Covid Winter

Even though it’s been a year of seasons I think of it as the Covid Winter.  It started in the cold of 2020 & here we are in the snows of February.  I went from small pictures to big.  I went with the ebb & flow of images & impulses.   I logic-ed nothing.  I sourced from wherever, letting the sky fall & fall, falling into the pictures.
In May I painted Valentine from Doodle Beach, an homage to my love of old style, lacy valentines. I made up the lace as I went and added inserts of roses and bits of the sea.  It was quite painstaking to do but I relished its wonky filigree.  

Valentine from Doodle Beach

2020     24 X 33     oil on wood

And then I painted a golden tree (from a dream) in a land of pink.  Pinked seagrass, pink reflections and blush drenched sky.

(Pink) Tree

2020     36 X 48 oil on panel

With a sudden swerve in size and environment I found: 

Shiva in the Forest

2020      18 X 24       oil on panel

That summer my son & I had read The King of Elflands’s Daughter.  I asked him what I should paint next and he suggested the time in the story when Elfland recedes, leaving a barren landscape behind.

Leaving

2020     24 x 36       oil on panel

Of course then I needed to paint the moment the magic comes rushing back in.

Returning 

2020    33 1/2  X  40 1/2     oil on metal blackboard & painted wood frame

The next picture has two of my favorite things…..the sea & a falling down house.  It involved two different kinds of architecture, that of the human kind and that of the fluid organic kind.  I thought it might prove difficult but it somehow danced its way to completion as though it had no need of me.

Runaway

2020     48 x 48       oil on panel

It also became the cover of Chip’s book

Runaway

2020     48 x 48       oil on panel

This is my fan art picture.  It’s the result of watching My Octopus Teacher.  The octopus isn’t there, only the scent of her passage through the kelp forest, rendered in pink.

Untitled

2020    36 X 48  (2 panels)

After visiting my brother and sister-in-law at Buzzard’s Bay I came home full of glorious vistas.  I pressed them together in a panorama from dawn to dusk……beginning with dawn and melting through the sun of midday into the fading of dusk.
It’s now November.

I Love You America

2020    40 X 80      oil on 2 panels

Then I went a bit nutty and got even bigger and more free form.  This picture doesn’t really have a name, only a nick name:It’s now November.

Float Fly Swim

2020      48 X 96     oil on 2 panels

And then winter wherein an image that kept plaguing me and I finally gave in and painted it.

Rabbits

2020      each 30 X 40   oil on 2 panels

So now it’s Valentine’s Day.  Yesterday I got my first vaccine shot at a Brooklyn highschool.  Suddenly I feel more hopeful.  I’m planning an illustrated book.
I’m looking forward to light and more light.