Progress

Looking back while I'm moving forward is sometimes an encouraging endeavor and often a surprise as to what I discover. Time can often change my perspective about things that I once thought were cast in stone. I never throw anything away, which makes me a sitting duck at spring cleaning time...and no, you don't want to ask me about storage and inventory unless you want to see my eyes roll back in my head and my tongue loll around in my open mouth...not a pretty sight I assure you. I was looking for a canvas this size to start a painting on and i found this one with a fully realized drawing on it that I had planned to paint probably 18 years or so ago...so, I thought that i'd try to see what I could make out of it...a task made more intriguing since I hadn't done a proper dolphin painting in nearly as many years. So, this is what happened...

"Blue Progression" Acrylic on canvas, 48x24". This work is available, so if you are interested, please feel free to view more information at http://WBEckertStudio.1000markets.com or inquire at WBEckertStudio@gmail.com)

What's with the birds, man?

Ah, the birds. I like them...pick a meaning for them...beautiful, nervous, quick, elegant (and clumsy of you ever watch a pelican touch down)... wonderful shapes and colors. They set my mind to wandering when i see them...flying alone, in squadrons, in gangs diving into a rosemary thicket, tiny finches, turkey buzzards, regal and aloof hawks and boisterous and raucous scrub jays...a bird for every purpose and idea and emotion under the sun. Sometimes they are speeding shapes in the corner of my eye and sometimes huge flocks above the waves feasting on schools of "unfathoming" fishes. So, I'm doing birds in all kinds of situations...in whatever venue that seems fitting.

And here is "A Morning Flight" Acrylic on canvas, 15"x30". This painting is available, so if you are interested, please feel free to view more information at http://WBEckertStudio.1000markets.com or contact me at WBEckertStudio@gmail.com

I Told You So

Well, i did say that i was sneaking up on a showing and i did. i really dislike the phrase, "I told you so!", it usually follows some personal catastrophe that one is supposed to feel could have been averted if only the "expert" warning had been heeded...Anyway, this time it's all good. I'm showing some of my new work at a local coffee shop, seven pieces that i haven't shown before, and i was afforded an entire wall for them! Life is good. The only thing better than having a wall to hang my paintings on, is a wall to paint one on. One really great upshot of getting these items out there is that i'm tremendously inspired to get more of my backlogged ideas down on canvas and paper. This is a VERY good thing!

So, i'll be posting some of the new work, and i'll do that starting with "Interwoven"...this one meanders like my thoughts, but it's all tied together. the birds theme is very far from being exhausted...so for my first offering...(all of the following until i say "uncle" are available, so if you are interested, please feel free to view more information at http://WBEckertStudio.1000markets.com or inquire at WBEckertStudio@gmail.com).

"Interwoven" acrylic on canvas "36"x24"

Sneaking Up

Well, it has been a while. i can actually claim that i have been working, if not posting. i decided a while back the i would hold off on the posting till i had a number of pieces to post and i have (not in small amount helped by the fact that i am just a procrastinating genius of sorts). i'm slowly sneaking up on my goal.

i decided to post this one since it's already up elsewhere. i've been doing birds lately while pondering other things...these are pretty idealistic birds but they seem to fit where my head is residing these days. This is my latest. i did it as a birthday present for my wife...it had the desired effect...complete surprise and delight. i like it when that happens.

"whisperflight" acrylic on canvas, 15"x30", Private Collection)

Balancing Act

more peppers...

although these seem to be leaning right, they are most definitely liberal peppers! this turned into a bit of a balancing act of sorts. although i feel that the peppers lean a bit towards the abyss outside the picture frame, they seem to have achieved a precarious balance. when i was posing my spicy subjects, despite my better compositional judgment, all the positions that looked balanced seemed rather dull, so i went with this one...at the time that i finished it, i didn't think that i liked it, but viewing it the next morning proved it a hasty call.

teetering for your perusal...."Peppers On Glass" original acrylic on canvas

Things That Bump

so it's raining outside and dreary, but it doesn't bother me, in fact i wish it were raining much harder... it does put me in the mind of bright color though, probably the need to balance it all out. sameness seems to demand contrast, even of the violent sort, while raucous turmoil and intense and unrelenting contrast beckons some sort of soothing consistency...sometimes things that bump in the night are needed and even welcome, even in the day.

i'm not sure where this came from, i can see roots in "starry night", but it did offer a refreshing contrast to the rainy day outside...in stark contrast to my obsessively worked out pieces this one was free and easy...all the incredible life and movement that is going on in the night (and all around us any at time for that matter) that we are scarcely aware of...

"Night Movements" original digital print.

Spicy

i like peppers, i like how they taste, i like how they make other things taste, i like how they look. i prefer the twisty ones the most. i've noticed that many stores seem to prefer peppers that look like storybook peppers...uniform and uniformly "pepper-like". i think that i prefer the "Mapplethorpepper"...suggestive and sensually twisted...visually spicy!

what i did with three of them one afternoon...
"3 peppers" original painting, acrylic on canvas 8"x10" study on stretched cotton canvas ($125)