will be enjoyable to report into this blog as a journal for this endeavor.

PAIR ON THE RUN

After the gallery that I had these gestures exhibited closed last spring I decided to circulate some of this work in local venues. It has become a refreshing lift after losing the original home for this inventory.

The owners of a wine bar named BARILE' here in Portland have agreed to hang 10 of these gestures. Their interest and enthusiasm breathes new air into the work.

AND THEN AGAIN

Canvas work can be so luring. I don't have to settle for any line, color or shape unless I want to. So this canvas haunts me even in the grocery store and will do so until I find what it is I am looking for.

The female figure is more convincing then the last attempt.

Dance is conversation with the body. This canvas needs to offer that.

The male figure at the top right needs company.

NEW LINES ON OLD PAINTING CAN BE FUN

I have been pestered by a canvas I started over a year ago. The painting is from notes taken from James Canfield 's choreography last summer.

Actually it is several blogs back from this one. The gesture of the female figure on the left did not work in this composition .

On a studio errand yesterday the image of the figure that I needed came to me. When back in the studio she went down onto the canvas in a matter of seconds.

What fun to have resolved that part of this process called painting. Maybe I should repeat that same errand tomorrow before adding color and features to hopefully move her and the viewer.

CELEBRATION TIME COME ON!

What better way to announce I am back from a year sabbatical than flowers in season.

This year long sabbatical has provided the time needed to convalesce from surgery and creative fatigue.

The Northwest Dance Project NWDP, has provided me with notes to launch new works. They are one of the main dance attractions in Portland during the summer and I am grateful for the opportunity to prop on their floor and draw. It's great to be back.

BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND

The more I read as I flip through resource material the more my heart goes out to this often misunderstood animal. This began to show at the easel yesterday. Painting definately does not happen from the elbow down when dealing with the wolf. this animal represents a life form and that has stood the test of time at the whim of humans who have worshiped them and needlessly slaughtered them and that is still going on today.
"If we could live like wolves,

we would never hate our brothers

and sisters just for being of different colors.

We would live together in harmony,

knowing that the well-being of the others

would be the basis of our own well-being.

We wold care for each other

no matter whether young or old or healthy or sick.

We would look after nature

because we would understand

that we need Her to survive.

and we would kill for one reason only-for food.

What a perfect place earth could be,

if only we could be like wolves."

-Anonymous

"Wolves A PHOTOGRAPHIC CELEBRATION"

edited by amber rose

THE OTHER STUDIO PROJECT

The other studio project has been to develop an animal series that I can sell on line. This category of painting has always been there to play with as additional entertainment in the studio and i am beginning to accumulate a nice selection of finished work.

Hopefully, I can have a website of just animal paintings and drawings up and running by the end of this sumer.

When painting a specific animal I spend time reading about it and then find as many images as possible to simply observe closely. After getting acquainted there is the fun project of painting what I studied.The wolf is a complicated creature. Intelligent and resourceful. This painted has just begun to look for that.

"There is no question that the wolf is hampered by the worst press in all the animal kingdom."_Robt H. Busch