I was searching for a hobby to absorb some unused energy for a while, and art had always seemed like a possible avenue. Painting still life had seemed a little tame and uninspiring, but a discussion of texture proved revealing and led to an abstract rendering (Rainforest Floor – on cardboard!) which began my journey into the realm of art. The following images show the artwork I’ve completed so far.

I was encouraged to play with some stucco patch material on an old canvas, and I got to like it. I added a few gray blobs (which didn’t work well), but I painted over them and re-worked the piece into a pleasant earthen colored abstraction, Earthen.

I took my original still life painting and painted over it, just retaining the apple as a putative head, and some of the purplish cloth from the bottom of the original. Then I added a series of vertical and horizontal strokes of texture using some newly bought joint compound (smoother than the stucco patch). It took a while to come up with a plan from there. I thought the right-hand series could be developed into a rib-like representation in dark masculine colors (and later added wiggly paper /card lines and dusty/dirty ‘texture’). Meanwhile the left-hand side was getting lighter, more feminine colors and a putative breast (complete with nipple) and heart/liver. The head became that of an angel (with a barely discernible mouth and eyes added), incorporating both male and female sides … and then I added drip-technique ever-welcoming arms, and putative wings for good measure … and a little luminescent yellow behind the head to further indicate the angel stature, and a little floating feeling to the bottom. This became Gabriel.

I tried a very abstract painting, over a scrunchy paper texture, starting off in stark black and red and later softened with some orange and pink. I tried some dripping streaks on this too but didn’t like the shape nor the color (pink) so I changed the color of the streaks to match the underlying colors to make them more integrative. This became #TimedOut.

I was working on other canvases at the same time, developing each and popping back and forward between them as ideas came to me. Another canvas started off with three female figures in the right bottom corner looking to the left, at a body of water (which got bigger as the weeks went by). There were trees to the left (later painted over by tall buildings and other details) and a house to the top right (later painted over by forest/hills forming a putative face). At the bottom there was a pile of wood (i.e. rice) which was plastered over to form a hedge, and expanded to show a female figure and an artist to its left. Someone said there’s a bit of Courbet’s “L’origine du monde”! There’s some activity around the ‘lake’. There’s a lot going on here, not all of it interconnected, and it took quite a time to work out this mix of ideas. I’ve called it Mélange.

I noticed that the paintings were taking longer to complete, as I reworked them and added layers. My next one was an acrylic version of Nadia’s “Indian Woman” collage, which was based on a photo of mine. The colors and textures are different, of course. I’ve called it Rajasthani Woman.

And then there’s a canvas based on Nadia’s “Bird at Sunset”, which proved very challenging. There’s the bird, a fish, and some seaweed and stuff. Getting a nice set of colors, and the background washes, were difficult. I’ve called it Bird’N’Fish.

I’m finding faces very difficult to do. I had this painted, then added wrinkles – only to be told I’d added too many, so I had to come back and take some away. Hence Portrait of the Artist on a Good Day!

The face (and the hands) of the dancer was difficult too. I’d originally wanted to do a more abstract rendering with long flowing strokes, but I got caught up in the details of the Balinese Dancer.

My next effort was based on the first photo I ever took with a 35 mm camera, a second-hand agfa silette that my dad purchased from an uncle for my birthday. It was a bleak evening at Portstewart Head, when I photographed a small boat coming from a larger ship. I found the original transparency recently. Painting it was difficult with so much sky and water. But eventually it became Dark Night at Portstewart.

Inspired by a photo I took of some puppets for sale at the Amber Fort, on the outskirts of Jaipur – Puppets for Sale . Finished on my return from a wedding in San Diego.

It seems that I’ve been wasting a lot of paint on my palette. This is an attempt to capture some of that into an abstract painting. Palette as Art.

An Elvis-like figure is seen showing a ring to a woman in a red dress in a garden in the Spring. I had fun with the little yellow flowers. This is Elvis and the Woman in Red.

The next one started off as completely abstract, but then changed to a head and shoulders of a woman. Something I wanted to do without a lot of thinking or detail … just go with the flow… because Men at Work was taking a long time. Tongue-in-cheek, I called it The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships.

Men at Work taking forever to finish! I started yet another abstract painting, but then I saw a Japanese woman and child in it, so I added the heads, a parasol and cherry blossoms to come up with Mother and Child.

Workers making repairs to mud brick walls in Mali using the embedded bundles of palm sticks that function as readymade scaffolding. Inspired by a photo in the National Geographic. Painted the men’s clothes first, then their faces and skin, then the sticks and then the background … it took forever! Men at Work.

I wanted a change from detailed work to something quick, so I added a bit of texture compound and visualized two figures … either footballers or fighters. They became Gladiators.

A scene of a lazy group of houses, connected by a bridge, by a lake in the evening – Peaceful Sunset.

Always looking for a change of pace and the freedom to put out a few brash paint strokes, I started off with a crimson canvas and put on some uninhibited black daubs, and scraped them around… and suddenly it started to look like a man’s face, sort of severe and old school. Old School Portrait.

This is me doing one of my DJ gigs, back in the day. Classy white suit. More difficult to capture than I’d imagined. The Disk Jockey.

Started with an abstract combination that became a flower, then added more to become The Garden of Eden.

Always on the look-out for simple subjects that can be completed quickly (😂) and some sort of a statement – Skyscrapers.

I was looking at them, they was looking at me! A couple at the beach – Sur la Plage.

A family out for a walk on a cold day – Out for a Walk.

A group of women gossiping like only women can – The Sisterhood.

Two figures feeling depressed – Depression.

June and, especially, July were slow months because of Daniel’s hospital admissions. This painting took a long time, with many starts and stops. It shows me sitting on the steps of the Legend on the East Coast of Malaysia. Sitting on steps.

After about 9 months where I couldn’t get back to art at all, I started thinking about it again. Thinking about #MeToo (most of which I think is exaggerated), I came up with this characterization of The Male Gaze. I like the sun looking down on it all.

The Male Gaze

Then I thought I’d do something abstract, but Angular.

Angular

I wanted to do something in just black and white. First a few random dabs, then worked it up into something where the alpha male seems to flaunt himself, trampling over others. The Alpha Male.

The Alpha Male

Then along came 2024! I hadn’t used a red background before. I thought it might be interesting. Where did it lead me? To a trio of human figures surrounded by some scary other-worldly characters. Spooky.

Spooky

I thought I’d like to explore some lighter, pastel shades each taking up amorphous areas. This became Pastels.

Pastels