FALL 10 and WINTER 2

These are views of the approach to the Franciscan Center. These are small (6"x6") acrylic paintings. I like the immediacy of acrylics and the quick drying. After years of doing demonstration paintings for classes, I'm a pretty fast painter. I try not to get too bogged down with detail. Sometimes it works! What you can't see is that the image wraps around the side of a canvas box. I keep meaning to photograph some with the sides visible, but there's too much going on right now!!

If you're keeping score you'll notice there's no Fall #9. I don't know why that is!! I'll have to look over the inventory!

FALL 8

FALL 7

This one is at Eyekons and looking for a home.

fire and water

This is the new gallery in Lowell, MI. Well, my friend Patti Sevensma did some photographic magic this afternoon and took some pictures of me painting at the work tables in the new space. So I'm replacing my terrible photos with hers! She's a gifted artist/photographer who is also a gallery participant. What a wonderful group of talented people! I'm working on one of the 6"x6" boxes and you can see my display on the wall in the bottom photo on the left side. Thanks, Patti!

new gallery- actually, a showroom

This 'art showroom' opened yesterday. I'm very excited to be included. I've got work here and at the Eyekons Gallery at 210 East Fulton downtown!!

FALL 6

This is how FALL 6 started out. It just didn't seem to have the glow I was looking for and so I went back into the studio and punched up the color a bit.

This is more what I was looking for.

FALL 5

FALL 4

details

REDEMPTION, LIGHT OF THE WORLD

This is just finished. I'm entering a show at a local Franciscan retreat and the theme is "Beauty from Ashes". This painting 3' x4'. Not only does the theme fit the beauty that comes from God's plan of salvation into the ashes of our lives, but the materials are redeemed too! This is framed with an old frame that I once used for papermaking years ago. The board is covered with old canvas, much of the paint is leftover from a project at church. Talk about redemption! Saving the lost as well! I started with inks and I am attempting to adapt my new mixed media style to working on canvas. I think my nephew Karl would agree that this is numinous. And perfervid also! That's your vocabulary builder for the day!

FALL 3

FALL 2

This one has a little glare but I think it reflects the glow of the moment!

FALL 1

This is the first in a series of 6x6 landscapes with fall colors as the focus.

ENIGMA VARIATION #14

This is the last one in the series.

ENIGMA VARIATION #13

ENIGMA VARIATION #12

Two more after this, thanks for looking.

ENIGMA VARIATION #11

This one's a little more pastel, obviously!

ENIGMA VARIATION #10

ENIGMA VARIATION #9

This is the first long vertical in the series.

ENIGMA VARIATION #8

Now the variations start going horizontal and vertical.

ENIGMA VARIATION #7

ENIGMA VARIATION #6

ENIGMA VARIATION #5

ENIGMA VARIATION #4

ENIGMA VARIATION #3

ENIGMA VARIATION #2

ENIGMA VARIATION 1

This is the first of a series. I can't take credit for the name. It's taken from music by Edward Elgar written in 1899- I just read that he did 14 variations (Wikipedia says 13). So far there are 14 pieces in my series! I don't even know the music, but I've always been captivated by the title. It seems so descriptive of life itself. We've all got our own variations on the enigmas of life. For some of us, faith seems to help us accept and even embrace the enigmas~ even when the puzzle pieces don't fit. Well, maybe ESPECIALLY when the puzzle pieces don't fit!

ELUSIVE EQUATION 1

This is an extension of a series I called Hidden Arithmetic that I did in 2003. Here's what I wrote about it back then:

The “Hidden Arithmetic” series has an abstract focus on scenes in the Michigan woods. I’m reminded of how God numbers the stars and the hairs on our heads. Psalm 139:16-17 says: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.” My father recently died at the age of 88 years, 6 months and three days. The mysteries of God’s varying plans for his children and the numbers of ways that he teaches us and blesses enter in as I ponder the ever-changing compositions and arrangements in the woods. Psalm 90:12 says: “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are: help us to spend them as we should.” It’s arithmetic that’s hidden from us, but we can trust his calculation.

ELUSIVE EQUATION 2

ELUSIVE EQUATION 3

NAGS HEAD PATH

We were in Nag's Head, North Carolina on the Outer Banks a few years ago and I was taken by this path near the lighthouse. That's a beautiful part of the country.

BOZZETTO 33

This is the last of this series for a while.
Time for them to be delivered to the gallery and find new homes.

PUZZLING

I sold this piece yesterday. It's going to a good home, so that's good.
I guess I'll just have to go into the studio and create new favorites!!!

BOZZETTO 32

This is near Miller's Roadside Market along 31 above Onekama, MI.
(Hi, Nancy and Vicki and Kathy! Thanks for listening to me talk about

my work!!! I appreciate your enthusiasm and encouragement!)

BOZZETTO 31

Another of the 6x6 canvas boxes painted in acrylics.
This has the flavor of Benzie County in Northern Michigan.

BOZZETTO 26

BOZZETTO 28

Where are Bozzettos 24 and 27, you may well ask. They're around here somewhere!!

BOZZETTO 25

These are little 6x6 landscapes on 1.5 inch deep gallery wrapped canvas. They'll be available at the Eyekons Gallery in Grand Rapids. www.eyekons.com

BOZZETTO 23

BOZZETTO 22

BOZZETTO 21

part of the new series- these are going to the gallery soon

BILTMORE SPRING

This little painting never found anyone to love it beyond my studio, so it got painted over. I saw it in a file when I was looking for something else and thought I'd give it an audience.

AUGUST STUDIO 2005

This is a small painting 11x14- done last year in my studio. You can see the chaos of stuff behind the flowers. My favorite part is the little photo of my daughter that's hanging askew on the post above the flowers. I also liked it that I kept the brushstrokes loose.

SKETCHES

I thought it might be fun to post some of my little sketches for the landscapes I'm working on. These were done in the car on the way to see our daughter in East Lansing. Robert Genn refers to little studies as bozzettos. I guess it's an old term for little work so I guess that's what I'm doing. It's a fun term to google.

SANCTUARY #2

This piece just sold from the Eyekons Gallery.
I posted it and a companion piece August 1, 2006.

It was purchased by a local church and it's nice to think it's found a home in a house of worship!