Something New - Northern Shovelers

Northern Shovelers at Brigantine. Watercolor by Ken Januski

It's a wonder what a deadline will do. I've always had mixed feelings about whether such pressures helped or hindered artists. When I was younger and more romantic about the nature of art I leaned toward the former - a real artist needs total freedom. As I got older and in fact not too much out of my youth I began to disagree with this and see that the most freedom and innovation comes when working against a constraint - deadline, patron or whatever.

Still it's one thing to know it in theory and another to actually experience it. As I've prepared for various shows, particularly over the last few years, I've found that the pressure to get something done has often prompted me to try something new. For me this time around that means working from photos, both in the last Cape May Warbler watercolor and in this Northern Shovelers watercolor.

With ducks in particular it's so easy to get hypnotized by the complex patterns in the feathers. But I've tried to avoid that here and just get a sense of the ducks and their beautiful black heads and long bills. When I did the sketch for this it almost looked like a mistake. Those bills were just TOO long. But that's the way they are. I think they look large in the actual painting but not monstrously so.

There's a good chance this painting is done. I have a tendency to overwork watercolor so I'm tempted to just leave it as it is. If I get it framed in time it should be in the Members Show at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center, which opens this Sunday.

White-throated Sparrow Lino Edition

A few hours work and the edition of 15 White-throated Sparrow in Leaf Litter is done. The finished print uses Gamblin oil-based ink on Rives Heavyweight paper. The entire print is 7x9 inches and the image itself it 4x6 inches. It is for sale on my etsy store.

This is also the final weekend to see my show Wild at Art, including the work of local artists Lynnette Shelley and Melanie Fisher at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center. Last chance!

Day Three and Some Swamps

Above is the result of three-four hours of work on the White-throated Sparrow lino. Yesterday I mentioned that you often make decisions that you later have to live with in lino. That has happened here and the print has headed off in a slightly more abstract direction than I at first anticipated. Still I get nervous with strict naturalism so perhaps this veer toward abstraction is both good and inevitable, at least for me.

This is a rough print, with the ink a little too tacky. That causes a loss of detail. In visualizing it with sharper lines however I think that it may be nearing completion.

I had some apare time yesterday that I couldn't really devote to the lino so I did a few more sketches from photos, in this case photos I've taken of Swamp Sparrows over the last couple of years. The one on the right shows the peaked head that they often exhibit. This is one of my favorite sparrows. A small watercolor of one hangs at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center for one more week in 'Wild at Art.' I have the feeling though that it will play a part in another print or painting soon. They are a really striking sparrow.

Incisive Sketches

'Incisive' is often used to describe a person's mental abilities I think. It indicates sharpness, an ability to see the important things through all the unimportant when viewing a problem. I'm not claiming that for me or my drawings, at least not for me in particular.

Actually it's almost the opposite. Almost all drawings are incisive. For me one of the most useful aspects of drawing is its ability to be incisive, to seek out the structure underneath the fluff and glitz. Not all drawing by  every person does this. But most do. It seems to be almost a primordial part of Western drawing if not all drawing.

I've  written about this before but it always strikes me afresh. There's something almost analytical and surgical about sketching. You try to see underneath the murk to the real thing.

I don't mean this in a mystical way, bur instead in a scientific way. I particularly mention  it with these drawings because they're all done from photos I've taken. What I always find with photos is that I need to see beneath the surface of masses color or tone and figure out how the underlying object is put together. With birds it's a question of what those feasthers are on the back and how do they relate to the wing feathers. Where do the legs go into the torso and how is the bird balanced on them.

For me, especially when working from photos like this, I feel like the pen or pencil I hold in my hand is like a scalpel trying to figure out the three-dimensional structure of what photography has turned into a flat two-dimentions. I'll in turn return it to the two dimenions of the paper on which I draw. But as I do so I  want it to be informed by my understanding of its three dimensions.

The drawing above is a pencil drawing on Stillman and Birn Gamma series sketchbook, size 7x10 inches. I haven't used these sketchbooks in awhile but they've always worked well for pencil sketches like this, among other  things.

Above is another sketch of the same Great Black-backed Gull seen near Flat Rock Dam on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia a few days after Hurricane Sandy. I was there looking for any birds displaced to our area by the hurricane.Though I didn't really  find any I always enjoy seeing some of our more common birds, including Great Black-backed Gulls.

