The second piece - Matthew @ Port Joli over Alice Photographing Fashion.

size 16x16 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas for this painting was a difficult portrait with swoopy blue shapes.

Then the new painting forms

The first piece - carousel horse over self portrait.

size 11x14 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas for this painting was an unsuccessful self portrait.

Then off to a running start the new painting forms

5 canvases were sacrificed on dec 2 but not finished so not posted.
completing takes a special ability to find enough and not too much.
at every sense of being stumped I just start another. this also lets the paint dry.

on other fronts steady and significant progress unrelated.
one daughter has a new auzziedoodle (puppy); will check it out tomorrow.
another has applied for work in NYC; hope to see her Sunday.

wife has emerged from an extreme week long allergic reaction to chocolate which had peanut proximity. she also luckily found an apartment for us to spend the next 1 yr period in, which will be convenient during the destruction and construction of our new place on dundas;

and at work, i have been steadily unravelling 10 year old borland sdk communications source code for a retro-upgrade, while overseeing some complex c# prototyping and c++ prototyping for a new version design project, looking for the right mix.

and we finally tried California Sandwich on Claremont, (near our new place on dundas) man those are huge and satisfying meaty kaisers.

The third piece - Viewing sky on Rear Deck over Marissa.

size 18x18 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas for this painting was a nice portrait.

Then the new painting forms

The fourth piece - Alice Explains over JonRae waiting.

size 16x20 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas for this painting was difficult view of JonRae waiting for Myera at the Hospital.

The new painting forms

Dock Scene over Rembetico.

size 20X16 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas for this painting 3 families dancing rembetico.

The new painting forms

Note there are also two other works currently in progress which are missing the starting and intermediate images, but I can dig up archival starting images, the intermediates are truly lost.

The sixth piece - Anthony @ Willy's Wine Bar over Ford with Flower.

size 20x16 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas for this painting was a nice portrait with a flower but I misplaced the photo.

The new painting forms

The seventh piece - Dianne @ Willy's Wine Bar over Kids @ Christmas.

size 16x16 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas for this painting was a family cluster of kids at last christmas party.

The new painting forms

today I finished only one and it shows up in yesterday's group
but I started 4 allowing for some falling behind later if it is unavoidable
The eleventh piece .

size 16x16 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas .

The new painting forms

The tenth piece.

size 20x24 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas .

new painting forms

The ninth piece .

size 16x16 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas .

The new painting forms

The eighth piece.

size 20x20 acrylic on canvas done with knives and fingers

Starting canvas .

new painting forms

Today I just finished a few and posted them in day 5 below, since they were started then, and I selected a couple for tomorrow.
this is truly an exhausting enterprise.
interesting though
the rest of life continues:
After inspection at the new place, (after signing lease on intermediate place) went for coffee with architect, to Cafe Brazilliano, a block away.
The architect thought it was funny that I slipped on ahead using my Heely's when he went with his assistant for their bikes.
They said I looked about 4 years old and added that they meant it in a good way.
That knocks off about fifty.
fyi

(scroll the inner window below to see the painting process for day seven
some paintings are completed later on day 8)

My wife gave me my birthday present 5 days early - a book of Hans Hofmann with hundreds of color plates - No painting tonight, just the one completed this morning and already posted in the scrolling window below.

For now I must read the Hofmann essays. they are like reading abhidhamma - thick - deliberately pointing at something ineffable yet already familiar.

I want to revisit his ideas of plasticity and of the spiritual movement that goes into art and remains with a piece afterwards as long as the piece exists as a thing unto itself.

To read these things is briefly as important as painting. I will dive back in to painting early tomorrow morning.

first i finished the three remaining from 2 days ago and posted them and now I start some silly ones.

