100 Tiles

Tile 100

2006-05-19T12:11:00.000+02:00

We shall not cease from exploration,
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T. S. Eliot, LIttle Gidding, from " Four Quartets"

Tile 99

2006-05-19T12:09:00.000+02:00

Earth and sky; what could be simpler?

Tile 98

2006-05-19T12:05:00.000+02:00

Grass and sky; what could be simpler?

Tile 97

2006-05-19T12:02:00.000+02:00

The season of the red-topped grass.

Tile 96

2006-05-19T11:59:00.000+02:00

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Two colors serve to define a landscape. The underlying texture translates as clouds in the sky, texture on the ground.

Tile 95

2006-05-19T11:54:00.000+02:00

Stripes!

Tile 94

2006-05-19T11:53:00.000+02:00

Spring, again.

Tile 93

2006-05-19T11:52:00.000+02:00

Warm and cool.

Tile 92

2006-05-19T11:49:00.000+02:00

Soft day, soft colors.

Tile 91

2006-05-19T11:46:00.000+02:00

Daybreak.

Tile 90

2006-05-19T11:45:00.000+02:00

Night, 3.

Tile 89

2006-05-19T11:44:00.000+02:00

Night, 2.

Tile 88

2006-05-19T11:40:00.000+02:00

Night, 1.

Tile 87

2006-05-19T11:39:00.000+02:00

Light sky, dark ground.

Tile 86

2006-05-19T11:36:00.000+02:00

Storm. Orage.

Tile 85

2006-05-19T11:35:00.000+02:00

Ocean.

Tile 84

2006-05-19T11:32:00.000+02:00

A soft, warm-grey day.

Tile 83

2006-05-19T11:19:00.000+02:00

Spring.

Tile 82

2006-05-19T11:17:00.000+02:00

Green and yellow, separated by red.

Tile 81

2006-05-19T11:10:00.000+02:00

Yellows and oranges contrasted with an edge of blue-green.

Tile 80

2006-05-19T11:06:00.000+02:00

Even in black, the slim line of the horizon defines distance, future, possibilities...

Tile 79

2006-05-19T11:05:00.000+02:00

A slim line describes the horizon.

Tile 78

2006-05-19T11:02:00.000+02:00

The landscape overlaid in gold.

Tile 77

2006-05-19T11:00:00.000+02:00

Dusk, the tropics, a hot, humid, overcast day...

Tile 76

2006-05-19T10:46:00.000+02:00

Another obsession - a soft edge of grasses.

Tile 75

2006-05-19T10:44:00.000+02:00

The distant horizon, my recurring obsession.

Tile 74

2006-05-19T10:42:00.000+02:00

A bit of yellow defines trees, or grasses...

Tile 73

2006-05-19T10:39:00.000+02:00

Texture adds to the feeling of earthiness.

Tile 72

2006-05-19T10:36:00.000+02:00

The softened horizon again defines a landscape, even in unexpected colors.

Tile 71

2006-05-19T10:34:00.000+02:00

Soft horizon, on a textured ground.

Tile 70

2006-05-19T10:31:00.000+02:00

A return to the simple horizon. A softer, fluid horizon in contrast to the previous hard-edged collage.

Tile 69

2006-05-19T10:29:00.000+02:00

Collage - yet another approach to minimalism.

Tile 68

2006-05-19T10:26:00.000+02:00

Minimalism of a different sort - the landscape as texture.

Tile 67

2006-05-19T10:20:00.000+02:00

Minimalism. Ocean beneath sky or, when inverted, sand leading to ocean or sky.

Tile 66

2006-05-06T13:07:00.000+02:00

The ocean!

Tile 65

2006-05-06T13:03:00.000+02:00

A streak of slightly less subdued color defines the edge of the sky.

Tile 64

2006-05-06T13:00:00.000+02:00

A sugestion of grasses.

Tile 63

2006-05-06T12:57:00.000+02:00

Can't get the color right in this photo - picture the sky as a soft lemon yellow, the earth as more salmon.