When I do drawings such as this I never intend them as finished works. Instead I do them with the intention of learning something. I hope that when I'm done I'll have a better idea of the structure of  the bird drawn. That knowledge in turn will be put to use in some drawing, painting or print in the future.

These two drawings were started while I gallery  sat for 3 hours this morning at the 'Wild at Art' show I'm in at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center. And there were no visitors! Come on local readers, assuming there are some, I/we need some visitors and some sales! Still it was time well used. But it would be nice to see more visitors to the gallery  both for the current show and all shows. It's open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Yesterday I tried another drawing from a photo, this one a smaller ballpoint pen drawing of two Cedar Waxwings on Stillman and Birn Beta Series paper. The birds themselves are somewhat successful though both show I think that I couldn't fully understand their structure from looking at the photo I used as my source. Worse I really was not successful rendering the bark of the tree in which they perched. Still I learned something in doing so.

I very rarely do a finished painting or print directly  from a photo I've taken and never from someone else's photo. But these sort of sketches seem to exorcise the photos in some way so that I later feel more comfortable using the drawings as the start of a painting or print. I know it seems odd. But it's true nonetheless. I think one reason is that the sketches make me feel a little clearer about the structure of whatever I'm painting. They're also like a warmup  exercise, like playing scales. All part of the process of making a work of art.

'Wild at Art' - The Video

During  the hour before 'Wild at Art' opened last Sunday Brandon Lord Ross shot some video for a short film about the show and the artists in it. In the last 25 years or so I've been in two videos that I know of. I was a bit shocked by both of them, coming off as far more professorial than I'd really like. So I've been quite gun shy about video interviews for a good many years. But recently I saw one I liked by the artist Ewoud DeGroot Ewoud DeGroot at Wildlife Art Journal and it made me thinkg more positively about artist interviews/soliloquies.

Lynnette also spoke highly of a video that Brandon made for another show of hers. So I decided to give it a try. Now that I see the results I have to agree, professorial or not. Good work Brandon!

It's of course best to see the show in person. It's open Saturdays and Sundays in November from 10 to 4. But if you can't make it this will give you a good idea of the show and the artists.

Three Honest Artists

Over my many years of making art I've always had styles of art that I liked much more than others. Not that my favorite styles didn't change drastically over time. But I also found that I always got surprised. I'd often see something in a style I didn't like and find that I liked the art nonetheless

Eventually I  found a common denominator. The art I liked, regardless of style struck me as honest. I can't define what I  mean by that or give  anyone else any clues as to how they might define 'honest' art. I hate to  think that the art I think  'honest' could be found 'dishonest' by others and vice versa. Still it may be true.

I mention this because after spending 4.5 hours yesterday  helping to hang the 3-person show, 'Wild at Art' opening at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center this Sunday I left with the feeling that this was a very good show. Why? I think it is all honest art. Above are three works by Lynnette Shelley and two  of my own linocuts.

Above a view of a short wall that includes my 'Two Little Blue Herons at Morris Arboretum" acrylic painting as well as two recent watercolors of mine and two more works by Lynnette.

And finally four paintings by Melanie Fisher, with a deliberate nod to Charles Burchfield, and more of my own linocuts.

I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. Any attempt to photograph more than one single work runs into problems of inadequate light, distracting reflections on glass, and numerous other problems. In this case  the labels are still on work and need to be removed and transcribed onto price sheets. And some final straightening could be done.

But I  think it does give you a sense of what is there. It is, in my humble opinion, a collection of very strong work, all based in nature and particularly in animals.

Hope to see you there this Sunday. It's difficult to find wildlife or animal based art in Philadelphia. This is your chance.

Wild at Art - Here and Abroad

'Linnets Feeding on Sorrell Seed(detail)' by Kim Atkinson - 2012 SWLA Announcement


Late this week, after returning from our trip to Cape May, I was pleased to find a small package of five announcements for the Private Opening of the Society of Wildlife Artist's 'The Natural Eye' Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London during the last week of October. Only fear of some sort of copyright infringement prevents me from putting up a photo here. Suffice it to say that an annoucement that includes the work of Tim Wootton, Chris Rose, Michael Warren, John Paige, Harriet Mead and Nik Pollard is a thing of beauty. It also explains why I'm thrilled to be in the show. After posting this I noticed another site that used the photo above from the Mall Galleries web site. This seems to be the official announcement. Kim is another artist I greatly admire who is a member of SWLA.

