A Day in NYC

8" x 6"

Oil on Paper

My goal here in this painting was to simplify my composition and stay away from detail.  I enjoyed my time in New York City but  I enjoyed pushing paint around more, sorta like the saying "I 'd rather be fishing"!

Park in the Park

Finally getting back to photographing my paintings after recovering from a house fire in August.  It has been slow getting stuff organized but I am getting back into the groove.  Being that it is winter now, I am painting inside using sketches and some photo reference with a lot of memory of how summer felt.

11" x  8" oil on paper

Not Always Artful

What do I mean? Well, surviving a fire, moving, throwing out paintings, clothes etc has not been the artful life I expected, but I have been creative in my dealing with it. And that is still going on with how to have a more mobile studio.

Now it is a focus of mine to paint and draw as often as possible. I got to take a break from all the fire damage and go to my planned painting workshop with Stuart Shils at the Truro Center For The Arts at Castle Hill.  He suggested doing fast paintings to develop my "visual musculature" as he would say, to learn how to see and respond to what I see. What a challenge to do 22 minute paintings about  9" x 12"  or so. Now to do the work: "to do one punch, one must do a million punches."

Painting Empty

"Downtown Shadows"

Oil on Paper

7" x 11.5"

What do I mean painting empty? Feeling empty, tired, But what really is "empty"? For me empty means, ironically, too full, had a tiring day or week of work. It means I need "defragging": clearing out all the garbage in my brain so I can create. Today, I decided no ideas coming so, just show up at the easel to paint. I think the process of painting defragged my brain; just the process of doing it helped empty my brain, made me feel clearer. This is the defragging painting above, quickly photographed and probably will see stuff to change later.

Do you feel this way at times?  Please feel free to share with me your feelings and your methods to jump start yourself  are post here are click my facebook link to share on  Judy Holder's Studio.

Tiny Art Show

Evening Sun

oil on panel

3.25" x 3"

Showing a few tiny paintings with other artist at The Kitchen Gallery July 6th Sat 6-9pm. All paintings under 6".  Come and enjoy the Tiny Art Show closing, 140c State St / Green St in New London CT.