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Into the Blue Tangle

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Into the Blue Tangle– At Principle Gallery June 13, 2025

O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.

— William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

This is another new painting, Into the Blue Tangle, from my upcoming solo show at the Principle Gallery. This year’s exhibit, my 26th at the Alexandria gallery, is titled Entanglement and this piece very much captures the meaning and spirit behind that title.

I’ve written here that my work, at its core, represents my belief system. I think that can be said of the work of almost any artist. The work from this show is an even more direct display of my belief system, putting its certainties and uncertainties out there for all to see. If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know that uncertainty plays as big a part in this belief system as any certainty I might hold.

Maybe the bigger part, actually.

That uncertainty is a big part of this painting for me. In it, the Red Tree stands alone on its tiny outcropping, feeling certain that there is something beyond what it senses, something that binds it to everything everywhere. Yet, it is unsure in its own ability to recognize or understand the meaning of this entanglement if it were to unravel before its eyes.

How can one understand the answer when one doesn’t know the question?

So, it senses the wonder of that great tangle of energy that swirls around unseen and undetected with the certainty that it is part of it yet uncertain as to how or why. It all remains a mystery, bound together in tight interweaving knots that give glimpses of beginnings and endings without ever truly revealing either.

Perhaps time will reveal an answer. Or a question. Or not. Maybe we’re not meant to know much here in our time here. Maybe what we think we know here clouds what we inherently know from our bonds to that tangle above?

Hmm. Now, I don’t know even more than before.

That wasn’t supposed to happen, so I better stop and just share a song for this Sunday Morning Music. I am going with the obvious, Tangled Up in Blue, the classic from Bob Dylan. On its surface it doesn’t have a lot to do with this painting but then again anything and everything has to do with this painting.

At least, that’s how I see it.

Into the Blue Tangle, a new 14″ by 14″ painting on canvas, is included in my exhibit of new work, Entanglement, that opens less than two weeks from today, on Friday, June 13 at the Principle Gallery with an Opening Reception from 6-8:30 PM.

The day after the show’s opening, on Saturday, June 14, I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery. The demo should run from 11 AM until 1 PM or thereabouts. Hope you can make it either or both events.

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The Pacifying Light

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on May 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Pacifying Light

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or disturbing subject matter, an art which could be for every mental worker, for the businessman was well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

–Henri Matisse, Notes of a Painter (1908)

I love this passage from Henri Matisse expressing his aspirations for how his work might affect the viewer. I should probably be sharing some of his work but I am instead sharing a new painting from my upcoming show at the Principle Gallery. I can rationalize this by saying that I very much share Matisse’s desires for my own work and have often found it to be a soothing, comforting influence, as he put it, on my mind.

A good armchair in which to relax.

This new painting, The Pacifying Light, fits that description very well, at least to my eyes and mind. I find something very soothing in the color and rhythm of this piece, something that instantly puts me at ease without even pondering any meaning in it. It makes it very inviting, giving the viewer an easy entrance into it.

This accessibility is often half the battle in creating a piece of art that engages or moves people in any way. Feeling comfortable in the created space of an artwork allows the viewer to relax and really explore what they are seeing in the work and what that meaning that holds for themselves.

There is that sort of easiness in this piece. It feels quiet and invitingly peaceful while still maintaining space for deeper reflection. I guess that would serve as my corollary to Matisse’s stated aspirations– to put the viewer at ease while still giving them something to think about.

I think The Pacifying Light fulfills that goal.

The Pacifying Light is 20″ by 10″ on canvas.

 is included in my exhibit of new work, Entanglement, that opens less than two weeks from today, on Friday, June 13 at the Principle Gallery with an Opening Reception from 6-8:30 PM.

Two weeks from today, I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery on Saturday, June 14, from 11 AM until 1 PM. Hope you can make it either or both events.

