Pastel 72 - Some Damn Fool...

This one is "Some Damn Fool Always Thinks He Knows."  I'm very familiar with that, since I used to be that guy.

Pastel, ball point, and Sharpie on 24 x 18 inch kraft paper.  Click image for a closer look.

Pastel 71 - The Bringer

This is the Bringer.

Pastel 68 - Frutti di Mare

This one was more influenced by an idea that came from the last one, and so the drawing was not totally blind or unpredictable.  There were several shapes in the last pastel that reminded me of claw and fruit - hence this.  The other shell and the squid relative just showed up like the usual surprises.

Pastel 67 - Red Abstract

I've realized (and been told) that I hardly ever use red in any quantity.  So I tried to push myself on this one.  I felt like I didn't know what to do with it.  In this piece alone I can see that I got what I was after with the blue, orange, even the green, but the red just seems like I put it there (as opposed to it belonged there).  I have no idea if any of you can see what I mean, or not.  I'd like to know what you see/think.

Pastel 66 - Don't Ask

Truly I have no idea.  The elephant and the face were clearly there, waiting to be completed.

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click for a closer view (but you might be close enough already...)

Pastel 65 - A Different Rabbit

It's great never knowing what will come next - I just follow.

Pastel, ball point, Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper,  Click image for a closer look.

Pastel 64 - Abstract

The next few are not abstracts...  (if you prefer the Pastels with recognizable things).

Pastel 63 - Abstract

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click for a closer look.

Pastel 62 - Music and Balloons

This is how a room with music and a ceiling full of colorful helium balloons makes me feel.  Some Vegas hotel lobbies feel like this to me, as well.

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.

Thanksgiving - Posting Pastel 69 out of Order - Dog Play

Thanksgiving Day - and one of the things I am thankful for is our neighbors.  Several of the families on our cul de sac include dogs.  Sadly, several of us in this house are allergic to dogs.  This pastel was inspired by the neighborhood dog play that happens across several of our yards, and the neighbors who are careful to keep that play and the dogs well mannered even when loose.  Like most things on our sac, we get along and have a great outdoor community, for dogs, kids and adults all.

Pastel 69 - Dog Play

Dedicated to the dogs of our street, with a special call out in memory of Riley, who we lost this year long before his time.  He was a big puppy every day of his life, and a daily reminder to play every moment we can.  Thanks, Riley!  And thanks to all you great neighbors (including the ones with cats instead of dogs!)

Pastel 61 - Frogs

These guys mostly emerged naturally.  The tadpole was not in the ball point ink - that came out of my head, based on the adults.  I've been fascinated with frogs since I was five or six years old.  I caught and released hundreds of them, as a child.  We built a hole series of pools for them in a drainage ditch near the house in NY where I grew up.

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click image for a closer look.

I've been in Michigan 4 of the last 9 days - it puts a gap in my play/work on these...

Pastel 60 - Whale and Crane

This is another that just emerged on the page, and I went with it.  The whale's smile, eye, fin and flukes were all obvious, as was the crane's head and body.  There was even a signature yellow fish.

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click image for a closer look.

Pastel 59 - Abstract

Often nothing recognizable emerges, and then I simply work with the shapes, movement and colors.

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click image for a closer look.

Pastel 58 - Trying to Teach Me to Dance

My sweetheart loves to dance - for me it's almost impossible.

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.

Pastel 57 - Rabbit? Jackalope?

Pastel 57 - Pastel, ball point, Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click image for closer view.

Pastel 56 - Bird Love

I go with what's there...

Pastel, ball point, and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.

Pastel 55 - Sleeping Dragon

I enjoy the unpredictable shapes and compositions of these.

Pastel 54 - Sheep and Goat - or Goat and Sheep

These guys were both there in the pen lines, and each occupied about half of the page, oriented both ways.  So I drew them both, and signed the piece either way.

Goat and Sheep

Sheep and Goat

As expected, the goat looks like he has more attitude.  But we'll reserve judgment on the sheep since he's asleep.

Pastels, ball point, Sharpie on 18x24 inch kraft paper.  Click either image for a closer look.

Pastel 53 - Sumo 53

I feel that somehow the number 53 is disassembled and hidden in this drawing...

Pastel 52 - Clouds and Wind over Fields

While drawing today (working on Pastel 60) I found for the umteenth time that what Hundertwasser said was true - nature uses almost no straight lines and almost no right angles.  They disrupt the natural order.  I like the juxtaposition of human angles and planes in a landscape under certain conditions, but more frequently it doesn't work.  The drawing for #60 has one vertical straight line in it, and it is the only thing on the page I find, after considerable time staring at the drawing and trying to engage in a right brain shift, that I want to erase, and that keeps me anchored on the left.

Pastel 51 - Cats

The deer were the last from vacation.  But I have managed to do about one per day (average) since then.  This was the first one I did back at home.

Pastel, ballpoint, Sharpie on 18x24 inch kraft paper.  Click the image for a closer look.

Pastels 49 and 50: The Stag and the Doe

These two happened quite by "chance" - appearing on consecutive pastels, quite plainly, over two days.  I begin these with a seemingly meaningless, often ferocious attack of the page with a ballpoint pen.  The energy in these pieces is often the result of the velocity of these initial marks.  Then I view the resulting skein of lines for clues about the piece, bring out the starting drawing and shapes for the piece with a Sharpie, and dive into pastels.  So I was quite stunned to have these two deer show up like this.