Tile 62

2006-05-06T12:52:00.000+02:00

Colors layed on then scrubbed off, to accentuate the texture of the gesso ground.

Tile 61

2006-05-06T12:48:00.000+02:00

Colors layered over a ground of cadmium yellow light.

Tile 60

2006-05-05T18:35:00.000+02:00

This tile was "discovered" when I hung all the tiles in my hallway yesterday. I had 59 tiles, I thought, until I counted them hanging there. 60! Uh Oh! Recount - Yep, definitely 60 there. A tedious logging of all the numbers on the canvas backs eventually showed that there were two tiles numbered 16. So this one has been hiding from the blog since February. Here it is with it new number.

Tile 59

2006-05-05T18:32:00.000+02:00

A low, faintly curved horizon, under a warm yellow sky.

Tile 58

2006-05-05T18:30:00.000+02:00

Warm browns and yellow, offset with a slanting horizon highlighten in cool blue-green.

Tile 57

2006-05-05T18:28:00.000+02:00

High horizon, in warm reds and oranges, with highlights of cool blues and greens.

Tile 56

2006-05-05T18:03:00.000+02:00

Tile 55

2006-05-05T17:29:00.000+02:00

In these next few tiles, the dried acrylic paint layer is rubbed with watercolor crayon to give delicate highlights.

Tile 54

2006-05-05T17:24:00.000+02:00

Continuing with the motif of a simple horizon, centered - a separation of the picture plane usually best avoided, but I like it, and it works with these tiles.

Tile 53

2006-05-04T13:21:00.000+02:00

A row of trees is defined with the edge of a palette knife dipped in Thalo turquoise paint...

Tile 52

2006-05-04T13:03:00.000+02:00

More than 50 tiles into this project, I am struck with the freedom gained by defining constraints. If there are no constraints, if you start from nothing, you have to re-invent everything, every time. Holding some things constant makes any evolution more fruitful. These square tiles are the Hox genes of my landscape, the productive subroutines in my program, that take away the drugery and lets you move forward without - Yes - having to re-invent everything every time. The landscape is defined. I am free to invent color, texture, free to explore more intimately than I would be able to in a traditional landscape. Austerity leading to riches...

Tile 51

2006-05-04T13:01:00.000+02:00

A slightly more defined scene, with highlights scumbled on with watercolor crayon mover the acrylic paint.

Tile 50

2006-05-04T12:46:00.000+02:00

To our eyes, a simple line turns into the horizon, and defines a landscape. The line can be hard or soft, in any color, we still see a horizon.

Tile 49

2006-05-04T12:43:00.000+02:00

The simple horizon again.

Tile 48

2006-05-02T19:12:00.000+02:00

Fields on a grey day...

Tile 47

2006-05-02T19:07:00.000+02:00

Back to a favorite motif, the far horizon, soft edged, with layers of color. Fields in the twilight, "entre chien et loup" (between dog and wolf).

Tile 46

2006-05-02T19:02:00.000+02:00

Breaking out of those austere lines with some fresh spring grasses.

Tile 45

2006-05-02T19:00:00.000+02:00

The last in this sub-series - for now. I may return to it later.

Tile 44

2006-05-02T18:53:00.000+02:00

And another...

Tile 43

2006-05-02T18:51:00.000+02:00

A really fractured plane...

Tile 42

2006-05-02T18:49:00.000+02:00

And another...

Tile 41

2006-05-02T18:47:00.000+02:00

Second in this series or, more precisely, sub-series.

Tile 40

2006-05-02T18:44:00.000+02:00

First in a series of paintings using lines intersecting the plane as a starting point.

Tile 39

2006-05-02T17:35:00.000+02:00

This tile is camera shy. It was done way back at the beginning but it then hid in my studio and wasn't caught for a photo until today.

Tile 38

2006-05-02T13:18:00.000+02:00

Semi-abstract landscape, actual brush represented with quick brush strokes. Heh, heh... We're now off to Carcassonne to buy some more canvases. If I have time when we get back, I'll upload the next 12 tiles.

