Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Gone to California



Time to hang out with friends, re-charge my battery and collect some new inspirations. Back in August

Sunday, July 13, 2008

As A Framer...


So, this is still a busy time and I haven't worked on my painting for awhile, but since I do mention in my profile that I make beautiful picture frames, I've decided to share a bit of the work that I offer to collectors and other artists in the Northwest as a fine craftsman in the service of Katayama Framing in Portland Oregon.
This finely crafted woodwork is soon to be Water guilded in 12K gold for a 50 x 50 inch beveled mirror. You can go to the website www.katayamaframing.com to see other examples of work and services that I and many other fine staff people do for the art community here in Portland and beyond!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Picket Fence



Well, I have been putting up a friend in my studio for a week and therefore have not had an opportunity to work on my Watermelon girl so I will continue here with another of my word based series from 1980. Finally the complexity of the real landscape of Santa Barbara county had crept into my work, and though this painting is primarily conceptual in nature, I was beginning to have fun with the representation of real things.

1980
acrylic and painted wood
35 x 45

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Santa Barbara Landscape 1979



In league with my word based work from this time, I strove to use assemblage to connect my subject matter here to the real world in as many ways as I could think of at the time. I collected sand and flotsam from the Santa Barbara shoreline, leaves twigs and dirt from inland areas and used cotton fluff and cellophane for things like water and clouds since I couldn't get the real thing. This picture was badly stored for many years and much of the original collage work was lost, including the cellophane and cotton stuffing. I restored this work in 2004 from an old photograph, with materials collected here in Portland

50 x 60
Mixed media on canvas
1979

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Santa Barbara 1979

Santa Barbara Landscape #2 Horizon Line

Continuing with word work, I did this early in my 17 month stay in Santa barbara. Huntington Beach had given relatively simple landforms with a basic straight line horizon and only trees and the walls of the subdivisions to break this up. This was especially true in the case of the ocean. The mountains around Santa Barbara come in close to the city and the ocean, and rise up all around crisp and clear. This complexity crept into this painting a bit but I did not yet have enough experience with this perspective for it to fully intrude into my painting. It might have been a more successful painting had I made it four months earlier, in the presence of a truely dominating horizon, looming through a hazy atmosphere.

Acrylic on two stretched canvass'
63 x 28

Watermelon Girl 7/1/08



He, He He!!!