NOVEMBER

 

I have good news to report as we head into December and the holidays! My doctor put me on a new Parkinson's medication (in addition to the old one), and it's made a significant difference in what I call my "with-it-ness." I feel a lot better -  I have more energy and my brain seems to be functioning better. Also, I'm not losing my voice as badly or as often as before. My imbalance and not-so-sure-footedness hasn't really improved, but I FEEL better - like I'm actually present and accounted for.

You'll remember me mentioning in previous posts that I was starting to lose concentration while painting. As they would say over in the UK, I lost the plot. (We've been watching so many Britbox and Acorn shows during the pandemic, I'm starting to talk like a Brit.) 

(If you don't know, that's Brenda Blethyn playing Vera Stanhope in the Vera series - a great show!)

And I'd be exhausted afterward from trying to concentrate so hard. Because of that, I cut back to painting only two days  week. But with this new medication, (Ropinarole) I feel so much better, that I am back up to five painting days/week and really having FUN again. 

I think this might be the first medication 💊I've ever been put on that seemed like it actually DID something, and I am very HAPPY about this! 😊

My brother-in-law, Tom, gave me a gift 🎁. It's a very cool sketch book, with pages that open like an accordion. The size of the sheets is 5.5" by 8". I have to say, it's not something I would have thought of getting for myself. But what's interesting about that is that sometimes you need to be prodded to approach things in a new and different way. This little sketchbook has forced me to take a whole different approach, which has turned out to be a really fun creative challenge. Plus, I love how the scenes have come out!

What I do is this: I sketch the scene using a Pigma Micron pen, and then I paint 🖌with very watery (much more watery that usual) SOHO HB Acrylics (love these paints!!) 

I have worked hard over the years to evolve to the loose style of painting I have now. Interestingly, creating these small paintings has made me paint even looser! I think that's because the more structured elements of the scene come from the ink sketch, so I can be freer with the painting part.

Melissa says she likes these scenes so much she is going to use the images to make cards. If you're interested, she can have some made for you and can give you a price on that. 

Here I am holding the sketch book so you can see the accordion pages. The only drawback is that I drop it a lot and all the pages fan out and then Melissa has to help me pick it up! 🙄Fortunately, it all folds back up nice and easy. 

Below are some of the scenes I created in the notebook. Thanks again, Tom, for an unexpected gift that kicked me out of my comfort zone! 🙏 A couple of years ago, my sister-in-law, Jessica, gave me some nice brushes, and now Tom gave me this sketchbook, and I have to say that these are some of the best gifts I've ever gotten. Keeping me at my easel has become a Family Affair.

(You have to be of a certain age to remember this cast of Family Affair!)

The next time we talk, it will be 2022! So I'll wish you a beautiful December, Merry Christmas, Happy All the Holidays, and a very Happy, Peaceful, and Productive New Year.

Thanks for stopping by!

JR

Road into the Desert

Backside of Cathedral Rock, Sedona

Caribbean Bliss

Peaceful Ocean Scene

Mesa on the Horizon

Coffee Pot Rock, Sedona

Mesas and Tree

Mittens, Monument Valley

Red Barn

Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly

Deserted Beach

October

Well October is ending and November is upon us! How fast the year has passed....  Melissa and I got our Moderna booster shots this week, and are grateful and glad to have that done. 

October was my first month of scaling back my painting routine to 2 - 3 days a week from 5 - 6. I felt  somewhat "lost" on the days I did not paint - not knowing what to do with myself and feeling very bored and restless. I like to read fast-paced mysterious and cop stories, like Michael Connelly's Bosch series, but the authors I like can't write fast enough for me. So, now I'm reading James Patterson's Alex Cross series and that is helping me with the excess time I have on my hands and mind.

Anyway, back to painting....I've been painting for more than 25 years now - ever since I retired early from banking. I've had my own gallery, done MANY outdoor art shows and been in juried shows and galleries all over the country. I've sold paintings, donated paintings, and thrown away paintings.

Painting has been - and is - my creative calling, but it's also been a business, and neither Melissa and I have the capacity now to manage the business of it. So, as of the end of this year, I won't be promoting or marketing my work anymore. It will become a "hobby." 

Having said that, we have a lot of paintings that haven't sold but that I haven't had the heart to get rid of, because I think they are pretty good! So, we will have one final sale for the fall, hoping to place some of them in good homes. Melissa will share them on Facebook, and the prices will be LOW.

After that, if you see something I put here on the blog and would like to buy it, you still can. It will just be case by case, rather than me promoting my work for sale.

Here's what I did in October. Sometimes I struggled and lost my way a bit, but I ended up with some pieces that I am very pleased with! If you are interested in one, just email me or contact Melissa on Facebook, and we'll see if if we can work something out.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Across the Menai Strait from Beaumaris, Wales

9 by 12 

on heavy linen watercolor paper

Blue Reflections on Mesa

9 by 12 on heavy linen watercolor paper

High Country Magic

9 by 12 on heavy linen watercolor paper

Sparkling Sedona

12 by 16 on linen canvas panel

Storm Movin' In

9 by 12 on heavy linen watercolor paper

This is a diptych - which is a painting done in two sections. You can frame them to hang side by side and they create one scene, as shown in the second photo where I've brought them close together.

Watching over the Young Ones

10 by 20 each panel

on heavy linen watercolor paper

September

Hi Everyone!

I'm happy to report that October arrived with a cool spell for us down here in Florida. We finally got to the beach, and what a perfect day it was! We like to get there early  with coffee and a treat, and leave when it starts to heat up around noon. It was very quiet, with only a few others there, and that's the way we like it!

You see what I mean - I wasn't lying!

