Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Sept 27, 2025)

Here is my painting as it looked on Sept. 27, 2025.  At this point, the special "Homer" event at Porter Mill was fast approaching.  This event featured paintings inspired by  the Iliad and the Odyssey. I chose to participate because the Iliad was one of the first books I read when I began graduate school in Comparative Literature and also because I think the Iliad still has important things to say to us in 2025.

I have produced several  literary-themed paintings over the past year, and this painting will be part of that series. This series came about by chance because of a number of art shows with literary themes that I have participated in. So now I have done paintings related to "Moby Dick", "Alice in Wonderland", "The Scarlet Letter" and a "Midsummer Night's Dream," and now Homer's "Iliad". These paintings are all the same size (20 x 20), and done in the same style. I hope to exhibit them as a set at some point. And maybe I will paint more.

 

This painting represents the shield of Achilles, but instead of being engraved with antastical images (as Homer describes it in his poem), it is inscribed with Homer's words: the opening line of the "Iliad," as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls."

Here is my painting as of September 27th.  I continued to work on getting the lines right, and fixing small mistakes in the lettering.  But the biggest change was an additional coat of blue to the background.  Almost there. . .

Reposting: Rosh Hashana Still Life drawing video

Back in 2022, I created this little drawing video on my iPad with the Procreate app.  I am bringing it back today to wish those celebrating the Jewish New Year " L'Shana Tova" and  to everyone, no matter what calendar you follow, I wish you bright days and a sweet year ahead.  So let's get started.  Just press play.

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Sept 23, 2025)

Here is my painting as it looked on Sept. 23, 2025. At this point, I was working hard to get it ready for the  the "Homer" event at Porter Mill, featuring paintings inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey.  I wanted to participate because the Iliad was one of the first books I read as I began graduate school in Comparative Literature (and I have some lovely memories of those days) and also because I think the Iliad still has important things to say to us in 2025. 

This painting will become part of a series of literary-themed paintings that I have produced over the past year. This series came about more or less unplanned because of a run of art shows with literary themes that I have recently participated in.  So now I have done paintings related to "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "The Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream," and now Homer's "Iliad".  These paintings  are all the same size (20 x 20), and done in the same style, so maybe at some point I can exhibit them as a set. And maybe there will be more to come.

Anyway, this painting represents the shield of Achilles, but instead of fantastical images (as Homer describes it in his poem),  it is decorated with Homer's words:   the opening line of the "Iliad,"  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

On Sept 23, I added a translucent layer of metallic paint (gold acrylic) to the body of the shield, and added a second coat of gold paint to the edge of the shield.  As I worked, I corrected a few small mistakes.  At this point, the painting was almost finished. There was already one coat of blue on canvas at this point (though it doesn't show up well in this photo), but another coat was needed.  Time to seal the edges and attach a wire.  And obsess over invisible mistakes.  Almost there.

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Sept 22, 2025)

Here is my painting as it looked on Sept. 22, 2025. The deadline was fast approaching for the "Homer" event at Porter Mill,  featuring paintings inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey.  I wanted to participate because this painting will become part of my series of paintings with literary-themes. This happened somewhat by accident because over the last year or so,  I have participated in a number of shows with literary themes:  "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream," and now Homer's "Iliad".

This painting represents the shield of Achilles, but instead of fantastical images (as Homer describes it in his poem),  it is decorated with Homer's words:   the opening line of the "Iliad,"  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

On Sept. 22, I added pale blue background to the corners, hoping to evoke the sky.  And I used metallic gold paint around the edge of the shield.  This was now getting very close to completion.

Reposting: Pink Apples on a Branch (Oil Bar Painting)

This is an oil bar painting that I did in 2021.  I am reposting it today because I am sending it with wishes for Shona Tova for those celebrating the Jewish New Year, and wishing everyone happiness, health, peace, love, and success in the year ahead.

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Sept. 17, 2025)

Here is my painting as it looked on Sept. 17, 2025.    I was getting this ready for the "Homer" event at Porter Mill,  paintings inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey.  This painting is going to be part of a  series of paintings with literary-themes, something that happened by chance because over the last year or so,  I have participated in a number of shows with literary themes:  "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream," and now Homer's "Iliad".

This painting represents the shield of Achilles, but instead of decorating it with fantastical images (as Homer describes it in his poem),  I am decorating it with words,  the opening line of Homer's "Iliad,"  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

On Sept. 17th, I continued to work on the outline of the shield, trying to get the lines of the circle right.  I also began to clean up the corners of the canvas, to get them ready for the background color.  I made a lot of very small changes to the lines of the spiral and to the lettering. Perhaps attention to these details seems too much, but I think that the simpler the design, the more important these little corrections are. This painting was getting close to what I wanted to see, but there were still some things to do. . .

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Sept 14, 2025

Here is my "Homer" painting as it looked on Sept 14, 2025.  I was painting this for a Porter Mill event, paintings inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey. So this painting will become part of a  series of  literary-themed paintings.  The series was unplanned; it came about because I participated in a number of shows with literary themes:  "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream," and now Homer's "Iliad".

