July 16

Geez, it’s Tuesday. I better start getting on with it as they say here in Ireland. I was thinking about how different this residency has been for me. Usually I am running around in a panic, trying this and that and then I settle in to work. This time, thanks to a bag of wood chips, house paint and a saw, I just quietly started. I am not saying what I am up is necessarily grand ( also Irish) but it has put me in a more meditative, searching state. I am on the surface floating hoping to dive deeper at some point. I had thought I would add color and go larger—but the oils take forever to dry. And, I can’t bring logs on a plane.

This morning, I came in early into my studio and started moving around some little sticks that I had set aside last week. The nuance of their natural colors—side by side—were magical. I am finding it hard to manipulate the surfaces- bring in a heavy hand on top of such beautiful hues. So, here you go. I sketched a patch of graphite on the lower stick, sawed off the edges to create a little rhythm and there you go. I think of them as poems.

On this one, I only added graphite on the top of the right stick just to bring add little more contrast.

I know I was planning on painting. I will start tomorrow. It will be a total shift in my thinking.

This evening while walking, I pulled out my Seek App and looked up the flowers along the way: false foxglove, meadow buttercup, rose spirea, brabble, marsh thistle, tufted vetch and Henderson’s Angelica and meadow sweet. Good company.