After a few weeks of reworking pieces I wasn’t happy with, I did two new paintings in the last eight days. They are very different from each other, and I am really happy with the results. In fact, Cyrus, the bluejay above, ranks at the top of my list of what I consider perfectly executed without being overly realistic or fussy. I have to be in The Zone for that to happen. Relaxed, in total silence, and almost always right after rolling out of bed. Often it’s the middle of the night. No coffee first, no checking the internet, just me in my pjs with a brush in my hand. These two new paintings were done like that, and both of them came with a plan. Not an agenda, just a concept that grew out of a simple drawing of my source material and a palette range I didn’t fiddle around with. Okay, I did a tiny bit of experimenting with the background behind Cyrus but it was always yellow. Not only did he need to sing, I wanted it to pop. The second of the new pieces is Circe, another vulture. I’ve done three of them now with the goal of making them identifiable as the loathsome scavengers that they are, but beautiful if not pretty. The palette changes when I repeat a bird, this time with Circe, named for the sorceress goddess who enchanted Ulysses and turned some of his crew into swine, I wanted it soft and sweet. She sings too, a lullaby of sorts since in some cultures, vultures are sacred. Tibetans practice sky burials where the deceased are offered to them, symbolizing the cyclical nature of life and death. A grizzly affair, yes, but they consider the corpse an empty vessel the soul no longer needs and should be free of. And the birds get to eat. In other news, other than bombs in Iran and Gaza and Ukraine, the heat wave has broken and I am wearing my new glasses. They are not perfect, and they’re as good as they’ll get, which is not as good as what I had before the surgery with my old glasses. Especially close up. But I will adapt. The birds are already bigger than a year ago and will get bigger still. And a year from now, they could be monumental. Godlike. Hanging in a UK gallery. Fingers crossed. Onward.