Winter into Spring & Homage to Agnes at Center for the Arts Evergreen – Wonders of Winter exhibit

Winter into Spring – 12x12 – Acrylic and colored pencil

Homage to Agnes – 12x12 – Acrylic and colored pencil

Winter can be a time of deep introspection. In Homage to Agnes (Martin), I honor the late painter’s use of repeating lines, here, as affirmations or prayers, for us all and for the planet.

Even as winter holds sway over the land, in Winter into Spring, signs of spring green emerge to give us hope for better days ahead. 

Wonders of Winter exhibit at Center for the Arts Evergreen opens today, Friday, December 11th, 2020 and continues thru January 8th, 2021. Located at 31880 Rocky Village Drive, Evergreen, CO 80439, in Bergen Park near Natural Grocers. Hours: Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-4, Sun closed. For more info: call 303-674-0056 or visit: evergreen arts.org.

View the online catalogue at:

https://issuu.com/centerfortheartsevergreen/docs/wonder_of_winter_2020_catalog_final_version

 Urge for Going

Urge for Going  –  5x3  –  Watercolor & pencil on paper

From my sketchbook... When the geese start to get so active this time of year, it always brings to mind Joni Mitchell’s song, Urge for Going, about the end of summertime and the coming of winter in her hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. 

 Happy Veterans Day

11:11  I Am One   SOLD

11:11  I Am One – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet 

This piece sold at:  2020 - The Year That Wasn't exhibit at The Framed Image Gallery in Denver.

 Plein Air Sketches

Hillside Study – 5x7 – Acrylic on w/c paper

Hillside Study II – 5x7 – Acrylic on w/c paper

These are a couple quick studies I always liked but never posted. For purchase: 

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/edward-kosinski-8734

 Asleep the Snow...

Asleep the Snow  –  8.5 x 6.5" (21.5 x 15 cm)  –  Mixed media on off-white laid paper

Our first snow here in Denver, Colorado.

"To me, what is very important in painting is not to think when you paint. You can think before you paint, you can think after you have painted, but while you are painting, thinking is the worst thing that you can do." –– Robert Ryman

 Exhibit Extended

Where there's Green, there's Blue 

The group exhibit at Framed Image, that I have eight paintings in, has been extended thru mid-September, 2020. For current exhibit or purchase info, please contact the gallery directly at: 303-692-0727. Thanks!

Above: Tropica – 16x20" (40x50cm) – Acrylic on canvas – $650

Kosinski toons

Since the virus hit, I've been doing less painting and more cartooning. I figure with the heaviness of the situation, I wanted to bring more joy to the world. If you like what you see, please go to: 
https://www.instagram.com/kosinski_toons/

Getty Artwork Re-creation Challenge

Above Left: The Astronomer, 1668, by Johannes Vermeer.  

Above right: Recreation by Ann Zumhagen-Krause and her husband on Twitter and via Facebook DM. 

Below: My Mona Lisa re-creation commentary, 3x5, Ink, pencil and collage on paper, posted on Twitter.

Being stuck at home for days at a time can be maddening for some folks. So the Getty Museum has come to our rescue! They have issued a playful challenge on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to re-create your favorite art using objects (and people) lying around the house. The challenge was inspired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and an Instagram account called Between Art and Quarantine. Thousands of re-creations have been done in both serious and humous ways. My contribution falls into the latter category. With the gravity of the current world situation, I have turned to cartooning to try and elevate spirits and lighten the mood. Although not strictly adhering to the challenge protocols, my cartoon depicts a probably homebound couple, attempting a re-creation of the Mona Lisa. As you can see by the Vermeer Astronomer above, folks can be fairly exacting. And the snag comes when someone, probably the husband (not seen), for authenticity's sake, suggests the model shave off her eyebrows! Ruh-Roh Reorge. (High resolution scans have revealed that DaVinci originally did give La Gioconda eyebrows and eyelashes, but they have faded over time.) 

For more info on the Getty challenge click: https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/getty-artworks-recreated-with-household-items-by-creative-geniuses-the-world-over/

Random Acts of Chalk

Along with the howling around town at 8pm, an anonymous Denverite has been quietly leaving us messages of hope and encouragement. I have seen three along the Highline Canal Trail west of Dayton Street. The first was: You Can Do This! Another was: You Are Valid, which was near Windsor Gardens senior community. The snow and rain wash them away and others appear to take their place. Thank you for your words of resolve and kindness!

To see more visit: https://www.instagram.com/randomactsofchalk/

Sang Rouge

Sang Rouge – 12x12 – Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas sheet

Sang Rouge translates from the French: Red Blood or more ominously Blood Red. I was thinking about all the lives affected these days, in both existential and all too real terms. Hovering above the red are thin silver cords. A lifeline to our higher self. I use the singular because it is the one life that we all share. A seemingly tenuous connection, which by our attention and intention can be made strong and more conductive, to hope, courage and right action. We are all one in this flesh and blood life. Let us care for one another and move thru this together. You are not alone.

"What could be more interesting, or in the end, more ecstatic, than in those rare moments when you see another person look at something you’ve made, and realize that they got it exactly, that your heart jumped to their heart with nothing in between?” 

-- Robert Motherwell

Black Grey Red Line

Black Grey Red Line – 12x12 – Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas sheet

I prefer to work in themes. I like to investigate the various possibilities within a given framework. These thinly striped works are a distant cousin to the Veil Stripe series. Still a color field painting, but more monochromatic.

