Mister Black Moves Over

Mister Black & Ferns with Red Dots
12 x 12"
oil on canvas board

Mister Black is trying to edge himself off the canvas. He now realizes canned salmon is out of the question, at least on his dish, and he is on strike. Well it seems that way anyway. I just haven't gotten any good shots lately. What he doesn't realize is that this perfectly coincides with my latest Mister Black argument with myself, thanks to Harry.

No I really do mean thanks to Harry. Things would be so dull and routine without him. I would just be painting Mr. B. in diff poses with diff colors of fabrics locked forever into a formula. Soon everyone would be snoring and, well anyway.

I realized Mr. Black right in the center of the canvas was a contradiction in expressing the way he is in my life. He is usually on the peripheral of what I am doing. Oh he is definitely there, but I am always busy and he is the side distraction at best. So the paintings in which he was the focal point did not work because of this contradiction. If you interpret the paintings in terms of the way depth was used, he being the darkest object with the least texture should have been the farthest back. So when he was the farthest back, he worked. But when he was central in the composition, he didn't work.
OK now I get what Harry was saying.

I also like adding the quality of mystery to my paintings. I intentionally placed him on the edge so you had to think a bit to figure out what he was.


I always liked the way edges of ferns took on strange shapes when they over- lapped and when they went off the edge at puzzling places. So the mysterious black cat is now contributing in his own way to the mystery by being there even less.

You may notice the colors in this painting are not bright. They are mostly deintensified hues in the blue-green to violet neighborhood. Just those strange red dots for contrast. Sometimes it is cloudy and gray here in Ohio and you have to work to see color. In order to keep from getting depressed in the winter I squint my eyes & find colors in the gray and pretend there is more of them. I am counting on this diversion coupled with painting to get me thru next winter.

I have more to say about what is going on with Harry but I will save it for another blog post.
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