Art & Perception

61 x 45, oil on birch panel

Do you see sky or water?
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Title: Peace of Mind
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 101×76 cm

oil on maple, 24 x 18 inches.

This spring, I started sketching landscapes rather than only photographing them. My first motif was the view from a bluff. Painting on site would be cumbersome because it would mean dragging supplies along a 20 min hike. more… »

oil on board, 12 x 12 inches

Here is the companion to Listening I.

Two kinds of meditation – whirling and quiet. more… »

A documentary on the progress of a layer of clay descending a dune

Oil on maple, 24 x 18 inches

For more than a decade, we have been watching a layer of clay slowly descending a slope of the Empire Bluff. Usually, the ‘necklace’ stands out as a vegetation-free band. But on a winter day, it was nicely accentuated by snow.

I have given up walking around this aspect of the bluff out of concern that there suddenly could be a slide of clay. Two decades ago, the north-western most tip of the dunes at Glenhaven caved in after I walked there with my dog. Since then, I have grown to respect the forces of nature here.

oil on maple panel, 40 cm x 50 cm

Improvised from a photograph this winter taken near Otter Creek in the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Colors were mixed from Ultramarine blue, Manganese violet, Turner yellow, Chinese Lake, white and black. None of the mixtures displayed even the slighted hint of green.

Having gained some experience with choosing and mixing pigments, I consider, that a next, fruitful step in learning to be a better painter will be to follow Cennini’s advice and practice drawing – daily.

Children’s Water Dreaming 1972, 62 x 44 cm, Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi

Aborigines used Australia’s wealth in ochre colors (iron oxides) to paint their mythologies on sand, cut bark of stringybark tree and their bodies. In 1972, acrylic paints and masonite boards were made available to a few Aboriginal men congregating in a ‘painting club’. While the usage of contemporary materials served to adulterate, it also helped to popularize Australian Aboriginal art. more… »