HUNG OUT TO DRY

6x6"acrylic on panel...$100SOLD

I like this brush. I use it for all sorts of things but mostly for gold leaf.  Very soft.

DON'T EAT THE CHEESE

6x6" acrylic on panel...$100

My studio is where the mice live... mostly in the winter but they spend time in there all year. Our cat is not the least bit interested in doing anything about it. I don't mind too much but on the other hand they're not very nice house guests. Yhey don't go outside to use the toilet but rather prefer to let 'er go whenever and wherever. So I find their callin cards in the most unexpected places. Frankly... it's beginning to smell bad out there and I don't think it's me! (well... at least I don't think so)

So I'm ready to put out the mouse trap. I'll keep you posted on the results.

FIRST ROBIN

6x6" acrylic on panel..............$100 SOLD

At last... I'm seeing a few Robins around here. I said earlier I'd paint one when they show up.... so here it is.

EARLY IN THE MORNING

This guy has been waking us up at dawn most mornings this week. I like it! Another sign that spring is really here. Pheasant roosters like to get up high and crow at sunrise just to let the world know they are alive and in charge. Any little mound or high spot of ground will do. If I had the most expensive,vivid colors on my palette I couldn't begin to do justice to their iridescent plumage. But I have to take a stab at it anyway.

Roll Your Own

8x10" acrylic on panel SOLD

This was painted a little while back but I'm bumping it up to the top of the page here because I have included it in   THE HELP JAPAN CHALLENGE   at Dailypaintworks to help raise money for the suffering souls there. DAILYPAINTWORKS is a guild of daily painters who have opened their website to other painters who want to contribute a painting to be auctioned for the cause in Japan. I should have bumped this up days ago since the blog format has a way of making it hard to find what's been posted months earlier.

SO.... please click on the link to see what paintings are being auctioned. All proceeds from the sales will go to Japanese relief funds such as the Japanese Red Cross and Save the Children. DAILYPAINTWORKS CHALLENGE

Cool! the auction ended with this selling for $141.00 Thank you Bette Foreman on behalf or the people of Japan!

VACANCY

6x8" acrylic on panel...$100

I've been a little distracted with stuff other than painting lately. I painted several pieces that were so bad I just wiped them off so I apologize to anyone watching for not posting for a little bit. For me...I need to be in the right frame of mind to paint. Otherwise it just doesn't work.

The sun came out today!!!! I actually got outside and did this painting of one of our birdhouses plein air. But true to form by the time I was getting done the sun had disappeared and there were no shadows left. At least I got them in before it went away.

RED BREASTED NUT HATCH

Acrylic on Masonite panel 6x8"....$100SOLD

I painted this yesterday but didn't have time to shoot it and post. Nuthatches are one of my favorites. They cock their heads in all sorts of poses. I had one land on my hand one time! They are so fearless and busy.

Don't know if I'll get to paint today. I gotta get some sleep after being up all nightwaiting for a tsunami to wash us away.The oregon coast was on watch for a wave resulting from the earthquake in Japan last night. We were spared but had to wait il about 8am to know for sure.

WINTER ROBIN

6x8" acrylic on Masonite panel.......$100SOLD

It's been a long dreary winter here on the Oregon coast.Very little to draw me out into the cold to paint. A couple days ago my wife asked me what sort of bird she was looking at out in our yard. It was a Varied Thrush. Sometimes people call them winter Robins because the color and size are very close. It made me think ...now that it's March we should start seeing real Robins soon. I'm always happy to see(and hear) them because they are the herald of spring. You remember spring don't you? That time of year when the sun comes out more often and the temperature starts to rise a little and the warmth makes the buds pop on the trees and flowers and the birds start showing themselves again. And young mens hearts turn to fancy....I'm not sure what that means exactly but I think it happend to me once.

Well, anyway as soon as I see a Robin I'll paint it.... and though my heart won't turn to fancy, it will be glad to have made it through another winter at the beach.

THREE LINCOLNS

Woodcut on paper 8x16"

These are 3 images I pulled from a woodcut I did today in response to Raymond Logan's challenge on the Daily Paintworks website.

Actualy each image is 5x7".But I wanted to see what 3 of them looked like together. A little bit Warholish you might say.

TWO SLICES

6"x8'" acrylic on Masonite panel.....$100

Here's my offering to the paint god today. I actually painted this yesterday and didn't like it...then reworked it today. waaaaayyy to much time on this but in the end I'm satisfied. It's a nice day outside so I'm outta here.

KITE FESTIVAL

18x32" watercolor on paper

I spent today working on an entry for the Long Beach Washington kite festival. Long Beach is just across the Columbia river from us and they have a big festival every year in March or April.

This is watercolor...not my usual medium but it seemed appropriate for this. I

used to make quite a few woodcuts and I always liked the Japanese woodcut  depiction of the GREAT WAVE by Hokusai. I borrowed a little from him on this. My apologies to Hokusai.

APRIL SKETCH

22x28" acrylic on canvas

I'm trying to make some progress on this portrait of my oldest daughter.

I want to keep it loose but still catch her personality. Portraits are not like anything else because no matter what style ...the subject has to be more than recognizable. It has to be dead on in some way that leaves no doubt as to who is being portrayed.

When you paint a tree it doesn't matter if you add a branch or leave some out or if you paint an apple it doesn't matter if the shape is not exactly the same as the subject or the color for that matter. But you can't get someone's nose wrong or miss the soul shining through the eye. It either works or it doesn't. We'll see whether I can catch April and still make poetry of it.