My Latest Effort

My daughter Liz snapped a photo of this mult-colored tiled roof while in the south of France this fall. I thought it would make a good painting. It's a good thing she doesn't visit this blog often, because I'm going to surprise her with it for her birthday.

Checking out my Art Prize Installation

Latest painting

Orange Light #2, 30 by 40 oil on canvas. Gift to Diane and Gary Kurek

Art Prize #2

Today I finished the back (or the front, depending how you approach it) of my Art Prize contribution. I think it is a bit more interesting than the first side. I had cataract surgery yesterday and everything seems a lot brighter.

Art Prize 2012

This year's Saugatuck entry in the Art Prize exhibit in Grand Rapids is a complete departure from last year's entry. (see earlier posts) It is also something new for me, an exercise in color and shape only--no representational work or curved lines.  This is the front of the piece--I am still working on the back.. It is 8 feet by 18 inches.  It will hang with 18 others in a "walk through" environment in September.

Latest Work

I finished this piece last night and hope to present it to its new owner next week. Many liberties were taken with the composition. The buyer wanted a vertical composition of what was a horizontal image. With apologies to Mr. Chiluly, his spheres were made transparent.

A new Commission

When we return to Michigan in late May, I will begin a large painting based on a visit to Fairchild Gardens in Miami, actually a photograph of a piece by Dale Chiluly that was installed there a couple of years ago.  I visited the place a couple of weeks ago to take more pictures only to discover the piece had been replaced by another work. So my work will probably be a combination of images based on this and the new photos. Stay tuned.

Where have I been?

Where I haven't been is at the easel. I turned 75 two days ago and I'd better get cracking if there's going to be any more art on this blog

A not so recent commission

A couple of years ago, a friend asked if I would do a painting of his house. I photographed it a couple of times but never seemed to get a shot I liked. The house is quite large and rambles across a small rise.  It is mostly obscured by a row of trees, several of which have been removed for the purposes of this painting that I finally finished yesterday.

We are returning to Florida next week via Venice Italy and a Mediterranean/ Transatlantic cruise that terminates in Ft. Lauderdale. I won't be painting or blogging for a while but should have lots of subject matter when I get back..

Memory of Shelter Island

At the end of the lane near my son's home on Shelter Island ,New York stands a picturesque ruin of an old grainery covered with ivy.  The ruins of a concrete pier thrust out into  the bay.  I painted this as a gift to my son's family.

A discovery

It took me all summer to realize that this photograph, that hangs in our local supermarket, is the basis of the painting  for Art Prize.  It was taken in the 30's, 40 years before Mr Olendorf painted the original from it.

A couple of new works

I was asked to decorate a door panel for a close friend and produced the cherry blossoms above.  The second painting is of a friend's backyard pond in neighboring Fennville.

Art Prize Opens

The installation was officially unveiled at a cocktail reception last night. It is so large I had to photograph it from an angle. Now we wait for the public's opinion.

Art Prize Continued

Yesterday,I helped with the installation of the completed piece,or at least a part of it because of another appointment. This picture shows about one quarter of the finished painting.  My part is the blue shack to the left.  More to come

Goshorn Lake Before and after

Phase 1

                                         The finished painting

I finally got around to finishing the painting of our little lake from the top of our dune.

An exciting new project

I finally have something interesting to post here. An invitation went out to local artists to participate in a project for Art Prize, the huge art exhibit now in its third year in Grand Rapids. Twenty Four of us are reproducing a section of the painting shown below to create a Fifteen by Fifteen foot piece to be shown at The BOB, a central venue for  Art Prize.  The original painting, by William Olendorf is from a photograph, taken in the Thirties, of an art class on the Kalamazoo River near the chain ferry. The fishing shacks and boats are mostly gone by now, but the view is pretty much unchanged and evokes the spirit of Saugatuck as an art community.

The challenge is to get the pieces to fit and the colors to match. I have met with the artists to the north, east and west of my piece and we're pretty much aligned but the color match needs some work.

My assignment

My piece so far

Max Matteson is east, a good fit

                                                            

The piece on the west needs some work on the color match

The north alignment is good but the color match needs work

Stay tuned.

The Yellow Rose

Enough Said

Cross Country

Sorry for the hiatus.
We just returned from a 7100 mile five week jaunt to California and back from Ft. Lauderdale. Needless to say, there haven't been any new paintings for a while, but I have some interesting photos that may make it yet into paintings.

White Sands New Mexico

Tucson Arizona

Palm Springs California

Cambria California

Santa Barbara California

Phoenix Arizona

Grand Canyon

New Orleans

                                   

Back to class

Sorry for the hiatus in posting. We are bck in Florida and I'm back in class. These are the first efforts. Not great, but whatever.....

A small commission

This is a  present for a lady who loves blue. It will be travelling to the Seattle area for Christmas.

Beach Walk

This painting was inspired by a cover photo on a local visitor's guide. I tried to convey the heavy air of a cloudy day when Lake Michigan is comparatively still.

Latest Paintings

These most recent paintings are views of the property near our cabin. They will be part of an exhibit of my work at the Douglas Congregational United Church of Christ in Douglas, Michigan during the month of August.

I'm on a roll

I actually have three paintings in various stages of completion. After almost 2 years of inactivity, I really feel great about it. Gregg commissioned this one for this year's Christmas card. He took so much flak over the photo on last year's card "Flipping off Christmas".

Graham

July 4th weekend is almost here and I finally finished the portrait of my youngest grandchild who will be arriving for the weekend. We have hung it beside his bed. I hope he recognizes himself. He is the last of the grandchildren to be painted. Maybe he's the last of the grandchildren????

Painting again!

This is the finished painting I started in September '09 and have been staring at ever since. Our pastor asked me to have an exhibit at our church this summer and this was the motivation I needed.

The unfinished work is shown above for contrast.

Phase One

This is the underpainting of a new work, the view from our back porch. As I work on it I'll post various stages.

Last of the Oldies

John R.

Lillies

Orange Light - Saugatuck

Palm Hammock

Woods at Oxbow - Saugatuck

Pier Cove Michigan

The Richest Man in Belize

Winter Sleep - Fennville Michigan

We are about to head north for the summer where I have a studio at home. Hopefully this will mean some new paintings will be forthcoming. In the meantime, this is the last bunch of my old favorites.