Two Recent Unrelated Paintings

You'd think that after two years of a pandemic, I'd have a large collection of new paintings to show but I don't.  Much of my pandemic time was spent reading and researching as I recovered from long term virus inflammation.  I'm still having problems but I am off my crutches and cane and I am now able to do some physical therapy everyday again so that is good.  

Any time that I am in a lot of pain, I find that the pain significantly affects my ability to be creative and definitely affects my ability to sit still long enough to paint.  Actually, this sort of pain really drains me of all energy very quickly but, even putting that aside, the pain is extremely distracting which makes concentration and creativity nearly impossible.  That being said, I have occasionally worked on two paintings, on and off (mostly off), during this time period though.  

First, I feel the need to point out that these are just small digital files of these rather large mixed media paintings.  I never share any of my art or photography online in anything larger than a small, low resolution digital file because I have had far too many people steal my work.  I occasionally find my work on other websites and even being used commercially so I no longer share my work in any format other than a format that is too small to adequately use for anything else.  

This first painting is my latest favorite.  When we visited The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco a few years ago, I had this type of scene in mind.  I shot a bunch of photographs all around the grounds at different angles and even stitched together a few panoramic views because I had always intended to paint a scene that is more like an historical representation of this beautiful landmark.  I had painted a more current realistic rendering of The Palace of Fine Arts a while ago but this scene below is really the scene I have always envisioned.  

I like the initial starkness of the scene...  there is only one subject in this scene and it is The Palace of Fine Arts.  I like that this Romanesque structure seems to have grown from within the landscape.  I like the symmetry.  I like the simple reflections in the pond.  I like the warmth of the lush greens and yellows and golds.   I like that there are no distractions of modern buildings in the scene.  It is rather simple but detailed...  it is even simple in color but gives the impression of being deep in color.  

This next painting is one that was actually inspired by my grandson, Lukey.  He and I grabbed a couple of cameras and went for an autumn walk with Gee and Kenzie this past October.  We met Sheila's parents, Nan and Pop, along the way and they joined us for the walk back to our house.  

On this particular day, I pretty much left Lukey (nine years old) to make all of his own decisions on what to shoot and how to shoot.  I gave him a few pointers before we left the house but, once we were walking, I just let him pick his own scenes and choose how to compose his shots.  He happened to find this scene depicted below in my painting.  

Nestled in among the autumn foliage was a stacked line of firewood.  I like the framing that the trees provide...  I like the range of autumn colors...  and, although it is not the deepest of scenes, I do like that the scene has some depth to it.  At one point, I had added a Great Heron in the painting flying across the sky because I felt the scene needed some sort of sign of life but, after painting one into the scene, I immediately felt that the heron was more of a distraction so I painted over it.  It was just too prominent and ended up being a distraction.  It was a detail that was unrelated to the foliage and unrelated to the firewood so I changed my mind on that little detail.  I'm still toying with the idea of painting in someone in that small clearing chopping firewood but, once again, I feel that this may take away from the serenity of this scene.  

Anyway, my most recent painting is a painting based upon one of Lukey's photos from that afternoon walk back in October.  

When I have felt up for it, most of my good health time has been spent at the piano or doing some scientific research and scientific writing (not to be confused with science-fiction writing...  I actually mean scientific writings).  My consistent time at the piano through the pandemic has probably resulted in my biggest self-improvement during this period.  However, I still struggle with focus at the piano whenever I am in pain or simply feeling lousy.  I must be in the mood to play the piano...  I am not one of those who plays piano to relax.  If I'm not already relaxed and in the right frame of mind, my time at the piano is nothing but intense frustration.  Creativity is not a friend of pain and overwhelming fatigue.  

I am staying as busy as my health will allow though and I'm glad to have produced at least a few good photos and a few good paintings so far.