It's finally here---the end of 2012. As I mull over the large number of unfinished paintings in my studio, I realize that the good (and bad) news is that there are not enough lifetimes to complete all the ideas that run through my head (often at 3am, unfortunately). Nevertheless, I am a lucky person indeed if that's the worst of my troubles.

Normally, December is a fruitful time in my studio. I've finished teaching for the year and can concentrate long blocks of time on painting. However, this year I elected to get carpal tunnel surgery on my right (painting) hand. It's been difficult not being able to do much more than put a daub or two on a painting, but I know I am on the mend and just need to be patient.

Armed with a new ipad (with Siri voice activation), I realized that one thing I could do is make audio notes on paintings, describing how I might fix/finish them in the future. Sometimes just being able to articulate what you want to do to a painting satisfies the creative impulse--at least for the time being.

Here is a small sampling of some of my unfinished paintings---which may or may not see the light of day in 2013.

My acrylic marbled painting "On The Edge Of Her Seat #1" began simply enough. In my typical fashion, I "sculpted" the figure by muting/overpainting everything around the figure. Back when I began this painting in 2011, I thought I'd successfully completed this painting (see Step 4). I framed the painting, showed it to others who liked it, and put it into a few shows. Looking at it later, I felt like it still needed SOMETHING to make it stronger. So in October 2012, fellow artist  LaVonne Tarbox-Crone took a good look at this painting and taped some "mockup" pieces of magazine clippings to the piece (see Step 5) to show me how I might improve it. A few steps later (adding the horizontal line and then softening it a bit, and adding the white window panes behind the figure), and my painting was finally complete.

Admittedly I haven't been using my blog as often as some artists do, but since I'm very fond of showing & describing how a painting is built (from the ground up), I thought I'd post the various stages of one of my recent paintings "Rose Grid".

You can see that I started out with a mottled, stamped background (this is acrylic on Tyvek paper by the way).

Next, I drew a grid on the paper and created a vase (actually two vases) of flowers.

I added some more flowers and a few leaves (some are collaged on) and called it "Rose Grid". Enjoy!