Tile 37

2006-05-02T13:14:00.000+02:00

This time of year, late April and early May, the fields are a patchwork of brilliant yellow against the riotous spring green. The yellow fields are flowering colza (rape seed in English).

Tile 36

2006-05-02T11:56:00.000+02:00

Another tile about the horizon, and about shadings and overlays of color, my recurring theme.

Tile 35

2006-05-02T11:53:00.000+02:00

Another tile done at Cat'Art, where 6 American artist friends were doing a residency. This is done in watercolor, on canvas.

Tile 34

2006-05-02T11:51:00.000+02:00

Finally getting around to uploading more photos. This is from early April, when the paint-l artists had arived in France, and the cherry trees were just coming into bloom.

Tile 33

2006-04-19T14:10:00.000+02:00

Still the simplified horizon, an excuse to play with color and texture. An overlay of Caran d'Ache watercolor crayon adds a bit of luminous blue to the underlying acrylic paint.

Tile 32

2006-04-19T14:06:00.000+02:00

Another tile playing with edges, more of them this time, with subtler colors.

Tile 31

2006-04-19T14:01:00.000+02:00

Another tile featuring the simplified landscape - a horizon line defined by the edge where colors meet.

Tile 30

2006-04-19T13:41:00.000+02:00

I'm back! It's been a trying few weeks - the flu, followed by non-stop work on a website for the upcoming open studios tour "Le Chemin des Artistes" (www.chemindesartistes.com). But I'm finally finding time to paint again, mostly thanks to the fact that I have 6 American artist friends visiting. These friends are doing a residency at a local contemporary arts center in Ste. Colombe sur l'Hers, where we have our second house. (www.catart.org) Oh yeah - the other, still-being-resolved problem: laptop destroyed by exuberant doggy leaping off the couch and catching her legs in the laptop's umbilical cord. Laptops do not survive backflips onto the floor. Luckily this one's disk survived, although its screen did not. Then came the realization that we didn't want to buy a french laptop which has *very strange* keyboard. Not QWERTY but AWERTY - and many other differences I can't imagine getting used to. But - well, those American artists were on their way, and one of them offered to carry a new laptop to me if I ordered one and sent it to her. Perfect! So the new laptop arrived on March 31. Yay! Thank you Robin and Debbie! I'm still in the process of setting up my old neighborhood on it. This morning it acquired the driver for my digital camera card so I can once more upload images. So, here's a new tile!

Tile 29

2006-02-17T11:14:00.000+01:00

Closer to "normal" landscape - trees!

Tile 28

2006-02-17T11:12:00.000+01:00

More rule breaking, this time with color - saturated colors in the distance.

Tile 27

2006-02-17T11:10:00.000+01:00

A busy painting, breaking compositional rules on purpose.

Tile 26

2006-02-17T11:08:00.000+01:00

A thin streak of red defines the horizon.

Tile 25

2006-02-17T11:05:00.000+01:00

Still playing with color combinations. Brown, blue, yellow.

Tile 24

2006-02-11T12:58:00.000+01:00

Mixed media - collage of graph paper glued to canvas, ink sketch of the same cliffs as tile 16, overpainted with thin acrylic.

Tile 23

2006-02-11T12:56:00.000+01:00

For these latest tiles (17 - 23), I am playing with color, colors chosen for themselves rather than for their representation of the landscape itself. Color on canvas can never capture the intensity of what we see outdoors. To try to recreate this vision, the colors have to lie, have to push themselves onto your eyes, perhaps scream a little... Here, orange, yellow and a bit of blue.

Tile 22

2006-02-11T12:55:00.000+01:00

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Vibrant yellow and orange, a hint of blue green

Tile 21

2006-02-11T12:53:00.000+01:00

Blue - tropical, summery blue.

Tile 20

2006-02-11T12:50:00.000+01:00

Ochre and blue create a beach and ocean

Tile 19

2006-02-11T12:49:00.000+01:00

Purple!

