Lillian Smith Center residency-day 1

Unbelievable!  I slept until nearly 9 a.m. this morning!  Unheard of in my world... I usually wake up between 5 and 6 a.m.  Maybe it was the open windows letting in air from the real world.  Maybe it was exhaustion from getting here, unloading things, arranging things, wondering what I was going to do while here...whatever it was, I was quite surprised to wake up and find the sun up and the birds already on their daily tasks of making a living in the woods.

I walked the loop of road and along the way I spotted this fellow:

Next, I witnessed an almost murder as the stick insect tried to capture a large fly that had unfortunately landed on an adjacent leaf.  Here's a still from the video I took of that... it all happened in slow motion--until the stick guy leaped and the fly did what his name implies... flew (away quickly)!

It was a sunny day here and the road to Robert Fichter's studio where I'm working was dappled with shadows:

Here I am, about to walk down through those shadows to the smaller path through the woods to Robert's studio:

Thank you, Robert, for the use of your studio!  I love being able to staple up large canvas and paint with abandon.

So today I began with that abandon, starting with a couple of canvases that were from past painting sessions with Steve Aimone.  I stapled both up to the drop cloth I'd put on the wall and started.

Here's the before... and soon these changed.

On the way into the studio I picked up some oak leaves and decided to use this one as an inspiration for working.  Here are stages of what I'm doing with this.  The canvas is about 60" square and so the leaf is enlarged a great deal.  Inspired by Alex Katz, perhaps?

stage 1

stage 2

stage 3 (where I left it today... more with this tomorrow)

My work table in the studio is full of assorted acrylic paints, brushes and mixing trays:

And I also have a table for painting in my cottage:

Challenging and rewarding days to come, I hope!