Some of my favorite paintings of my own have been created using palette knives. Somewhere along the way, years back, I picked one of my wife's knives up and slathered paint on a canvas. That was pretty much the advancement of my technique until a year or so ago, when I began to pay more attention to what I could say with paint using the knives' edges: action, energy, intention, direction. It is a style of applying paint I bring a consciousness to now every time I run a knife through a glob of paint.  This painting - "Parrots, Palms, and Purples" - is the latest example of my intent to energize, in this case, the paper. I would love to hear your thoughts.

My son, Cameron Cushman, who has technical skills from some universe far, far beyond my own, worked with me over-the-phone (him in Florida, me in Oregon) and on-line a week or so ago to update my Fineart website here. The overall template has been upgraded, the Home page is cleaner and more 'user-friendly', and many photos of new paintings have been added in appropriately-sized columns, and old paintings deleted.
I am grateful for my son's support, could not have done it without him, and I feel great about the current appearance. I have been working with abstractions as the way to express how I feel about the day - our planet, these times. Most can be found here now, and others will be added soon.
​Please reach out, through the Contact page, with any thoughts and/or questions.  Thanks for dropping by.

Hung 10 pieces of my art and a glassed-in display of Greeting Cards at my Credit Union today, part of "customers as artists" series. Great to get art 'out there' in the world. Have another public showing going up later this week. Far out.

I have recently established a "Creator's Page" on the internet site Patreon. This is a place where creators of all things - video, art, fiction writing, film, acting - ask people to become their Patrons, and support their creative efforts through monthly dollar contributions. Patrons select a "Tier" they feel comfortable with, and creators promise an ongoing return of rewards based on those set per tier. My Patreon site offers four tiers - monthly contributions between $2 and $25 - and any monies collected through the generosity of patrons are used for art supplies, publishing costs, and ongoing creative skill development. 
As you have come here for a visit, I hope you will also take a few moments to visit my Patreon page. And, consider becoming a Patron. My gratitude will be boundless.

https://patreon.com/buddycushman

My tastes in what moves me most in the planet of art - other artists paintings - has changed over time, and maybe that's the way it goes for most. There has been a similar transformation in what I want to paint, how painting expresses who I am at any given time in this life. I went through a period of abstraction a couple of years back, and now I find myself there again. With more action. It's where I want to be, it is where I feel most myself - most "me" - and painting in abstraction feels correct for me now, my take on the world today and how I experience it. Just a brief update.

Wow! I just noticed how long it's been since I last posted here.  Hopefully that will not happen again. My artistic focus the last 15 - 18 months has turned to my writing, and while I have self-published a number of books my painting has sat over in the shadows, patiently. As of today the wait is over. Yesterday I created my first new piece of art in over a year, and it came as a result of an accident that ripped the painted canvas of a long-ago finished piece. I got motivated by the need for a do-over. I hope you are liking the difference between old and new as much as I am. I'll be back in a day or two to write more about how my writing -- and even a change of diet -- will have an effect on my new art. And thanks for your patience, gentle reader.

Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band had a song by that title, I believe it was back in the 70s. There's a style of painting in a similar vein -- Expressionism.
I've found myself drifting in that direction recently, largely toward German expressive art - and more on the particulars later. It's how I'm feeling, how I want to paint now, not so much for reality as how that reality makes me feel. Hopefully I'll be posting some new paintings over the next few months that say in picture form what I'm trying to say here. To express myself.
Here's a new one, heading in the right direction.

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