Still Life with Weathered Bottle, 12×16″, oil on canvas panel.

Well, this is another experiment, I’m playing with the space perceived in the canvas, and with flat shapes and hard edges. I’m pretty pleased with how this turned out, but I consider it more of a “proof of concept” painting. I intend to apply this technique/style to narrative and figurative paintings. We’ll see where it leads.

In other news, please note that I have a new link at the top for classes. I’m going to be continuing the Art Bootcamp that was begun by Rob Howard of the Cennini Forum, and adding a drawing course and plein air course to the offerings. The first class will take place in July, and I’ll have one a month through October. See the link and website for details.

This is a book cover piece. It’s a mock assignment on the Cennini Forum. Here’s the synopsis of the imaginary novel:  “set in an urban setting, Lucy is unaware that danger stalks her. A serial killer is on the loose and she is his next target. But her attentions are elsewhere since she met Charles. After only two weeks, the normally skeptical Lucy has been swept up in a love affair she’s only dreamed of. Charles is attentive, bright, handsome and…well, he’s perfect. Perhaps a little too perfect. This Hitchcockian thriller moves at a breath-taking pace with unexpected twists at every turn as a mysterious McGuffin falls into her lap, driving the story forward to it’s final surprise ending.”

So you can see it’s good fun. The above is my sheet of 32 compositional sketches, done in pencil with a little red tossed in for design considerations. I’ll show the final design tomorrow.

March 2008, 5x7"

Decmber 2008, 36x48"

Well, the end of 2008 has come, and as I look back over the last year, and at the above two paintings, I have to admit, I’ve made a lot of progress. This is satisfying of course, but it makes me thankful as well.

Over the last year, many people have helped me along the way. No one accomplishes anything alone.

I’d like to express my very heart-felt thanks to many new friends here on the Other Cape: Pia Juhl Nadel, Anne-Marie Crotty and Cynthia Roth, for giving me a chance to show my work in public venues, Kate and Mitch Seidman for friendship, advice and counsel, Jeff Weaver for a boost of confidence, Susie Field and Bob Heineman for friendship and dog-sitting, Charlie Movalli and Dale Ratcliff for good conversation and useful questions, and the whole city of Gloucester for being who they are: a real community.

I’d also like to express my thanks to my friend and mentor, Rob Howard. Rob has a bad rep online, mainly from those fools whom he refuses to gladly suffer. But Rob is a sweet guy, a talented illustrator from the days when illustration was like trench warfare that paid a king’s ransom, and someone who has carried around a mountain of knowledge inside his head for decades, just waiting for an interested someone to impart it to. I had the great fortune to be a recipient of a great chunk of that knowledge and I hope to safeguard it and pass it on in my own time. But I wanted to state for the record that I would not be on the path that I set out upon last March without his help. Thank you, Rob.

I also wanted to thank my family, for being supportive and encouraging in this latest endeavor. I especially want to thank my father, Thomas Ankeny, who always had paper, pencils, pens, rulers, templates and books full of inspiration around the house. He was the guy who taught me how to be a draftsman before I could begin to teach myself. I remember being insecure and therefore surly when he’d correct a fault he saw in my work, but he was always right and he was the one who gave me the gift of drawing. Thanks, Dad.

Finally, I want to tell my wife of ten years that she provides constant support, love and companionship. I literally do not know what I would do without her.

Happy New Year.

James Gurney has a poll up in his sidebar that asks which brands of paint artists use. I’m happy to report that Cennini products are represented. (But sadly, not very popular.)