swimming pool (10″ x 15″) on matte board   ( you can click the image for a larger view)

I ended up making a mess of my under-painting and starting over with a simpler composition more focused on the pool and the Japanese Maple. There was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to show you but the woebegone pool was getting lost.  I haven’t painted anything in a long time and there was definitely  a settling in period, finding a rhythm and a particular sort of focus. That particular sort of focus, when achieved,  is one of the things I most like about this kind of work.  It feels like a little milestone in this project to have something painted and  pretty much finished. I’m full of ideas for other  drawings and paintings – places I want to show you. I also want to start to tie these images together and put them into the geographical context of my remembered childhood for you. I’ve begun drawing a map and I’ll show you some work on that and maybe a mysterious covered well next  Wednesday.

This is work on  a painting of  the backyard pool- a classic  above ground beauty, circa 1970 or there abouts.  So far I’ve almost accomplished an under-painting – details defined in umber and washes of greyish blue and umber. I have lots of snap shots of this pool in my mind but my favorites are the darker ones – too cold to swim, a steely, cloudy day, leaves and japanese beetles floating on the water. I want to show it to you past its prime, listing a little and rust insulting the happy stripes. I was attracted to melancholic things as a kid and I still very much am – I think there’s a shadow of melancholy in almost everything I do. I’m happy to fully indulge that inclination for this picture.   I’ll begin to add color this week  (I might share a snippet of progress on instagram or facebook) and I’ll post the bleak scene here  in full color next Wednesday.

(click image for larger version)

I’ve been working on a sketch for a painting.  The plants and trees and flowers have continued to be on my mind most.  On the north side of the house, outside my bedroom window, there was a dogwood tree and just past the picnic table  there was a funny little tree with round jingly leaves we called the money tree. I don’t know what  it was – an alder maybe? I’m trying not to get too stuck on being botanically correct – I’ll drive myself nuts. The grass was sprinkled with bluettes, tiny wild strawberries, orange hawkweed (indian paintbrush), queen anne’s lace and purple clover. Ferns and violets grew in the shade near the stone wall and marched down the little hill.

This week I’ll start to make this into a painting. I’m also  thinking about what to draw next:  If I follow the violets down the little hill  I could go across the road and past the wild tiger lilies into the far swamp.  Or if I turn right at the dogwood tree I could show you the Japanese maple and a classic 1970’s  above ground swimming  pool. I’m leaning towards the pool.

high tension wires – pencil drawing – 2013

That’s the subject  for my year long drawing and painting project.  The place where I grew up, my memories of the place and the experience. I’ve only made a couple rules: it must be two dimensional work on the aforementioned subject and I must post progress here  each and every Wednesday of 2013.  If I don’t work on it  steadily  every Wednesday of 2013 will be pretty humiliating for me.  And that’s the idea, to push myself into the habit of drawing and painting regularly.

Today’s drawing is of the high tension wires (power lines), one  of the far limits of my small self’s territory.  And some things found closer to home – the lilacs, the big pale pink roses and the old gray fence that were  just outside my back door.