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Skip the Light Fandango

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on May 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Skip the Light Fandango–At Principle Gallery June 13, 2025

We skipped the light fandango
Turned some cartwheels across the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
When the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
And the ceiling flew away

—A Whiter Shade of Pale, Procul Harum

I can’t exactly say why the opening line from the old Procul Harum song came to mind when I was putting the finishing touches on this new painting. It really doesn’t have much to do with the song itself but since that moment that line seems glued to this painting in my mind.

I think it may have to do with the sky here, with the rolls crossing it reminding me both of pinwheels and cartwheels. There’s also something in the tone of this painting that feels a bit like that of the song to me. Unlike some of the other paintings from this show that employ this pinwheel/cartwheel sky, this piece carries more darker undertones. It shows a bit in the image above but is more evident when seen in person.

Even with the reference to the song, this is a painting that very much fits in with the theme of my upcoming Entanglement show at the Principle Gallery that opens two weeks from today, on Friday, June 13. I see the Red Tree here recognizing its relationship with the greater patterns of energy that make up all, understanding that it has descended from it and will eventually ascend back to it.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time glancing at this painting over the past several months. It has the ability to pull me in and hold my attention while creating a deep emotional response within me, a trait I find appealing in any piece of art.

Whether this applies to others as far as this painting is concerned, I cannot say. You can never tell for sure. That’s the beauty and mystery of art.

Now let us listen to that Procul Harum song that inspired this piece’s title. This is A Whiter Shade of Pale from 1967. If you’re of a certain age, you know that this song was radio staple throughout the late 60’s and 70’s and was played at every high school prom in that era. I can’t say for sure, but I think it was required by law.

Give a listen then let yourself out– I have tons to do this morning and need to get to it pronto.

Skip the Light Fandango is 15″ by 30″ on canvas and is included in my exhibit of new work, Entanglement, that opens two weeks from today, on Friday, June 13 at the Principle Gallery with an Opening Reception from 6-8:30 PM. I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery on the following day, Saturday, June 14, from 11 AM until 1 PM.

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The Entangling

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 28, 2025| 2 Comments »

The Entangling— Coming to Principle Gallery, June 2025

The outward wayward life we see,
The hidden springs we may not know—
It is not ours to separate
The tangled skein of will and fate.

–John Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound (1866)

This new painting from my upcoming Principle Gallery show might best represent the concept of this show, at least in how I see it. It’s a triptych called The Entangling. It’s simple and spare with the tangles of knots that make up the sky and their relationship to the Red Tree carrying the painting’s emotional weight here. It has a mixture of stillness and movement, along with a quietness that sings clearly, that connects with me and pulls me into the tangles.

I am showing it with its frame here. It seemed more important to show it as it will appear on the gallery wall rather than showing just the images of the three painted surface.

This piece probably deserves more discussion and time than I can afford this morning. But then again, maybe it doesn’t need it. Maybe it doesn’t require explanations. Maybe it is, in simply being what it is, the explanation of itself.

Hmmm… That’s something to think about today as I continue prepping work for the show. In the meantime, here’s a song from Lisa Hannigan that is at least somewhat titularly related to the subject today. It’s called Knots and this fun video does have to do with painting– sort of.

The Entangling is included in my exhibit of new work, Entanglement, that opens Friday, June 13 at the Principle Gallery with an Opening Reception from 6-8:30 PM. I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery on the following day, Saturday, June 14, from 11 AM until 1 PM.

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Balancing Act

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Balancing Act— At Principle Gallery, June 2025

You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

-Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

This is one of the smaller pieces from my Entanglement show that opens June 13th at the Principle Gallery. It’s 6″ by 8″ on canvas and I call it Balancing Act. Not quite sure if the balancing act refers to this person to staying upright on the small peak or in life in general, as Dr. Seuss reminds us with his Life’s a Great Balancing Act.

Or does it refer to the act of living as we do between planes of existence, one physical and one ethereal as the tangles of energy in the sky here suggest?

Or might it be the balancing act between reality and perception?

