The Periwinkle's Story

…and so, the diminutive mollusk began her tale.

The tern was all ears

The cormorant's eyes grew as big as saucers

The sandpiper wondered if it was just a fish story!

This is just an involved doodle from my sketchbook. It's not attached to a children's story yet but with imagination and effort, it may grow up to be one some day.
Today a large hurricane lingers on the doorstep of Massachusetts where I live. I wonder how animals like a periwinkle experience an event like Hurricane Irene? Good Morning Irene!
On a more serious note, why should we care what a periwinkle thinks? That is, if periwinkles think at all (in the manner to which I am accustomed. It's a disturbing thought perhaps, but in our egomania, one that might stimulate a beautiful pearl to form around it. Maybe that's why we love pearls so much: in their core they harbor a question that proves the power of Life.

Herons and Cormorants and Birds, Oh My!

I doodled these birds last night while watching the Red Sox play Texas. Go Sox!

reminds me of Hitchcock's "The Birds"…

But these guys are harmless

They are just drawings! Do not be afraid.

But they are easily annoyed!

Naturally, I was thinking of the cormorants I see at the lake

Easily annoyed… AND vain!

And all too human!

Catching Up

It takes me about 2 months to fill up a standard hardbound black sketchbook. Most of the sketches in them are finished paintings or drawings. There are plenty of informal jottings (to-do lists, descriptions of the weather and my private grumbling) and scribbling but many things are full-blown paintings that suit me at present as completed works of Art (art with a capital A!).

However, there are always a few pages left behind half-done in the hurly-burly. I started them and just couldn't get to a stopping place. And then I started a new sketchbook to keep up with the daily flow of inspiration and what-have-you. So I've been trying to get back to those unfinished pages and finish them. Here is a collection I scanned this morning from the past month:

inspired by some 16th century German porcelain at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Crystal Cities: doodles essentially. I draw these when I don't know what to do (which is most of the time).

I did this recently while attending a memorial service for someone who had died unexpectedly.

If you like this sort of thing, you make like this: "Destination Unknown".

I did this in the car yesterday. It's titled "Back to School"

Shows and Stuff!

Hello! Just plugging a few exhibits I am, or will be in in the very near future.

1. I'm frantically framing pieces for a show at my local library at the end of the month. If you're in the area please stop by. Feel free to contact me first; I could meet you there then :)

I just learned that a concurrent show of painting by David Utiger will be on view in the adjacent library lobby. His paintings will blow you away and hush you into silence!

More info on "Crystal Cities" is here. The exhibit is at The Wellesley Free Library in Wellesley, MA.
The show runs from Sept. 1 - 30, 2011. Check the library's website for hours!

"Brave Birds Successfully Holding Back an Inexorable Flow of Crystalline Rocks"
© 2008 Rob Dunlavey
latex on canvas 24 x 28" approx

2. The painting above was accepted into the Mystic Arts Center 55th Regional Juried Show. The show is up until September  24th. The Mystic Arts Center is located in beautiful downtown Mystic, Connecticut. Thanks to James Kaczman for urging me to enter!

"Fearless Fox"
© 2010 Rob Dunlavey

3. This painting was accepted into the 3 x 3 Magazine Pro Illustration Annual #8 due out in Winter 2011.

A Family Affair

"A Family Affair"
collage, paint, ink
© Rob Dunlavey 2011

Into this inhospitable place an egg has been laid and all these funny birds have become involved in guarding the egg --which looks like it will be just fine all by itself (at least until the baby hatches!).

Below are a few details.  I made it with painted papers which I collaged and drew into just a little.

"Calling a tow truck"
paint, ink, pencil
© 2011 Rob Dunlavey

I painted this one today (Aug. 9, 2011). I don't know about you but the Dow's drop yesterday and the US debt debacle make me feel a very annoyed at our venerable leaders. Well, there's always Art and, groan, Religion!

A Picture is Worth… ?

"Nature morte"
© Rob Dunlavey 08-02-11 mixed media

This is a picture in search of a story. The birds are not such sympathetic characters and so finding a story is proving hard to come by.

• Are the birds just hanging out on this convenient perch or are they having a little discussion?
• What is the contraption? I'm reminded of a propeller or worse, a medieval Catherine Wheel.
• Does the vehicle move or has it rusted in place; a monument to some old useless idea?
• And that green bottle: are these magpies and the bottle their silly useless treasure?
• Maybe the birds are contemplating what to do with the bottle. It might make a good terrarium to begin the re-population of this blighted landscape.

Anyone out there care to suggest anything?

They look good-natured enough

the intact green wine bottle