This painting represents the  shield of Achilles, inscribed with the opening line of Homer's "Iliad,"  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

Two weeks had passed since I last worked on this, and so it might look like progress is slow.  But I reworked the lines of the circle and the spiral, and put another coat of gold on the shield.  Stopping to re-checking and correcting the geometry is not fun, but it is necessary.  To be continued. . . 

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Aug. 30, 2025)

Here is my "Homer" painting as it looked on August 30, 2025.  This painting is for the upcoming Iliad and Odyssey show at Porter Mill show. I have somehow wandered in to creating af a series of  literary-themed paintings by participating in a number of shows with literary themes:  "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" so far. This painting will become part of the series.

This painting for the show on Homer represents the  shield of Achilles, inscribed with the opening line of the Iliad,  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

On August 30th, I had worked on the outer border, trying to get the lines of the outer circle to work.  I also decided on a color for the two negative shapes created by the spiral within the circle.  I mixed a bit of purple into some silver paint and applied it.  I began to feel like I was getting somewhere.

Hy Zagon, Pueblo, Colorado at City Park Zoo, 1942

I like to post photos of my father on August 28, which was his birthday.  So I was looking through my photos and although I have seen this one often, I don't think I have posted it here. This is from my mother's war-time album that begins with their first dates, then their wedding and honeymoon photos, and then Army pictures my dad sent back from Europe juxtaposed with photos of Pueblo. My mother met my father at a USO dance.  He was a Brooklyn boy, in the army and stationed in Pueblo for a short time. They married six weeks after they met,  had time for a honeymoon trip to Brooklyn, and then he was shipped  overseas to do his bit against the Nazis. 

This photo is one of the earliest photos in the album, and I believe this was their first date.* Today I cleaned it up a bit in Painter and iPhoto, but left it pretty much as it was.

This image might seem a strange choice to mark my father's birthday, but this moment marks a turning point in his life.  He was a young man from Brooklyn, just passing through Colorado at the whim of the US Army, but because he had met my mother there, his life would change, and he would come back from the war to live in Pueblo, not Brooklyn.  Here he is, a young bachelor, enjoying an outing at Pueblo's little zoo, enjoying the company of the woman he would marry.  Years later, as a husband and father, he would make many, many trips to this zoo with his daughter,  to show her the animals, let her climb "Monkey Mountain" and ride the carousel. across the street.

*(I know, there are other soldiers in the photo, so I could be wrong. But this is part of a little set of photos and I think my mother took this picture.)

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Aug. 27, 2025)

Here is my  current painting as it looked on August 27th.  This painting is for the upcoming "Homer" show at Porter Mill show. This painting will be part of a series of  literary-themed paintings creating because I have participated in a number of shows with literary themes:  "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" so far. 

This painting for the show on Homer represents the  shield of Achilles, inscribed with the opening line of the Iliad,  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

In this photo taken on Aug 27, I have begun work on the outer edge of the shield.  As you will see, it is not easy to square a circle. 

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Aug 19, 2025)

Here is my  current painting as it looked on August 19th.  This painting is for the upcoming show at Porter Mill show with the theme of the Iliad and Odyssey. This painting will become part of a series of  literary-themed paintings that I have wandered in to creating by participating in a number of shows with literary themes:  "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" so far. 

My painting for the show on Homer represents the  shield of Achilles, inscribed with the opening line of the Iliad,  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

In this photo taken on Aug 19, you can see the inscription again The day before I had added a barely transparent layer of gold paint over the letters.  So the next day, I went over the lettering again.  Now the painting was beginning to take shape.  There is a lot of cleanup to do, but this is the basic idea.

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Aug. 18, 2025)

Here is my "Homer" painting as it looked on August 18th.  This painting is for the upcoming show at Porter Mill show with the theme of the Iliad and Odyssey. This painting will become part of a series of  recent "literary" paintings that I have done for a number of shows with literary themes:  "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" so far. 

My painting for the show on Homer is a representation of the shield of Achilles.  It is inscribed with the opening line of the Iliad,  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

In this photo, you may have to take my word for it that those words are there.  On August 17, I had already arranged the words on the shield against a pale yellow background (underpainting), you might say. I was pretty happy with the lettering and layout, so it might seem strange that my next step was to cover the lettering with a  layer of gold paint that was almost opaque, but just transparent enough to allowed me to see out the lettering beneath. I did this to quickly establish the gold background color, so I could then go over the lettering again.  It seems counterintuitive but I find it easier and faster to do it this way.  To be continued. . . .

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of August 17, 2025)

Here is my current painting as it looked on August 17th.  This painting is for the upcoming show at Porter Mill show with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. This will become part of a little unplanned series I have going of  paintings related to lliterature (so far "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" so far.) 

For the show on Homer,  I am painting a representation of the   shield of Achilles inscribed with the opening line of the Iliad,  e, as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

I had already roughed in the lettering, so on August 17, I put some pale yellow as a background for the text.  This is just an undercoat for the area that I hope will look golden when I am finished.  And my plan is to have gray areas are going to look like silver when this is finished

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Aug 15, 2025)

On August 15th, I got underway with my painting for the upcoming Porter Mill show with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. This is part of a little series I have going of paintings related to literary works (on "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream"  so far.) 

