New paintings, hot off the easel, and some thoughts on art and life ...

Here's a quote from Aristotle:  "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."

I think this relates to still life painting. I know from my experience in the gallery where I work and show my art that still life is not the category people like best. Landscape is, by a landslide. But here's what I love about a still life painting: it can be personal and reflective. A still life can take you to a private, tranquil place that no one else understands in the same way you do. That's not to say that the painting works for only one person, but what it means to each person can be different.

The painting above is an old one of mine, but one that I've always been happy with. I made three paintings that are related:  "Morning" and "Afternoon" (both shown below) and "Late Night" (above).  I intended them to be a through-the-day look at the rhythms of daily life. My daily life to be exact. But other people can relate to them, and in fact I've heard comments from people that attest to that. "Morning" is the best of the three in terms of composition. And "Afternoon" is the one that sold. But I think "Late Night" is my favorite. I'm not a late night person, but I love the surface of things in this painting:  the jeans, the deckled edge of the book pages, the woodgrain of the chair, the fuzzy flowers in the blouse fabric. I loved painting these things because I enjoy the material things in my own life. It may sound like I'm contradicting the quote I started with, because I'm going on about the appearance of these things. But the painting is really about enjoying your own life, starting with the things in it. It's about the comfort of the personal.

"Morning"

"Afternoon"