Old Cherry Blossom Tree

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

A fun project.

Grand Old Ginkgo

oil on canvas, 22" x 28"

A palette knife landscape.  I just needed to see some yellow.  More of these big trees to follow.

The Caracal

oil on canvas paper, 12" x 9"

This is a study of the elusive caracal, an exotic wild cat found throughout Africa and Asia.  I punched up the colors but couldn't get them quite right.  Will retake photos in the morning and update this post.

Garden of Earthly Delights

oil on panel, 16" x 12"

This painting was inspired by the work of Flora Yukhnovich, a British painter who pushes disrupted realism to a new level.  After reading about her and pouring over her pieces, I felt like playing with paint and pushing the boundaries of realism myself.  It was fun and freeing, and I plan to do more of it!

Falkland Barn

oil on wood panel, 12" x 12"

I stumbled on a photo of a red barn in a cornfield online a while back while searching for something else, and knew I just had to paint it.  

Chileno Valley Oak

oil on canvasboard, 6" x 8"

This was a quick little plein air sketch done from a pullout on lower Wilson Hill Road, looking north to the hills that surround Chileno Valley.

Ravenous

oil on wood panel, 9" x 12"

This palette knife painting of a raven eating a spider must have come from my subconscious mind.  A psychiatrist could probably have a field day with it, since I was working intuitively and not terribly concerned with accuracy or detail.  Still, I'm pleased with the bird and the overall composition.  For this one, I used a limited palette of ivory black, ultramarine violet, naphthol red, and yellow ochre, plus white.

Tree of Life

acrylic on canvas, 18" x 24"

I've been wanting to paint this tree for a long time, as it captures my attention every time I drive by this wondrous thing.  Cows frequently gather underneath its shelter, and I love the tunnel that forms from within the curve of its trunk.  

Some Kind of Pine

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

Another 10-minute sketch done whilst on a walk with the dogs.  They are forcing me to work faster, which is probably not a bad thing.   I have no idea what kind of tree this is.  Could be a pine, could be a palm.  Never seen another like it, that I can recall.

Under a Lichen Tree

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

Done on another walk with my dog, I loved the color of the lichen on the trunk juxtaposed with the greens of the grass in shade and sun.

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.

Old Eucalyptus Branches

iPad painting, 14" x 11"

This digital sketch was done on the east side of Petaluma, looking east, with the ridge of Sonoma Mountain in the distance.

Old Eucalyptus

iPad painting, 14" x 10"

I've been wanting to paint this big old eucalyptus tree opposite the property where my art studio is for a while.  It is grand in scale and it is there every day, begging for my attention.  Probably why I keep putting it off.  I'll get to it this summer.

Plum Tree

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

Putnam Plaza

iPad painting, 14" x 10"

Me and My Shadow

oil on hardboard panel, 12" x 9"

I was just playing around with this study from a found photo of someone else's painting -- whose I have no idea, but was drawn to the purple sky at first.  Sky can be any color imaginable -- in fact, the sky's the limit!

View from the Cheese Factory

oil on hardboard panel, 12" x 9"

I'm cheating a bit with this one, which I did around this time last year at the Cheese Factory in Marin.

The Big Tree

acrylic on canvas, 14" x 18"

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

White Magnolia Tree

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

Little Red Barn

oil on zinc plate, 5" x 7"

This little painting is based on an iPad painting I posted on December 30, 2013. Working in different media changes everything. The iPad painting is freer simply because I could work so much faster, not having to mix the colors and wipe the brushes in between applications. They are two very different paintings, but I like the sculptural quality of the tree mass in this one, as well as the rear half of the barn roof, which I left unpainted.