For the Homer show, I decided to paint he shield of Achilles inscribed with a quotation from the Iliad,  the opening line, as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

  I had already laid out the text in pencil on canvas, so on August 15th, I went over the lettering with brown Sharpie marker, followed by brush work with paint.  This is still rough, but my goal was to work out placement of the text, which is actually part of the composition.

Rage of Achilles (Rough Sketch on Canvas) as of Aug 14, 2025

This is a rough sketch for a painting for the upcoming Porter Mill show with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.  (By happenstance, I have a little series of paintings going, all related to literary works, a departure from my usual painting subjects.)  Over the past year, I have participated in  two literature-themed shows at Porter Mill (one on "Moby Dick", and one on "Alice in Wonderland") and a "Scarlet Letter" show at the Salem Athenaem and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" show at TAG in Boston. 

So when I first learned of the Porter Mill "Homer" show, I said yes, and my idea came right away. I would paint he shield of Achilles inscribed with a quotation from the Iliad.  After some indecision on the quotation, I  chose the opening line, as translated by Robert Fagles:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

On August 13 and 14, I worked on the layout for this painting, using pencil on canvas.  My main goals:  create a spiral within a circle, and establish rough placement of the words.  I had to do a little digital cleanup to make it possible see the sketch.

Quick Sketch for "Homer" Painting as of August 12, 2025

This is my idea for a painting for the upcoming September show at Porter Mill, with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.  In a departure from my painting preoccupations,  I am building up a little series of paintings related to literary work; these opportunities came along by chance, but I  was open to them   because of my interest in art/literary relations that was my focus in graduate school.. So over the past year, I have participated in  two literature-themed shows at Porter Mill ( one on Moby Dick, and one on Alice in Wonderland) and a "Scarlet Letter" show at the Salem Athenaem and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" show at TAG in Boston. 

So when I first learned of the "Homer" show, I said yes right away and knew I would paint a shield (the shield of Achilles) inscribed with a quotation from the Iliad.  It took me a while to decide on the  quotation, but I chose the opening line, as translated by Robert Fagles. The problem was how to arrange the text in a circle so it would be readable,  and in the end, I decided to use as spiral, just as I did in my painting about Moby Dick. So a few days ago, I grabbed a piece of paper and a Sharpie and started to work out the composition.

The quotation is:  "Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

"Brothers and Sisters" (Portrait as of Aug. 9, 2025)

It has been a while since I posted progress on this commissioned portrait, but I have been working on it all along, time permitting.   The first step was figure drawing, getting the positions of all four kids in the right place.  This took a while, and there were lots of mistakes along the way, and each time I made major changes, in the figures, I had to rework the faces too.  So the likenesses came and went with each change.  Once I was pretty happy with the figures, I started to concentrate more attention on the faces, and after lots more changes, I am finally getting there with all four faces. This is still rough, but I feel like it is on track. I held off posting progress on this until I was reasonably happy with the faces, but now I am, so here it is.

"Midsummer's Flowers" (Acrylic Mixed Media Painting)

Here is my painting on June 28, finished and ready to be packed up for the trip into Boston. This is my "Midsummer's Flowers" painting, headed for the "Midsummer Night's Dream" exhibit in July at the TAG gallery in the SOWA district. My painting is based on a short poem from Shakespeare's play.: "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,/Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." Each of the four lines of the poem is written around the four sides of the painting.  And six flowers that are mentioned in the poem appear In the center of the canvas,  in the style of botanical illustration. Back in early June, I thought it was just about finished and photographed it for the required digital image. But since then, I repainted the blue background, making it look a little more blue, but softer, like the sky. And I added a layer of gold acrylic craft paint to the border. I went over all the straight lines with a T-square.  I went over all the lines and shapes of the flowers. I made many, many small corrections in the lettering.  And yes, at the last minute, I realized I was spelling "eglantine" in two different ways: with an 'i' as in the poem, and with a "y", a spelling that crept in from looking at flower images on Google. So I fixed that. I am happy with this now and am glad I kept going.  I often say that art is about making mistakes and correcting them.  I think that it is also about persistence.

Near Colorado Springs (for Galatea and Friends Show)

I chose this painting for the July "Galatea and Friends" show. I painted this back in 2021, based on a photo that I took during trip to Colorado a few years earlier.  This is a spot that you see when you drive from Denver to Colorado Springs; this is just north of the Air Force Academy.  My friend Pam Peltier, showing with me at Galatea, used to live close to that location,  so I thought this would be a good choice for the show.  

Guest Artist: Pam Peltier Dickinson

This image is artwork by my friend Pam Peltier Dickinson.  I met Pam in high school in 1965 and we also took art classes together in college.  So when I learned that Galatea Fine Art was having a "Galatea and Friends" show in July 2025, Pam was the obvious choice.  She mailed this artwork to me and I took this photo of it on June 20th.  The title is "Sous la Lune d'Automne" (Under the Autumn Moon).*

*Pam enjoys French and that is another tie that connects us because I was her "language lab" when she studied French in college.