Then just yesterday the announcements for the 'Wild at Art' show at Manayunk Roxborugh Art Center arrived. This show opens three days after the London show. A photo is at top. I'm showing with other Pennsylvania artists Lynnette Shelley and Melanie Fisher. All of us use wildlife in one way or another in our art. It should be a very good show and I encourage anyone who is in the area to come to the opening from noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

With all the sketches of unusual birds I was able to do in and around Cape May recently I always wonder if local birding and sketching will be disappointing. Today gave the answer: no. We really didn't see any unusual birds but it was such a beautiful day, leaves and vegetation in full autumn splendor against a pure blue sky. Above are some of the birds I saw: Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Phoebe, female Common Yellowthroat, Belted Kingfisher and Cedar Waxwing. Most of thsee look fine in black and white but the Yellowthroat's brilliant throat loses something without color.

One of the things I like about so many SWLA artists is that they TRANSLATE natural experience. They don't try to produce a photo. If you're unfamiliar with the artists I mentioned above I'd suggested researching them. Additionally I think my best work is when I also try to translate my experience. Above is one of many trial sketches of Red Saddlebags dragonfly, pumpkins in field, Savannah Sparrow and deep purple Amaranth. As soon as I saw the dragonfly with it's deep burgundy wing patches in the pumpkin field I started thinking about a painting. This isn't it. Hopefully though it will be one step along the way to a successful painting.

Line, Mass and Lies

Looking through some old framed artwork recently I realized I'd been telling some lies in writing about my move from abstract to representational art over the last 10-15 years. I was looking for a frame I could use for some upcoming shows. I needed something larger than what I've been using.

That's when I found this large (23x29 inches) drawing I'd done about 30 years ago. It was  one of about 10 I did of musicians I liked, both classical and jazz. Above is one of Thelonious Monk. At that time I was doing abstract drawings that were just about as spare as this one. I'd decided, rightly or wrongly, that you could make a strong work of art using almost entirely lines.

It was a similar method I used for my  first artworks featuring birds about six years ago. The only difference is that I also used mass and erasures so that it was more than just a linear drawing. Still it was a shock to me to realize that birds and insects were not my first attempts at represenational work.

Inside baseball you might say and you're probably right. But it did remind me of how often art, at least for me, is a balance/conflict between line and mass. Almost all of my field sketches focus on lines. There is something so appealing about line, about getting just the right line to capture a shape. Lines of course don't really exist in nature. But they sure do in art.

The other side of line however, as seen at top, is mass. Instead of defining edges of things the artists tries to capture  their mass, often using light to help.  As an artist line is often a real security  belt. Paint gets messy and it's easy to come unmoored, especially when painting with brushes that really are  too large to make lines.

Perhaps this explains why I  change media so often. I feel a bit unmoored and want the security that line brings, in either sketches or linos. But then I miss mass, color, light and I'm back to painting. More inside baseball I think, but something many artists will understand.

The painting at top, based on a simliar drawing of a week or so ago, is not yet done. Hopefully I will get it done in time for the Members Show at the Mayanunk  Roxborough Art Center on Sunday.  If not it should be in my three person show, 'Wild at Art',  also at MRAC in November.

Pondhawks, Peregrines, Festivals

Bracketed by strong rain on Friday and today the Manayunk Arts Festival took place this weekend. At least for me and I think the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center it was very successful.

