Thank you!

 

 Two watercolors from New Mexico both over 30 years old now. You`re seeing them because I have no new completed work. I`m still in that promotional hyper-drive for a bit longer. First of all, thank you for the photos of your messy desks, I feel the solidarity! To the neurodivergent who sent me assurance, thank you! I don`t meet the criteria, as far as I can tell, for ADHD, but I sure can create a mess in doing almost anything. For a short time while we were in our thirties, I lived with my oldest brother Gary. He was tidy and clean and I felt like a dirt devil in his home, but I`ve learned to live with it.

You visitors to the first Lake Oswego Open Studios, thanks so much! It was a success beyond any of our hopes. We were correct, there were enough artists in our community and a population willing to support them. There were joyful encounters throughout the neighborhoods. In time I think the event will be a valued part of the cultural life of this town. 

 Here is my promotion; my show opens Saturday Nov.4 at the White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach Oregon. I`ve shown there for 38 years. This weekend opening is part of the towns Stormy Weather Festival which was created to encourage art lovers to visit at the beginning of the rainy season. It`s in the autumn that the coast has the wildest storms. The idea was to celebrate it and create a weekend full of fun, special events. I`m going to be giving short demonstrations of my painting techniques in watercolor on the plastic paper from Japan called Yupo.  1 pm on both days. Though public speaking is terrorizing, somehow I can paint and answer questions calmly. Come say hello. Ask me anything.

This is just a short post but I have a Public Service Announcement. While visiting my old buddy in New York, she tried to forward a recipe she liked from the New York Times. But it was blocked. My subscription to the Times does not include the food section or games. Now I pay $20 a month but they want more for my access to recipes. So I vent my frustration and mention what I pay every month. She says her subscription is $4.07 and includes everything. So now I`m angry but wait until I return home  before calling. I absolutely enjoy the digital newspaper so I wanted a back up before I threaten them with leaving.  I decide I`ll take the LA Times. I get a guy in a call center who immediately gives me everything for $4 a month, good for a year. I get credit for the last renewal they took from my bank account. When a year is up, he said just call back and make some noise and it will be extended again. Do all of these newspaper sites do this? Seems like a kind of theft. If you feel you`re paying too much for a digital subscription to anything, it may be worth your while to call them and negotiate a new rate.

click HERE for work in my studio for sale

Latest Paintings

                                      Water Wetlands Woods watercolor collage 13x35 inches

 I`ve been painting landscapes, preparing for my Open Studio and an exhibit at the White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach in November. Fully occupied yet all was not well within. I have been using oil paints for months and was really missing working on paper. A small window of opportunity appeared and I leapt. This began as just a painting but when I placed fragments of old works on top, it came alive quickly. I had such a good time and noted carefully those feelings. This 'technique' might be a bridge between representation and the abstract work I did during lockdown.

These are some of the new paintings on view during the Lake Oswego Open Studios [Oct. 14 and 15] and in November at the White Bird.

                                               Winter Slough oil on canvas 36x36 inches

                                                    Memory oil on canvas 16x16 inches

                                               Wetlands Morning oil on canvas 40x30 inches

                                           Coast Stream Morning oil on canvas 40x30 inches

                                   Cook`s Butte Study graphite watercolor on Yupo 12x12 inches

                                               Lagoon graphite watercolor on Yupo 12x12 inches

                                                                         my desk

 I`m really not looking to claim more neurosis than I already have but so many stories in the press revolve around ADHD and the complications it brings to peoples lives. Because a couple of them say clutter is a symptom I`ve tried to learn more. Even taking a test to self evaluate. I`m not restless by and large, I have no trouble listening to others and I complete my most important tasks. But I sure leave a wake of disorder. For the photo above, I just stood up and took it. It`s typically like this. When I had the 'practice' open studio for the other artists in Aug. I cleaned everything up. It takes no time at all to trash it.  I`ve learned to accept it without much embarrassment but is there something wrong with me?

                                                            cartoon by Bob Eckstein

This is my ultimate fear but save for cardboard boxes that I may very well need to ship paintings in, I`m a ruthless anti-hoarder. There will be thousands of works on paper but they don`t take up much space. John, however, has dead toys and electronics in all sorts of cubby holes he thinks I don`t notice.

                                                                Charles Bukowski

 Now that I`ve been sober, the poet Charles Bukowski is a hero to me.  Here`s what he has to say about cats;

 "Having many cats is good. If you feel bad, you look at the cats and you feel better, because they know that everything is just the way it is. You don`t have to be nervous about anything. And they know it. They are saviors. The more cats you have, the longer you will live. If you have a hundred cats, you will live ten times longer than if you had ten. One day, this will be known and people will have thousands of cats."

He was on to something!

                                                                       still the one

 Twentyfour years! When I entered into my first real relationship at 45, it was not a leap of faith, it was a sky dive. This younger guy was steady,  deflecting my anxiety and rookie mistakes. I am a lucky man!

  After the open studio I`m off to New York to see old friends! Yay!

                                                                           Rae Klein

Take some time and check out the website of Rae Klein. She is involved with myth in a psychological context. The work is absolutely strange yet affecting.

Come talk to me.

 Bonus: Leslie Peterson Sapp will also be showing with me. This is her first foray into open studios and she will have a variety of work. She`s maybe best known for her paintings based on film noir. She will have some new stuff too involving Archeology. She just returned from France where she toured the prehistoric caves with all those amazing paintings. Knocked her out. She will be fun, guaranteed.

5373 Lakeview Blvd

Lake Oswego OR

97035

Oct. 14 and 15, 10-5pm

Click HERE for some work for sale in my studio