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!

My Newest Stuff

Just Passing Through, 2008. oil on canvas 24 x 20 sold

I love the big clouds that somtimes roll through the valley every spring. In this piece really wanted to push how big the clouds feel sometimes, so I turned the canvas sideways (at least for me) made the horizon very low to emphasize the vastness of the sky.

Enjoy.

This painting is part of The Central Valley Landscape Show at First Street Gallery during the month of June. The Reception is on June 6th from 6-8 PM. Stop by if you are in the area.

I don't understand

Golden Twilight, 2008. oil on canvas, 28 x 34. sold.

It feels strange sometimes when a painting comes together. I often struggle to make a painting work when I try new ideas. When I finished this painting, my wife commented, "You've been trying to paint yellow clouds for ten years, I think you finally got it right." And I thought back and I think she's right. It was 1997 when I first painted some strange looking yellow clouds in one of my paintings that prompted someone who was in my studio to say, "Is that piece done?" Not words any artist wants to hear. I've been fiddling with yellow clouds ever since, and not very successfully. I can't tell you why they started to work now. I guess persistence does pays off.

This painting is for the Central Valley Landscape show at First Street Gallery in June.

Where does the time go?

Winter Clouds, 2008. oil on panel 8 x 10 sold

It has been a crazy few weeks, and everything seems to be happening all at once. This year, I am trying to be more prepared and not wait until the last minute so I already getting ready for a group landscape show (a show that I am also organizing) at First Street Gallery this coming June. I think that I am almost ready for that show. Maybe one more painting, I think...

This little painting was something I did when I was working on another larger painting for the show. What was unusual for me with this piece is not only the painting which is a winter scene, but the frame which is a very ornate in a deep earth reddish color and at least three or four inches wide. (Sorry, I didn't take a picture of the frame.) I usually use a simple modern floater frame for all my work, so this frame was a huge departure for me. I found the frame in the back of one of my galleries, and they let me take it and see what I could paint for it. I'd never done anything like that before, and it was kinda fun probably because it worked.

Let's count the ways

Autumn Evening, 2008. oil on panel 8 x 10 sold

How many different colors can a sunset be? I enjoy exploring the possibilities. (I think they might be endless.) This is yet another small painting from the first of the year. I'm currently working on some larger pices that I will post soon.

I didn't paint that

A Little Big Red, 2007. oil on panel 7 x 8



Well, okay I did paint it, but what I mean is that you can not control how other people perceive or look at art. While my work in general is fairly polarizing (people either love it or hate it), I recently started a series of red cloud paintings that are particularly divisive. I mean people either really love them (like they can't help it but to buy them) or they think that I'm painting the end of the world, like in a nuclear holocaust. Two unrelated people actually said that to me. They figure the paintings must come from a very dark place in my mind and they find them very disturbing.



I can assure you that the latter is wholly untrue and the former is a little strange (not that I mind selling my work). What causes viewers to react so strongly? I just thought that a big red cloud could make an interesting painting and the color interaction could be powerful.



I guess I was right.