By now you might have noticed I have a thing for spirals.



I am fascinated by them in all their forms.



So what does a spiral mean? The definition of a spiral is this :
  Winding or circling round a center or pole and gradually receding from it; as, the spiral curve of a watch spring.
Or, more fancy, A plane curve, not reentrant, described by a point, called the generatrix, moving along a straight line according to a mathematical law, while the line is revolving about a fixed point called the pole. Cf. Helix.




Our galaxy is a spiral



The spiral also shows up in nature. Tornadoes, hurricanes, snails, the pattern of sunflower seeds, right down to the shape or our DNA.



Is it any wonder I cant stop painting them? They don’t even have to be round to fascinate me.



These images and more can be found here.

Around the world

mixed media collage on panel
24 x 24

I had trouble with this, as I do with all of them, about what to do with it. I ended up with rocks. I was going to leave it a plain abstract. But in the end felt the rocks would help the storm theme. Not sure I made the right call there. Also new, the rocks are NOT outlined. Not sure how I feel about that either.



here are some close ups….

Winter Strom

acrylic on panel
12 x 12

Maybe they need an umbrella.

Bugs in the Rain

mixed media on panel
12 x 12

Last night I stayed home. What I did was what I usually do on holidays. Nothing much. I painted quite a bit. finished two rock paintings, declared another abstract ‘done’ and started a background that I don’t know what I’ll do with it.  I hate having so much work in progress. But at the same time I can never have just one painting going at a time. NEVER. No no. I take that back. I have my times I don’t paint at all. Sometimes that lasts for a month or two. Depending on how burned out I am. Burnout or depression.
Surprisingly enough I am doing well this winter. Perhaps my ‘celebrate nothing, stress about nothing’ strategy is working out well for me. I think, with the exception of the grocery store, I managed to not listen to a single full christmas song this year. Not one that sticks in my mind. I avoided shopping and got in and out at the grocery store as fast as I could. I was not subjected to all the stress everyone else willingly puts themselves through every year. And today, on New Years Day, I feel pretty good about the whole season.

So for new years eve I finished up two paintings and started another. I have one other that the background is finished, and I need to finish with rocks or something, and the one I declared ‘done’ I need to figure out if I am for sure done or not. So I’m going to sit here having a hot chocolate and posting this, putting off all the other stuff I should be doing. Trying to warm back up. I had a smoothie earlier that made me cold. 

So the first one, “mentor”  (I don’t like that name and will be changing it later) I just started and finished pretty quick. less than a day a half. Not bad time. Its 12 x 12 on panel.

This second one, “what you get” ......  This one has been sitting with the background done since around September or so. I just haven’t bothered to finish the rocks off until now. time to clear out all the old work, like I should.

What you get

acrylic on panel
12 x 12