Tonight my canvas was my house...

i used acid stain to color the concrete floor of my just built second bedroom! what a crazy process! I liked it all except the part about acid stain being nearly deadly. so for about half of today i was sporting a wannabe darth vader outfit and breathing through a respirator. today was a good day for it though, the weather was good enough to leave all doors an windows open. i have some images to post once my camera batteries charge up. happy blogging America!

with love,

daniel

p.s. i started Yoga this week with megan (i know, what the crap!), and it is surprisingly hard and really fun. it was time to start meeting new people and getting my body back in shape for soccer. i thought yoga might be a good first stop, so far so good. perhaps i might meet a nice girl interested in health and wellness?? here is the cool thing, all types of people go there - the single unifying quality is their above average bendiness. something thing i did not expect is that it is "hot " yoga (i forget the real name) and that adds a cool dimension to the workout. Picture this: the room is above 100 degrees and we are all holding these ridiculously challenging poses and breathing really slowly, the people are all sweating so much that it looks exactly like we all just got out of a pool. after my first day i was sore for the next 2 days (and i am not in bad shape, i run a mile and a half in well under nine minutes without effort, i play a lot of soccer do push-ups, sit-ups etc... but i was still dominated by simply standing in a hot room!) well, time to sleep.

Another day, another painting...

...another painting done but not posted. i painted two watercolors today - both portraits. i will see if i can post them tomorrow.

okay, so we need some good reading to fill the void of having no pretty picture to look at. tonight i have some notes from a chapter i read yesterday. the book is called "A Passion for Truth" by Abraham Heschel.

The quotes: "Love and Truth are the two ways that lead the soul out of the inner jungle." "...the essential goal is living in attachment to God." "The central issue is not Truth in terms of doctrine, but veracity, honesty, or sincerity in terms of personal existence."

those are some nice highlights from a few pages of a good book.

thanks to everyone who still visits this little blog! i will try and make it more worth your while in the coming days. have a good night.

love and peace,

daniel

Well, how long has it been?

I am back again. I took a few weeks off from posting - but I have been painting! Have I painted every day? Well, no I have not.

Here is the short of it: It all ended the day one of my dearest friends from high school called and said he was in Larkspur for the night visiting family ( he lives in Portland). I knew that it had been too long since I had seen him - so I made the trip. It was a good time with good talk. BUT I did miss painting that day and it was hard to just jump back in knowing the string was broken. I did make it over seven weeks. 50 paintings! It has been a strange few weeks, full of talk and thought, full of reading and reflection. It has been a time of strong ideas and real learning. It also has been the start of women's soccer - so my coaching schedule is very busy again!

All of these excuses aside, I have still been painting (about 4 to 5 paintings a week). I will post the retrospective of the last few weeks soon. Until then, enjoy the nearness of Spring.

Daniel

p.s. This life is amazing.

Why use words... when this will suffice

This is a perfect painting for my temperament... hovering between comic / bewildered / isolated

But words don't match the layers implied by this simple shape in the expanse of space around it.

I have re-read Ecclesiastes tonight and I think it was good, but it got at the root of me too. There is too much to say and I don't feel like recording it here - I am tempted to push the blinking cursor far far down the page... but I will let it be.

ten-minute idea sketch...

This is no kind of finished work, but with the short time I had tonight I wanted to do a quick sketch in paint... I have been thinking about an image like this for a long time. Painting this little experiment taught me what to look for as I prepare for the final form of this investigation.

goodnight,

Daniel

I painted at work again... so no post...

Sorry, I will make sure to repost the image later.

Feeling beat, need to sleep, here is a quick painting

This little painting is the result of having a vomit inducing migrane tonight and feeling the onset of a little sickness. I had the beginnings of a great talk at school today but had a hard time hanging with it due to the enormous headache that was mounting. Well, I took some advil and ate some real food to help calm my body down once I got home. It worked for a little while... long enough to finish sanding the final room of the basement... but now I am feeling crappy and really need to sleep. The painting is not much, but I did what I could.

p.s. Great question of the night: What is the Holy Spirit? I have lived with the idea and reality of the Holy Spirit in my life for a long time, but I have not ever sat down to define it. Well, I am also starting that process tonight! What a full day!

p.p.s. sledding on cafeteria trays is good way to spend an afternoon OR sprain a wrist OR both.

goodnight ya'll

Daniel

A portrait

i can't post the image... i left the painting at work.

