Bear Creek Rocks and Trees

Bear Creek Trees and Rocks oil on board 8" x 8"

It's difficult to capture the gradual transition from shore to water.

R Street Bridge

R Street Bridge oil on board 8" x 8"

Puddle

Puddle oil on board 8" x 8"

Cabin Cruiser

Cabin Cruiser oil on board 8" x 8"

I saw this boat docked at Moss Landing.

Fryer Goodies

Fryer Goodies oil on board 8" x 8"

 This work was another painting that was shown at the 20th Street Art Gallery 20/20 show. Sad to say, the gallery recently shut its doors. I guess it's a sign of the times, although the owners say they want to devote time to charitable work.

Halloween Jacks Part Two

Chicharron Jack oil on board 7" x 5"

Banana Jack oil on board 7" x 5"

Watermelon Jack oil on board 6" x 8"

Chicharron Jack was carved from another snack. Yes, I'm ashamed to admit that occasionally I eat chicharrones, which are sort of ghoulish. I found out it's not a very good carving medium. Banana Jack was carved from a bananito, or apple banana. The cut edges oxidized, turning black and thus adding a cartoonish look to the face. Fitting to the ghoulish theme, bananas are naturally slightly radioactive due to small amounts of potassium-40. Watermelon Jack was carved from a personal sized melon. The red meat adds a nice sense of mayhem.

Halloween Jacks Part One

Foil Jack oil on board 5" x 5"

Pretzel Jack oil on board 5" x 5"

I thought I'd do a few Halloween themed paintings and since I didn't have a pumpkin at the studio I decided to do some Jack O'Lantern faces out of other things. The first thing I saw was a bit of orange foil I'd been saving so I modeled a very rough little face out of it. It's tiny, being about an inch in diameter and the face is a little difficult to distinguish. About the same time I was snacking on some pretzels when I realized that the pretzels themselves looked like a face. Again, this is a small object, being a mini-pretzel.

Deux Chevaux

Citroen 2CV Dolly oil on board 8"x8"

I started this painting back in January using acrylic and didn't like it. Finally, rather than give up on it, I returned to it using the acrylic as underpainting and then overpainting in oil and also changing some elements in the composition.

I've always liked these little cars, which were quite advanced for their time. Their suspension was designed to be capable of driving across a plowed field with a crate of eggs and not breaking any. They also got more than 70 miles per gallon. But the interiors are very simple and the top speed is something like 60 mph.

Sea Gull

Sea Gull oil on board 8" x 8"

This is another painting that was in the 20/20 show at the 20th Street Art Gallery. It has since been sold.

I haven't posted recently but have been painting and have also just been busy with life. Hopefully I'll get back to posting more frequently.

Ticket Booth

Ticket Booth  oil on board 8" x 8"

Though not in the recent 20/20 show at the 20th Street Art Gallery, this painting was provided to the gallery as a sample of what I intended to do for the show. The theme I choose was reflections, so in this painting we see the reflections in the ticket booth window and brushed metal and on the doors in the background. This beautifully ornate ticket booth is at the Tower Theater in Fresno.

Rosé

Rosé oil on board 6" x 4"

Continuing the drink series.

Pacific Grove

Pacific Grove oil on board 8" x 8"

This is the third painting that sold at the 20/20 Show at the 20th Street Gallery. The scene is Lover's Point in Pacific Grove, CA. It was a rare day when the ocean was calm.

Point Lobos

Point Lobos oil on board 8" x 8"

This is the second painting that sold at the 20/20 show at the 20th Street Art Gallery. I received several compliments regarding it and one of the other participating artists was nice enough to tell me that he thought it was the best piece in the show. The scene is a cove in Point Lobos, a California state park located just south of Carmel and just north of Big Sur.

Gown

Gown oil on board 8"x8"

I was recently in a group show called the 20/20 at 20th Street Art Gallery in Sacramento. The show has closed so now I will include some of the work I did for it. I thought the show was very good with some very interesting, varied and excellent work. Sales in general were only so-so because of the bad economy but a few artists did have about half their paintings sold. The gallery sold three of my paintings. The painting included here is one of them and I believe it sold on the first day because I never saw it hanging. It is one of my personal favorites and one of the most difficult for me to paint because it is a quite complex image and I wasn't sure how it would be received. It's a shop window with dresses and a suit displayed in it and the window has the reflected image of the scene across the street. I'll be posting the other two paintings that sold but might not show the unsold paintings because I may approach other galleries with them first.

Cup of Coffee

Cup of Coffee oil on board 5" x 3"

Tequila Shot

Tequila Shot oil on board 7" x 5"

The early morning sun shining through the glass and bottle created interesting shadows and highlights.

20th Street Art Gallery and Bluephobos

I should have mentioned much earlier that some of my work is in a group show called 20/20 at the 20th Street Art Gallery in Sacramento. I did allude to it in an earlier post but didn't give the name of the gallery. This is a show of small works in an 8 inch square format. There's a lot of good work to see and I hope the gallery sells a lot. The show  runs through May. If you're in Sacramento I recommend you drop by. Samples of work by the artists participating can also be seen on the gallery's web site:  http://www.20art.net/. If you haven't been to a Second Saturday in Sacramento, you should go to the next one on May 8th. While there are many galleries open all over town for the monthly event, the heart of the action is on 20th Street between I and K. It's a fun, vibrant scene with street bands and a happy crowd with a great mix of people. For the last Second Saturday on April 10th we met our friends Karen Ryer and Pat Sargent who made the long journey from Guerneville to see the 20/20 show. We all had dinner at Michelangelo's Restuarant, which has wonderful food and is next door to the Barton Gallery, where I have shown in the past. Pat and Karen run Stone Sculpture Supplies and Withywindle Gallery. Karen is a very dedicated carver and you can see her work at http://www.karenryer.com/.

Also, Adebo Thomas has been kind enough to feature me on his art site, Bluephobos I should mention that Adebo and his wife Rehema are also our friends. They came to the April 8th opening reception of the 20/20 show and Adebo interviewed me for Bluephobos. The gallery was packed shoulder to shoulder so we had to go outside for the interview. We had a great conversation, standing outside the back door of the gallery in the warm evening air and Adebo recorded the whole discussion on his iPhone. You can listen to excerpts on Bluephobos and/or YouTube. Afterwards we tracked down our wives at a nearby Starbucks.

Kahlua

Kahlua oil on board 7" x 5"

Continuing the spirits theme.

Pollution

Pollution ink on paper 22" x 16" 1970

The first Earth Week occurred 40 years ago on April 16-22, 1970. At the time I was a student at the University of South Dakota and in the graphic design class I was taking we were asked to create a poster for the event. This is what I came up with. I believe it was printed for use around campus with some additional text added, although all I have is my original.

Jalapa in Rain

Jalapa in Rain oil on board 5" x 7"

I haven't posted anything recently, but I have been working. I've been putting in full days churning out 25 small paintings for a show in April and May. I'll post them here when the show is over.

I took a few moments the other day to do this one for the blog. This is a view out the studio window to the hill above. It was pouring rain.

Brandy

Brandy oil on board 8"x8"

Continuing the drink subject.

Bourbon

Bourbon oil on board 5" x 7"

No, I'm not on a binge. I thought I'd do some paintings with reflected light and got out some bar ware, shaker, glasses, etc., and some liquor bottles. The glasses are more interesting with something in them and the liquor adds some nice pure color to the scene.

Small Shaker, Mini Martini

Small Shaker, Mini Martini oil on board 5" x 5"