Pastels, ballpoint and Sharpie on 18x24 inch kraft paper.  I think he is very full of himself - I bet she takes him down a peg or two.

Pastels 46-48, Abstract, The Rooster, the Tomcat and the Crow, Dancing with the Big Ponytail

Three more from vacation.  I realized today, during a deep and difficult conversation with my dear, long-suffering wife, what these are doing to/for me.  They are reaching gradually into all sorts of places down inside me, beyond just my artistic side, and healing things.  I am gradually being made more whole.

Pastel 46

The Rooster, the Tomcat and the Crow

Dancing with the Big Ponytail

Pastel, ball point, and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.

Click any image for a closer look.

Pastels 43-45, Renaissance Rooster, The Philosopher, and and Abstract

As usual - pastels, ball point, Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper

Renaissance Rooster

The Philosopher

Pastel 45

Pastels 40-42, Abstract, Mardi Gras, Summer Breezes

This is an odd trio.  These felt completely different to do - they came from very different places within me.  42 was the most fun.

Pastel 40

Pastel 41 - Mardi Gras 

Pastel 42 - Summer Breezes

The usual pastel, ball point, Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click any image for a closer look.

Pastels 37-39, Two Abstracts and The Raven and the Blue Bird

Three more from our October trip.  I believe these may all have been done on the same day.

The Raven and the Blue Bird

Pastels 34-36 - Casting the Bear's Shadow, Boat, Dancers

Next three pastels from the vacation.

Pastel 34 - Casting the Bear's Shadow

Pastel 35 - Boat

Pastel 36 - Dancers

All pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18x24 inch kraft paper.

Pastels 31-33 - 2 Abstracts and "Sun after Cloudy Days"

We took a vacation and I did about 20 pastel paintings in 15 days.  I thoroughly enjoy the discovery of each piece.

Pastel 31 - first one of the trip - not warmed up.

Pastel 32 - better - closer to the heart of where I'm going.

Pastel 33 - I realized part way through this that it's what I feel when the sun comes out after several cloudy days.

All pastel, ball point, and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.

Pastel 30 - Deep in a Book

Cats fill the air with sleep when they are napping.  And when they are not napping they can be more insistent than many dogs.

So to stay alert and focused solely on the book, she must be deeply engaged.

This piece began the usual way, where I had no idea of it's destination.  It took a long time and more faith that it would emerge, since I only had the smallest glimmer of her face and her back against a dog.  Then the cats started showing up.  Then more.  Then more.  I think there could have been a few more if I had allowed...

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18x24 inch kraft paper.  Click the image for a closer look.

Pastel 29 - Wild Ride this Week

It's been a wild ride this week, with a lot going on.  It was good to get some of it expressed on paper.

Pastel, ball point, Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper - click image for a closer view.

Auto Drawings - Autumn Melancholy, Spoonbills and Catfish, Elephants

More automatic drawings before bed...  Perfetto pencil in composition book.

Autumn Melancholy

Spoonbills and Catfish

Elephants

Pastel 28 - Ready for Paint?

I apologize for not showing the process on these any more, as I did for the first ones in the series.  I find I'm too engrossed to stop between ball point and pastels.  They are still happening the same way, though.

Today was a fractured day, with opposites and good and bad news alternating throughout the day.  I gave as good as I got, but it's the kind of day that couldn't make up its mind how it wanted to be remembered.

Part of me is disappointed when one of these doesn't resolve into something recognizable, something with some story.  But I recognize that these last few abstract pieces are the strongest pages in the series.  They just don't feel as playful, and that's more important to me right now.

Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.

I could keep "working" on this one - I see things to change...  but I have deliberately set boundaries to keep it fast and not get stuck.  To keep it play.

I sense that I am ready to shift to painting - or even a combination of paint and pastel (not sure if that would work) - I need to prevent control from reasserting itself too soon.  And I would like these to be less fragile, less of a mess afterward, and more OK to give away when I want.

Pastel 27 - In Motion - Fatter Sharpies

I think I'm assimilating the new pastel colors, a few at a time.  At first they were jarringly different from the set I've been using.

Nothing recognizable emerged from this drawing, so I went with what was there.  Some fatter Sharpie's in the mix this morning, providing some stronger black lines.  This feels more controlled; I'm not ready for that to happen, so I think I will get out the big fat brushes and bottles of acrylic I bought at Jerry's Thursday, and see what happens with the next ones.  Certainly would dry in a less fragile form than the pastel powder, if the paper can handle paint...

Pastel 27 - Pastel, ball point and Sharpie on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper - click image for a closer look.

Elsewhere on S Elm, Greensboro, NC

We spent most of the day in Greensboro, NC today - a hike and picnic (Lake Brandt), two bookstores, and dinner at Elizabeth's.  The surprise was Elsewhere on S. Elm.  It's part museum, part vintage remnant collection, part interactive artwork, part art studio.

Artists are allowed to apply to come produce a work within the space.  Nothing ever leaves, and nothing new can be brought in.  Artists propose a work produced from what's already on site.

 Kitchen

Art on the ceiling 

The "Confessatorium" and bird cameos