Never Waste Paint!

I work in acrylics and once they are dry — they are dry.  My palette is a shallow plastic box with a tight fitting top.  A spritz of water and sealing up the lid usually will keep the paints for a day or so.  But sometimes when I reach a stopping point, I know some paint might go to waste.  This is when an artist should reach for a piece of paper and work fast before making dinner.  This example (9”x7”) was painted the other day from a springtime photo of the Inverness Ridge Trail at Point Reyes.

ATCs of Palette and Place

Yesterday’s outgoing mail included my latest series ATCs.  In this series, the Collagescape idea that I began with in 2014 takes another direction.  There are eight different designs in the series.  Each design shows different place that has been reduced to four individual colors.  The colors are used to represent a certain place and, in some cases, a time of the year.

Take a Hike! — National Park ATCs

There is a great deal of expectation for artists to respond to the lunatic and his cronies that have occupied our White House.  As an artist I feel compelled to respond and yet I am torn.  I rather not let such negative energy into my art space. I want to make pleasant art and let my head escape to the national parks I love.  It is remarkable that something as innocuous as National Park-themed ATC’s could be perceived as something political. But these are remarkable times when our federal lands, lands protected for future generations, are under siege.   Even the voices of park rangers are being censored. Today’s outgoing mail art includes artist trading cards with the “radical” notion that the land administered by the National Park Service is to be loved and protected.

Point Reyes Inspiration

Along the Muddy Hollow Trail, acrylic on paper, 12”x7”

I have been visiting Point Reyes for years and returning home to paint it again and again.  2016 is no exception.   These are some of this year’s work inspired by one of my favorite escapes.

Schooner Creek, acrylic on paper, 12”x9”

White Road, acrylic on paper, 12”x9”

Pierce Point Ranch Fence, acrylic on paper, 9″x12″

Paintings to Mail Art

Trail to McClure's Beach #2

Trail to McClure's Beach #1

Bear Valley Trail

San Andreas Fault at Point Reyes

McClure's Beach

Pierce Point Ranch

Recently I have been working on a series of quick, small studies for future work.  Small acrylic landscapes that are all 4”x4’ each.  What to do with them one I am done?   I realized if I made them a bit bigger, say 4”x6” I could then give the studies another purpose.  Now they are also mail art, and today 10 Point Reyes Postcards are in the outgoing mail.