Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Teddy And Alice

                                                           An original oil-pastels painting
                                                           10.5x13.5", unframed   (mat size, 16.5x19.5")
                                                           $500.00  (plus $25.00 pack & ship)

                                                                        (click on image to enlarge)



     The little child who always listened with rapt attention each night, as the adventures
  of her favorite, bed-time story were read to her before she went to sleep, has grown up
and gone away.  But her old, loyal companion still sits on his shelf, waiting patiently
 to hear their stories read again.

    The soft texture of oil-pastels seems to make them a good choice of medium, to convey
this kind of  gentile, nostalgic, subject or theme

     Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available..

   

  

Friday, June 22, 2012

High Hopes: The Old And The New

                                                       An original acrylic painting on illustration board
                                                       11x15", unframed   (mat size, 17x21")
                                                        $1,200.00  (plus $35.00 pack and ship)


    This is a painting which tells the old story of immigrants who cleared new land and
proudly built their home on the crest of a hill, and then with the passage of time,  their
unsustainable farming practices led to the need for a more thoughtful stewardship of
the land, by a younger generation.  That new love of the land is perhaps represented
here by a boy launching his new kite.
                                                                        (click on image to enlarge)

     Way back before our electronics entertainment revolution, kids had to create their
 own amusements and pastimes, such as flying kites. When my brother and I were boys,
before the suburban sprawl encircled the city, most neighborhoods still had dime stores
where for a small coin or two, boys could buy comic books or a variety of toys, including
kites, but my brother and I would often make our own.  All we needed, to make a simple,
quadrilateral kite ( which derives it's name from kite birds ), was a couple of reasonably,
straight sticks, a ball of kite string, a large enough piece of paper to cover the stringed
breadth of the kite, and a strip of old bed-sheeting to use for a kite tail.
     I don't recall that we ever bothered to paint our kites, because as soon as the
 paper-paste was dry, we were always anxious to get them out into the wind
 and see how high our kites could fly.  

     Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

The Chrysanthemum's Rewards

                                                  An original oil painting on canvas panel
                                                  18x14",  unframed
                                                   $1,250.00  (plus $35.00 pack & ship)

                                                                      (click on image to enlarge)
   
    The patient gardener know that it is not until after a long summer's work, and
after all of the other flowers in the garden are well past their peak and fading,
that he will receive his pay-off for all his efforts.  It is then, at the end of the growing
season, that the chrysanthemums will burst into bloom.


 This painting, with its thicker, color impasto and painting-knife work,
 falls into the impressionist category.

   (Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available)

Daffodils For Her Breakfast Tray

                                                   An original acrylic painting on gessoed panel
                                                   10x8", unframed
                                                    $350.00  (plus $12.00, pack and ship)

                                                                                 (click on image to enlarge)
                                                              

     Motivations for artwork can sometimes originate from unexpected moments of
close observation, as was the case here.  Freshly picked from the garden to brighten
the morning of a lady confined to her bed, these simple daffodils in a little cream-pitcher
had an appeal that sparked the idea of making a little painting.  This one was the result. 

    This is a more traditional, still-life painting, with perhaps greater attention paid to
capturing details and surface textures of the subjects, than might have shown, if I had
tried doing a more expressive rendition of the painting.  

    Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Light In the Stable

                                                       An original oil painting on canvas panel
                                                        18x24", unframed
                                                        $2,000.00, ( plus $40.00 pack & ship)
                                                               
                                                                                       (click on image to enlarge)
    

The glow of lantern light, showing through the partially opened dutch-door of the barn, raises the question of what event may be taking place there, on such a cold winter evening.
     
       ( Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.)

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Last Pickings Of the Season

                                                    An original oil painting on canvas panel
                                                     6x8", unframed
                                                     $200.00 (plus $10.00 shipping)

                                                    (Giclee fine-art prints, $25.00 plus $10 shipping)



  Having fruit trees in the city is usually a lost cause most of the time; the squirrels
generally destroy all of the fruit before it even has a chance to ripen.  But there are
some years when the bushy rodents are not as thick, and some of the apples escape
the predators.  Then it becomes a treat to pick two beauties like these.

                                                                 (Click on image to enlarge.)

The Shepherd's Crossing

                                                       An original oil painting on canvas panel
                                                       22x28", unframed
                                                       $2,700.00 (plus $45.00 pack & ship)


    This is a very traditional landscape, in both theme and painting technique.  The bucolic
scene is centered on a time-worn foot-bridge, which provides ease of passage for 
livestock, over a peaceful stream, from the barn to the pasture on the other side
of the gently flowing waters.  The little bridge is anchored by a pair of venerable old trees,
who's nearly bare branches foretell the coming season, when the valley may soon be
asleep under a blanket of white.
                                                                      Click on image to enlarge.
                                                                    
                                              Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

Weaving Turquoise Tales

                                                        An original pastel painting
                                                        24x18", unframed - (mat size 24x30")
                                                         $2,000.00 (plus $35.00 pack & ship)




    The American Southwest, with its Native American cultures and brilliant, open skies,
has long been a source of inspiration for artists and art lovers.  This basket maker's
enduring patience and solemn dignity , as she was weaving her wares, created a
classic Madonna-like, compositional pose, which I emphasized by making her dress
that ethereal, blue-green color.  The use of the pastel medium provided the ability to
capture the colors and textures of the basket weave and the hand-woven blanket.
                                                                         (click on the image to enlarge)


                                                Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

Scarlett's Reverie

                                                       An original watercolor painting
                                                       22x28", unframed - (mat size 34x28")
                                                       $2,700.00 (plus $35.00 pack & ship)
                                                        

