Before I properly start this post, I realized that last week I posted the first paragraph twice without the second one, but that has now been fixed. My apologies. Anyway, another early morning sitting by the open window in my comfy chair. Back when it occurred to me to move the bed out of this room and turn it into a studio, I never thought about sitting by the window in this very chair to write in my journal and drink my first cup of coffee in the morning. I slept in here and changed my clothes but that was it because it never felt right as a bedroom. I only hung out in here after the room switch, although sometimes it was too messy to do it. That changed with the series of professional studio visits I had earlier this year. The room got progressively tidier, more organized, and once the antique dresser finally made its way out and into the other room by the bed, it became more spacious and actually inviting to sit in. It still gets messy but everything has a place to go once I’m done with it. At the moment, there’s framing going on but nothing else to distract me.

In the meantime, I have news. Peaches, the orange bird with the fuchsia background from last week’s post, has sold. And this project I keep referring to but am still unable to discuss yet, and which by the way has a great deal to do with the tidying up of the studio, took another step forward towards fruition. It’s big, and I promise it will be worth the wait once it happens but the spooky old woo-woo Irish in me doesn’t want to jinx it. And as you can see, there are two new paintings, Cadet at top and Patience above, both on canvas and smaller than other recent pieces that will be at the Ali Gray Gallery for the Birds of a Feather show which opens this Friday. I’m not sure if the collage workshop will take placeyet, but I have a long to-do list for the show and of course, the big UK trip next week. Next week! Yikes! Best get cracking, Maureen - on with the day.

Greetings from my tidy and reorganized studio, where I now spend my cool mornings sitting in a shabby, uber-comfy, overstuffed vintage swivel chair by an open window, unless of course it’s closed because of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires that have been plaguing us lately. I had already put up sheer linen curtains during the first heatwave this summer to keep the afternoon sun from making the studio unbearable. Curtains also made the room, along with plants and an old Turkish rug protecting the landlord’s carpet, quite homey. Then my printer died a couple weeks ago leaving space on the desk for collages instead of doing them on my tilted drafting tabletop. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m preparing to run a workshop at the gallery and part of that has involved my creating collages to use as examples. The workshop may not happen now, but I’m okay with that because it has motivated me to do the two beauties above and below. I’m especially happy with the hawk, which was meant to be simple enough for kids to follow but took on a complexity that, dare I say it, is quite sophisticated.

Also in the works this week was Peaches, below, an 18x18” continuation of the Fauvist theme I wrote about last week. Fuchsia and orange, seriously? It works for me, and women in particular really like her, although I’m not sure about the men. All I know is I’m excited about exploring this sort of palette again since the early birds in the series had some very odd color combinations and I’m not attempting to imitate nature. I was getting rigid with that until working in black and white with the Charcoal series freed up my approach - as did the switch to canvas which lends itself to a softer texture that comes across cleaner, and, here’s that word again, sophisticated. Some use the term Post-Modern about my new pieces but I don’t think of my work that way. I’m more of an intuitive, instinctive painter. So bring on the fuchsia/orange and maybe chartreuse palette - on with the day.

Late again, I’m busy preparing for my UK trip, which is just three weeks away. Paul suggested we do a quick visit to Liverpool while I’m there, and since I’m the one with the Expedia hotel discount credits, I got to decide where we’ll stay. I honed in on the waterfront close to the Tate and found one in the Beatles’ old stomping grounds. Paul is in charge of the train tickets and keeping me entertained. No small task, and it’s a good thing two more bird paintings have sold this week at the Ali Gray Gallery so I’ll have a bit of mad money to spend while I’m away. Speaking of art sales, I’m happy to report that of the twelve paintings I had in last summer’s show where only my giclees sold, I have just one piece left. That odd delay also happened with my first show at The Commons, I only have one of those sixteen birds left now too. Lesson learned, it’s about the time and place, not the work, so there’s hope for the charcoals yet.

Another lesson learned is no work is safe from being repainted until it leaves the studio. Case in point, Peony, who I declared finished last week without feeling the love, then I redid the beak in a pale grey and VOILA, she was done and back in the gallery. I also revised the Crow, below, and retitled it Corvette. It’s now a companion to Savannah, at the top of this post - that’s its midway progression above as it slid into Fauvism, an art movement, which included Matisse, that got its name in 1905 because of the artists’ use of shocking colors. According to Google “Fauvist painters radically detached color from its descriptive function in nature. For example, instead of painting shadows with black or dark brown, a Fauvist might use vibrant purples or deep oranges to create a sense of emotion, rhythm, and visual harmony. Their work prioritized subjective, emotional expression over objective reality.” I totally relate. I’m ready to go all Wild Beast on a new canvas but first I need to do another collage for the workshop I’m running at the gallery before I leave for Newcastle. Only three more weeks to go, Maureen - best get on with the day.

I’ve finally finished, I hope, reworking Peony, the pink cockatoo at the bottom of this post, and have started a 12x12” canvas of a vulture. Peony drove me crazy as I realized, once again, how done I am with wood panels for the time being. Or perhaps, it was the process of reworking a piece altogether. There have been some that were quite successful but in general, a rework takes longer than starting something new, and whatever bothered me in the original version still bothers me in spite of any major changes I make in color or composition. Anyway, I think the cockatoo is done and I can get on with the new vulture.

I love the challenge of a vulture. Getting beyond what they represent and how they look to make them beautiful intrigues me. Some of my strongest pieces have been vultures, even if they don’t necessarily end up looking very vulture-like. Anatomical accuracy is not the point, I’m going for a bird’s integrity and godliness. Which Harlow, the horned owl at the top of this post, has in spades. People love owls and they are fun to paint. I have done a couple dozen of them so far and will continue to create them. One reason is that they look good at every stage. Above is Harlow’s first stage, and below he is halfway through. I could have stopped at either point and it would have worked, but for me, they were both still works in progress while I waited for the owl to come alive.

Enough about that - I have news. I bought tickets for a trip to see Paul in the UK the other day. I’ll be there for the month of August, which for those who live in Provincetown year round, is the best time to get out of here. July sort of sucks too, but by August the locals are moments away from slapping or screaming at any random half naked, oiled up tipsy creature who is expecting, demanding, to be entertained or indulged because, as they will loudly declare, they are on vacation. But somehow August suddenly opened up on my calendar and I get to miss it this year. Yay! In the meantime I have paintings to do for the upcoming show and a workshop to prepare for before I go, so on with the day.