The festival itself also was a bracket. At top you see the catalog for the very first art show I believe I was ever in, in 1975. At that time I don't think I'd had any art education at all outside of a ceramics course that was so bad it didn't have potters wheels. Raw enthusiasm convinced me I was good enough to get into the juried show.
And I did. So I was thrilled to come by the next day and watch people admire my work. HA! I learned early on that at least 50% of the audience at a festival does not even glance in the direction of your work. They walk right by without their eyes even going in that direction. A good customer is one that actually stops long enough to focus on what you've done. They may move on in a second or two but at least they've looked.
I may have been in one or two more of these festivals in San Francisco but I haven't shown again for more than 30 years, at least in festivals. Once I started taking courses in art, at City College of San Francisco, University of California at Berkeley, and Cornell University I was only interested in showing in galleries, and only the 'serious' ones, and museums. I have showed in numerous galleries and museums.
I continued to try to show in the 'serious' galleries for 20-25 years. But as I did so I also realized that I found that scene very stale, inbred, predictable and a little full of mullarkey, to put it nicely.
I've been uninvolved in the gallery world for at least 10 and maybe even 20 years. If someone had been showing and selling my work it would probably be different. But I'm not sure that would be the case. And of course it's hard to judge the influence of sour grapes.
When I studied art history I ran across an original essay from the 1700 or 1800s. In it the little-known author said how much he admired 'ignorarts', people who hadn't been educated in the arts but still had an opinion on art. He found their perspectives refreshing. This has alway struck me as both true. Many people will see your work through the prism of what they've read or been told. I prefer to get their own personal reaction.
About the time I gave up on the current art scene I noticed that all the galleries were showing 'important' art. Yep, that's what they called it. Who made the determination if the work was 'important?' Well they did of course. But it seems to have worked, at least as a marketing ploy. Millions and millions of dollars change hands in the art world each year. So much 'important art' moving about. I was always tempted to label a new show 'Unimportant Art' to show how silly the concept had become, with everyone thinking that their own art was important.
I can hardly read about contemporary art without getting angry. It seems so full of marketing and nothing else. This is a very long-winded way of getting to why I enjoyed the art festival.
I got to talk to numerous people about my art. I got to judge their reactions based on what they actually saw, not based on wha they'd read or what was written on the museum wall or what some gallery dealer was whispering in their ear. My guess is that the proportion of viewers who scooted by without even glancing my way is about the same as it was in San Francisco in 1975. But now it doesn't bother me. I realize that the audience for authentic art is small and within it a much smaller group might be interested in art in my own style, subject and media.
But this is fine. I think that the secret to art is to believe that you have an audience and it just has to find you. Not everyone will be able to afford it even if they liked it. I talked to numerous people who I know liked some of my work though they didn't buy any. Still they now know my work and may purchase it later online. Or they may stop by a Manayunk Roxborugh Art Center show. More than that I've gotten some honest feedback on my work.
In all my many years of making art I firmly believe that what artists most value is honest feedback. It's not always pleasant and it's not always right. But it's always nice to feel that you're talking to someone who has actually taken the time to look at and appreciate something you've spent so much time and effort on. I'm not sure you get that even in the most prestigious galleries, showing the most 'important' art. It is truly astonishing I think to compare the time and effort that goes into making authentic art, and by that I mean art that is not created by some easy formula, and the time that most viewers will spend on it. A painting can easily take 20 hours or more but the average viewer spends less than 5 seconds looking. The mitigating factor I think is that if someone buys it who likes it they'll see it and enjoy it almost every day. So eventually there's more time spent looking at it than was spent on creating it.
The second photo at top is a small field sketch of a dragonfly that landed on the frame of another MRAC artist. Since he just sat there for 30-60 seconds it was a great opportunity to sketch him, or actually her. This morning I got out my new field guide and realized it is most likely a female Eastern Pondhawk.
And what about the peregrine of the title? I've known that peregrines have been nesting just around the corner from where the 'Emerging Artists' booth was for months. But I've rarely had time to check on their progress. At the end of a 12 hour day on Saturday I turned the corner from the festival and began the long uphill climb home. As soon as I did I heard raucous calls from above. There above me were three peregrines, one adult and two young begging for food. I soon ran into a friend of mine who said that there were actually four, two adults and two young. It was thrilling to see and I hope to get back soon to see and sketch them.
And finally the second most popular statement of the audience in the 'Emerging Artists' tent: 'You guys have emerged! You're not emerging!'. I think that's true. I hope that reflects well on both the Manayunk Arts Festival and the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center. It would be nice if both developed reputations as places to see quality art. I have to think, without being too self-congratulatory, that we did our part this weekend. The most popular statement was "How did you guys get this big shaded tent?" I think our spot was probably the coolest on a very hot day.
Oh yes, that Bonaparte's Gull watercolor that I've shown recently here, is now in someone else's home. I'll miss it but I know that someone else will now enjoy it. I really liked it but I'm happy to know it has a good new home. I trust that more time will be spent looking at it and enjoying it than I originally put into it.