Hmm. More to think about here than I first thought. I guess it all comes down to how someone is feeling at any given moment or how they see things as a whole.

I have to think on this a little more so let us have a little Sunday Morning Music. This song seems like a good fit and a fine way to jumpstart your day. This is Over Under Sideways Down by the Yardbirds (with Jeff Beck on guitar) from back in 1966. Sounds like a great way to describe the sky in this painting.

Now get out of here before I lose my balance…

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Setting Course

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on May 22, 2025| 1 Comment »

Setting Course— Headed to Principle Gallery, June 2025

Gravity is so strong that space is bent round onto itself, making it rather like the surface of the earth. If one keeps traveling in a certain direction on the surface of the earth, one never comes up against an impassable barrier or falls over the edge, but eventually comes back to where one started.

–Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

I am not sure that the passage above from Stephen Hawking is perfect for what I am seeing in this new painting but for this morning it will do just fine. The painting, headed to the Principle Gallery for my June show there, is titled Setting Course and is 24″ by 24″ on canvas.

Though from its outward appearance the sailboat here seems to imply setting a course to some distant destination, that is not necessarily how I read it for myself. As it is with much of my work, I see all journeying and searching not as being outward but rather inward.

The answers we think can only be found by seeking outside ourselves are often contained within. Often it is the contrasting and gained experience we find on the outward journey that provides the clarity to recognize the answers within. We find that we didn’t know what we thought we knew, didn’t want what we thought we wanted, weren’t what we thought we were, and so on.

We may voyage around the world but it usually ends, as Hawking points out, with us coming back to where we started– the destination within ourselves.

I see this painting and its interwoven nature of the inward and outward as another form of the Entanglement that is the theme for this year’s exhibit. We are contained in everything and, as a result, become the destination for our every journey.

Every course we set leads back to us.

Okay, my head hurts a little now. Maybe I should have just said that I like this painting simply because I deeply feel its colors and forms and that the boat here makes me think of living a conscious life of self-reliance and self-determination.

Maybe even that is too much to say.

How about I just say that there’s something speaks to me, and I hope it says something to you as well?

Kind of a long journey to get back to that, right?

Like the boat here, I am moving on this morning. Here’s a favorite song whose mood   and title feels right for this painting. Plus it feels like perfect fit for a cool, rainy May morning with lots of those same blues and greens outside the window here in the studio. This is Blue in Green from Miles Davis.

Setting Course is included in my exhibit of new work, Entanglement, that opens Friday, June 13 at the Principle Gallery with an Opening Reception from 6-8:30 PM. I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery on the following day, Saturday, June 14, from 11 AM until 1 PM.

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Betwixt and Between

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Betwixt and Between— At Principle Gallery, June 2025

Between two worlds life hovers like a star,
‘Twixt night and morn, upon the horizon’s verge.
How little do we know that which we are!
How less what we may be! The eternal surge
Of time and tide rolls on, and bears afar
Our bubbles; as the old burst, new emerge,
Lash’d from the foam of ages; while the graves
Of Empires heave but like some passing waves.

—Lord Byron, Don Juan (1819)

I’ve had these lines from Lord Byron in my holster for a long time, waiting for the time when they would mesh with one of my paintings. Today seems like as good a time as any to unleash it.

The painting is Betwixt and Between, a smallish 10″ by 10″ canvas that is included in my upcoming show at the Principle Gallery. It’s easy to see by its sky that it is a prime example of the title for this year’s show, Entanglement.  But it also presents an image of our temporal existence between this physical world and that of the ethereal and raises the question: To which do we truly belong?

Maybe we belong to both, real life examples of Schrodinger’s Cat, existing simultaneously in paradoxical states of being. Or maybe not. Who knows for sure?

These lines from Byron also point out that so much that we exult– money, power, fame, etc.–is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Like the message of the poem Ozymandias from his good friend P.B. Shelley, Byron says that all empires one day fall and are lost to time and tide, exposing the folly of believing that we can attain an immortality of some sort in this world.

