I have just turned seventy, and loving friends have sent an abundance of birthday greetings. This morning finds me reading Emerson before diving headlong into a weeklong task of packing my gear for the weekend’s Artscape 24 at the Dallas Arboretum. I’ll be in Booth #28, and I’m excited beyond measure. I have certainly begun this Monday aright, reading Emerson’s essay “Experience.” My life changed in 1989 while attending a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute at University of North Texas. I had just completed my first of twenty-eight years as a high school teacher, and was ..read more

Gallery at Redlands Lobby Window For the past few weeks, I’ve been reading and following the basic program of Julia Cameron’s book Finding Water: The Art of Perseverence. I’ve never had trouble persevering in making art, and seldom feel “blocked” as far as creativity is concerned. But during Sandi’s recent illness, I’ve stopped my basic activities in the studio, and now that she is stronger, I find it difficult to get back into the saddle. Of course, I cannot feel the motivation to begin a new painting, because in less than a week I’ll be setting up my booth at the Dallas Arboretum for Artsca ..read more

My Booth at Artscape 2022 There are memories of days of this sort, of wonderful driftings in and out of the crowd, of seeing and thinking. Where are the sketches that were made? Some of them are in dusty piles, some turned out to be so so good they got frames, some became motives for big pictures, which were either better or worse than the sketches, but they, or rather the states of being and understandings we had at the time of doing them all, are sifting through and leaving their impress on our whole work and life. Robert Henri, The Art Spirit With the Dallas Arboretum event one week away ..read more

My art booth at Artscape 2021 . . . some kind of rearrangement or sorting-out process often occurs within the mind which brings with it a sense of peace; a sense that the depths of the well of truth have really been reached. Anthony Storr, Solitude: A Return to the Self Sandi and I have suffered a long slog for over a month. She has been very ill, and we’re happy to see her finally recovering some strength and getting back to some of what she used to do before this affliction. This finds me returning to the studio and catching up on work that has piled up. With Artscape less than two weeks aw ..read more

Bright & Early Coffee. Framed Watercolor in Gallery at Redlands. 22.5h x 23.5w” Missing was the thing Jim had found in Marx and Veblen and Adam Smith and Darwin–the dignified sound of a great, calm bell tolling the morning of a new age . . instead, the slow complaining of a door loose on its hinges. William Carlos Williams, Paterson I laughed out loud when I read the above passage this morning. I’ve been working my way through WCW’s epic poem and have only put ninety-six pages behind me so far. But the words posted above resonated with me because they paint in bold relief what I feel abou ..read more

We had to rise at 5:00 this morning if we hoped to be showered, dressed, fed, and arrive at our Palestine gallery by 9:00. Fortunately for me, I managed to squeeze out a little time to read and settle down before commencing our two-hour road trip. Seated at my drafting table, I peered out the window into a dark, pre-dawn suburban landscape and decided to open a couple of books for some quiet, leisurely reading. How amazing, the conversation springing up between these two disparate authors . . . The twenty-first century is full of people who are full of themselves. A half-hour’s trawl through t ..read more

My 16 x 20″ watercolor done on Good Friday “What if” and “if only” are poison for any artist. Julia Cameron, Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance February 23 was my last blog post. I’m not sure if I’ve ever before gone for over a month without sending out a word. I won’t go into detail. When I feel I have nothing to contribute, I don’t blog. It’s been an unusually long dry season. Looking up from my drafting table now I drink in the beautiful light, color, and repose of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” (my description of the idyllic view across my suburb), and I feel some of that creative eros ..read more

Sunday Morning with Randy Ozark Court (no longer there). Route 66 west of St. Clair, Missouri Sunday morning rays of sunshine lanced through the slits in the closed blinds of Room 18 at the Ozark Court Motel. Randy lay with his eyes closed. It took a few moments before he realized where he was and what day it was. Hitchhiking had not fared well the day before. Driving rains soaked him to the skin and no one was pulling over on Route 66 to offer him a ride. Why would they? No doubt he carried all the charm of a drowned city sewer rat as he trudged along the muddy shoulder, his knapsack beginn ..read more

Saturday in The Gallery at Redlands, I’m pleased to announce that our gallery, finally, is listed in Google Business, including the hours and complete profile, so people inquiring can find out all about us and how to get here (and even write reviews!). I am attaching a pair of Turvey’s Corner stories from the book I’m writing. About fifty years separates the setting for the pair, but there is an important link that made me feel I should present them together. I hope you enjoy them: So Great a Cloud of Witnesses Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses ..read more

Good morning from The Gallery at Redlands inside The Redlands Hotel. I have a watercolor lesson coming up soon, but wanted to toss out another new story I’ve finished for my growing manuscript of Turvey’s Corner. Oregon Memories Within the ramshackle Missouri farmhouse, an aged, graying man sat near his wood-burning stove, squinting out the window into the early dawn of his Neely’s Landing farm. As shafts of light glanced off the curvature of his celadon green stoneware mug, he slowly and delicately sipped his strong coffee, delighting in the aroma. What was that familiar, inviting smell? Of ..read more