Sweating Through Exhibition Prep

We're at the start of an Excessive Heat Warning here. It goes through the next 40+ hours and won't be exactly cool when it ends. This seems appropriate since the Manayunk Arts Festival starts this weekend. I don't plan things this way but as I think back about the various shows I've been in I often picture myself sweating like crazy, working in incredibly hot weather, trying to ready a show.
Fortunately I'm a bit more prepared for this show and had some advance warning about the heat. So I have most of my work ready to go. Above you see some of the framed work, including two gull watercolors from 2012. That Great Black-backed Gull at Flatrock Dam looks refreshingly cool doesn't he. If I were a marketer I might hope that it might be a subliminal message to viewers this weekend to buy it and instantly feel cooler.

Above you see a stack of seven framed watercolors and linocuts. On top of them are about 15 linocuts, that are in mats but not framed. They'll all go the the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center. Eventually some/most/all of them will be transported along with other work from members, especially five exhibiting artists, of the MRAC coop to the arts festival. There they will be part of the Emerging Artists Showcase at Main and Roxborough.
The festival itself of course wants to showcase the Manayunk area, though artists and crafters from across the US will exhibit. The Emerging Artists Showcase features local artists. Since I live less than a mile from where I'll be exhibiting I guess I qualify as local. You can't get too much more local than that. But it also will showcase the Mayanunk Roxborough Art Center mentioned above. Like many places, especially non-profits, the economic downturn has hurt in may ways: fewer grants, fewer purchases of art, part of whose profits go to the center, etc. MRAC was once a thriving part of Manayunk and Roxborough. The exposure gained at the arts festival will hopefully help to return it to that thriving state Along with art shows it offers many classes as well as literary programs. See the site for more info, or stop by the festival this weekend.

Gulls and Festivals

A few months back I posted a couple of pictures of the largest gull in the world, the Great Black-backed Gull. It is a truly imposing bird, though even it doesn't look quite so big compared to the Wandering Albatross I saw at the Academy of Natural Sciences a week ago. The gull above is one of the smaller gulls, the handsome Bonaparte's Gull. This is based on some photos and sketches from the Cape May, NJ area in early May.
I have been doing a number of watercolors recently with the thought of showing them at the Manayunk Art Festival this weekend as part of the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center in the Emerging Artist tent. I actually emerged quite awhile ago but only recently as a naturalistic artist. So 'emerging' still seems somewhat apt.


I'm not really sure now what works I'll put in show. There will definitely be many matted prints but I'm not sure about framed works. I've also tweaked the other recent watercolors I've shown here previously, the Killdeer with Worm and the Short-billed Dowitchers at Nummy Island. Above are the finished versions.
As I said I'm still not sure what works I'll be showing. You may need to stop by to find out. Hopefully the near 100 degree weather that is supposed to arrive on Wednesday will be long gone by this weekend.

Worm in Progress

Given the subject and the fact that this may not be quite done yet I couldn't resist the title, 'Worm in Progress.' I'm doing a number of new works, at least those are my plans, for the Manayunk Arts Festival in two weeks. I'll be in it with my local coop, Roxborough Manayunk Arts Center as part of the 'Emerging Artists' section. See the photo at bottom of link for some idea of the Manayunk neighborhood and the show.
I've debated doing a painting based on this photo for years. The upcoming show convinced me to finally give it a try. This is a bit larger than usual for me, 12x16 inches on Arches 140# paper.

Toying with Abstraction

A few posts back I showed a small experimental watercolor of a number of shorebirds, almost all of them Dunlin, landing. It was an idea for an entry in the Bike Art show at Manayunk Roxborough Art Center. My thought was that the sense of dynamism was similar to that of a bike race, especially going up the Manayunk Wall and also at the sprint to the finish line. Limbs and wheels are flying everywhere just like the Dunlin wings, bills, legs.
Though I liked the watercolor I wanted to try another one that was a bit larger and more developed. It is at top of post. It's about 9x12 on 140# Arches cold press paper in watercolor and white gouache.
Some viewers will I think appreciate this, some will think it's a valid idea that just didn't get executed well, and some will wonder why I waste my talents with naturalistic art doing something like this. It's mainly for the last group that I'm writing this.

