Babel with Tiny Lights

This one arrived somewhat unexpectedly...which is somehow the way the best images work out. One of many images of the Tower of Babel that I've done.

Babel with Tiny Lights, 2017, acrylic on board, 10" x 10".

The Shootist WIP

This is a work-in-progress painting of a modified head...many of my works feature somewhat surrealistic heads. Also has an anti-war / anti gun violence aspect to it. I think it may be mostly done (?), but time will tell on that. When I have the final version, I'll put it up on this page.

Update: I've added the final version below the unfinished one.

The Shootist (unfinished version), 2017, acrylic on board, 14" x 11"

The Shootist, 2017, acrylic on board, 14" x 11"

In a Garden of Eden

This small (12" x 9") acrylic on panel was done today in the studio. It went through several phases, over about half a day, before arriving at the finished state. Sometimes it helps to let the paint build up, adding depth where previous layers still show through, or parts of them do. It's semi-abstract, which is a place I don't often go.

In a Garden of Eden, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x  9".

The Apostle

I found a small pile of brown-tinted card left over from some long-ago project, so while I was waiting for a painting to dry, I drew this head. I decided to call it "The Apostle" (the titles tend to pop into my head whilst I'm creating the works). The loosely applied white acrylic helped. It came out quite well.

The Apostle, 2017, ink & white acrylic on card, 11" x 8.5".

The Eye of Truth

Eyes are a recurring theme in my work...this new one seems to be a portal to everything...

The Eye of Truth, 2017, acrylic on plywood, 11" x 14"

The Return of the Stranger

This is a more expressionistic painting I did the other day. It is kind of a sequel to a small painting I did back in 2006, called "The Outsider". I had misremembered the name, but decided to keep "Stranger" in there as it added another (small) dimension to the piece. This one is darker, whereas the original painting seems more benign (to me). From time to time, personages in my artwork reappear, as though characters in a movie (one that makes little to no sense, admittedly), or as if seen through a window into another world.

The Return of the Stranger, 2017, acrylic on plywood, 14" x 11".

The Outsider, 2006, acrylic on board, 10" x 8".

The Discovery

I think this is a good one, it pretty much painted itself (well, I did struggle a little, but not too much). It might just be a template for a new direction of some kind...stay tuned...also added a digital version below.

The Discovery, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x 12"

Digitally manipulated

Re / Coiled

This drawing of a woman's head with coiled hair turned out differently than planned...the hair is not so much hair as something else. It almost fits into my Medusa series (ongoing) of drawings and paintings. The addition of wash to the ink/brush drawing added a lot of depth...I'll probably be doing more drawings with wash.

Re / Coiled, 2017, brush & ink wash on paper, 28.5" x 22.5".

Unfinished version, before the wash was added

2 Drawings from 2010

These were 2 ink drawings that I wanted to rescan at a higher resolution than the versions I had on my hard drive. They reminded me that 2010 was not a bad year for drawings, & the new scans brought out a little more detail and nuance than I had attained before.

Ancient Head, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5"

Woman's Head, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5"

A New Global Agenda book cover

Here is the (probably) final book cover for my wife's upcoming publication, A New Global Agenda, Priorities, Practices, and Pathways of the International Community. It's due out in February 2018, but available for pre-order via the publisher's website. See the link for the book page with all the details. And here is the original painting that was used (darkened a little for text legibility).

When I started working on this image, I thought I would do 3 or 4 variations on the theme & the publisher could choose the best one. However, they liked the first one, so that was that. I also did 3 section divider images (as ink drawings) for the inside of the book. I'll probably post those on this blog at some point.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538106013/A-New-Global-Agenda-Priorities-Practices-and-Pathways-of-the-International-Community#

A New Global Agenda, edited by Diana Ayton-Shenker, published by Rowman & Littlefield, February 2018

Elysium

It doesn't get much rawer than this...painted in black & white acrylic on a large-ish piece of cardboard (from a box we had a sofa delivered in a few months ago).

Elysium, 2017, acrylic on cardboard, 44" x 35" approx.

Destiny, the Hooded One

This is a new ink drawing...from an ongoing series of hooded and/or robed figures & heads. Often, the faces are obscured by shadow, but in this case the 3/4 profile is visible. I think this does not detract from the mystery of the piece...

Destiny, the Hooded One, 2017, brush & ink on paper, 17" x 14".

The Old Man and the Desert

Not the sea. My paintings are currently getting looser & denser...this one didn't make sense to me until I changed the background from blue to "desert" tones...then the idea crystalized. It can happen like that sometimes.

The Old Man and the Desert, 2017, acrylic on plywood, 14" x 11"

Earlier version

The Watcher From the Deep

A new acrylic on MDF (fiberboard), a quite dark image of an underwater sort of nature. I've been looking at a lot of Symbolist art from the 19th century recently, which may be applicable...

The Watcher From the Deep, 2017, acrylic on MDF, 9" diameter