My friend Shtebe

Here's a small painting by my friend Stephen Niccolls, now of upstate New York. (is near Poughkeeepsie "upstate"? ) I found it on a little blog he started, apparently, one day in September. I'm feeling a certain kinship with his use of this bit of ornamentation.



Actually, I currently have out from the library a great book called "Ornament & Abstraction", a great big coffee table catalog of a book, that accompanied an exhibition by the same name.


Here's the latest on my latest:

This is starting to feel like one of those 'struggle' paintings. Ones that take much, much longer than others to resolve. But it's still too soon to say. It is starting to get a litlle bit more of a focal point, with that emerging flower form...