We might write our names on the slate of this world, but that slate is eventually and always wiped clean.

As for the painting itself, I am pleased with its look and feel. It speaks easily and simply to me. For me that’s always a good thing. Stark simplicity was a goal for much of the work in this show. I wanted clarity and didn’t want feeling to get lost in detail. This piece very much reaches that goal, at least in the way I see it. I think there’s a lot to see, feel, and think about in this small painting.

Maybe you will see that as well. Maybe not. Who knows?

Entanglement opens Friday, June 13 at the Principle Gallery with an Opening Reception from 6-8:30 PM. I will be in attendance to chat and answer any questions you might have so long as they don’t pertain to advanced mathematics or botany.

I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery on the following day, Saturday, June 14, from 11 AM until 1 PM. I will also be in attendance at this event, in case you were wondering.

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Wherever the Wind Takes Me

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 15, 2025| 5 Comments »

Wherever the Wind Takes Me – At Principle Gallery, June 2025

It’s hard to tell the difference between sea and sky, between voyager and sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart.

–Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

This was one of the first pieces completed for my upcoming Principle Gallery exhibit. It pretty much sent me in the direction that had me deciding to focus on the unity and interconnectedness of all energy and things as the theme for the show. It was the painting that spawned the idea of Entanglement as the show’s title. It’s been a favorite for me here in the studio over the seven months or so since it emerged.

It’s called Wherever the Wind Takes Me and is 15″ by 30″ on canvas. The title implies a journey or voyage of some sort and that’s true for the most part. My take on it is that there are all sorts of journeys, some that take you outward to distant shores and some that take you inward to equally distant shores within yourself. Both offer the potential for adventure and discovery of something new and perhaps life-altering.

The other thing that comes to mind for me from this painting, even in its title, is that we often go on such journeys without knowing what it is that we seek. And that is just as it should be because we often can’t recognize what it is that we most need. We think we know but we are often mistaken, especially when our conscious mind has not yet opened and melded with the greater entanglements that surround us.

It is then, when we journey– inward or outward without expectation of answers or discovery–that we may learn what it is that we need most.

It is then that the Entanglement will guide us– in the form of the wind in this painting– to what it is that we unknowingly seek.

In this case, the wind knows just what that is.

That might not make sense to you. It often doesn’t make sense to me. That makes me think I might be on the right track. The wind will let me know…

Here’s a tune that has been in my mind since I woke up this morning and it kind of fits. Kind of. The song is from The Byrds, their cover of Dylan’s You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.

Entanglement opens Friday, June 13 at the Principle Gallery with an Opening Reception from 6-8:30 PM. I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery on the following day, Saturday, June 14, from 11 AM until 1 PM.

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Magritte/ Poetry for the Unknown

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 9, 2025| 3 Comments »

The Happy Donor— Rene Magritte

I conceive of the art of painting as the science of juxtaposing colours in such a way that their actual appearance disappears and lets a poetic image emerge. . . . There are no “subjects”, no “themes” in my painting. It is a matter of imagining images whose poetry restores to what is known that which is absolutely unknown and unknowable.

–Rene Magritte, 1967, In a letter two months prior to his death

I am getting ready for my annual solo exhibit at the Principle Gallery. This year’s edition, Entanglement, my 26th such show at the Alexandria, VA gallery, opens five weeks from today on Friday, June 13th. I will also be doing a Painting Demonstration at the gallery the following Saturday, June 14, from 11AM until 1 PM. There is still a ton of work to be done so I am simply sharing a reworked post from several years back.

The quote above from Belgian Surrealist Rene Magritte reminds me of an instance where I didn’t fully get across what I was trying to communicate in response to a question while speaking to a group. It occurred at a demonstration and talk I gave before a regional arts group consisting of enthusiastic painters, some amateurs and some professional.