    This large watercolor is an impressionistic, fantasy-mood piece, drifting back to the
fictitious perfection of the Old South, with its fabled, antebellum, plantation mansions,
standing ghostlike on the banks of lazy rivers, all soon to vanish like a dream,
swept away by the winds of war.
                                                                      (click on image to enlarge)
                                              Giclee, fine-art prints of this painting are available

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Pueblo Gold

                                                        An original oil painting on stretched canvas
                                                        24x20", unframed
                                                        $2,000.00 (plus $35.00 pack & ship)


    From the humble earth itself, comes the material which the pueblo potters transform
into their highly valued pottery.  This painting might be labeled as having a 
post-impressionist feel, because of my use of strong line and heightened color, to convey
the blazing heat of the sun, as the potter demonstrates the coil method of her craft.
                                                                              (click on the image to enlarge)

 

 Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

No Tresspassing

                                                         An original watercolor painting
                                                         14x21", unframed - (mat size 20x27")
                                                         $1,400.00  (plus $35.00 pack & ship)

                                                                                      (click on image to enlarge)

    The history was there for all to see: the hills that were stripped of trees and plowed
to raise crops, the thin soil which gave brief prosperity before wearing out and then
eroding away, and then finally abandonment followed by the regenerative power of
nature, as the trees begin to reestablish themselves.
    Now, a wild quail has come to proclaim his territory, from his perch atop the old,
rotting gate-post.

    (Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.)

Raindrops And Miniskirts

                                                            An original pastel painting
                                                            24x18", unframed - (mat size 30x24")
                                                             $1,800.00  (plus $35.00 pack & ship)
                                                                                                             
    As with all girls who are eager to be grown up, these two who went out to show off their
new finery, wouldn't let something like a little rain-shower spoil their day

    (Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available).                                                          
                                                                (click on image to enlarge)

Awaiting The Thaw

                                                  An original watercolor painting
                                                  18 X 24", unframed - (mat size 24 X 30")
                                                  $400.00  (plus $35.00 pack & ship)
                                                                                           
    This barn painting was an attempt to capture the feeling of a winter day, when
the very air was so crisp and clean that it sparkled.

    Way back in my college days, there was still some agricultural land west of campus,
which developers hadn't destroyed yet, including this sagging relic, built back in the era
of horse-drawn implements.  A wise farmer had built the barn into the side of a hill, so that
he could hawl his wagons into the lower level from one side, or into the middle level from
the opposite side
                                                           (click on image to enlarge).


        I wish the old barn still remained there today, and still the same as before.

        (Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available)

Her Fine New Hat

                                                     An original pastel painting
                                                     24x18", unframed - (mat size 30x24")
                                                     $2,000.00  (plus $45.00, pack & ship)
                                                                                          (click on image to enlarge)


     I'm no Degas, but I recall that he did some great stuff with ladies, millinery themes,
so perhaps I was emulating him a bit, with this painting.
     I was particularly pleased with the broad handling of the medium on the areas of the
dress and hat, which I suppose reveals my undying fondness for the post impressionists.

    (Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available)

A Cup of Spring

                                                   An original oil painting on canvas panel
                                                   20x16", unframed 
                                                   $1,400.00  (plus $25.00, pack & ship)

                                                                         (click on image to enlarge)

 
 Somehow the daffodils and wild phlox always seem to pop up at about the same
time each spring, to help people chase away the winter blues.
   The heavier impasto and painting-knife work of this piece, places it in the more
impressionist category.

    Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.



  

Sand Castles On The Gulf


                                                An original casein painting, on watercolor board
                                                  20x24", unframed - (mat size 26x30")
                                                  $2,000.00  (plus $35.00, pack & ship)
                                                                               
                                                                                   (click on image to enlarge)

    A visit to our hurricane ravaged, gulf coast, is a reminder of the impermanence
of all human structures, large or small.  Whatever we build will sooner or later
be swept away by time and tide, but the resilience of childhood still endures.

    Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

The Emerald Isle

                                                       An original watercolor painting
                                                       14x21", unframed - (mat size 20x27")
                                                       $1,200.00   (plus $35.00, pack & ship)
                                                                                        
                                                                                      (click on image to enlarge)

          A fisherman's whitewashed and thatch-roofed, stone cottage, on the west coast of Ireland,  seemed to be a place where time stood still for a while.  That isn't quite a rainbow breaking through those clouds yet,  but I had the feeling that it would be there soon.

    Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

Sky Watch

A single gull on a late patrol over the lighthouse keeper's pathway.


An original watercolor painting
14x21" unframed

This painting has been sold, but Giclee fine-art prints
of this painting and most of my other paintings are still
available, priced according to size. Please Email me for more info.

Put On A Happy Face



An original ink and pastel painting    - (click on image to enlarge)
14x20" unframed   (mat size 20x26")
$900.00, ( plus $35.00, pack & ship)


      Laugh, clown laugh!...But does your painted-on smile hide a breaking heart?

An expressive use of line and color to tell the age-old tale of the clown who is laughing on the outside while he is crying on the inside.
  This was painted in a deceptively simple technique, which can be very effective when handled with some sensitivity.  I recall that Picasso used a similar technique when he was painting jugglers and other circus performers,  earlier in the twentieth century.

    Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Twilight Geisha



An original pastel painting                    (click on image to enlarge)
24x18" unframed   - ( mat size 30x24" )
$2,000.00 (plus $40.00, pack& ship)


A near-mystical vision, from a chance passing on a darkening street, is a dreamlike
reminder, of a fading, ancient culture.
     I like the composition of this painting, with its bold, dramatic shapes, and the textural
application of the pastels to the kimono, the hair ornaments, and the background.  Also,
the one spot of scarlet is a bright spark for the whole, color harmony.

    Giclee fine-art prints of this painting are available.