Late Summer Along the Trumet Road

This weekend I start my eleventh year as an painter. It's been a decade now since I quite my day job to paint "full time". Haven't a regret. Lot's of changes along the way. Started in watercolors and then had to learn how to paint in oils on canvas when it quickly became apparent that watercolors are too much like prints to command much interest in the "over the sofa" market. Later on I switched to acrylics on hardboard because I realized I could do everything I wanted in acrylics with a lot less annoyance. I sold paintings for the first five years or so and enjoyed the process, but I came to realize I was unprepared to do what it takes to make painting a business, so I just put a minimum $100K price on 'em and have never had to ask myself, "But will it sell?" again. (I know the answer.) In return I have the freedom to paint pictures like the one above without caring that no one but myself is likely to like it. Well worth it.

I did make my quota of two paintings a week this year, but I only did so by cheating: painting a lot of little paintings last fall. Oh, well. And I am not exactly painting at my best these days; maybe I'll get better and maybe not. We'll just have to see what year eleven brings.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Late Summer on the Upper Orham Road

Back from a week's holiday on the Lake Michigan shore with the extended family; lot's of walks along the beach and lots of time re-reading Joseph Lincoln books about Cape Cod a hundred or more years ago, which is the basis for this and these types of painting. Nothing new here, but at least I'm motivated to paint a bit. Can't complain.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Late Summer Along Lost Spring Road

I see it's been more than a month since I last painted a picture. I've always relied on intuition and inspiration to paint without any formal training. When inspiration and intuition fails I've nothing to fall back on and am pretty much out of luck. And the spring of inspiration and intuition seems to have run dry. I could, I suppose re-hash old scenes, like this piece, but that really doesn't interest me. Instead, I don't think I'll be painting for a while and see if anything changes. I'm not holding my breath, it's been hard to come up with things to paint for a year or more, so I'm far from sure this is a temporary thing.

But it's not like I'm not continuing to create. I'm just into words these days. I've finished the almost final draft of the first four episodes of my open ended science fiction serial "Captain of the Lost Star".  If it passes muster (a big 'if') with various reviewers, I'd like to self-publish as an ebook this fall sometime. It's a 60,000 word introduction to the characters of a tramp space ship plying the Nine Star Nebula. My plan is to add 10,000-15,000 word connected short stories on to it to keep the story going to where ever in the Nebula it's going. I'm planing to draw some illustrations and will post them here if I do. In addition I'm working on another science fiction novel with the working title of "The Rhymer's Gate" which I hope to have done by the new year. I write, as I paint, for fun, so that if I do finish them to my satisfaction, I'd publish them myself as ebooks if I don't think I'd embarrass myself too much. We'll see.


18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard