In progress, Self-Portrait in charcoal

Self-Portrait 1
Charcoal on paper
38 x 25 1/2 inches

First initial stage.

This past week has been a tumultuous one at home so today I decided to play hooky from work and make a self-portrait.  I hadn't made a self-portrait since I was an undergraduate at Humboldt State University.  I started this at about 9 this morning and stopped working around 3 in the afternoon with a break for lunch and letting the dog out occasionally.

Dirty hands at lunchtime.

Making art is one of the most therapeutic endeavors I know of.  Personally, it helps me forget about the world around me and allows me to focus on something I enjoy.  I found so much peace today in the simple rubbing of the charcoal into the paper.  While making this I also listened to the dead Can Dance album Toward the Within.  With the combination of good music and making art I found myself lost in the shapes, lines and values of the charcoal.  Total bliss.

2 1/2 hours into it.

I plan on finishing this in the next couple of days of which I will put it up for sale on dailypaintworks.com.  Look for it!! -M

Visiting Israeli Artists at UMass Lowell

Last week I had the pleasure of working with two artists, Esther Yaloz and Lital Gold, from Israel that attended the same school.  They both now live and work here in the United States, one in upstate New York and the other in Philadelphia.  Both work in the textile industry as designers.

 They came to our school as a part of a larger group of faculty and students from their home school to work with our students.  So Lital and Esther had my students create stencils that were used to help create a 'wreath' printed with inks and paint markers onto some rough cut wood I had kicking around the house cut to roughly 8 x 10 inch dimensions.

The stencils created by my students were placed over stencils Lital and Esther created and were pieced together in a wreath orientation.  The students enjoyed getting a little dirty in class and saw how layering could make for some great results.  Now that the pieces have been printed, I will be trimming them and puling the entire wreath together a little bit more to be displayed in an exhibition at school.

It was a pleasure to work with Lital and Esther.  They both inspired my students and myself!!

Posting work on dailypaintworks.com

Orbital Symmetry
Oil and ink on canvas
8 x 13 inches
2006

Today I've been posting some of my older work on dailypaintworks.com in hopes of sparking some interest.  These paintings seem so old to me, yet they were done just a few years ago.  Amazing how so much can happen in such a short amount of time.  I posted a painting that was almost done just before the fire and I came to look at it recently with a new found meaning for myself.  It was inspired by the book 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck.  The title of the painting is 'Lennie's Dog' and depicts a cocker spaniel.  I was trying to show life and death at the same time.  The character in the book was a large man who had a predisposition to soft things.  He liked to pet them, so much so that they would be crushed by his love for them.  He loved them too much (something I am finding in my own life).  Anyway, here it is.

Lennie's Dog

Acrylic on canvas

13 x 21 inches

2012

Have a great day.  More paintings to come.  -Mike

Powhida: CynicalAdvice 2012

Artwork by William Powhida seen at http://dailyserving.com/2012/11/art-vexation-interview-with-william-powhida/

Words to live by?  Maybe.  -Mike

I'm back!! And with new stuff in the works.

Ginger Gold Apples
8 X 10 inches
Acrylic on canvas
2012
$50.00

Well, its been a long time since I've been on here to post anything and I've decided to make this blog more about the art I'm making than about art made by other people.  I will however post from time to time about work that inspires me.

Anyway, here is my first painting in a series I am working on that will have a similar theme.  Fruit still-lifes.  This was a lot of fun and really forced me to remember some basic tenants of painting that I had long since forgotten.

This painting and the rest of this series as well as any other whim that comes along can be seen at Daily Paint Works.   Here's the link:  http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/michael-roundy-3348 

I've also been more active on my page at Facebook so take a look at that:  www.facebook.com/michaelroundyart

Have a great day.
-Mike