Meditation 70

Meditation 69

Meditation 68

Meditation 67

Meditation 66

This Meditation Painting came very easily in one sitting. Most of my other paintings take at least two and as many as four sitting until I consider them finished.

I will be showing this Meditation Painting at the Fountain Art Fair along with 3 others. The Fair runs March 9th through March 11 at the 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Avenue at 25th Street
in New York City.

Meditation 65

I love the rhythm in this painting. Everything seems to be in threes. Three horizontal lines, three incised oval shapes, three orange lines. I think it is very balanced and pleasing mark making, indeed.

Meditation 64

Meditation 63

Meditation 62

Meditation 61

After a very long hiatus, in fact too long, I've begun my meditation paintings again. I'm a bit rusty and it has taken doing quite a few to get back into the swing of things so bear with me.
Meditation 61 shows the anxiety of getting started again and difficulties I was going through which hopefully are behind me now. Dealing with health issues is never fun. I am on the mend and back to making art. I've begun larger paintings in oils using the same process as these Meditation painting and will post them here and on my website when they are completed.

Contemporary Art Fair

I haven't posted any meditation paintings in awhile, I have been too busy getting ready for the Contemporary Art Fair which takes place at the Javits Center in New York City, November 18 to 20th. If you are in the New York City vicinity stop by the Javits Center and see the Meditation Paintings in person.

For now matting and more matting is the order of the day today and tomorrow. As I get ready for the fair, I am both excited and nervous. Hope to see you there this weekend.

There will be 200 artists and craftspeople exhibiting their work along with me. You might just find that perfect something you didn't realize you couldn't live without.

Meditation 60

Do you remember S&H Green Stamps? I am showing my age but I remember then fondly. When I came across them in a book of sticker and stamps I brought back from Florida a year ago I had to use them in this painting. I am having so much fun with collage elements in my artwork!

Meditation 59

Meditation 58

Continuing to play with collage elements and craypas.

Meditation 57 - Skyline

I decided to try something new and experimented with making collages after my daily meditation to shake things up a bit. I've become too comfortable using just gouache and graphite.

A city skyline seems to emerge from this mixed media collage. I used tissue paper, stamps, gouache and cray-pas letting the materials guide the process. Getting out of my comfort zone is important otherwise my visual language will be unable to grow.

Meditation 56

Inspired after seeing the de Kooning exhibition at MOMA. I was surprise to see how much pink he used in his paintings. Not exactly his color palette but certainly a reflection on what I saw. The exhibition is so extensive I only made it through half the show which takes up the entire sixth floor. I will return again next week to see the second half. His style becomes much looser in his mid to later career and was the perfect stopping point. I look forward to continuing my exploration of this giant in the art world. It was awe inspiring.

Meditation 55

Meditation 54 -- SOLD

This meditation painting, a landscape perhaps, was done after an afternoon drive through western Massachusetts looking at green pastures where cows grazed and at farms with rows of planted vegetable all with the Berkshire mountains as a backdrop.

Meditation 53

This meditation painting makes me happy!

Meditation 52

Meditation 51

A teacher of mine advocating limiting your palette to only a couple of colors or family of colors in an abstract painting. While a safe way of painting, I am more adventurous. The challenge of a painting working with many colors is very demanding. It can seem incohesive and fragmented but not in this Meditation Painting. It works for me. I have used every color in the spectrum but somehow it works. By just letting the process unfold this palette of colors just begged to live together.

Meditation 50

Meditation 49

Meditation 48 -- SOLD

Some of these painting are a little out of order. If I remember correctly this painting naturally flowed while the one done immediately before it didn't. It just re-enforces the idea that I must put paintbrush to paper and without any preconceived idea paint and let the process dictate the outcome.

Meditation 47

Mediation 46 -- SOLD

Soft and subtle, peaceful and layered.

Meditation 45

Underlying stressed from the city but beginning to ease into the retreat.

Writers and Artists Retreat — Meditation 44

The week before hurricane Irene, I was in Western Massachusetts at Wellspring House, a retreat for writers and artists. The retreat caters primarily to writers but offers artists producing small works a place to work as well. My cozy brightly lite room had a bed, comfortable sitting/reading chair and a writing table and chair. I worked on my meditation paintings in a glass and screen enclosed porch overlooking the patio and grounds. It was a peaceful and idyllic place to work.

Each morning I walked Halley, my dog, (yes, I was able to bring the dog with me) exploring Ashfield. Walking past victorian homes on Main Street and turning up the few streets branching off of Main Street, I passed a serene cemetery dating back to the early 1800's, an occasional Bed and Breakfast and farm homes with dogs barking at Halley and me.

After my walk, coffee and breakfast, I would meditate on the patio. Then, while Halley was contently tied up on the patio I would walk up a few step into the porch to an awaiting card table organized with my paints and brushes. I painted for several hours each day, producing 16 completed meditation paintings. Many of the paintings were worked on in several sessions. As my working method evolves I have found that my best results come after reworking paintings and allowing the paint to dry in between sessions. Often, I paint-out parts of the painting with white allowing some of the paint from a previous session to bleed though. At times, I incising the white area with graphite pencils revealing the paint beneath. My palette may change from day to day but the resulting color combinations always seem to work.

Over the next weeks, I will be posting paintings done while on retreat. They start out subdued, gaining momentum and an open, playful, joyful quality as the retreat progressed. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed painting them.

meditation 43

Meditation 41

Frustrated and anxious but still hopeful. The red/pink brush strokes are anguished over the white restrained space which covers the hope within. The last stroke an orange line is a bit of hope that surfaces.

Meditation 40

A bit fragmented but peaceful.

Meditation 39

Meditation 38

Meditation 37

The ever present tension that arises out of the calm. Even when a calm state is found or comes over me, tension breaks that peacefulness. It is always lurking in the background revealing insecurity and stress.

Meditation 36 -- Included in Metro 28 a Traveling Exhibition for One Year in 2012

Meditation 32 — SOLD

Meditation 35 - Squared

A bit off center and yet a blank slate to write on. There are so many possibilities but unsure how to proceed. The rich inner world blocked but seeking a tentative way out.

Meditation 34

This Meditation Painting emerged after working on several paintings during the session. Although rather simple there is a lot happening. I particularly like the light created by the orange edges on which the many shades of green sit. The emergence of the red and ochre at the top compliment the green. This painting could have appeared heavy and somber but the orange halo gives it life and could be translated as a glow from within. This meditation painting makes me happy.

Meditation 33 -- Included in Metro 28 a Traveling Exhibition for One Year in 2012

Meditation 31 -- Arches

Meditation 30

Meditation 29

Presently, this meditation painting is in the exhibition Small Matters of Great Importance at the Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY.

Meditation 28

Meditation 27

Presently, this meditation painting is in the exhibition Small Matters of Great Importance at the Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY.

Meditation 22 NFS

This meditation painting has been exhibited at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY and the Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY.

Meditation 26 -- Thoughts Take Flight

Meditation 25

Meditation 24 -- SOLD

Meditation 23

Meditation 21

Meditation 20 -- Day at the Beach -- SOLD

This meditation painting recalls time spent by the water with seagulls flying over the water.