(scroll the inner window below to see the painting process for day nine)

I blame the painting clothes
no I blame the parties
no I blame the snow on the ground
can I blame anything else
I must blame myself
no painting at all in 2 days, now I have to go to work, having fallen behind.
maybe tonight I can catch up on my not sleep.

started 5 canvases to surge forward in the wake of all the parties soon to cross wake with more seasonal and birthday bashing.

two are finished from yesterday's start of five
scroll down in the window below to see #22 and #24

more later after work.

Resuming on some fresh canvas to allow my hands to work more easily without cramping up; otherwise knifework against the roughened used canvases is a bit vigorous and exhausting.
so
starting with an arial view from Howie and Joanne's where more birthday bashing is scheduled shortly.

I have a headache
have been fighting with everybody
or doing tarot readings
finished one more and posted for day 15
and started 4 more
a lot of snow fell
must go clear it up - not going to work today
c architect at 2

=================

by evening things got more relaxed
good news about alice and a newyork gig
some good building plans
no fighting good eating
fine multibirthday party at h+joee's
they even let me roll on heelys
many of our people are saggitarius
and engaged to be moving home soon

buying more paint and why not some canvas in case my wrists get sore
30 are painted in this month so far (- this is a milestone!?)
now I can coast at 1/day or whatever...

will post results of this tomorrow.

four more are in the works
the Prince Edward Island gallery owners (Pilar Shepard http://www.pilarshephard.com/ ) are on their way here later today so I have to clean up house and get ready.
maybe finish these 4 tomorrow; I am starting to have confidence that even with christmas family and even more parties on the horizon till new ears comes we will be able to finish 10 between now an then.

got new paint and more blank canvas yesterday in case my hand cramps up again.

a day without painting is like a day without light
some work done yesterday morning, but 4 are unfinished as yet.
after work I will pick up the knives
nothing will stand in my way!

so i just finished the 4 which were outstanding for several days
as hannuka now begins and christmas recovery is underway
I now contemplate the last 2 canvases
and go help Alice with a bit of prep for a New York adventure she has planned.
the holiday house guests just left, their imprint lasts forever.

oh yeah
I cut my finger badly with a bread knife while making some smoke samon and st. agur cheese sandwiches for the King Kong movie which we went to as a family yesterday - a christmas ritual; holy doodle those cgi scorpions, bugs, dinosaurs etc. were scary!

so I am now gernerally freaked out and bleeding as a baseline consciousness.
this should add an element to the last 2
as it has for the completion of
35, 36, 37 & 38

(technically I am finished as I have done 2 conte drawings for fun but they are not near the acrylic mandate and not posted so I am practically and effectively not done with 40 pieces for december yet.)

the sea side image is on a new canvas 30x40, loose and fast, posterish perhaps.
the last carousel ride is the 40th image painted over a previous painting 16x16, and
although it was not premeditated, it turns out to be a very hopeful card for the
new year, and this one ending, with children mounting enthusiastically for a ride, and the world looking on.

continue beginning
and begin to continue.

Maybe I have always done it, but during this 28-day session I have more closely observed my Process of Reversal. This is a process that looks like layering (sure one painting over another, but the change in appearance is not just painting over), it is like error correction, or leaving what was perceived behind.

In some ways it is like the penetration of veils which some say is how carving sculptures emerges, as though the essence is within while the sculptor unearths it.

Here it is more like the addition of veils, in order to unearth the underlying image.
This backwards logic, is the essence of reversal. What was wrong becomes right temporarily and the rocks in the stream, which were stepping stones along the way, are washed over as the new scene gels.

A friend has mentioned that the Skeptics tempered Aristotelian thought, which supposes that there is no Platonic Ideal, (in opposition to Platonic thought where truth/ideal form exists but is unattainable) i.e. all is in error. To the Skeptics we are constantly stepping from truth to error and vice versa.

So this process of covering up to reveal is the sane-est way of putting what I do do. And some may call it Skeptical while others can call it mad.

The hall of mirrors effect reminds me of how things are put together inside my mind, and how I walk away to get closer, or stand still to move fast.