Category Archives: Uncategorized

1/21/24

January 15, 2024 state above. . It went dark from here. Although, todays iteration uses lots of metallic bronze that brightens in the right light. Last few days we’ve been snowed in. Working close in and indoors changes up approach and the results. A roll of unprimed canvas arrives this week. I hope to work outdoors and off of a stretcher to start. Stay tuned . . .

In December/January, I returned to a painting I posted here in September. Now it looks like this:

In September it looked like this:

On Saturday started a new one:

This one has lots of metallics that are lost in the photo. Metallics are notoriously difficult to capture in a photograph. Below is a detail taken at an angle:

Richer, no? Both paintings 40 X 30″ acrylic paint and spray enamel paint, with Sharpy markers, on canvas.

Postscript, I’m on Instagram now as well under cranepaint, no “s”

Here is a painting that I posted here in a previous iteration back in August. I picked it up again this week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve:

I tend to finish a painting in a few long sessions, or set it aside, sometimes for months. In the temperate months, I paint outdoors as much as possible, where I work very loosely and freely, usually flat on a table or on the lawn. I will “point up” on the easel indoors in my provisional studios.

This painting’s “sibling” (below) was completed fairly quickly last summer. It is going to be hanging in the Circle Gallery, Annapolis in January. Here it is again for comparison:

These were both inspired by a trip to Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vinyard, in May of ’23. The work in progress (but close I think) has gone the direction of time and seasons.

Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, Creative 2024 to you!

Worked on this “in progress” one day before and on Thanksgiving. Another one that took off on its own.

September 16

Work in progress, September 16. 30 X 40″ Acrylic on Gesso/Canvas. Thinking I’ll add nominal collage.

Labor Day Weekend

This is about 72 x 36.” Acrylic paint on raw and gesso canvas w/marker. Another based on architectural scrollwork. At least for now the scrollwork has overtaken the “Agave” form of New Mexico which superseded the Sweetgum leaf and Picture Plant forms from Chapel Hill, NC. After the fact, I see all kinds of creatures cavorting here, mostly but not exclusively aquatic. I embrace them.

Included below are two earlier states for those who enjoy process:

August 6

Here is a new painting in progress August 6, Shady Side, Maryland. Worked outside today. Starting point is still the architectural scroll work inspired while on a Birthday trip to with Heather to Oak Cliffs, Martha’s Vinyard, and the 19th century cottages built around the Methodist’s camp meeting tabernacle. The scroll work is conflated with the Atlantic/Chesapeake Bay. Following are stages looking back though acrylic paint and tinted gesso on raw canvas back to original charcoal drawing.

Finished?

Giving it a rest . . .

Scrollwork Breakers

Work in progress. Initial idea inspired by a trip to Oak Cliffs, Martha’s Vinyard, and the 19th century cottages built around the Methodist’s camp meeting tabernacle. This is a breaking wave of architectural scrollwork. 30 X 40″, acrylic paint on canvas.

A cache of paintings came back to me last Fall. Painted in New Mexico about ten years ago, this one extensively reworked this Spring, culminating yesterday in:

Here it was in March:

I like the March version, but I felt I needed to push it. No “Control, Alt, Z” in painting. But we have photos.

Here is the original:

I like it too. So is there a “best” in your eyes? I just know I wanted to go back into it and enough time had passed for another pass.

Nothing like my last post. Nothing like what I have in mind for next start up. Maritime Scrollwork? Marking changes.

Pumpkin on the Vine

*Pumpkins on the Vine 40 X 30,” Acrylic on prepared canvas. January/February 4-5 ’23, Shady Side MD. Done?

Reworking “Shore Birds”

Reworking “Shore Birds.” 60 X 30. It used to look like this in May 21, 2022: