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With the passing of another Labor Day holiday weekend, it is always a nice time to fondly look back on the various summer events. Perhaps with the exception of this year, as with an out-of-control pandemic raging in America, this was anything but a wonderful summer. No family gatherings, vacation trips, celebration parties, exhibition openings or ordinary picnics, and actually not much time at all spent with any friends. sigh.
Meanwhile, I have been sharing a series of paintings that I started in 2018 that are based on my artist book, Bluewater Shore. Actually the painting above, titled Big Raft, is the first of this series of paintings that I initiated, working on getting my painting techniques back up to par. So to my eye, it appears a bit stilted and the raft looks a bit like a cartoon, but since I have a tendency to lean into abstraction, for this representational painting these aspects are not such a big deal to me. Similar to the others from this series, such as the one I posted yesterday, this 15 x 15″ painting is a preliminary study and I am planning to upscale this image in the next phase.
For the original image that I am working from, I am not sure who actually took the black and white photograph since my mom is on the raft with her friends on this holiday at the shore. I just know that I found this image in her archive that she passed to us. Similar to the others, a nostalgic moment in the summer time set in the late 1940’s, of which I can construct a wonderful narrative about what might have occurred. They all appear to be having a lot of fun in the sun enjoying each others company.
Cheers & be stay safe
Doug
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My coming exhibition and approaching book workshop:
Medium Photo 2020 Workshop: Developing a Creative Book workshop, which will now be virtual safe-at-home workshop that I will be leading is eight 2-hour Zoom segments over four weeks, starting Saturday, September 26th. This eight session workshop takes place on Saturdays from 10am–12pm (Pacific time) and Wednesdays from 4–6pm (Pacific time).
January 16th – February 13th; a two-person exhibition that will feature my Memory Pods series in a gallery located in north San Diego county (CA); more details very soon.
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Featured artwork; Big Raft (Bluewater Shore), copyright 2018, Douglas Stockdale
Singular Images 