Above is an abstract oil painting that I sold to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, now part of NASDAQ, a little less than 10 years ago. It's representative of most of the artwork I've done in my life, before I turned from abstraction to naturalism. I don't want to write a treatise on it but will just mention Matisse's quote about a painting being an orchestration of elements with everything in the right place. I always liken my abstract art to music. It is an orchestration of color, shape, texture, composition space that all adds up to something expressive, just like music.
When I turned to naturalism it was difficult to leave all that power of expression behind. Of course I gained something instead, the ability to portray nature, and thus gain all the expressiveness of nature. I'm happy I went in that direction. But sometimes I feel like there's something missing, that I'm speaking in Latin while the world converses in the Pidgin English of the web. So this bike art show gave me the chance to explore once again the melding of naturalism and abstraction. We'll just have to see what happens from here.
By the way the title of the abstract painting is "Short Arthur's Oblique and Non-stop Song", in honor of the jazz musician Arthur Blythe. I told you that I likened my art to music!

Dunlin, Pro Cycling Tour, Perpetual Motion, Creedence

When I was a young ARTIST I had no patience with rules, with constraint, with tradition. Real artists innovated. Since then I've come to realize that this romantic notion is probably one of the most harmful in the last 150 years of art. Art doesn't come out of nothing. The best art, and you can easily see it in people like Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse to name a few modern ones, struggles to both digest and improve the best art that comes before it. Sometimes these struggles can be painful to watch. I remember grimacing at some very early Cezannes. But he was just trying to come to terms with what went before to eventually portray the world as he saw it.
So often I think constraints and tradition are good. Sometimes it's the challenge of fulfilling a specific commission that seems most likely to bring out the most invention and creativity in an artist. You need something to react against.
On the other hand some artists including the long suffering Michelangelo might just as soon boil their patrons in oil. I've never studied Michelangelo's history closely. But it's the impression I've picked up. His patrons, particularly the papal ones, took a lot out of him.
If you think that mentioning Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Michelangelo in terms of my own work is grandiose you're right. But I had to think about the idea of constraints in art when my local art center decided that the theme for the next show in June would be 'Bike Art'. I once spent a lot of time riding bikes, often in bad weather up steep hills. I live near the top of the famous 'Manayunk Wall' that is a big part of Philadelphia International Championship, and the reason that there's going to be such a theme for the show.
So I definitely have some sympathy with bicycles, though more with riding than racing. Still I've been in no hurry at all to come up with an art work based on bicycles. I didn't want to work with the constraints of 'bike art.' Eventually the theme was broadened to motion, activity, sport so I thought I might be able to do something based on birds in flight that would work.
The results are at the top, a small watercolor and gouache of part of a Dunlin flock coming in to rest in shallow water. My photo that this is based on shows a remarkable orchestration of wings, legs and torsos. How in the world do they land together without horrendous crashes? There is also a tremendous sense of motion and activity. So that's what I've tried to show here. My brushwork and composition is deliberately rough and frenetic. I've never understood finely detailed renderings of frenetic activity. It has a frozen quality to it that I just can't enjoy.
So that was the idea behind this. I've worked on it three or four times over the last five days. It may be done; it may require a lot more work; and it may end up in the trash bin. I need some time time to digest it and publishing it here always helps in that process. I really didn't want to do this painting. But now that I've spent some time on it I see that it's forcing me to try something different, to be more abstract than I normally am with birds. That's what got me to thinking about constraints in art. Sometimes they can be far more liberating than you ever would have guessed.
As I was finishing the current state of the painting I was enjoying some background music on the radio. I had switched from my usual classical station to an independent rock station. The lyrics 'perpetual motion' were floating about. They seemed perfect for this scene. I had the vague feeling that the performing artists were Creedence Clearwater, a group I've always enjoyed passively, and that turned out to be the case. I've never bought their music and don't know much about them. But I do recall that I almost always notice their music when it's on, and always enjoy it. Thus the rest of the title.

The Gulls of Flat Rock Dam

Ever since I saw the Great Black-backed Gull at Flat Rock Dam about a month ago I've wanted to do paintings of the scene, as much for the powerful water as for the bird. But I've never painted water before. So I made the first attempt about a month ago. This is the second. It is 9x12 inches on Arches cold press 300# paper.

This is most likely a second cycle Great Black-backed so it is more brown than the beautiful deep slate gray of the mature gull. Not that you can see all that much detail here but nonetheless I wanted to be true to what I saw.

