More smalls

Micro-exploration in oil on paper. I'm doing a bunch of 5x7's to try simple, semi-abstract compositions to see what will be up next on the painting slate. Posted a few last week and here's a few more. I'm digging the interiors and have gotten a lot of nice comments on this one in my studio. I framed all of these in 8x10 frames that I either had or found in antique stores. The ones that were really crapped up I painted with gray green house paint, scraped and sanded a bit and then glazed with odorless mineral spirits (about as odorless as I am) and a little asphaltum, a rich dark brown gunk that is in the tar family. When you thin it, it has a nice warming quality that patinas the whatever you are glazing surface and makes it look old.... and brown.

As I am in my go loose mode, these are perfect little studies for larger pieces and a map of sorts for how I hope the larger versions will feel. I'm excited about these tiny interiors and can't wait to translate them up in size.

A little trophy wall I found in Sedona. This scene was in a kind of shamanmart that had all the things you might need to become a spiritual guide; skulls, dead things, beads, vortex stones, smudge sticks, feathers, dead beaver pelts and exotic hides for the making of miracle shawls. When I was there a lovely lady came up and said about a longhorned african giant goat skull that was high up on the wall, "I have one of those over my bed.... I'm a fertility goddess, it scares my lovers." Wasn't sure how to respond, so I just said, "How romantic!" and let it go. Never tangle with a fertility goddess.