I've reduced my painting schedule from five days a week down to three, mainly because of the progession of my Parkinson's. It's not as much a physical issue as it is that Parkinson's makes me very mentally tired. It takes much more concentration now, and I get fatigued quickly. So it takes longer for me to paint, and takes more out of me.

Nevertheless, it's my joy, and on the days when I don't paint, it feels like a very long day!

Here's what I managed in September. If you see anything here you like, email me or contact Melissa via Facebook - believe me, I'll make you a good deal! That goes for any paintings in previous posts or in my galleries (see across the top of the page).

As ever, thank you for stopping by and seeing what I've been up to - it means a lot!

Acadia National Park

Across the Mangrove

Aspen Stand

Chamisa Field, NM

Country Barn

Early Morning on the Marsh

The Old Red Barn

All the best,

JR

August

New Mexico Colors

9" by 12" 

Heavy Watercolor Paper

Hi Everyone!

Well, Labor Day is upon us. I have to say that I am very tired of COVID still being an issue, and it's weighing me down! It's not like I want to go out and party, but I would like to be able to go out to breakfast!

I painted a lot in August, but I think I have to start to slow down because my Parkinson's seems to be progressing. I tire very easily now when painting, but the worst part is that my concentration is not as good as it was. Each painting becomes a longer journey than the last, requiring more concentration, and it's the concentration that makes me tired, not the physical effort.

I am lucky though, that my hands do not shake much. I paint with my right hand and my thumb twitches and sometimes the hand shakes, but never when I am painting! I think that has to be because painting is a happy thing for me, and that affects my neurological system. It's like when I do what makes me happy, my body forgets to be sick!

So it's a Catch-22, kind of, because painting makes me happy, but it also makes me tired! So, I'll be cutting down to 2 painting days a week from 5, and we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I continue trying new techniques, and am back to using the palette knife. I watch several artists who have good videos on YouTube - I could watch them paint all day!

That brings to mind the question, "What is an artist?" I found this quote that sums it up nicely:

Below are some of my August paintings. As ever, thanks for stopping by. I'm still in the mode of "If you see something you like, make me an offer," as far as pricing and selling goes. You can email me or contact Melissa through Facebook. 

Take care, my friends. Stay safe and enjoy life.

JR Secor

Between the Rocks

12" by 12"

Linen Canvas Pane;

Distant Mangrove

10" by 20" Gallery-wrapped Canvas

Summer Waves

12" by 16"

Linen Canvas Panel

Sunset Waves

12" by 12"

Linen Canvas Panel

Toward the Canyon

12" by 16"

Heavy Watercolor Paper

High Country Autumn

10" by 10"

Linen Canvas Panel

New Mexico Gray Skies

12" by 16"

Heavy Watercolor Paper

 

July

 

Pasture

10" by 20" on heavy linen paper

As August begins, I realized that although we've pretty much been confined to the house for the past 16 or so months, the time has gone by fairly quickly. The thing that I miss most is going out to breakfast! We had a ritual of going to breakfast after seeing my chiropractor down in Fort Myers - there's a great place right on the road that takes us there. I am finally going back to see him again, and thought I might be ready to try a breakfast out - being fully vaccinated and things looking up, but I chickened out! And now we've got another go 'round with the Delta variant, so I guess it will be a while longer. I've been saying to Melissa all along, "We'll go out to eat again sometime in 2022!" Sorry to say, it looks like I was right!

This is a photo Melissa took at the cafe...well...a long time ago now. It doesn't tell you much about the place, but it's a cool photo. You'll have to take my word for it that the food is good.

Red Umbrellas at the McGregor Cafe

It's good to be seeing the Doc again, because he adjusts my cervical spine to line everything up so the messages from the brain can get through to the body. When I'm "out," my mind does not work so well, and neither do my feet!

On to the update about my July painting efforts!

I painted quite a lot in July and was again trying something new. I wanted to loosen things up even more, and like using a "dry brush" technique. This gives the work a mellowed appearance.

Usually, acrylic paint is applied using a dampened brush, but the dry brush (as you may have guessed!) means you don't use any water! The paint is applied straight from the tube, thinly and quickly, with a kind of staccato motion. For someone with Parkinson's that's kind of helpful! I've also returned to doing more work with the palette knife, which I love.

Sometimes I get discouraged because I look around and see how many paintings I have hanging and stored in my studio. Then I saw an article about a well-known artist in one of my art magazines, and he had hundreds of paintings, framed and unsold, on his wall, and hundreds more stored. So I felt a little better...just a little!

We're at the point where we need to winnow down the collection again, so if you see a painting here that you like, just make an offer! Don't worry about insulting me, I'd rather have a good piece find a home for a modest sum than get stored away - or thrown away! 

Let's just say the minimum offer on anything you see here should be $40 - so throw something out there, and let's see if we can't find homes for some of these. If you aren't local to us, you will have to pay shipping, so we can figure that out. Email me or ask Melissa via Facebook. Paintings on linen canvas panel can be displayed on easels, which saves on framing. Or frame them! If you buy one, do whatever you want with it!

Okay, here's what happened in July!! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Calm Surf

12" by 12" on linen canvas panel

Dusk in the High Country

12" by 12" on linen canvas panel

High Desert Sunrise Magic

12" by 12" on linen canvas panel

Nightfall Descends

12" by 12" on linen canvas panel

Pasture

10" by 20" on heavy duty linen paper

Sedona Blue

12" by 12" on linen canvas panel

Storm Forming

12" by 16" on linen canvas panel

Summer Waves

12" by 12" on linen canvas panel

Taos, NM Plateau Volcanic Field

16" by 20" on heavy linen paper