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The Structure of Complex Images Book Illustration

I am so pleased that I was invited to provide an illustration for the book cover of my Friend Robert B. Ray’s latest book The Structure of Complex Images. Here: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030406301

Robert has asked me to make brush & ink, pictographic images for a few projects over the years. Thanks Robert, for enriching life for me and so many others.

A shout out to Rachel Reese for making the art print-ready.

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Aviary and Koi

Aviary 32 X 22″ Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas, Collage

Aviary, March 22 – 25. In progress? Relative restraint and

muted palette after . . .

Grasping @ Koi 24.25 X 24.25″ Acrylic, Collage on panel

Grasping @ Koi, March 20 – 21.

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Fauna/Flora Easter

Untitled as yet. 40 X 30. Acrylic on raw, then sealed & painted canvas with collage.

I don’t generally paint in series, (click “series” or see previous post) but these are different times. Above finished(?) yesterday afternoon 4/11/20. There’s a back story to these bird/plant chimeras for some other day.

Untitled as yet. 24 X 20.5. Acrylic and collage on panel.

This painting was completed just before the painting/collage above. The Amaryllis that is blooming in the dining room is making a grand appearance here as well and is morphing into fauna above. The cadmium red is also about the cardinals visiting our feeders in their new spring plumage. Take care.

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March 22 – 29

Acrylic and Collage on Canvas 30 X 20

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Cloistered Cloisonné Boom Box Orchard Electricity and Kerosene

Cloisonné Passage 30 X 20″ Acrylic, ink and papers, on canvas. In Progress?
Boom Box Orchard 24 X 20.5″ Acrylic, ink, and papers, on panel

I am still growing accustomed to the rhythms and accommodations of making art in Shady Side, Maryland. In the winter months I work indoors for the most part, given the short, often cold and rainy days. I repair to the shed and work close-in with reading glasses on easel paintings lit by electricity. Big Gestures are restrained, and I tend to work with smaller brushes. This seems to be a good time for revisiting works that were set aside.

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Visitation: Foraging

Visitation: Foraging 40 X 30.25″ Shadow, acrylic, collage on canvas

Coinciding approximately with the winter solstice, Starlings descend en masse upon Shady Side, chattering, foraging, and rising and descending in waves. Aflight, they evoke descriptions of Passenger Pigeons once filling the sky. For two days after Christmas, they were joined by Robins and Red-Winged Blackbirds splashing in the bird bath, eating winter and beauty berries, and foraging beneath the bird feeders and about the yard. The painting/collage Visitation: Foraging draws on this seasonal avian activity. Serendipitous tracing of a carved wood screen’s shadows led to my painterly flocks. The color palette is all around this time of year. The photo below was taken this morning from our living room window. It does not do the Starling’s visitation justice, but gives you the idea.

Apropos of Winter Landscapes, read a well written article here on a great painter, Charles Burchfield in today’s Washington Post.

Happy New Year everyone!

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Merry Chrysalis

Chrysalis: Jim Crane, Carey Crane
Book Cover Art crop, November 2019

Hello Friends, I worked on a book cover in November. The author asked for a simple calligraphic ideogram befitting the book’s subject. I am attaching a section of it here. I will print the full cover when it is published.

The top image is of my collage painting Chrysalis on the right next to the inspiration (along with some of his other collages of the ’60s,) my Father’s collage of the same name. When I was recently visiting family in Florida, I really wanted to see them together. I sent my collage down to Treasure Island last week where they are both well loved. Can’t wait to see them next trip.

New art supplies are stocked, and I’m looking forward to painting in December/January. Purchased a larger heater yesterday that will make the canning shed/winter studio much cozier. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all!

By Crane the Elder: “Chrysalis ” circa ’66

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Dropping Acorns

Dropping Acorns, acrylic on raw canvas, 41 X 30″ September, 2019

Work in Progress. Painted this last September weekend outside, under the canning shed oak tree.

Koi Pond with Sweetgum Leaf (post below) was purchased in MFA, Ocean City exhibit. Good news. Art supplies!

New to CranePaints? Please browse the gallery pages.

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August and Exhibits

Fish, Cat, Accidental Skull, Black Eyed Susans

New work. In progress? Early August in Shady Side Maryland, mind on Las Cruces.

Swamp Circle, Maryland. 20 x 20″ 2017

Work in two new juried exhibits, one online, one coming up in Ocean City, Maryland. Thanks Maryland Federation of Art (MFA.)

Above – This one is in “Stormy Weather” online: http://mdfedart.com/mfaentry/sales/salesgallery.php?event=159

A sod farm on Swamp Circle Road, rainy day in early spring near us and Churchton, MD.

“Koi Pond” 24 X 36″ April, 2017

This one will be in the MFA at Ocean City show in a few weeks. It reminds me of Koi swimming in a pond in the fall with a large Sweet Gum leaf (background) upper half.

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July, Shady Side

New to CranePaints? Check out the New Mexico and Maryland galleries.

July, Shady side, MD. 24 X 24″ restive panel. Paint and collage.

Heat wave. Butterflies in abundance. Night chorus. Watermelon in the shade of the Pin Oak. Gathering black berries for topping a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Green-eyed cat crouching beneath the hydrangea.

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June 30: Storm, Uplands Pasture, Western Shore

Storm, Uplands Pasture, Western Shore, Maryland 24 X 24″ Acrylic/Collage/Mixed Media/Panel

New to CranePaints? Check out the New Mexico and Maryland galleries.

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Work in Progress, 6/23, 2019

Untitled, Mixed Media on panel. ~24X24″

Another Summer Storm. Shady Side, Maryland. Acrylic and Collage on Panel.

New to CranePaints? Check out the New Mexico and Maryland galleries.

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