Chamisa

acrylic on canvas paper, 9" x 12

An aerial view of chamisa, a beautiful, fragrant shrub and a common sight in New Mexico.  It makes for a fun color study.

Denman Roses

oil on canvasboard, 8" x 8"

Here's a little afternoon plein air sketch I did the other day of one of the rose bushes here at Denman Ranch.  I love the eastern view, with the light violet hills as a backdrop to the knoll on which this ranch sits.  The baby grape vines are just starting to show in the mid ground.

A Rose in Snow

oil on panel, 6" x 6"

This little abstract palette knife painting is from a few months back; I just never got around to posting it.  There are more than a few others in my inventory that have met that fate.  This painting was inspired by the colors of New Mexico in October, like the rich red of chili peppers you see hanging everywhere in clusters, along with the warm yellow of drying chamisa amongst the cool green sage out on the mesa.  And then there's the snow.  It snowed here in Arroyo Seco on Halloween night, and my backyard has been carpeted in snow ever since.  It snowed again last night.  Everything's white.

San Luis Storefront with Salvia

oil on panel, 9" x 12"

This (mostly) palette knife painting is of a crumbling facade of an old storefront in San Luis, Colorado.  I loved the profusion of salvia, or Russian sage, obscuring all but one window of the storefront, and the cool shape of the facade made me want to paint this perspective.

Springtime in the Foothills of Mt. Diablo

acrylic on canvasboard, 9" x 12"

I used a photo I had taken recently for this palette knife painting.  It was raining at the time, and I just loved the neon green of the distant hills framed by the gray skies and the violet ceanothus (mountain lilac).  Had to paint it.  

Anza Borrego in Spring

oil on canvas, 10" x 10"

Anza Borrego is a stretch of desert in Southern California that has a profusion of colorful wildflowers in the spring, and this year, with all the rain it got, is slated to be a superbloom year.  I wish I could go there and paint my immediate response to it all, but alas, I cannot get away.  So, I comforted myself by painting it from a photo I found online.  Not the same as being there, but still fun to do and another useful learning experience.

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. 

La La Land

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

I just felt like transporting myself to a fantasy land, and this is where I went with that.  I may have another go at it, but for now, it goes in the time-out room.  I've been reading Hockney's "A Bigger Message" and I can see his influence pretty clearly here.

Roses and Lavender

iPad painting, 14" x 10"

I started this digital sketch with a black background and, as an experiment, left much of it untouched.  I think I'll leave it that way.  

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!

Wistful

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Here's another painting from my imagination, working without a visual reference.  I saw myself lying in a hammock with a canopy of white wisteria drooping above me.  This one gets a time out, since I'm not sure I'm done with it quite yet.  Time will tell.

Sweet '16

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

This is another effort to work without a visual reference.  My only plan was to stick to a certain limited palette (ivory black, Prussian blue, alizarin crimson, cad yellow light, and white) and the plant world.  I've always loved the underside of flowers, especially when they are backlit and get this deep glow emanating from the center.  It's a perspective that's kind of hard to capture without a camera, so I relied on memory and imagination.  The idea was to do something floral that looked like it would smell divine.  These giant buds turned out rather peony-like and, now that we're finally moving into spring, sweet! -- hence the title.

Filoli Garden Impression

acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18"

This is a work in progress, already significantly altered since the first go round.  

Poinsettia in Yellow Pot

iPad painting, 14" x 10"

Kitchen window in Sonoma at twilight, in December.

Thanks for the Memory

acrylic on hardboard panel, 16" x 16"

I set a new record for myself with this one:  only 3 colors!  And another record:  it was done totally from memory.  I can't even tell you the type of flowering bush this was.  It was not a rose bush, that's all I know.