Copamarina, Puerto Rico

Copamarina Beach Resort, Puerto Rico: March 31 – April 7. A lovely resort just outside Guanica, surrounded by a ‘dry forest’. This panarama photo taken from the end of the pier. http://copamarinabeachresortpr.com

(click on image to enlarge)

Wowwee!

Wowwee #8, March 13, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 18", 300dpi

(click on image for larger view)

Palette Flowers

  

Palette Flowers

12" x 14" Oil on canvas

Palette Flowers

12" x 14" Oil on canvas

(click  on image for larger view, click here for notes on Palette Paintings http://j-mccauley.blogspot.com/2011/12/abstract-with-orange-blob.html)

Wowwee!

Wowwee #7, March 6, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 18", 300dpi

(click for larger view)

Wowwee!

Wowwee #6, February 28, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 18", 300dpi

(click on image for larger view)

Lavender

Lavender,

9" x 12", Oil on canvas

(image taken with Smartphone, has been sharpened)

Palette Flowers

Little Pinks, Palette Flowers

9" x 12", Oil on canvas

(click on image for larger view)

Palette Flowers notes: http://j-mccauley.blogspot.com/2011/12/abstract-with-orange-blob.html

Cherry Blossoms on Orange Path

Cherry Blossoms on Orange Path

18" x 24" Oil on canvas

In Progress_part 2 The Paths

I first showed these here: http://j-mccauley.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-progress.html

I have had 2-good sessions with these works. First over the year-end holidays and then last weekend, 'Family Day'. I have yet to start adding the shadows and real painterly brush strokes. They still have the 'draft' quality but I am pleased with the progress. Someone please take the lime green away from me (smile). Apologies for the glare in the upper left - a dangling light bulb nearby - and these were taken with my smart phone.

Path 1,

36" x 48", Oil on canvas

This one is coming along nicely. Unsure of the pink centre canvas but it does appear throughout the paintings. The second path - there are always two - needs more definition, and the top/sky has had little work.

Path 2,

36" x 48", Oil on canvas

This one makes me think of Dr. Seuss! And whoa, that stream is too obviously the second path. The primary path needs junk in it - painterly strokes, leaves, stones, stuff - and the whole scene is crying for shadows, so flat.

Path 3,

36" x 48", Oil on canvas

OK, this one is going to cause me a lot of trouble. Loving the sky, hating the forground. Need to let go and let it be. It is tentatively titled 'Sisters'. There are two sets of sisters one obvious, one not so. Strangley this is the only one that is based on a true path/place. Perhaps that's why it is giving me so much angst. Love those Austrian Pines in Highland Park.

Wowwee!

Wowwee #5, February 16, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 18", 300dpi

(click for larger view)

Palette Flowers

Palette Flowers

12" x 12" Oil on Canvas

Sold

Palette Flowers

Palette Flowers

12" x 14" Oil on canvas

(click on image to enlarge)

Wowwee!

Wowwee #4, February 14, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 14", 300dpi

(click for larger view)

Palette Flowers

Palette Flowers

12" x 14" Oil on canvas

(Click on the image to enlarge)

[ Redux: I use small canvases as palettes. Once the palette is full I set it aside until the paint is dry. Then I gesso the canvas again and use it for quick gestural [abstracts] such as this. I love the uneven, unexpected, lumps and bumps I encounter. http://j-mccauley.blogspot.com/2011/12/abstract-with-orange-blob.html  ]

Brumes 13, 14, 15, 16

Brume 13_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphic ink on papper

(click on image to enlarge)

Brume 14_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphic ink on papper

(click on image to enlarge)

Brume 15_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphic ink on papper

(click on image to enlarge)

Brume 16_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphic ink on papper

(click on image to enlarge)

Brumes 9, 10, 11 12

Brume_09_12_02

19" x 13"Calligraphic ink on paper

(click on images to enlarge)

Brume_10_12_02

19" x 13"Calligraphic ink on paper

Brume_11_12_02

19" x 13"Calligraphic ink on paper

Brume_12_12_02

19" x 13"Calligraphic ink on paper

Brumes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Brume_04_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

Brume_05_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

Brume_06_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

Brume_07_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

Brume_08_12_02

19" x 13" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

Brumes

Brume. This is a word I use in my own way. Though its true definition is a mist, fog, or vapour, I use it as a winter mass of vegetation. A field lay fallow. The brown skeletal remains of a once dense thicket still holds form, but the life is gone, a memory. These are calligraphy ink on gloss paper. The gloss belies the death. They are a great joy to daub and blob, and impossible to err. Enjoy.

Brume_01_12_02

13" x 19" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

Brume_02_12_02

13" x 19" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

 

Brume_03_12_02

13" x 19" Calligraphy ink on paper

(click to enlarge)

Wowwee!

Wowwee #3, February 05, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 14", 300dpi

(click for larger view)

Wowwee!

Wowwee #2, January 30, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 18", 300dpi

(click for larger view)

Wowwee!

