Lowell Police Department

 

Click Here to Bid - 8x8in. - oil - starts at $100

This one was a challenge for a lot of reasons. I needed to redesign some things in the reference photo on my ipad before I even started. And then I ended up doing several passes on the painting itself, with days of thinking in between. It took a while, but I'm happy with the result. BTW, this is from my trip to Bisbee (and Lowell) Arizona last month.

High-Rise Florence

Click Here to Bid (8x8in. - starts at $100)

I took the reference photos for this one with absolutely no intention of painting the scene. I just liked the composition. But then I thought, well, lets give it a try! And now I wish I'd taken more like this! Because I kind of absolutely love it.

Saturday

Click Here to Bid (6x12in. - starts at $150 - click image to enlarge)

Big thanks to everyone who has ordered my books! I have just a few volume 4's left, and then they will be no more.

As for the painting, after I finished it (an urban scene from Seattle) I realized I had already done a cropped version, about 2 years before. It's interesting to me to see the different choices I made, after the fact. My favorite part in this one was all the different colors in the "white" trim.

Welcome Home

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - starts at $100)

I've been digging deep into some old reference files lately. This is pretty normal for me in the dead of winter. This one is from Seattle a couple of summers ago. Soon I'll need to go off and collect more material. Soon it will be spring! And so it goes.

Gable Shadow

Click Here to Bid (6x8in. - starts at $100)

I had to paint this three times before I was happy with it. For these small paintings especially I almost always simply start over, rather than keep working on it. There is a point at which, because it's wet paint going into wet paint, I am just mushing it around, making a mess. I see this style of painting as a kind of dance - I try it once, and if it wasn't quite right, I try it again.

Just Steps from the Courtyard

Click Here to Bid (8x10in. - starts a $150)

Today I picked up a new order of books - my little collections of 100 small paintings. I have a brand new book this year - vol. 8, and I think it looks super fine!

Because I have limited storage space at my house, I am only going to keep printing 5 books at a time, so I will only carry volumes 4-8 for now. I still have 8 copies of volume 3, so get them while they last.                              ORDER BOOKS HERE
(ps. they make great Christmas gifts!! ; )

Parked in France

Click Here to Bid (8x8in. - starts at $150)

This was another of my favorite photos from my time in France this year. I discovered this little scene just down the hill from the chateau we were living in, on a walk-around with some of my students.

The past few months I've been doing a lot of non-painting stuff. I've painted here and there, but yesterday I realized that I'm not going to grow as an artist unless I'm painting more often. Wait, I seem to remember a book mentioning this ... a book about ... daily painting? Maybe I should crack that again. Anyway.

So in re-devoting myself to art, I learned (again) that when you're rusty, it's good to gift yourself some "learning time." This could mean warm-ups, or it could simply mean a few "uglies." I've come to expect them, the uglies. I mean, they happen on a regular basis, but they happen often when we've been away a while. So expect it. And if it doesn't happen, yay! But if it does, you won't be disappointed, right? You'll just think, ok, here they are, it can only get better from here.

Van Gogh's Courtyard

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - starts at $100)

I've been absent for a bit because I've been having some me time. And boy it's been GREAT! This past weekend I took a meditation workshop, which was pretty fabulous (who knew!?).

But what I really wanted to tell you is that I've decided to stop teaching my regular still life/daily painting workshops. This was a hard decision, but I've been doing them for 10 years and (after some soul searching) I realized I wasn't looking forward to them anymore (though I did love meeting all the wonderful people!!). For those who weren't ever able to get in, I apologize. Fortunately I wrote a book all about what I do. : ) I also have Artbytes (online tutorials) and will continue to make more of those, I promise.

I will still be teaching a workshop in France next year (which will open for registration soon). We will explore the little villages and then head back to the chateau to paint from the photos we took. We will also paint the views from the chateau and other locations. So, village- people- and land- scapes. Oh, and lots of eating of French food.

Speaking of, the painting above is from the courtyard of the mental hospital Van Gogh resided in for a year in France (done from photos I took there earlier this year). This is one of the locations where we will paint next year also. The grounds are fabulous.

Colorful Street

sold.