One reason I chose to do this now is that I'll most likely contribute it to the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center and Roxborough Development Corporation for their silent auction fundraiser in early May. I suspect that art with some local connection and not as much a focus on birds as is usual for me will be more likely to sell. Since I'm completely intrigued by the scene anyway it seemed like a good subject to use for the fundraiser. If I had time I'd also do it in acrylic but I think that may have to wait until the spring migration is over.

Progress with Birds and Watercolor

I've shown a lot of work at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center over the last six months. Each month members have one wall on which they can show so there's always the opportunity to show at least one work. I've shown so much bird art recently that I debated doing a new watercolor based on landscape, or perhaps a dragonfly or butterfly.

As I looked through my landscape photos I came across one of the beautiful salt marshes surrounding Nummy Island near Cape May in New Jersey. That reminded me that one of my very first bird watercolors, and certainly the fist one that I thought even marginally successful, was based on three shorebirds at Nummy Island. That prompted me to do a new version of it.

The new version, on 9x12 inch Arches 300# cold press watercolor paper, is a top. The little 5x7 or so watercolor from five or six years ago is beneath it.

The new watercolor is quite different and shows, I hope, that I've learned a little bit about watercolor over that time. But the poses are still pretty much the same. I liked those poses sic years ago and I still like them now. But they seem best small and simplified, an accent in a beautiful landscape.

By the way the next show at MRAC opens this Sunday. Unless I ruin it this watercolor will be on the member's wall. (Well I didn't ruin the watercolor but it's not hanging nonetheless. A mistake at gallery caused it not to be hung. It will go onto my online store instead).

Canada Geese with Fallen Beech

With just a bit of daylight left after gallery sitting at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center I decided to try the quick Bic pen and watercolor sketch above. I continue to like this manner of working. This is based on a photo I took a week or two at Morris Arboretum. I knew that I wasn't going to get much detail on the two geese. But I was really more interested in the entire scene: bright fallen leaves of autumn, huge fallen beech, and two Canada Geese on a sand bar in water that reflected all the colors around it. A sketch like this is just another way of exploring that scene and determining whether or not it deserves further exploration in paint or print.

The MRAC Holiday Show in Philadelphia continues on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. tomorrow, the following weekend and in January. Above are two of my framed prints that hang in it. These prints as well as prints in mats are available for sale there, as are the works of all the other MRAC artists who are exhibiting. It is located in the rear of 419 Green Lane in Manayunk/Roxborough.

I had one more thing to finish up before starting something new like the quick watercolor at top.

This is the finished version of the small 4x6 osprey linocut. I finally finished adding watercolor to the edition of nine prints. This photo is a bit dark. The actual print is a bit brighter than this. There is much more that can be done with this method of working, as I mentioned in another post. But this served as a good introduction to me. It's very odd coloring in each of the prints, almost like going back to grade school. On the other hand some artists do incredibly sophisticated work with this method. I'm sure I'll try a couple more prints in this method to get a better idea of how it works for me.

Matting and Framing

One thing I never expected when I joined the local Manayunk Roxborough Art Center early this fall was the constant opportunity to exhibit. This is tempered somewhat by a smallish audience but you never know when that might change.

So this Sunday's Holiday Show, with festivities from noon to 3, is one more opportunity to show. I've just finished cutting mats for six prints, building a frame for one paintng, and experimenting with store bought frames for two of the prints.

I've always been an artist who's more interested in the art than in the packaging but that's easier to do when your art stays in the studio. If it's being exhibited somewhere then you need to consider things like mats, frames and of course their cost. I'm surprised that I don't mind this work and the cost hasn't been as bad as I feared.

I guess part of that is that the work just looks better in a mat and/or frame. If it doesn't end up on someone else's wall it might just end up on mine, somewhere outside of the studio. The photo above shows the newly matted and framed work in the studio along with some other work on the walls.

I've only had time to try watercolor on one of the tiny osprey prints. It is below.

I'll probably try another version or two on the two remaining proofs then watercolor the remaining prints in similar colors. This is not my most ambitious work but I still find it somewhat striking.

Week of Acronyms

This is an unusual week for me. For a few days I'll have works in two shows at the same time. And both shows have acronyms. The first is MRAC, the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center. I've mentioned this show earlier. It will end this weekend.

Above are two works both watercolors, a kildeer seen at Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, and the pond at Freeman Road Tract of the Canaan Valley NWR in West Virginia. We vacationed there just over a year ago.

