Pineapple Sundae

acrylic on canvas, 24" x 24"

This one nearly didn't make it due to extreme frustration.  But having put it in the time out room for a day, upon viewing it with fresh eyes, I knew right away of one thing it needed.  That result dictated what to do next, and when I got to a stopping point, it went back to the time out room for another brief stay.  It may be finished, I don't know.  I've chosen to stop, and when I look at it hanging on the wall, I am not displeased by the effect it has on me.  This painting has similarities to an earlier work, entitled Lovebirds.  The two will be hanging in close proximity during my open studio on July 4th.  I have filled the walls with new work and wish I had two more pairs of hands to handle all the paintings I feel are in me.  This may be a common complaint of artists everywhere, but it's only gotten worse over time.  My solace is in the digital art I can produce on the spot, no muss, no fuss.  It's a great tool, and I am grateful to have it at my fingertips, literally.  Organic, "real" painting is another animal, it seems.  With the atmosphere so arid lately, my paint turtles dry up within seconds.  Very frustrating!  It makes me want to run to my oils.  Ah, I think I hear the Caribbean calling!

Hot Hill

oil on canvas panel, 6" x 8"

This was a simple palette knife study with an offbeat palette of titanium white, permanent yellow, vermillion, English red, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue.  Here I'm working with subtle gradations of cool against warm, pushing the boundaries of subtle in color as far as I can without losing the concept of a landscape, which I wanted to retain with this one.

Cream and Green Umbrellas

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

More umbrellas!  These two were fully deployed, unlike the last one I painted, Blue Umbrella.  You can be sure that when an outdoor umbrella appears on this blog, it's the result of a pause on a walk with my dog.  

Eastside Petaluma in June

iPad painting, 14" x 10"

Another sketch done while on a walk with the pups along a path on the eastern side of Petaluma.

Blue Umbrella

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

Another umbrella sketch from a walk with my dog along the Petaluma River.

Chileno Valley Hills

oil on canvas, 8" x 24"

This scene has been nagging at me for a long time.  I had taken the reference photo for it in June of 2006.  There was a mist in the morning air, which made the distant hills appear lighter and the foreground brighter, at least as captured in the photo.  I wanted to play with neutrals to see if I could recreate that atmosphere.

Ellis Creek in May

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

This digital painting was done from a photo I had taken in May at Ellis Creek here in Petaluma.  Such a variety of colors and shapes, it was hard to simplify it all.  

Chinese Acrobats

acrylic on canvas, 12" x 36"

This started out as a still life of a stalk of yellow gladiolas in a green vase.  I wasn't happy with it, so I took the bottle out of the picture and gave it an abstract background.  As I looked at it, I started to see these little figures like the Chinese acrobats I'd see on the Ed Sullivan Show back in the '60s.  I'll admit, I was in a peculiar mood when I painted this today.

Zen Barn

acrylic on canvas, 12" x 24"

This was done from a drive-by shooting yesterday near the little town of Bodega, as this barn is situated such that there is no place to paint it on site from this angle.  My trusty camera captured it, though, and I set the time at either dusk or dawn -- could be either, from the pink horizon.  

Hicks Valley Horses

acrylic on canvas, 12" x 24"

I used a reference photo I had taken last summer on Hicks Valley Road, in the countryside west of Petaluma.  The paint horse in the foreground had risen up out of the landscape like a blossom in the desert.  I spent two hours working on it with a palette knife, then took a lunch break.  But now, after stepping away, I feel that if I go back in there, the painting may change radically, and perhaps not for the better.  As it stands, the landscape is simplified and abstracted, and in harmony with itself, something I can only achieve working alla prima, which is to say completing a painting in one session.  The way I mix colors varies from session to session, and so a reworking of one area can result in a pasted-on look, which causes a chain reaction throughout, and then you're cooked, and the painting is DOA. Still, I may not be able to resist toying with this one later, even though I feel it has a bit of life in its current, unfinished state.  In a nutshell, I am not ashamed to walk away from this one as is.

Tibetan Terrain

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

Done from a photo I found online that reminded me of a Tibetan hillside, I loved the color the light made of the distant hills, offset by a shaft of light turning the mustard field a neon green.   

Loma Alta in the Clouds

acrylic on canvas, 16" x 20"

This was done as a value study from a photo of Loma Alta, a mountainous region near Santa Barbara (if I'm not mistaken -- I've never been there), prompted by my recent efforts at abstracted landscapes.  Done with a palette knife, I didn't spend too much time on it, but I like the overall effect.

Halong Bay

oil on hardboard panel, 5" x 7"

For this little palette knife painting, I used a photo reference.  Although Ha Long Bay is in Vietnam, this scene reminds me of my time in China in 2013, floating down the Yulong River on a bamboo raft, surrounded by these monolithic karsts.  The haunting echo of birdsong off the karsts lends a dreamy, otherworldly feeling to the scene.  This will be my 22nd painting as a result of that trip, and I feel I have at least 4 more Asian paintings in me yet to come.