Plein Speech
a painting
a break
a chance
denial
of discipline
of meeting in muddy gray
beyond the orange-pink pond
under the red tree’s severed limbs
of terror
May 16, 2018
Humboldt Park
Table set, Zooming
Blank paper wants color, action
Familiar looks new
Excited to paint
Look outside, inside bubble
Cactus, window, car.
In the April sun
Observation connection
Children like this too
Despite pandemic
A way to share space and time
Unexpected view
April 10, 2020
Remote Oak Park
Patient and encouraging, meditative and imperfect. We sit in the garden noticing the unnoticed, rendering a moment.
January 25, 2020
Ventura California
Mariah- Patient and encouraging, meditative and imperfect. We sit in the garden noticing the unnoticed, rendering a moment.
Ocean waves crashing
Sunshine and sea breezes
Drying seaweed, flotsam, & jetsam
Boundless birds and bugs
Time with a friend
Painting on the beach
January 26, 2020
Venice backyard
I was nervous about painting with Leslie. It’d been years since I picked up a watercolor brush. The day before, I spent three indecisive hours at the art store trying to pick out the right supplies that would match my romantic, Merchant-Ivory film notion of plein air painting. The next morning, Leslie and I met up inside the Garfield Park Conservatory. I painted, timidly so, and watched as Leslie’s brush worked swiftly and intuitively with no second-guessing, joyfully wedging shapes and color combinations into gorgeous compositions. I had recently read about “flow,” the term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to describe a heightened, immersive state of positive productivity, and I wondered if Leslie was experiencing it. After our date, I went home and made some drawings and thought, “Is this flow? How do I get to flow? Should I ask Leslie?” Flow came, eventually, once I stopped being so conscious of it. Also, chocolate helped. And thinking about the way Leslie’s brush moved.
January 16, 2019
Garfield Park Conservatory
October 13, 2019
Prospect Park
Representational painting colliding with abstract conversation. Warmth and kindness. No watercolor experience? Fail fast and move on. A celebration of friendship, reflection and nature.
August 23, 2018
Humboldt Park
Friends
Seeing
Choices
Connected
Hats
Trees!
May 7, 2017
Hahn House
May 26, 2019
Hahn House
An indulgent, sweet reverie, a welcomed detour into meandering thoughts––a warm oasis in the midst of a cold, grey day
January 24, 2018
Garfield Park Conservatory
Steam on pigment cake,
Garfield glass droplets fall down,
Look mark load brush mark.
January 16, 2020
Garfield Park Conservatory
