solitude falls dam

Pics taken along the top of Lake Solitude dam in High Bridge NJ

gorgeous fall day: bright blue sky; intense sunshine;
green, yellow, and orange leaves reflected in the water.

The top of the dam was made of iron by the Taylor Forge Ironworks, which was the main industry in the area at the turn of the last century.

The iron had ridges on it, creating little channels for the water. Moving water, sunlight, reflected color, textured surface all conspired to produce these intense random patterns in the rippled surface of the water.

Unlike with some of my digital work, these images were treated with next to no post-camera editing.

recent work...and source/reference photo images

These are some of the photo images that led me to (b)ramble on... In one way or another they were in my thoughts. I did not work directly from the photos. I was painting from the experience of them; what they told me, how they oriented me without my even knowing.

 

 

 

 

(b)ramble on

2010

oil on canvas

48 x 72"

Soft Parade is a series of paintings and monoprints. The making of them was informed, I think, by the experience of the water, from the feel of it while I'm standing under the tow path bridge getting lightly soaked by the spray.

soft parade (ochre)

2010

oil on canvas

44 x 48"

More photo images and another Soft Parade...

soft parade (sanctuary)

2010

oil on canvas

60 x 60"

not the end of the world...

Yeah, my little macbook had a meltdown over the weekend. It was the "not if but when" thing.

It's not the end of the world. I had to remind myself this as I recovered from a simultaneous sinking feeling and rise in my blood pressure along with a sense of derealization and a shot of adrenaline.

I won't bore you with the details.  After 2 hours on the phone with 2 Apple tech guys who had the patience of saints and made valiant efforts to rescue me and my macbook and helped resolve the problem so it won't happen again, I was still left with the problem of missing data, mostly my emails, and email addresses--all million of them or so--and my Itunes library, including many songs bought and paid for on Itunes, and bookmarks, preferences, and settings.

So, I spent about 10 or so hours scanning my computer and recovering data using a software program that I downloaded...excellent program by the way. Well actually, I spent some of this time in the studio, the computer did the work.

I now have many many many emails to wade through and organize and this will take me some time. If you would like to be on my mailing list to receive blog posts or notices about upcoming shows, I'm hoping that you'll help me rebuild my email address book by sending me an email to pfarrell13@comcast.net. Thanks....

the road to hell...

Oy. Good intentions will not get you anywhere except well, you know.

I had every intention of posting the collection of "detail" sent by readers of this blog in response to my "Call for Details." Really, I did. But I've turned into a full-fledged procrastinator. I still intend to post the Details. At some point. In the fall. I swear. Really.

For now I'm going to excuse myself til after Labor Day. I'll be spending time at work and in the studio trying to get caught up on some stuff, get some work photographed, finish a painting, start another.

In the spirit of hell and the waning summer, here's a new painting:

soft parade (red)

2010

oil on panel


12 x 12"

See you in September......

Four Notable NJ Artists

RSVP...update

The opening for RSVP was lovely...well attended, with lots of the artists present.
Here is an installation shot of my pigment prints (Suspension 3848 on the left and Suspension 3855 on the right) hanging in the front room of the gallery. When I shot the photo, the space was flooded with wonderful late afternoon natural light, which made the colors of the works luminous.

RSVP, the LGTripp Gallery Summer Group Show, will be up through August 20, with a First Friday reception on August 6.

call for...details

I was taking some pics in the studio today and shot some details of paintings in progress and thought how much I love doing that. Just some little piece of the work that stands out for whatever reason. I figure if I like that, maybe others do too, and thought it might make a nice online exhibit for the blog.

I posted this detail from an oil on canvas as my profile pic on Facebook earlier. The color is a little less saturated than the painting itself, but I like it just fine. This stood out for me as just one area of texture that bridged a color border. The painting is 5 x 5 ft, and still untitled.

If you would like to have a detail from one of your works posted here, send it to me at pfarrell13@comcast.net (one per person please, and low res 72 dpi only). Feel free to include a link to the work it's from or your blog/website, where the detail image is from, and a few words on why you chose this detail or what stood out for you about it.