Life Changing, From Large to Small

A couple of weeks ago I was up in my studio and was finishing a series of still life paintings. This painting is 18x24 and is the last in a series of vases I forced myself to do.
 I had struggled for days trying to "sit" the white vase, alas, to no avail, till that night when I began to dig through my pile of white paints to find a large tube of lead White!
That was what it would take to "sit" this vase down. I worked on the white for an hour and then finally, it settled

I began to put things away, as much as I do (those who know my studio know that is not much).This print, one I had seen 15 or so years ago at the Portland Art Museum, popped into my head. I grabbed a small study I had done years ago that was leaning against the wall and started painting.

"Mum Series #1" 5x7 oil on canvas

A change began in my hand and arm, and brain and I began to see close up instead of from elevation or far away.

The image of the mum, centred and white, made me want to find that in a painting.
Now I am hanging these little tiny paintings in a wonderfully humbling gallery in Harrisburg Oregon. Here is what my friend Randi Bjornstad says about it on her blog, Eugene Scene.

I recently hung a 70x80 oil and wax painting in my hometown library.

On the way back to Eugene I drove through Harrisburg. I had seen the storefront a few times but my schedule, or my ego, kept me from stopping.
After curating many shows at galleries and museums, being the curator at OPUS6IX, as seen below,

https://dancorbin.net/home.html

in Eugene, Oregon, and being old and cranky, and missing the joy of OPUS6IX,
I seldom visit galleries anymore. 
My work is nor "gallery centric" as one of my art critic buddies coined.
I just paint to paint, and I have little say in the equation.
 So FINALLY I stopped at the little Gallery, parked down the block, lest someone who knew my car spot it and walked into what I have to say the best description I have is JOY. 
Shelley was so excited to see me and I was convinced she had esp when she started asking about my large work. Turns out she knew who I was.
So:

 Do stop in on your way through town, you will be welcomed and will leave smiling.

Can Ya Say Parody? I knew Ya Could

After 2000, Canaga gradually withdrew from his artistic colleagues and worked in increasing isolation at his home in River Road. Scholars have linked this withdrawal to two factors: 1) The more personal direction his work began to take was not well-aligned with that of other artists, and 2) his art continued to generate disappointing responses from the public at large. In fact, after two museum shows, a one-person show at the State Capital, and inclusion in many collections, such as Horizon House, Seattle, he was distraught. In 2019 he gave up large paintings and retreated into his studio.

Canaga’s paintings from the 1990s are a testament to the influence that the Implessionist movement had on the artist. In “Mum goes Boating” (2019) and "Portrait of Some Guy”" (2019), he painted directly from the subject and employed short, loaded brushstrokes—characteristic of the Implessionist style as well as the works of Monet, Renoir and Pissarro. But unlike the way the movement's originators interpreted the Impressionist style, Canaga’s Impressionism never took on a delicate aesthetic or sensuous feel; his Impressionism has been deemed strained and discomforting, as if he were fiercely trying to coalesce colour, brushstroke, surface and volume into a more tautly unified entity. For instance, Canaga created the surface of "Portrait of Some Guy" through an obvious struggle, giving each brushstroke parity with its adjacent strokes, thereby calling attention to the unity and flatness of the canvas ground, and presenting a convincing impression of the volume and substantiality of the object.

Paraphrased from a biography of the artist in my heart https://www.biography.com/artist/paul-cezanne

Continuing to Explore the Small

 I received this very nice note from the River Road Library the morning.

"It  is beautiful. We had our board meeting tonight and everyone was just blown away. 

 I think it's perfect. Charissa is going to do a write up to put next to it, with the name of the piece and a short bio. I can't thank you enough. I am so sorry I was unable to be there, you made a great choice. 

Ill be sending out open house flyers tomorrow, hope to see you there."

Still Playing With Mums

Mum Goes Boating

Mum takes an Algebra Class

Mum Contemplates Humanity

The Possession Continues

Sunday night I was fooling around with my paints and picked up a small scrap of canvas that had been painted on but not finished.

I had some tinted whites mixed up from the last vase in that series and was suddenly compelled to paint. I painted till 2:00am

then was back up in the studio at 7:30 after breakfast.

 Now it has been 5 days of obsessive painting the same thing over and over, and each one I do increases my need to do them.

Painting till I had to leave for an appointment and almost missing it was a realization that someone else is helping me out with these paintings.

They are unlike anything I have ever done.

Two More added

Mums Series #13

Mums Series #14