This was not only a colorful street, but a colorful town in general! It is in France, right next to some hills made of very beautiful dirt, and I guess they use that to make pigment, and use that to make paint to color the houses. Pretty cool. Can I remember the name of the town? Nope. Why am I so bad at that? (retorical)

A Wall in France

Click Here to Bid (6x8in. - starts at $100)

I have a LOT of photos in my arsenal that I took because something sparked in me when I looked at the real thing. But will they make a good paintings? Hmmm...maybe. I sat on this one for a while because I wasn't sure it would translate. Because sometimes that little thing you liked in the photo just doesn't happen in paint. But I tried it anyway, because sometimes we just have to try sh*t, and I have to say, I'm quite happy with it.

Upon request, I am adding the reference photo here.

Blue Shutters

sold.

I've been honoring the ebb this last week, taking a little time for myself to rest and recharge. Now getting back into painting, and I thought starting with spring in France would be a good, especially since Oregon has been slammed suddenly into fall.

I was recently invited to be interviewed on a podcast about about non-fiction writing. I thought, wait, I'm an artist ... but oh yeah, I guess I wrote a book too. Ha! The interviewer, Brendan, asked some great questions - with a little different slant than I'm used to - a lot about the creative process, and my recent thoughts about that. So if you're interested, here's the interview with the Creative Nonfiction Podcast.

Sweet Little House

sold.

I discovered this little scene in Seattle a couple of years ago. I've always loved the idea of living in a tiny house, but definitely not a tiny studio. My still life collection alone would take up 1/3rd of this place.

The Gatehouse

sold.

Painting realism is like interpreting a recipe. You've got to figure out which parts of the recipe/scene are essential to keep it holding together, and which parts you can adjust and change. And like a recipe, everyone has their own take on this, which is what makes art so wonderful! You can set up 100 artists to paint the same scene, and none will be the same.

A Tight Squeeze

Click Here to Buy ($200 - 12x6in. - click image to enlarge)

We go back to France for this one. And speaking of France, I am happy to announce that I will be teaching another workshop there next summer! We are not yet ready to open it up for registration, but you'll be the first to know.

Dapple Makers

sold.

This is another Eugene scene. I love tree trunks, but have always felt baffled by how to paint them. But then recently I overheard someone saying that if they saw another person paint a "brown" trunk they would throw up. And when I looked again I realized that they may contain brown, but they are lots of colors! Duh. It's another case of what your brain is telling you vs. what you really see. I think this is one of the biggest hurdles we face as artists, and believe me, it never ends.

Purple Accents

sold.

This is another random Eugene scene from a recent wander. I'm a sucker for shadows, and this has some great ones. It was a real challenge making all the greens not only different, but often just subtly different, and still work in light vs. shadow, and close vs. distant. Whew. And on such a tiny panel, no less!

French Bench

sold.

This was a little scene at our chateau in France that I passed by daily. I never had time to stand and paint it, so I took a picture and painted it at home. I realized the other day that I never showed a group picture of my kids in France, so I'll do that now. Almost everyone is in this one... (click image to see larger) What a fabulous group!!

Farm House

sold.

As promised, here is my last painting from the alpaca farm. I painted this house several times, but this was the only one I was really happy with. I want to point out, specifically, the little bit of palette knife work. It required mixing up a thicker pile of paint than I'm used to, which jerked me out of my "cheap" zone, but I did it!

Through the Barn

sold.

When I got into my very first gallery, a seasoned artist took me aside and said he liked my work. But that he could tell I was painting from photographs. This guy (Gordon) gave me my very first plein air easel and sent me packing. He also gave me a pep talk, which included suggesting that even though one could paint a beautiful trash can, it wouldn't sell. Well, that's a long story to say - this view of the barn is a little ... odd, and maybe, a little like a trash can? But I really like it. So, I'm posting it, but I'm going to start the bidding at $1.

A Loose Barn

sold.

I just got done taking a workshop here in Eugene from Slava Korolenkov, a Russian artist. Watching him demo each day was like watching poetry. We painted all week at an alpaca farm, and many of us ended up painting this red barn. I was trying to keep my style looser, like Slava - hopefully you will see the difference.