This painting is the result of a workshop I took recently in urban landscapes with Jacob Dhein. I may tweak it here and there, but this is pretty much as far as I can go with it. I found the workshop challenging, but that's because this kind of painting is new to me. I can recall only having done one other urban landscape before. I've got another one in mind to do, which hopefully won't take nearly as long as this one did.
This painting started life as an abstract exploration of yellow, black and grey, inspired by the colors of a MiniCooper I had seen on the road that was mostly grey with black accents, a yellow grill and yellow ears. I like this particular color combo with the various mixes it produces, especially the green/greys. The yellow warbler just seemed like a natural fit.
Here's another painting on the theme of feminine mystique, which is turning into a series, it seems. I get a kick out of paintings that tell a story, and this one is up for grabs -- my favorite kind!
This was just an exercise to loosen up with some figures and experiment with composition. A loose interpretation of Bouguereau's The Birth of Venus, I simplified and went more abstract in places just to see how far I could push it.
Just playing with color here, and abstract shapes. Somehow, a dog insisted on making an appearance. There you go!
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!
Ellis Creek in Petaluma has long been a favorite source of landscape painting inspiration for me, with its great variety of terrain, including marshes, ponds, grasses and distant hills, not to mention avian wildlife in the form of herons, egrets, swans, stilts, and many other winged species. It's an ever changing ecosystem there and I never get tired of it.
The white ibis is said to be a symbol of optimism and good luck, which I could use a bit of right now. With this painting, here's hoping the new year uplifts the spirit and brings good luck to all.
This portrait of the great jazz saxophonist John Coltrane is the latest in a portrait series I'm doing on extraordinary Black American musicians, artists, and other creative types. In addition to being a trail blazer in contemporary jazz, Coltrane was a spiritual seeker and wanted to bless people through his music. Years after his death, he was canonized by the African Orthodox Church.
I'm on a palm tree kick right now, as I gear up for a narrative painting that includes palm trees. This one is of palm trees near Hanalei, Hawaii on the island of Kauai.
It's been a while since I last painted a butterfly or moth, so here's a little painting of a beautiful moth.
The capped heron is, to me, one of the most beautiful birds in the world. The colors, I mean, c'mon, that turquoise beak against the warm yellow of the breast is inspired!
This is an alla prima portrait of Waris Dirie, a Somali model and activist who was the subject of the film "Desert Flower." I saw that film some years ago and had nightmares over it. The subject matter was, essentially, female genital mutilation (FGM), a horror that was visited on Waris at the age of 5. As a teenager, she fled her homeland, scraped by in England for a while, and was eventually saved by her beauty, forging a very successful modeling career. Later, she opened up about her early childhood trauma, helping to bring the issue of FGM out into the open. Her bravery is simply staggering.
