I'm not lost, I just don't know what day it is

Late Stormy Color, 2008. oil on panel, 8 x 7

I have been totally slammed by an upcoming show. Somehow I got behind on it, so now it's put up or shut up. I'm not sleeping well, so I just get up and ride over to my studio and go to work early in the morning. I tend to work well under pressure so I feel like I am doing some strong work. I have two weeks before the show opens, and I will be working to the bitter end. I haven't even had time to document any of my new paintings, but I will so new work is coming soon.

Stay tuned....

Repeat after me (well, Cezanne)

Falling Down, 2008. oil on canvas. 18 x 18

Light is a thing that cannot be reproduced, but must be represented by something else - By color

-Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Hand painted grids

The Three Hundred, 2008. oil on canvas 60 x 72

Here it is...my latest commission. I really had a lot of fun doing this painting. The collectors let me make a painting. They showed me their land and then said to me, "We want you to make the best painting you can, so do whatever you need to do to make the best panting you can for us." "Wahoo!!" I thought. I get to do the painting however it needs to be done. That's not to say that their commission wasn't without its challenges. Their ranch is very large, so I knew that trying to literally paint the whole thing was really going to be impossible, and even if I was going to try and paint it how I wanted to, I would still be painting thousands of trees. Plus the trees were not a defining element for the painting. I had to find an element that I could build the painting around. Exploring around their ranch I found it in a spring creek that ran through their property. I knew that if I got that right, it would feel like their ranch.

When they came into to my studio to see the finished painting for the first time they immediately said, "Hey, that's our three hundred..."

Let me tell you, that felt good.

Making Tracks

Orange Notes, 2008. oil on panel 12 x 12

I continue to explore different color ideas. Here is one of my more recent efforts. I don't really know where this is going to lead...but then that really isn't the point, is it? I don't know who said it first but I'm stealing it from Wolf Kahn,

"I just follow my brushes and let them take me wherever they want to go..."

Slinging paint

Around Evening, 2008. 9 x 12 sold

I have been slinging paint on a very large commission (a 60 x 72) for the better part of the last eight weeks. As a result, I haven't had a lot of time to do any other work, but this was a piece I did while I was letting the large piece sit. Do you ever need to let a painting sit for a while? These big commissions take so much energy that it feels good just to be able to knock out a smaller painting in a much more manageable time period.

I'll post the commission when its finished.

Hopefully it will be done this week.

Wet Dirt

Early Spring Fields, 2008. oil on panel 7 x 8

I was thinking about those wet spring days that we have around here every year when I did this little painting. The fields are wet with some of them planted and others are waiting to be so. The air is always clean and clear between spring storms. I really look foward to this time of year.

Enjoy.

outside...again

spring pastures, 2008. oil on panel 14 x 20 sold

This is a painting that I did outside recently. It was done on a large private ranch on the eastern side of the valley. When I get the opprotunity to paint on private property, I always jump at the chance because I get access to great places to paint that are often not available to me. I was very fimiliar with this area since I have been painting this section of the Merced River for almost a decade, but this year I was able to go anywhere I wanted to go, instead having to stay only on the side of the road. I knew that there were some hills just off the road that I thought would offer some fantasic views of the Merced River Valley. I scrambled up the hill and was treated to a great overlook. I came back and painted several views. What a treat!