Welcome.
There are things that are irrevocable. The first of things, the last of things. The canary dies.
Can we reverse the damage we have done to the planet? I hope so. I work for it. Nature is astounding and perfect. She is a treasure I hold close to my heart that brings me joy every day.
Just a little idea to ponder, to gain a moment's wisdom before engaging in a too hot pursuit or a too cold response. Consequences, decisions, actions, reactions, responses are all somehow interrelated like the butterfly effect and it happens on both a cosmic and micro level every day in us and around us.
This art is so simple, so graphic and the message so plain jane but it holds weight don't you think? Holds it's own with the drawing?
It is 20 x 30 acrylic on paper as a study and will be 3 x 5 feet when finished oil on canvas.
This is the fourth post in my gestural mark/social commentary series.
More to come......
All art and words in context copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
If you know me, you know that I often sail to great elevations, in spirit, work and enthusiasm.
I love life. I love my life. I am an adventurer, and explorer I am looking for ways to experiment with expressing my ideas creatively. Therefore in the mythology that are metaphors for my life and actions in my life I believe I would have done the same as Icarus.
There are often the uninitiated but somewhat familiar ghosts come to haunt me from my distant past who ask, "Ya still doin that art thing?" lol! Like there was any other path?
Here is another watercolor on paper of my gestural mark/social commentary series which is now 15 x 20 inches and is a study for a piece 6 x 4 feet oil on canvas.
I may even paint the larger one with feathers.
All art and words in context copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
Here is the second of my gestural mark and social commentary series. This is a study for the titled piece "Conversation" It is 15 x 20 inches acrylic on paper and computer generated type which will be hand drawn on the bigger final art.
Do you notice the white going into black, the black into white? Yin and yang? Life is amazing is it not? Listening to Chris Rea right now "The Shamrock Diaries." Love it. He always sounds like he means it and his voice is an instrument with it's own universe.
More to come.....
All art and words copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome!
That would be refreshing in this summer heat here in Florida, a little cool refreshment in the shade along a breezy little coastal inlet, wouldn't it?
This is a commission and just finished it goes out the door tomorrow. It is a favorite of mine of recent little oil paintings on canvas. It is 11x14 . I particulalary enjoy the light that bounces off the white structure from both the wisteria and the water including lavender, ochres and blues in the shadows.
More to come.....
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
Remember lazy days on the lake as a child? I do. This is a beautiful southern lake. Mine were in the North, Thompson Lake in Maine and Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire and the lake at Breakhart Reservation in Massachusetts.
Although I am sure the homemade lean - to with the corrugated red tin roof and the small dock will be removed to make way for a more contemporary and practical and luxurious enjoyment by the new owners I bet this was a bunch of fun and perfect for the kids who ate lunch here and did cannon balls off the dock. It is a spectacular piece of land. This is a super healthy, very tall, cypress tree which shades the structure.
The flowers in the pitcher are Hydrangeas and are the recipient's favorite flower. The best symbolism I found for Hydrangeas was gratitude and friendship.
The lake is shimmering with it's white sand bottom and vast open space help to capture a certain kind of light evident in my painting. Lovely light isn't it?
This is a 30 x 40 inch oil on canvas. It is a commission. I enjoyed using a very specific but gestural and loose mark for the brushwork in this art.
More to come......
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
Ok, ok so I know I am a harbor guy and a nature guy and my art is focused on wildlife, nature and the coast and tons of boats but there is a side of my brain or a place in it that just can't put the words and the abstraction away. I have a great appreciation for Motherwell, Dekooning, Kline, Pollack and the many beautiful 'marks' these artists made.
Here is the first in an ongoing post of my series of studies for larger works that will be oil on canvas that are about words, dialog, the mark on the page or canvas that serve a more direct conversation, my thoughts and ideas about certain subjects.
I have some larger coastal projects going on right and will be presenting them when complete and will show my word and art series in between those!
Happy thoughts.
More to come.......
All words and art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
Listening to a live version, an acoustic version of the Beatles tune 'Blackbird' by Kenny Rankin. So simple when he sings it. I am a huge fan of his music and arrangements. I tried to learn it once on guitar, ha not for me too complicated for a beginner even with the Beatles tablature chord layout in the songbook.
However I do like to make a simple painting sing and I start with only the freshest ingredients! This was a food piece still life for Waters Edge Magazine, a full page illustration about our locally grown strawberry crop. It is a watercolor on watercolor paper about 15 x 20 inches.
I sold it about five years ago. I always enjoyed the flat overhead more 'graphic' view of the subject matter in this one and for your breakfast my dear why not accompanied by a rose?
We were only waiting for this moment to arise.
More to come.......
All art copyright Alan Phillips
Welcome.
This is a fairly humble little painting 5 x 7 inches oil on canvas using a very thick impasto. It was a piece painted on the spot by a bridge and I just loved how solid it looked in the reflective, shimmering water. There is something refreshingly sturdy about Maine lobster boats, reassuring, you know?
I sold it for $600.00 US about 5 years ago. Stay tuned if you like the working boats because I have a bunch of them coming up from Maine, some shrimp boats from South Carolina and Florida and some fishing trawlers from Vancouver to St. Augustine.
I sure hope you are beginning the summer with great gusto and enthusiasm. I know I am. Joy is everywhere, listening to Boz Scaggs "Thanks To You." right now and I love the lines, "So where does the genius go when business is slow, And even dreaming has a way of scheming to get you down, Likely off at some chateau so how would he know, It gets as lonely up there as anywhere, Where moving over to make room once seemed impossible, It's not impossible, That one handed applause, That unspoken word, That tree fall in the forest someone finally heard, Thanks to you." And so if you are here looking at my art and reading my words, "Thanks to you." Clap, clap.
More to come....
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