My friend Gabrielle at The Inner Artist asked if I would show any in situ photos. I'd like to but rules about not taking photos of other works limits me to cropping these photos so that only my own work is shown. Above is another watercolor of some greater yellowlegs seen at Heislerville WMA in New Jersey a year or two ago. It's in a slightly more abstract style.

And finally my newest acrylic painting which I documented extensively here. I'm not thrilled with either the painting or the frame. But both were the first in a long time. I have to give MRAC credit for finding a way to display the oddly sized frame.

As I've mentioned before MRAC is a cooperative gallery only a few blocks from my home. It's over 50 years old and included some very talented local artists among its founders. One of them Walter Speight used the local neighborhood and landscape as the subject of many of his paintings.

The other show with an acronym is scheduled to open tomorrow, not a few blocks but another continent away. More on that later.

Empty Perches, Empty Nest and Francis Speight

The flocks of American Robins and Northern Flickers we saw today during a brief walk at Carpenter's Woods should be enough to convince us that the season has changed from summer to fall.

But a visit to Morris Arboretum on Friday after dropping off my last piece for the group show had other signs: empty perches. There on that dead tree should be a Eastern Kingbird. That large dead tree over there should hold one or more Belted Kingfishers, Tree Swallows, maybe some Cedar Waxwings and possibly a Great Blue Heron. The smaller trees there in the pond should hold more Cedar Waxwings, some Eastern Phoebes and maybe a Willow Flycatcher or two.

But almost all of the perches were empty. Most of the birds that use them have gone. I did see a couple of Eastern Phoebes in another area and Belted Kingfishers and Great Blues can be around all winter. But the Eastern Kingbirds are gone for good I think, as are the Tree Swallows and Willow Flycatchers. Even though Cedar Waxwings can be found somewhere in Philadelphia most winters I've rarely if ever seen them here.

I think because I saw so few birds on Friday it really struck me that another summer has turned to fall. As I left one bird did take his place atop one of the dead trees, much higher than I usually see him. That is the Northern Mockingbird, seen in the quick fieldsketch at top.

The empty nest I refer to is my studio. I've spent the last few weeks working on my first acrylic painting in 20 years or so as well as making mats for watercolors and a frame for the acrylic. But acrylic and watercolors were delivered on Friday.

Now the studio seems empty: an empty nest. The photo above shows the finished painting as well as the finished frame. Due to complications like the size of the fence on my handheld rabbet plane, there is a much deeper lip on the frame than I wanted. So this looks a bit like a shadow box, something I didn't intend to make at all. But I convinced myself that it fit with the subject and kept it.

Once I put the painting in the frame the orange in the reflections at upper right looked positively garish. I decided I really needed to tone it down. So the final version is much more subdued than I originally intended.

It is proudly hanging in the 55th Annual Members Show of the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center. When I was much younger I had no interest at all in anything that had a tradition. That gave it no special cachet with me. But as I've gotten older I've developed a greater respect and appreciation for things with a tradition - like a show that has been going on for 55 years.

Part of this is probably just due to being older myself. But I think much of it is just a reaction against a throwaway culture. I once bought a used wooden woodworking plane that was from 19th century France. I didn't pay much for it. But it is functional and I love the idea of using the same tool that someone else did over 100 years ago. I like the sense of continuity and common cause and purpose.

I was particularly reminded of this while gallery sitting at the group show on Saturday. While there I noticed a plaque commemorating the original founders. Among them was Francis Speight!

Francis Speight you say? I'm sure not everyone will know him. In fact I had to search online to see if he was who I thought he was. And he was.

When I first moved to the Manayunk Roxborough area I was strictly an abstract artist. But over the years I kept thinking that this areas, particularly the hills and the view of the Schuylkill River below, needed to be painted. There was and still is an undeniable beauty.

As I investigated, informally and inexactly to be sure, I found that there were artists who had painted its beauty. One of, if not, THE best was Francis Speight. This painting of his is not much different from the view from our house if I walk a few 100 yards to get a view between neighboring houses and down the hill to the Schuylkill River. Cotton Street, the same Cotton Street in the title of the painting, is just a few blocks away.

So I've always, well for the last 10-15 years anyway, had a special appreciation for Francis Speight. To find that he was one of the founding members of the Art coop I just joined was more than I could have expected. It's a great honor to be part of such a tradition. Obviously this area was once a thriving area for the arts. Hopefully it will soon be so again.