My lifelong tasks were set young

I still remember sitting out and painting this by a stream that went near our house in California. My mother let me take her watercolours. Pure joy. I was 17.

My mother posed for me. It’s a good likeness.

These are the only 3 images that I saved from my youth. This one was done spontaneously without thinking. It is how I saw myself in danger from others. I was 17 when I did these three images. They represent well the 3 themes that I still work in. Now I’m 72 years old.

An artist in 3 parts -

I constantly struggle to define myself as an artist. I have 3 themes that I cannot seem to consolidate nor pick one to be my main focus.

One theme is my love of the outdoors and capturing that peace and beauty by painting en plain air and experiencing the surroundings directly. The second theme is people. Faces and figures always draw my attention and I like to take on the challenge of drawing or painting them realistically and capturing something of that person’s soul. The last and third theme is painting in an automatic fashion trying to put down on canvas what I am feeling in an abstract way. These always turn out to tell a story of my life either from the far past or present. I feel they are like having a dream which usually speaks to me over time of what is in my subconscious. The 3 images above are from age 17 and weirdly are the only things remaining of my art from that age. They clearly show the 3 themes. I only realised it recently how far back this issue goes for me. I am so jealous of artists who always work in one style. That must feel so good. But I have finally decided that it’s just never going to be that way for me. I am an artist in 3 parts. Below are current examples of the continuation of the themes that I had already started as a teen-ager.

2019 Painting from my former home in New Mexico

Clel, charcoal on toned paper 2019

I titled this one “the artist in three parts”, oil on canvas, 16 x 20, 2019