Birds Eye View - Winter Series

8x8 each, oil on cradled canvas board

Available at Edward Montgomery Fine Art in Carmel February 8th.

I love painting these. I think its cathartic after painting complicated cafe and restaurant scenes. The shadows and blocky shapes are simple and graphic. They are painted on a 2-inch deep cradled board so they don't need framing. I think I will try a couple on larger canvases too. Maybe much larger - very contemporary.

Chance Meeting

16x20 oil on linen

Gallery info to come.

Earlier in the week, I shared some sketches and the beginning of this scene in oil paint and here is the final piece. A lot happened in between that beginning and this end. I heard a really interesting remark from an artist who was on the Independent Lens program about origami - I can't remember it exactly but the gist was: "You try to strive for the final thing being good, but you're also aware of how beautiful the process is...people in a gallery viewing the object are missing like 2/3rds of what's special about it and how it got made..."
I liked that. Its very true. And perhaps that is why when I finish something, I feel it could be better and can't wait to move onto another painting to try again. Sometimes I wonder if its not more about making the marks on the canvas, than the actual picture they create.
Anyway, I highly recommend you watch that show (Between the Folds) online, or on your local PBS station if its airing.

Whats on my Easel

First some sketches working out some designs and value studies. All of these are from a visit to a really hip Austin espresso bar, Little City. I like the marker value studies a lot. Lets see if I can pull the oil painting together.

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

This month's creative challenge was to paint something beginning with the letters pi. I found this difficult because it had to be a specific object once the word had been chosen. I had to kind of back into it. First, try to think of a word/subject, then try to find something inspirational to paint. I have to say, I am not altogether happy with my results. I haven't put brush to canvas in a couple of weeks I think too, so there was the usual clumsiness with mixing and paint handling. And I'm not even sure this qualifies as a pick up... it might be an old VW van cut down, but with the open back it could be used for hauling and likely was before being left in this shed. Its an interesting way to work though. Definitely a challenge.


Old Pick Up
6x8 oil on panel
©2011 Robin Cheers

If you love this and want to own it, tell me now before I do my good deed for our environment and "recycle" it under some new paint. :-)



Pilsner
6x6 oil on panel
©2011 Sharman Owings


Apples for Pie
14x11 pastel on Pastelbord
©2011 Vicki Ross




Piggy
10x10 oil on linen
©2011 Suzanne Berry




Pineapple in the Snow
8x10 oil on hardboard
©2011 Diana Moses Botkin




Pink Piglet
6x6 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre

Bakers Racks

12x9 oil on panel

Gallery info to come.

I'm trying to get back into things here. What a wonderful break I've had though. I always seem to shift from art to decorating mid-winter, so am thrilled to have a new sofa and chair in our family room and have still been having fun arranging things. I'm also plugging away on the last pages of my book for the Sketchbook Project 2011.

The above painting was one of the last I painted at the end of 2010. As I walked down a street late one evening in Boston last July, I passed the back door of a bakery. The warm light flooded out of the open doorway (not to mention the delicious smells) and obviously grabbed my attention. Several bakers were working some dough and when I took my first photo, my flash went off and announced my presence. They were very good-natured about it, and all these months later, the scene is reinterpreted in paint. The sketchbook project too is rather becoming a year in review. You can chronicle my life through my paintings and drawings.