I am back at my studio after a not-very-restful, but friend-filled weekend. The first thing I did was paint the rest of picture catalog number 924, now known as "The Orange Sail." This is now done. I finished the ocean early on the third. Now this language suggests that, like the God of the Bible's Genesis, I finished the ocean on the third day, not of August, but of Creation. (Disclaimer to readers: I am not a "creationist" nor do I believe literally in any of the stories of the Bible.) But as I wrote in a previous entry, I have actually finished a painting of a stylized, abstract ocean scene, in acrylic on illustration board, 19 inches vertical, 22 inches horizontal.

This picture has the distinction in my output of being the first picture I ever did the sketch for using a computer. The sketch for this was actually done back in 1992 when I got my first computer. I used CorelDraw 2 to do it, hoping to paint it as a larger canvas back then, but I never got around to it. (I am now using CorelDraw 12.) Some of my hesitation was due to technical problems such as how to draw long sweeping curves cleanly. I have a long "ship's curve," made out of bending layers of plastic, to do that now. So finally, thirteen years later, I've done the work. I was quite surprised how my painted final work differed from what I thought it was going to look like from the computer graphic.

Here is the computer sketch I did for "The Orange Sail" back in 1992.

And here is the finished piece, "The Orange Sail."

This is the first of what I am calling my "New England Paintings," which I am hoping to exhibit in my home town this fall. "Orange Sail" is inspired by the ocean scenes of my Massachusetts youth. This summer, it's as close to the sea as I'm going to get.

The next painting in the series won't be oceanic and New England-regional at all. It is from my present, not my youth or 1992. It will be an image inspired by the particle detectors at the great accelerators such as CERN or Fermilab.

Meanwhile, I am getting all the problems in classical acceleration right, which means that it's finally time to move on to reviewing something else in my bright red Schaum's book.

Posted at 3:18 am | link