Tile 18

2006-02-11T12:46:00.000+01:00

Green, paired with red-orange

Tile 17

2006-02-11T12:42:00.000+01:00

Blue, violet, edged with yellow

Tile 16

2006-02-11T11:55:00.000+01:00

Cliffs, maybe looming ziggurat?

Tile 15

2006-02-11T11:53:00.000+01:00

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Memories of the summer landscape, on an almost sunny afternoon.

Tile 14

2006-02-11T11:48:00.000+01:00

In the hills above Espéraza, plowed fields are made ready for the coming spring.

Tile 13

2006-01-27T12:22:00.000+01:00

A departure. Watercolor on canvas, sealed with acrylic.

Tile 12

2006-01-27T12:10:00.000+01:00

A tile born of a visual memory of last year's spring, of fields of yellow daffodils. Along the road to Lavaldieu, not far from here, a fold in the hills of the dry garrigue turns yellow with daffodils every March.

Tile 11

2006-01-27T12:04:00.000+01:00

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On the Canal du Midi.

Tile 10 - Red Sky

2006-01-27T11:08:00.000+01:00

Tile 10 again, in another possible orientation. Red sky is more disturbing than red grass. A blood-red sunset over a pine forest? A forest fire?

Tile 10 - Red Grasses

2006-01-27T11:05:00.000+01:00

A field of grasses in deep red and brown, a high horizon, no sky visible.

Tile 9

2006-01-27T10:04:00.000+01:00

Another tile on linen. The weave of linen is tactile, substantial. I don't like to cover it completely. Here the paint is scumbled onto the canvas; the fabric is more than simply a support.

Tile 8

2006-01-27T10:01:00.000+01:00

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Many tiles being added today. The camera lags behind the painting, and downloading to the computer adds yet another lag.

Tile 7

2006-01-24T09:03:00.000+01:00

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As I photo this painting, download it to my computer and upload it to the world, there is much activity outside my studio door. My studio opens onto a walled garden, at the back of which is a large, unruly fig tree. It is being brought to order by two hardy men with chain saws, pruning shears and ladders. The tree was so heavy with fruit last summer that a large central branch severed itself from the trunk. These two fellows came and administered first aid back then and promised, in the best "Don't call us, we'll call you" style, to return in January to do a proper pruning. To our amazement, they called last night and here they were at 8 this morning. Soon Figgy will be in better shape, brought to order in the best French pruning tradition - which is severe indeed.

Tile 6

2006-01-20T17:09:00.000+01:00

Sunrise? Maybe. The viewer is free to interpret it as such. But that slim patch of yellow is a visual rather than an intellectual or rational choice. The blue green to its right is born of similar parentage.

Tile 5

2006-01-19T17:33:00.000+01:00

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Painting of a scene in the nearby village of Granes. The ditch cutting through this field gives a lovely diagonal, leading the eye through the painting.

Tile 4

2006-01-18T13:14:00.000+01:00

Minimalist indeed. A few swaths of paint against the warm background of the linen. I like that so little can suggest a whole landscape, the paint on the canvas taking advantage of the expectations in the viewer's eye and mind.
More tiles to come - yesterday I bought another 24 of these tiny canvases. And more paint - not that these are eating into my paint supply very rapidly. Especially ones like this!

Tile 3 - Printemps

2006-01-16T16:04:00.000+01:00

The colors of spring! Soon it will be spring here; when I was playing with my horse a few days ago there were bees buzzing about. The grass is still green, the daylilies are peeking up through the ground. A few days ago I thought to myself that soon there would be jonquils in the stores, and today - there they were at our supermarket, the InterMarché. Yay!

This morning, though, the temperature was 29F. Not spring quite yet.

Tile 2

2006-01-15T14:41:00.000+01:00

Second in the series of tiles, this painting is just a horizon, the sky and the earth having only supporting roles. This was done on a canvas that had been smeared with modeling paste in preparation for painting. I like the unexpected effects that can result. I also like the fact that this surface echoes the stone surfaces of the tiles I love so much. The painting is perhaps merely an excuse to spend time looking at this surface.