Summer is Ending

After a summer of art and children I am always left feeling very creatively nimble. Being around the children who still make anything into art and haven't yet compartmentalized genre (collage, sculpture, painting, etc.) and just make is uplifting. I have enjoyed the summer and all the energy of said children, but I am looking forward to more time in my studio. I have been able to get some work done the last couple of months:

Thanks to a former student who moved across country and gave me a large bag of many pre-stretched canvas, I've been able to just walk in to my studio and make things. I'm really enjoying the small squares.

I'm still working with bird imagery, but letting the imagery fall to a secondary role to the language of the paint. It's acrylic mixed sometimes with wax and/or gloss medium. I'm happy with it now, but it was a big change from oils.

Here is a larger work also from the last couple months:

I haven't been able to get a good photo of it, but I do believe it is finished now.

As you know, I can't do a post and not include something about the little guy who is with me most of the time in the studio and otherwise. My son will be two at the end of September and he is putting my drawing output to shame. Last week we had a wonderful morning in the studio- he and I both making our own work. I gave him brushes, black and white tempera, charcoal, (and he found a pen). I put up a large piece of paper taller than he is and he made this gorgeous painting:

It seems so funny to me now that I was worried about being an artist and having a family at the same time. I'm not saying that it's easy, but the difficulty makes me seize moments I do have with much more focus than I used to when time was easier to come by.

Here's to the end of summer and to crisp nights, sweaters, and more time in the studio!
Be well,
Melanie