Dancers

2008-9 (work in progress), oil on canvas, 36x60in.

Evening dress

2009, oil on canvas on wood panel, @24x10in.

Houses

House with sidewalk, oil on panel, 12x9in.

House, oil on panel, 12x12in.

These little panels reach back to some work I was doing in the early nineties, very painterly work based on images of the neighborhoods where I grew up: small frame houses packed closely together, with little yards and driveways. When I found some images in a film of a woman walking along little streets like that, I felt like it would be a nice echo, to go back into some of that imagery through the b movie series.

Some new stuff and works in progress

Man with mirror, oil on panel, 20x24in.

Woman, man, woman, oil on panel, 20x24in.

Burlesque, oil on panel, 20x24in.

Sidewalk, oil on canvas, 22x28in.

Frightened woman, oil on panel, 20x24in.

Magic act, oil on canvas, 36x60in.

Woman talking to a man in a car, oil on panel, 24x20in.

Sad woman, oil on canvas, 18x18in.

Walking woman, oil on panel, 20x24in.

It was a good week in the studio. This is a sample of the works I started, most of which I will continue to work on in the coming months. And I'll post some other, smaller, recent work soon, too. Otherwise, you can see more here.

In the studio

One of the reasons I've worked the same day job for so long, is that I get a nice amount of time off. I work in an academic library, and you can get an idea of what I do there here, where I amuse myself by writing about movies and other things in our collection. I'm not a librarian, because I've never had the urge to get that particular degree, but an example of why I stick around is coming up: Spring Break is next week, and I plan to spend most of that time in the studio. I have eight panels ready to go, a smallish canvas, and a bigger canvas, and about fifteen other paintings in process, so I am hoping for a pretty productive week. Actually, I've got things in pretty good shape as you can tell from those numbers, so even if I don't do much more than belch in the studio, it will automatically qualify as a productive week.

by the way

I have posted some better images of the holiday cards here: http://patrickjewell.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

Scroll down for them; they fill up the whole month of December, naturally.

this year's bday invite: five years old!

The five year-old edition: Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Candy.

bday invite, year four

Last year, his birthday party was at the New York City Fire Museum. Pretty cool place.

bday invite, year two

Like the holiday cards, I sometimes make linocut birthday invites for my son's birthday. This was the one for his second birthday, held at a gymboree.

on the stoop

On the way to the Whale Playground, we picked up a few DVDs at a sidewalk sale, a buck a pop. Space Chimps for my son, Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires for me, Brothers Grimm for the heck of it, and the guy threw in a VHS copy of some Jules Verney movie I don't know, Island at the Top of the World, which I hope is somewhere in the same league as At the Earth's Core and fun stuff like that.

Mush, mush, mush all the way

Good sledding yesterday, and not a single fused vertebrae to speak of, although I am a little stiff today. Afterward, my son slurped hot chocolate, holding the cup with frozen fingers, and ate his weight in marshmallows, and later that afternoon I nearly fell asleep while reading to him in bed, but hey, (finger pop) that all adds up to one grade A, killer snow day, cowboy. We also watched a little Noggin and some Looney Tunes, and I made a big pot of turkey sausage, black bean and quinoa soup.

Speaking of eating....

A new link to the right: a blog from a friend and neighbor about cooking, called "What's Cooking at Jerk Castle...recipes two amateur cooks are trying at home." They are great neighbors, and I will definitely be trying out some of the recipes my own self.

Snow day!

First sledding of the winter, finally!