Cornish Cows

oil on panel, 18" x 24"

This painting was a distraction that served a purpose. That's all I have to say about it.

Two Palms

 

oil on canvasboard, 8" x 10"

This little number started out as an abstracted flower painting.  I can still see the yellow echinacea in it that I was thinking of when I painted it.  

Landscape in Green and Gold

oil on panel, 8" x 16"

Just trying to work quickly and intuitively with this study, not get fussy.  I especially like the gradation of colors from the minty green foreground to the pale yellow hills in mid-distance, to the gold ochre sky.

Winter Garden

 

acrylic on canvas, 12" x 16"

This is a winter scene from the property in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico where I lived in 2018.  It was a magical 4-acre property, a sculpture garden with both natural and man-made sculptures dotted throughout, one of which (a wood totem) is visible beyond the stream on the right.  

Been to Church

acrylic on canvas paper, 12" x 12"

This was a quick exercise I made for myself to see how fast I could recreate a painting I had found online of what looked like a cathedral on a misty day framed by greenery, branches, and a few springtime blossoms.  I gave myself an hour and was very happy with the result.  My thanks to whoever the artist was!

Fall Colors at SSU

oil on panel, 10" x 8"

This piece was started en plein air and finished in the studio.  I get more satisfaction when painting on a hard, smooth surface such as this one, giving the paint itself a more prominent role in the picture.  The sheer variety of trees at Sonoma State University makes for a challenging and exciting painting experience.  I try.

Sacred Path

oil on canvas, 30" x 24"

This is another attempt at a narrative painting, something I was introduced to in Taos.  The cow, the Indian girl and the bird all symbolize sacred things to me.  The colors white, red and black also signify birth, life and death in the life cycle.

Denman Cottage View

oil on panel, 11" x 14"

This palette knife painting is a somewhat idealized interpretation of the view from my cottage on the Denman property.  I painted it from a photo and not from life because, while my camera was off with the colors of the background hills, I quite liked its skewed version, and yet the values were not far off the real thing.  

The Cheese Factory at Dusk on the 4th of July

iPad painting, 14" x 10"

Like many dogs, my dog is terrified of fireworks, so we high-tailed it to the countryside in West Marin on the evening of July 4th to get a bit of respite from the boom booms going on in town.  We stopped at the Cheese Factory, which was nearly deserted, so we had the whole place to ourselves.  The scene was incredibly peaceful and exquisite, complete with a nearly full moon over the pond and all the various colors of foliage shown to best advantage and with a fog bank coming up over the trees.  I am itching to revisit this scene at the same time, from 7:30 - 9:00 pm, to do a plein air sketch.  

Ain't Talkin'

acrylic on canvas, 8" x 13"

This was just for fun.  The reference photo I used for this painting is of a nicobar pigeon.  I was intrigued by it, especially by its hidden head, which made me wonder, what else is it hiding?

Bryce Canyon

acrylic on canvas, 38" x 24"

This was an exercise in values.  I wanted to get those cool blues and light violets in the background to complement the warmth in the rock in the foreground on the right.  A work in progress.

Fragile

acrylic on canvas, 24" x 24"

In keeping with my yellow/gray exploration, I could go on and on adding branches, birds and butterflies to this painting.  Instead, I decided to quit before it loses its feeling of space, something I find rather appealing.  Those little yellow birds are warblers, and I love how their cool yellow color pops next the cool gray, in this case payne's gray.

Red Bud

oil on canvas, 10" x 10"

I worked from a photo I had taken to create this painting of a scene I passed along Highway 162 last spring, a road full of breathtaking beauty at this time of year.  The magenta blossoms of the red bud bushes springing out of the bright green grass and set against the dark greens and blues of the many trees make for an eye-popping natural bouquet.  

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. 

Pond Algae

oil on canvas, 10" x 10"

I've been wanting to introduce more warm colors into my paintings, so here's an imaginary landscape done with that in mind, again using leftover paint on the palette.  I seem to gravitate toward cool colors, particularly blues and greens, perhaps because I am surrounded by them in the local landscape, but those neglected warm colors need to have their say!

Lakeville Lineup

oil on canvasboard, 6" x 12"

Another palette knife painting, this piece was started en plein air the other day under a brilliant blue sky.  I got only about two-thirds done before I had to pack my gear and leave the scene.  It was finished later in the studio with the help of a reference photo I had taken, using a limited palette of cad yellow light, cad yellow medium, napthol red, and ultramarine blue, plus white.

Spring Fever

oil on canvas panel, 8" x 8"

This started out as an abstract, but then I had to quit before I'd covered even a quarter of the surface.  When I returned to it the next day, I had cherry blossom trees on my mind and so, of course, they made their way into the painting.  

Ellis Creek in Autumn

iPad painting, 10" x 14"

A quick digital impression of Ellis Creek I did the other day while on a walk with the dogs.  It started to rain, so I just had time for the basics.

Finnish Forest

acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18"

I'm working off an old computer to post this painting, as my laptop crashed last Tuesday and is still in the repair shop getting a new hard drive.  This was an attempt at an abstracted landscape, with just memory and imagination as my guide.  I wanted to see verticals, for some reason, and thought of birch trees, of which there are many in Finland, or so I hear.

Fall on Fire

oil on canvas, 6" x 8"

I suppose this little ditty could be called an abstracted landscape.  I used up every scrap of leftover paint on my palette to cover the canvas, thinking at the start about a photo I had just viewed of Central Park in the fall.  Soon after I began, however, the color relationships took over, and I dropped that idea.  I see Wolf Kahn's influence yet again.  

Update, 1/8/2018:  Extensive additional information on Wolf Kahn and his work can also be found here at www.artsy.net.