While I was working, a question was brought up about the importance of subject. Magritte elegantly stated in his words what I was trying to say that evening, that the purpose of what I was doing was not in the actual portrayal of the object of the painting but in the way it was expressed through color and form and contrast. To me, the subject was not important except as a vehicle for carrying emotion.

Of course, I didn’t state it with any kind of coherence or clarity. Hearing me say that the subject wasn’t important visibly angered the man who was an art teacher and an accomplished lifelong painter of realistic landscapes. He said that the subject was most important in forming your painting. I fumbled around for a bit and don’t think I ever satisfied his question or got across a bit of what I was attempting to say.

I think he was still mad when he left which still bothers me because he was right, of course. Subject is certainly important. It is the artist’s relationship that with the subject and the emotional response it elicits that allows the artist to create this poetry of the unknown, as Magritte may have put it.

While I am not interested in depicting landscapes of specific areas, I am moved by the rolls of hills and fields and the stately personae of trees that populate my work. I believe it comes through in my painting. Yes, I can capture emotion in things that may not have any emotional attachment to me through the way I am painting them, which was part of what I was saying to that man that evening, but it will never be as fully realized as those pieces which consist of things and places in which I maintain a personal relationship. It is always easier to find the poetry of the unknown in those things which we know.

But there is a caveat: The subject is often not the tree or the landscape, as much as it may seem the case. Often, it is the vague poetry made from that tree, the sky, the landscape, or whatever is chosen to paint along with things not visibly apparent that makes up the atmosphere of the painting.

That poetry is the real subject of a painting. 

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Trip the Light Fantastic

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 6, 2025| 5 Comments »

Trip the Light Fantastic— Coming to Principle Gallery, June 2025

Come, and trip it as ye go
On the light fantastick toe…

–John Milton, L’Allegro, (1645)

Trip the light fantastic. From Milton’s 1645 poem, it originally meant to dance nimbly. But for some reason, perhaps its phrasing or the derivations of the term over the centuries, it’s a term that summons up all sorts of images in my mind. But for the purpose of the new painting shown here, nimbly dancing might well fit as a description.

Using the phrase as its title definitely came to mind as the painting took on its final form. With the lively, rhythmic spirals and bright undercolor in the sky along with the rolling undulations of the sea, there is a feeling of a dance of sorts in piece for me. Of movement and countermovement, of rhythm matching rhythm and the joy that comes when that movement seemingly becomes effortless.

As though the two rhythms have become one.

As you may know, I am not a sailor. So, I can only imagine that there are those magical moments when the sea, the winds, and the sailor feel as one. I would imagine that would be an exhilarating feeling of unbridled joy and freedom.

That’s what I see in this piece. I feel lightened and brightened by it. But that’s just me…

This painting, Trip the Light Fantastic, is 15″ by 30″ on canvas and is from my annual solo exhibit at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. This year’s exhibit, my 26th there, is titled Entanglement and opens on Friday, June 13. Much of the work in this year’s show deals thematically with the bands and tangles of energy that make up everything, including us in our human form.

Much of it entails representing that energy in the sky of these pieces in a variety of ways– as twisting knot-like ribbons without beginning or end or cacophonous bands that interweave over and under one another. There are also some, such as this painting, that employ colorful rhythmic spirals.

It all makes for a striking look in each piece, one that make me really stop and consider each. The skies are often the central figures in this work, as much as the boat or the Red Tree or the house, and it’s hard to not dwell on finding some sort of meaning in them. There’s an almost meditative, therapeutic feel in many of these pieces for myself, both in the painting and the viewing.

Does that translate to other viewers? I don’t know. And maybe that doesn’t matter in the long run. It felt like I didn’t have any choice but to paint these pieces.  In some weird way, they demanded to be painted at this point in time.

Maybe I needed them for some reason. Some purpose.

I haven’t figured out the why of this. I only have the what at this point. And maybe, like so many things, I will never get the answer I seek. Maybe I am supposed to only ask the question.

If that’s the case, so be it. I am satisfied in continuing my search without answers if every so often I get to trip the light fantastic…

 

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