Lay Lady Lay

oil on canvas, 16" x 20"

This is my third bird painting with a Bob Dylan song title, and I have at least another one in mind to do.  This piece features a blue crane who has made a nest and laid her eggs in a hay field.  I love the elegant curves and lines of this exotic bird.  The blue crane is the national bird of South Africa and is in decline and now considered vulnerable to extinction.

Study in Orange and Green

iPad painting, 10" x 10"

This sketch was done as an experiment in complementaries, and since I think about landscapes so much, it seemed a foregone conclusion that I would dream up a scene like this.  I do like the colors, though.  It reminds me a bit of the English countryside, perhaps somewhere in Devon I once passed through.

Spring Scene, Eastside Petaluma

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

With this loose digital sketch, I tried to capture the pillowy lushness of spring growth in a field of weeds and mustard flowers on the Eastside of Petaluma. 

Field of Dreams

oil on canvas panel, 9" x 12"

A simple abstracted palette knife landscape here using a limited palette of pthalo green, cad yellow medium, cad orange, cyan blue, and titanium white.  These color field exercises help to divorce me from labels and the conditioned impulse to define what I'm doing.  I find the process very freeing.

Flaming Archway

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

Another digital sketch done at Covelo Ranch, where the leaves were already in various stages of yellow, orange and red at the end of September.  This scene looks northward from the house and edge of a side garden toward the razed hay field and hills beyond.

Looking North, Covelo Ranch on a Hot Summer Day

oil on canvas panel, 6" x 12"

This is a palette knife plein air sketch I did in late afternoon the other day at Covelo Ranch, as the heat was just beginning to abate.  That viridian green hay barn in the mid-distance is just beyond the property line of the ranch, and the hot summer sun seemed to intensify its color just before the shade hit its roof.

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.   

Green Field Study

oil on hardboard panel, 8" x 10"

A quick color study in further exploration of abstracted landscapes, again using only a palette knife.

Looking South, Covelo Ranch on a Misty Winter Day

acrylic on canvas, 12" x 36"

This was done in the studio from a photo I had taken at the ranch, and I loved the subtle layers the mist made out of the distant hills.  I'm not quite done with this one, but will not be able to get back to it for a few days.  Who knows, it may be finished now.  I never know these things.  I find it helpful to sit with a painting for as long as it takes to receive the answer to that question.  I've heard it said you never finish a painting; you just stop working on it.

Sheep in the Field, Early Spring at Covelo Ranch

acrylic on canvasboard, 12" x 16"

This started as a plein air painting which was finished later in the studio.  I wanted to paint the sheep relaxing in the white flowered grass, against the subtle color variations in the trees beyond, but as soon as I set my gear up, they were gone.  How dare they!  Luckily, I took a photo where some of the sheep were still lingering and used it as reference for the studio work.

Faye with Plum Trees and Foot Bridge

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

This is a sketch of the side yard by the main house at the Covelo Ranch, with the slough in the mid ground, and Faye is one of the three very lucky Border Collies who get to call this home. 

Mustard Field, Eastside Petaluma

iPad painting, 14" x 10"

An iPad sketch of the Lynch Creek area on the eastside of Petaluma in between rains.  The walls in my new art space were painted a pale dull green and I realized it was negatively impacting my color choices, so I've been busy repainting the walls white.  Until the walls dry, it will be mostly digital art.

Victor

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

A quick little iPad sketch of my friend Marilyn's thoroughbred horse Victor, done from a photo I had taken on their property the other day.

Topiary Tree, East Petaluma

oil on gessoboard panel, 9" x 12"

This is a palette knife painting I did in the studio from a photo I'd taken while walking along a trail in East Petaluma.  I've walked this path often, and each time I have to stare at this lone tree and its sweet, bulbous shape.

Elmer's Wild

oil on canvas, 12" x 12"

Another color study done with palette knife, this time a derivative of an Elmer Wachtel painting entitled "Wild Buckwheat."  

Redwood Way II

oil on canvas board, 6" x 8"

Another plein air sketch of the pastoral scene I pass on my way to the studio every day.  This one was done in the morning along another stretch of that wide area rife with structures, trees, pasture, distant hills, and cows (when they choose to appear).  Done with a palette knife.

Ely Road Farm, Late Afternoon

acrylic on gessoboard, 8" x 10"

A plein air painting of a farm I spotted on Ely Road in Petaluma.

On the Way to Bathpool

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

This is a palette knife painting of a scene somewhere in Devon, I vaguely recall, that whooshed by me on the train to Plymouth to see friends in Cornwall last year.

Holstein in a Field

oil on hardboard panel, 6" x 6"

The Big Tree

acrylic on canvas, 14" x 18"

I used one of my iPad paintings as reference for this landscape.