Winter into Spring

Winter into Spring – 12x12 – Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas sheet

Winter has returned here today and has brought us that wet kind of east coast cold I remember from Boston. The spring green lines in the painting hovering above the frozen tundra are equal to about the same percentage of color that is showing in our landscape right now!

Homage to Agnes

Homage to Agnes – 12x12 – Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas sheet

Agnes Martin (1912-2004) was a Saskatchewan, Canadian painter who emigrated to Taos, NM, was discovered by gallerist Betty Parsons, moved to NY where her friends and neighbors included Robert Indiana and Ellsworth Kelly. (Later she returned to New Mexico.) Her large canvases at the time were comprised of horizontal pencil lines and grids. From the Zen Buddhist and Taoist lineages, her lines represented chants or prayers, as do mine. In these difficult times you may go line by line, similar to prayer beads or a rosary, saying an affirmation at each one. As Meister Eckhart said: If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is Thank You, it will be enough.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Namaste.

First Sight

First Sight – 14x11 – Mixed media on paper

This painting was inspired by the dress my friend Kathleen was wearing when I first met her. I haven't done much with colored pencils lately but this work combines them with graphite on paper and instead of using a Titanium White or Titan Buff for the 'veil', I mixed gesso with acrylic matte medium. It has a nice feel on the hot press Arches watercolor paper and I can easily control the opacity. The matte medium nicely stabilizes the pencil, so I've also done some similar work on canvas which won't need to be under glass.

See eight of my paintings: Tropica, Fat Tuesday, Veil VIII, Alignments, Cinq Cerises, In Cahoots, Blue Berries Orange Shadows & Melon-Cow-Ly at:

Where There's Green, There's Blue
March 31st – June 30th, 2020 *

* Due to the current closing of all nonessential city of Denver businesses, this exhibit will be ONLINE ONLY until further notice... Thanks for your understanding and good thoughts! The exhibit can be viewed by clicking here.

Fat Tuesday – 24x24 – Acrylic on panel – $1200

This group exhibit has a Spring-themed palette. Lots of landscapes and nature as well as many abstracts. I have 4 abstracts and 4 still lifes in the show. When you click the link above, scroll down about half way to see my work. Purchases can still be made though the gallery: 

THE FRAMED IMAGE

5066 E. Hampden Ave., Denver, CO 80222

303-692-0727

www.framedimage.net

Happy Spring!

Lotus Sutra 2

Lotus Sutra – 16x8 – acrylic on canvas – Private collection

Happy first day of Spring! For me this painting definitely speaks to the beginning of the new season. A symbol of hope in these perilous times. It is a time for reinvention. Now that many of us are home more, free of the world's distractions, it's a perfect time to incubate, and formulate a new path forward. Take time for meditation and introspection and surely as the flower emerges from the palm chakra, new life, new ideas, new ways of being in the world will come from within. Like Spring from Winter...

Lotus Sutra 2, was donated to the Art for Life auction that benefits Project Angel Heart, a Denver non profit that brings tailored meals to the seriously ill. The painting now resides in Dana Point, CA near San Diego. To learn more about Project Angel Heart click here.

"Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways."

–– Oscar Wilde

Happy Fat Tuesday!
Heaven's Stairway

Heaven's Stairway – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

A looser, less geometric addition to the Veil series. More washes and scrubbing and use of spatulas as well as brushes. 

"One kind word can warm three winter months" 

–– Japanese proverb

Tropica

Tropica – 16x20 – acrylic on canvas

Another in the Veil series, Tropica is influenced but my love of fiber art and quilts. And of course straight from my mid-winter dreaming of warmer climates!

Winter's Return

Winter's Return – 12x9 – Acrylic on panel – Click here to bid – Starting at $250

On Sunday when Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early Spring, here in Denver we were about 75 degrees and warmer than Miami during the Super Bowl! I thought, yay, here comes Springtime in the Rockies... Since, we've dropped to sub zero temps and yesterday was colder than Buffalo, NY. Yikes! Phil, you better check your sources...

While we were watching the Super Bowl, Denver's Monet exhibit, the only US location, quietly closed and is moving to the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany, where it will be titled Monet: Places. If you missed it here, the exhibit will be there from February 22nd – June 1st, 2020. 
For more info:  https://www.museum-barberini.com/en/

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Forest's Edge

Forest's Edge – 12x9 – Acrylic on panel – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $250

A calm forest glen is the perfect antidote to the politics saturating our airwaves these days...

(According to Phil, its going to be an early Spring! Yay!!)

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." –– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

January Squall

( January Squall – 6x6 – Acrylic on panel – Click HERE to Bid – Starting at $100 )

Even though it has been a relatively mild new year here in Denver, as of late, the higher elevations to the west are getting plenty of precipitation. The snow pack throughout the state is above average, which is making the drought predictors, skiers, boarders and visual artists very happy! Looking at this piece, I guess you could call me a Colorado colorist with tonalist tendencies...

Crayons 7.2 in JCMH 2020 Calendar

I am grateful to be included in 'The Art of Hope', Jefferson Center for Mental Health's 2020 calendar. They chose Crayons because it fit well with Back to School month. It will also be used for client contact cards for kids and their families. Along with maintaining a healthy body, good mental health and a balanced emotional life are so important in today's chaotic, hyper stressed world. They are good folks doing good work, and I'm honored to be able to contribute to their mission. For more info call 303-425-0300 or click: jcmh.org.