Lenny

Lenny
Master Lenny is a Cairn Terrier whose humans are my daughter Kelly and her husband Jim. Lenny is a wise little guy and is quite aware of it. I couldn’t decide which photo reference to use because they are all SO Lenny. So I used them all. Isn’t he cute?

Hair!

Hair!
WOW what wonderful hair to paint – heck what wonderful hair period! This model was in our Thursday night group and I LOVED painting her! This was just downright fun fun fun! Quick and easy that’s how I like it.

Peter's Perfect Pair

Peter's Perfect Pair
This team of wonderful American Belgians is owned and being driven by a friend of mine who has invited me to come out to his place and paint his horses. I did this little painting from a reference photo he sent to me. This painting excites me. Isn’t it fun? I can’t wait to go paint these handsome horses in person. I here through a mutual friend that he recently acquired a stage coach – now that ought to be a fun thing to play with!

Patients

Patients
Ok I have a funny story to tell about these horses. I got a reference photo from a friend of a pair of his wonderful draft horses which I painted last week. See below. The photo he sent via e-mail was tiny and the horses had a yellowish tent to them so I assumed that they were his American Belgians, since I knew he had a pair, so I painted them accordingly. (They only come in one color.) Wrong! Never assume anything. Those were his Puncheons which are born black and turn white as they mature. OOPS – I’m sorry Peter. So here are his REAL American Belgians.

Last Minute Show Tweeks

Last Minute Show Tweeks
A serious word about painting. I am trying to become consistently loose while not loosing the correctness and freshness of my chosen subject and composition. I feel like I am passing a milestone in my painting right now and it sure feels GOOD! Perhaps the most recent subjects I have chosen are helpful since I am well acquainted with the equine form. I would love to get to the point where every brush stroke I put down is exactly the one I want and I do not have to touch it again. Yummmmm this is FUN! **SOLD

Jewel Tone Scarf

Jewel Tone Scarf
This painting was done in one of our Thursday night Six Figure painting sessions. I think this one turned out to be a very dynamic design. What do you think?

Fiona's Ride

Fiona's Ride
This is a scene from a recent Endurance race. When my daughter Kelly was younger we used to compete in Endurance races and Competitive trail rides so this brought back some wonderful memories for me. I just loved the strong body gestures of the on lookers (probably family). They really look like they are helping at least internally don’t they? **Auctioned at a handicapped riding fundraiser.

Dublin Horse Show

Dublin Horse Show
This one was a LOT of fun. I had a value problem which was not letting me achieve the compositional impact I was after. Pretty frustrating but when I just relaxed and did not hold too tightly to a certain outcome, wa-lah it fell together. I played with the values switching them around and changing temperatures here and there until I was comfortable with it. It’s just darn fun to place pieces of paint on canvases especially when they fall in the right places!

Helping out

Helping out
This little girl stole my heart in Tibet. She was obviously helping her parent’s by carrying this big empty plastic jug. She was such an adorable child. Though this child was not actually working you would be amazed at how young these children begin working to help out. It is an incredibly poor but beautiful country with beautiful gentle people trying to scratch out a living however they can.

This Is The Life

This Is The Life
Eric my buddy Anneke’s husband has a lovely sailing vessel that he races in the Harvest Moon Regatta every year. This year, Fred another painter buddy of mine crewed with him in that race. This is a painting of a scene from that race. What a beautiful sky but don’t let it fool you. I understand the weather was terrible a great deal of time and the race was a rough one. We joined them for the fun part, the party after and a drink of rum or two! Fred’s wife Shay bought this little painting, the very height of complements! Thank you Shay. **Sold

The Overlook

The Overlook
This is a Demo I did for HAS a Houston Art League a couple of months ago. I just love this fresh impressionistic way of painting don’t you? I can almost make out a couple of figures sitting under the tree. I’m tempted to bring them to life by darkening the value. They climbed up and sat there by sheer accident. I’ll let it (the painting) talk to me a bit longer and see if they are real or not.

Non Verbal Communication **Sold

Non Verbal Communication  **Sold
I saw this child in a show barn at a horse show a few years back. The look on her face has stuck with me. So I had to paint her. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such longing written so clearly. It was a beautiful poignant moment and a little bit sad. It was obvious that this child was not a rider but oh she dearly wanted to be.

Refelected Grace

Refelected Grace
These skyscapes are sending me over the top! I get chills when I view God's art work in the sky and have always felt excited and humbled by it. And how much fun is it to make such bold statements on canvas. Trying to reach the same level of color intensity is almost an impossibility! But it sure feels good to try. There will be more of these!!

CapRock Weather

CapRock Weather
This is a West Texas skyscape that I was prompted to do by the excitement of the Santa Fe Skyscape I did not to long ago. This one for the most part came straight from my childhood memories. It's just incredibly fun to splash some of these brilliant colors in juxtaposition to the somber grays one finds in stormy Texas weather. I'm really drawn to these dramatic skies!

Star Struck

Star Struck
This beautiful girl was a model in our Six Figure group a couple of weeks ago. She is a composer as well as singer and guitarist. This young lady has it all, beauty inside and out! What a pleasure it was to paint her! I would be happy to here your comments.

Santa Fe Skyscape

Santa Fe Skyscape
This dramatic Santa Fe skyscape was just begging to be painted so I indulged my desires as soon as I got home and had a paintbrush in my hand. Fortunately I had a camera with me though sadly I did not have my paints on the trip. What was I thinking? I tried something new as the drama and brilliance of the color called for a new approach. I used mixed media applying an orange almost iridescent water based pigment before I laid in the darks with oil and worked in my usual way. It’s a 24X36 and went very quickly. Please let me know what you think.

