Rainy in Rockport, 11x14

Can you believe another year has come and gone?  (and I still don't have my studio clean)   Tomorrow is the day of the annual sorting where paintings of this last year are summarily tossed into the bin of no return or given one more chance.

This painting off the Maine coast will survive as good source material and good memories.

I hope your year has been rewarding and that you are looking forward to the next in good health and high spirits.  There is so much to be appreciative of despite our troubled Earth.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year bring with them so much possibility and hope that in the future things can be  different for our world and everyone in it.

Who knows, maybe this year I'll get the studio clean....

Waisted Curves, 16x20

 

How often in life have you run across someone who dresses everyday as if it was 1898?  This subject was so deserving of a much larger canvas but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get down at least a sketch.

An author, milliner, seamstress and now model, Sarah and her husband both dress in period costume and give lectures on the subject.  Her book, Waisted Curves: My Transformation into a Victorian Lady is available from her website.  She began wearing a corset two years ago and you can see her before and after pictures on her site.  Worth the visit.


By the way, they drive a DeLorean while wearing their tophat and shawl (ok, maybe not the tophat).  Another painting of her in Victorian dress is HERE.  Her waist is actually smaller than I painted it.

Room for One More, 10x12

Lost in one of the painting piles was this and another from the trip to Maine.  While here in the Seattle area isn't exactly boring, I do envy those painters on the East Coast and all the beautiful subjects/shapes they have available.  The grass is always greener....and I have wander lust.

This is from the Rockland area.  I'll post the other one soon.  

Johnson Farm, 16x16

Ever have pieces that just don't turn out?  Every year on New Year's Day I go through the pile of paintings/drawings of the past year and start tossing.  It feels good to unload and dump the pieces that went south for various reasons.  Occasionally I'll keep a few of the rejects and see if someday a solution might appear.

This painting was saved from the reject pile seven years ago or so and I stumbled on it the other night looking for a new panel.  A solution came to me a few minutes later and here is the result.  Now there's a chorus of rejects all begging for a second chance.