Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Frozen Lake


The alpine story begins here.. Many of the high lakes in the Sierra Nevadas remain frozen over until mid to late summer, depending on how heavy the snowfall was the previous winter. Frigid looking scenes like this unfold before the traveler on warm afternoons when the order of the day is a sweat soaked t-shirt and short pants. Snow melt from the high elevations feed streams and creeks all through the summer and provide sight and sounds wherever you travel, as well as an occaisional difficult water crossing through stiff currents and over slippery rocks.

45 x 45
oil on canvas
2003

$1,500.00

contact the Rake Art Gallery for purchasing information

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Spring Thaw


In the beginning, there were 10 stretcher bars constructed in 1988 of various sizes that were to be painted illustrations for a narrative surrounding the life cycle of a single leaf on a tree in the woods, through the complete seasonal cycle. Tree in winter was the first painting, begun in 1988 but put away due to the impracticality of trying to work with messy and toxic mediums in the living quarters of an inqusitive toddler. In 1990, and living in a different apartment where I had a single car garage to work in as a studio, I made an attempt to complete the Winter Tree painting, and moved on to this canvas. This work shows the same scene, but is focused on the rocks and stream close and to the left of the trees lower trunk, where the early spring thaw has allowed a small stream to flow again. I only lived at that apartment long enough to complete these two paintings, and as mentioned in my earlier post, I reworked the original painting yet again when I began working in my current studio here in Portland. I never returned to my narrative series about the leaf on the tree, and used the remaining stretchers for the other work that I made beginning in 2002 when my current studio became usable. These two canvases are a reminder of that ambitious project, and this image is a direct forerunner to my current interest in depicting the streams and lake shorelines of the alpine environs of the mountains that mean so much to me.

1990
oil on canvas
44 x 31

$1,200.00

contact Rake Art Gallery for purchase information

Friday, April 25, 2008

Tree in Winter


This was a project begun in 1988 with a toddler in the house and no good area to work in, re-visited in 1990, and finally completed in 2003. At one time there had been a bird hopping through the snow.

40 x 45
oil on canvas
$1,200.00 un framed + shipping
since Rake art gallery is no longer in buisness, this work can be purchased directly from the artist

Monday, April 21, 2008

Friday, April 18, 2008

Home Sweet Home


This late Winter scene in Downtown Portland looks west up Salmon Street from Waterfront Park during a break between storms. It was a clear crisp Sunday morning in early March as I recall. The woman who bought this painting from the Buchman School Art Sale told me that she worked in Koin Tower, the tall brick red building on the left side of the street.

"Salmon Street"
2004 oil on canvas
36 x 45

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

More Flow!


Holy crap! presentation of this drawing is a major engineering and planning nightmare. With the installation date only 11 days away I have images to have printed and framed and the display case to build and finish, paintings to complete and more to frame, and the video installation is in the hands of others and I can only pray that it all comes off professional and on time! Enjoy another section from the 200' scroll while I go pull out my hair!

Monday, April 14, 2008

At Play on the Willamette



Still on art made for the Buckman School art sale, and still on paintings that are in Dubai, this one was a Christmas Present for my nephew Alex year before last. I plan to use this photo as a study for a large scale painting soon. I do love painting water!

2004 oil on panel, 8 x 14

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Painting found!


One of my paintings for the Buckman School Art Sale four years ago slipped through the cracks when I did my photo documentation of them in March '04. There were 12 small paintings on panel, and one large painting on canvas. Since people at the art sale didn't seem to be interested much in paintings, or two dimensional art in general for that matter, most of my efforts went out as christmas and birthday presents to family members over the course of the following year. I discovered this one three weeks ago in my sisters home in Dubai, and took the opportunity to get a photo of it before I left. It is now included in my portfolio for the first time. Don't know how I missed it since it was one of my favourites from the series. This view is from the east side Esplanade along the Willamette River in Portland looking across the river at central Downtown Portland.

8 x 10
oil on panel, 2004

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Painting Interrupted - "The Opposite Shore" 1987/2003


Started in 1987, this painting got packed up and placed in a storage unit in Southern California, along with the rest of my artwork, supplies and tools. There it lay fallow for sixteen years. When I collected my art from storage and brought it home to Portland in 2003, the grey sky, some green underpainting, and a rough sketch in indigo linework was all that existed here. I had recently completed seven paintings on canvas that I'd stretched onto bars made in 1988. Once I got the feel of my paint craft back again, I returned to this canvas, which was charged with meaning for me as the symbol of my separation, and my return as well, from my former life as an artist. This painting contains the root imagery for the drawing "Flow" as well as the drawings and paintings that will form the supporting cast in my upcoming exhibition in May, where it will be seen for the first time.

oil on canvas 25 x 35

Monday, April 7, 2008

Flow

Well, I've been away for a week and jet lagged for another so haven't posted much in a while. Now that I'm back in the saddle I'm trying to prepare various artworks for exhibition at the end of the month. Much of the focus now is on the display of a 200' scroll of paper with a drawing of an alpine stream on it's length. Here are a couple excerpts from this work.

"Flow" at 70 feet

"Flow" at 185 feet

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Blondie 2003


In 2003, shortly after my return from hiatus, I painted this portrait of my wonderful pooch Blondie, a high maintenence labrador mutt what goes all gloomie if she doesn't get a walk every day!

oil on canvas 26 x 48