Pile of Rocks #1

Pile of Rocks #1
See the caption below Pile of Rocks below ROR #2.

Pile of Rocks #2

Pile of Rocks #2
We all have our little quirks and I am reveling one of mine to you. I love painting so much that even if it’s just a pile of rocks it’s just down right fun to paint them. I find beauty and challenge, wonderful shapes and I love playing with design, value, texture and color that rocks bring to the party. Here are a couple of rock piles that just had to be painted!

Early Morning Santa Fe

Early Morning Santa Fe
I just got back from a quick trip to Santa Fe. The trip did not go as planned because my poor favorite auntie who flew with us fell down a flight of stairs, broke her rib which punctured her lung. We are all safely home now after spending several days in the hospital. Santa Fe is a beautiful place which I plan a return visit to see more of soon. I got up at 5:30 and walked every morning to watch the sun strike the distant mountains, creep across the desert and roof tops – spectacular! This is a little study I did yesterday for my students.

Shrim Boats & Buckets

Shrim Boats & Buckets
Yesterday I went painting with my buddies, Kim, Fred, & Joe (Kim calls us her Peeps) near Galveston in the bay area. We had a great time finding places “no man should go” at least not alone. We got some strange looks from the fishermen at first but they warmed to us after a bit. They became curious and came over to see what we were doing. I think plein air painters bring out the best in people, well most of the time. We had some great food and lots of good camaraderie. Here is one of the studies I did while I was there. Hope you like it.

Oyster Boats

Oyster Boats
This Oyster Boat was docked along side some shrimp boats and had some strange features (at least to me.) There was a helm at both the stern and the bow. And there were boards along the sides with spaces in-between them. The owner of the boats came up while we were painting and we found out from him that the boats go in both directions sweeping up their catch from the bottom. The boards are there to keep as much catch in the boat as possible. They rent the beds from day to day and are allowed to keep as much as the boats can hold. So the make them like big boxes. Ingenious isn’t it?

Glass Bowl of Fruit

Glass Bowl of Fruit
I thought you might be interested in seeing this little painting from a different perspective. You can see the actual still life as well as the painting in the background here. I don't do many of these but it's a real kick. I plan on doing more in the future. Please tell me what you think.

Blue Feathered Friends

Blue Feathered Friends
These two have built their home on the property of one of my friends in North Texas. I enjoy sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee and watching this couple as they go about their daily activities working and enjoying each other as I think we humans were meant to do. Their devotion to one another is quite evident as their gentle and loving actions so easily imply. **SOLD

Chicken Scratch

Chicken Scratch
This little painting was done at a friend's barn. I had gone out to paint a plein air landscape and these funny little chickens caught my eye. The light was so strong and some of the feathers were iridescent. I couldn't resist! **SOLD

Amber Fuggles

Amber Fuggles
Meet Amber Fuggles. Isn’t she the most beautiful gal you’ve ever seen? Amber lives in the Phoneix AZ area with her human Mike my son-in-law. I understand she rules the roost and from the looks of her I can see why can’t you? **SOLD

Rabbit Hunt

Rabbit Hunt
I have a rescue Whippet and have been fascinated with these sleek speedy little guys for years. This little painting is from a photo taken at a near by Whippet breeding facility who's owners were kind enough to share their passion with me. They run like the wind!

Salt and Pepper

Salt and Pepper
These flashy Appsloosas Caught my eye as I was driving on an old farm road outside of Houston, TX. I pulled over to the side of the road and did this quick little study. The juxtaposition of the colors of the horses is what really grabbed me. Hope you enjoy them too.

The Kid's kick'n up his heals

The Kid's kick'n up his heals
A painter friend and I were coming back from a Lone Star Art Guild Convention and saw these African Goats in a field. We pulled over and both whipped out our camersa (after getting the owners permission of course) and took loads of shots of these happy little creatures. These 3 paintings are all aptly named "Kid" something or other.

Nap while the Kids are out

Nap while the Kids are out

Honey have you seen the Kids?

Honey have you seen the Kids?

Distant Cows

Distant Cows
This little painting was done close to my studio. There is a farm not a mile from here where the vistas are incrediable early in the morning and late in the evenings. Very peaceful.

Young-steers 1

Young-steers 1
This is the first of 2 paintings of some of the new heard of cattle my neighbor has brought in. These cattle are constantly changing and that gives me a continually renewed source of subject matter to paint. I really enjoyed it when he had a Buffalo and her calf on his land.

Young-steers 2

Young-steers 2
This is the second painting of a few of the new herd from the farm down the street.

Wedding Rose

Wedding Rose
My daughter Kelly and her husband Jim got married in Sedona AZ. in Dec. of 2007. This was the single rose she carried during their charming red rock ceremony.My friend talked me into doing this small painting of that rose (I don’t usually paint flowers) to surprise them with - then my friend who was traveling in Canada showed up at their door in Calgary unexpectedly to present it to them. It’s always fun to pull off a surprise. **Private Collection

Thirsty Cow

Thirsty Cow
This Longhorn was so occupied filling his gullet that he didn't mind my capturing him on canvas - from the other side of the fence, of course. Great reflections again couldn't resist. **SOLD

Dillo

Dillo
This little pesky fellow was a long time residence of a friend of mine which became a very unwanted house/yard mate. Actually a move was what I think finally separated this not so happy little family and it wasn’t the 4 legged party who made the move I fear. **SOLD

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

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