Mellow Autumn Mollusk

                                           An original acrylic painting, on a gesso primed, masonite panel
                                           5 X 7", unframed
                                           $135.00, ( plus $8.00, pack and ship )


                                                         ( Click on image to enlarge )

   
     This is one of a number of smaller paintings I have done, in which I used snails as
the subject, or in which I used snails in addition to the main subject.  Snails are of an
appropriate scale to fit well into smaller dimension paintings, and the wide variety of
their colorful, patterned shells is surprisingly beautiful.  
     I feel that I managed to pack enough different elements into this painting, that it
gives the impression of being larger than it is in reality, and yet I don't think I made it
too busy.  Other artists will recognize the composition device, of overlapping similar
shapes, which I used to provide depth and a feeling of movement in the painting.
The snail, extending from its shell, almost perfectly echoes the shape of the fallen pair,
even including the extended lines from the head of the snail and the stem of the pair.
Thus, by playing the two shapes against each other in reverse, a circular movement is
created, which helps to keep the eyes of the viewer focused within the painting, rather
than slipping away, out of the little story it is telling.


     This painting can also available ready-framed, as shown here, in a carefully selected
and well suited frame, for $185.00, ( Plus $15.00, pack and ship ).

                                                     
                                                        ( Click on image to enlarge )

 

Donning The Suit Of Lights (Matador #3)

 


                                              An original acrylic painting, on stretched canvas
                                              20 X 16". unframed
                                             


                                                        ( Click on image to enlarge )

     People often ask artists and writers why they continue to ponder bullfights and
the bullfighters, as subject matter for their creative works.  The questioners probably
hear as many different answers to their quires as the number of famous, or less well
known creative personalities, that they have asked, including Picasso and Hemingway.
But for me, the answer has to be the endless, abstract, visual possibilities of the
dramatic, ceremonial, and ritual costuming.  The rich, hand-embroidered gold-work
and gem-encrusted presentations the matadors wear, along with their vibrantly colored
capes, are echoes of our ancient past, going back to ceremonial, human and then animal
sacrifice. And those elaborate appointments still symbolize man against the dark forces
of nature, and the one sacrificial hero who goes out to face death, for the sake of all the
others, as their heroic proxy in the arena.