A great poem to keep your interest:

The Man Watching

by Rainer Maria Rilke

I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can't bear without a friend,
I can't love without a sister

The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.

What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestler's sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

Still Frame Abstract

I forgot to bring home my paints tonight so I did the best I could with what was there. I had a couple colors and that is about it. The inspiration is a still-frame from the film "Master and Commander." The specific scene shows the boy drawing the animals of the Galapagos. This is a great part of a good movie. I thought it made for a nice quick-study, even if the proper materials were absent.

best wishes,

goodnight

Another Apple Said Eve

The colors in the photo are off and the image is skewed b/c the way I took the picture, but here it is.

Dream well,

Daniel

Here it is: I had no time to make it special...

Bed time means I had to make this happen fast, and it shows. Well, I still painted ...Right? This image is from Italy again. Take a guess at what city...

okay, so is "bed time" one word or two? Seriously, how have I lived 27 years and never have used that word in written form before?

good night all.

p.s. the studio is ready for sanding and paint. BUT - we are going to acid stain the floor first (maybe tomorrow) - I am so excited about trying this out!

p.s. the spell checker for blogger wants to replace "p.s." with "pooh."

I painted a quick one today

... but I left it at work. I will post it later this weekend.

p.s. The new studio space is almost built - the basement looks totally new!

Okay, I am back to normal posting: Rome at Dusk

I have painted this before, but I had to do it again. Listening to some great hymns tonight, I was overcome with a sense of reverence, longing, and a joy I can only describe as similar to the feeling of - clean spring air rushing over my face as I sprint through a warm twilight, as stars alight and my heart breaks free on the wind. I love the Spring, and yesterday I could smell it in the evening. The sky in the original image was the perfect color of twilight and filled me with remembrance of traveling with a good friend. This is a large painting by the "painting per day" standards. I guess it is 14 by 18 inches - painted quickly (and I ran out of white paint!), painted with a joyful heart.

If you are still reading please follow along a bit more:

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful."

- John 14:27

"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love... These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete...
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. ..This I command you, that you love one another."
- John 15: ?:?

In the world you have trouble, but be brave; I have overcome the world.
- John 16:33


"My peace I give to you," peace the world cannot give. "In the world you will have trouble, but be brave; I have overcome the world." "That your joy may be complete." How incredible is that!

How many can say they have touched peace?

Live well,
may the Fruit of the Spirit follow.

Daniel

Another quick one: turp and single color

It stinks that I have not had enough time or energy to really dig into the last few studies. This one had to be very quick... I have a lot of work to finish tonight.

take care.

Daniel

It is only Monday - but I am SO tired.

I painted, it looks crappy, and I will post it tomorrow. I am going to bed...

Dream well.

Daniel

Second image, a study of Joaquin Sorolla detail:

This was a fun one! Sorolla is the best! This is only the second time I have ever reproduced another artist's work... I think it was a learning experience. When I have more time I will have to post about visiting Sorolla's home (now a museum) in Madrid. If I ever think I am getting good at painting all I have to do to regain humility is open one of his books and my heart fills with the intense desire to learn. I love the way he paints.

Posting New Paintings Again!

I have images from the last few days to post. This first one is a figure study using some left-over paint and a little turpentine.

It looks like I have missed a few days... But that is not the case!

I have had tech troubles and had my blog is being weird lately. Do not worry, I am still painting everyday! All images will be up soon.

Problem with posting image... camera died and image wont post.

I'll post it when I can.

goodnight.

looking back

Many of the last 17 paintings have been done on one large board. it happens that my good friend Nick has some interest in buying the entire boards of paintings as one large piece! How cool!