Wowwee #1, January 23, 2012

Digital sketch, 9" x 18", 300dpi

(click for larger view)

The Complete Guide to Vision Quotes

This is an on-going guide to the vision quotes on twitter at @jrmccauley.

2012 01 04:
I shut my eyes in order to see. ~Paul Gauguin :27 days…

2012 01 05:

One eye sees, the other feels. ~Paul Klee :26 days…

2012 01 06:

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. ~Jonathon Swift  :25 days…

2012 01 07:

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle. ~George Orwell :24 days…

2012 01 08:
Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs. ~Havel :23 days

2012 01 09:
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. ~Henri Bergson :22 days...

2012 01 10:

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision. ~Helen Keller :21 days...

2012 01 11:

Dreamers can find their way by moonlight and their only punishment is that they see the dawn before the rest of the world. ~Wilde :20 days…

2012 01 12:
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. ~Anais Nin :19 days

2012 01 13:

I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse. ~Walt Disney :18 days...

2012 01 14:

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision. ~Helen Keller :17 days...

2021 01 15:
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein :16 days...

2012 01 16:

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~Mark Twain :15 days...

2012 01 17:

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards. ~Benjamin Franklin : 14 days...

2012 01 18:
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes. ~Friedrich Nietzsche :13 days...

202 01 19
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson :12 days...

2012 01 20:
Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living? ~Bob Marley :11 days...

2012 01 21
Bologna is a deli meat for people with eyes. ~Mitch Hedberg :10 days...

2012 01 22
Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? ~Groucho Marx  :9 days...

2012 01 23
When I look into the future, it's so bright it burns my eyes. ~Oprah Winfrey :8 days...

2012 01 24
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~Henry Ford :7 days...

2012 01 25
Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes! ~Leonardo da Vinci :6 days...

2012 01 26
If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes. ~Pablo Picasso :5 days...

2012 01 27
The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions. ~marcu Tullius Cicero :4
days..

2012 01 28
I still close my eyes and go home - I can always draw from that. ~Dolly Parton :3 days...

2012 01 29
I close my eyes when I sing so I can feel the song better. ~Mahalia Jackson :2 days...

2012 01 30
If you haven't cried, your eyes can't be beautiful. ~Sophia Loren : 1 day...

2012 01 31
Today I will lose my bad eye but all the same I will see.  ~John Mccauley :today


Mount Sinai, 12:30PM, Tuesday January 31, 2012

2012 The Year of Fish

(photo curtesy of: http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/chefbiographi2/ig/The-Food-of-El-Bulli/El-Bulli-Food-30.htm)

Often, say every other year or so, I decide on a cooking adventure and dedicate the entire year to conquering a food. Several years ago it was bread. Aside from the occasional restaurant servings or purchased lunch sandwich, that year I ate only bread that I had made myself. Of course, I started with the a loaf of Standard white bread, but before long I was making flat breads and cheese and nut infused rolls. It was fun, particularly the humourous sudden rise of the pita! A year after that it was savory pies – meat pies, meal pies, everything but dessert pies. It, too, was fun. I learned especially how to make a proper crust. I have decided that 2012 will be the Year of Fish, but not the standard filet in butter. No, I want to investigate Paiayas, fish stews – and I’ll extend this to bivalves and shrimp – clam sauces, and Thai shrimp dishes. There may even be a fish bread or savory fish pie – actually I have already attempted the fish pie but it was a disaster which means, yes, I will prevail and try agian.  Tom and I have been leafing through the books of El Bulli, and though I don’t expect to get as rarified as say, Sardines with Fish Roe (pictured above), nonetheless their work is of great inspiration. Also, in many ways this is a tribute to fish, which if the news is to be believed, may not exist in another decade or so. I hope not, but with this irony in mind, I will be eating them this year.

In Progress

Panel 1, Tentative Title, Small Bridge

Oil on Canvas, 36 x 48

Panel 2, Tentative title, Two Paths

Oil on Canvas, 36 x 48

(unfinished)

Panel 3, Tentative Title, Two Sisters

Oil on Canvas, 36 x 48

(unfinished)

­These are a new adventure, a departure from the Quotidian Angels – some friends will say, ‘Thank-you’. (smile). They are a return to landscapes. They all have two things in common: Two Paths. In Panel 1 there is the obvious stream – an old stream that once had a mill, hence the stone sides – but a walk path bisects the image at eye height. In Panel 2, again the obvious path climbs the hill centred in the image, but off to the right down in the valley runs a stream parallel to it. In Panel 3 (which I am least please with at this stage) the simple path divides into two – one heading up, the other descends to the right. Two paths that lead in and out of the canvases, towards and away, coming and going, here and not.  

These are works-in-progress.

Please click on the images to enlarge.

My First Steve Carty

This is my first Steve Carty photograph. She is at the framers until early in the New Year. After that, she will hold pride of place at the top of the first staircase. To me, she holds a deep sustained note audible only to they who can 'see' the music.