Digital Footprint

This painting started out as a color-mixing but it just seemed very unbalanced between the red-yellow areas and the blue-green areas.   So I started adding in some other shapes to try and make it more balanced and interesting.   Some of these shapes I added in after looking at Klimt's paintings.   

20 x 28 inches acrylic on canvas.

Trier

Named after a city in Germany where I first saw Roman ruins, this painting reminds me of the arches from ancient civilizations.   

Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches.

Bluebonnets

Flowers as scene along a road in Texas.   

About 16 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas.  

Sold.

Shapes in Blue and Yellow

Overlapping shapes in Blue, Yellow, and Green.  

28 x 22 inches oil on canvas.  Sold.

Shapes in Blue and Red

Reds, Blues, and Purples.  
28 x 22 inches oil on canvas.

Shapes in Primarily Yellow

Shapes in Primarily Yellow is just part of a series of 4 paintings that gave me time to practice hard edge abstraction, color mixing, and the use of oil and glykenol. 

28 x 22 inches on canvas.

Shapes in Yellow and Red

A series of 4 paintings where I'm just playing with the overlap of shapes and variations of two colors.   

28x22 inches, oil on canvas.

Why kill.

One of the deepest philosophical considerations. An imperative to consider why, a responsibility that if we engage in killing we must know why. We must make this a sentence not a question. This work gives pause to the viewer, wondering why the punctuation is not as expected, and then hopefully making the connection to consider what is killing, why it occurs, and what is our personal role.

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Please do not use this work without permission of the artist. 28 x 22 inches oil on canvas.

Kill, why.

One of the deepest philosophical considerations. An imperative to consider why, a responsibility that if we engage in killing we must know why. We must make this a sentence not a question. This work gives pause to the viewer, wondering why the punctuation is not as expected, and then hopefully making the connection to consider what is killing, why it occurs, and what is our personal role.

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Please do not use this work for commercial purposes without my permission. 28 x 22 inches oil on canvas.

Semiconductor

An abstract conveying the brain of a computer - a silicon chip with it's different core areas, connected by various other circuits and whatever else connects those thinking areas.   22 x 28 inches, acrylic on canvas.

Shackleton Expedition boat watercolor

Recreating an old black and white photo from the Ernest Shackleton expedition into the Antarctic.  9 x 12 inches watercolor and acrylic paint on watercolor paper.

Synapses

In the modern world we're often overwhelmed by many ideas constantly coming into our brains.  We have to learn to focus and prioritize.   

22 x 28 Acrylic on canvas.

Color Mix and Cones 5.18.14

28 x 22 inches acrylic on canvas.

War Child

From a black and white photograph of a confict in Africa.  30 x 40 inches oil on canvas.

Kandinsky Inspired

This painting is something new for me, one inspired by the techniques of Wassily Kandinsky.   Previously I’ve not really ventured too far into trying to imitate the style of a famous artist.  But once getting into this it was really interesting to study his more geometric paintings and try to understand what he was trying to achieve and how he did it.   Initially I saw nothing but chaos but after struggling to create my own interpretation of his style (not all these shapes appear in his paintings) I came to believe that he was striving to achieve a delicate balance of color and shape using a wide range of colors and many different lines and shapes.    I think it’s easy to over-do a painting like this (my weakness); It’s a delicate balance between not enough and too much.  Now, finally after 3 weekends, on to something else!   22 x 28 inches oil on canvas.

Abstract Expressionism 3.14.14

Abstract Expressionism. Not necessarily intending to tell a story. Created from the subconscious. A reflection of your emotional state. Through spontaneous or non-planned painting, there may be some insight to your soul or the environment in which you live. As Helen Frankenthaler said... "There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about."    This is 20 x 24 in. oil on canvas

Accessible Fitness Superman

This was a commissioned piece for a local gym.   

30 x 24 inches acrylic on canvas.

Dog Bird

This would probably be categorized in the "COD" method.   Compulsive mixing of paints initially and then painting something obsessively using the design in the mixed colors.   It sort of looks like a dog head and a bird body, do you see it?

30 x 24 acrylic on canvas

Cicada Shell

My very first oil painting. From a photo of the shell of a cicada on a tree.  

7 x 5 inches on canvas

Spinnicles #2

2nd in a series done by putting a stick in an electric drill and spinning paint out onto the canvas.  
About 18 x 18 inches acrylic on canvas.

A Tortured Soul #2 - Van Gogh portrait

My 2nd Van Gogh portrait, painted from a photograph.

16 x 20 inches mixed media on canvas.   This painting is very textured.  I painted it over an abstract that I didn't like.  It has coffee grounds glued in some spots with acrylic paint.

Shackleton and crew arrive on Elephant Island

I took an old B&W photo from the famous Antarctic expedition and enlarged it in color and oil paint.

36 x 24 inches oil on canvas

848 The Alameda Way, San Jose

Small pastel sketch 

9.5 x 12 inches oil pastels on pastel card

Canada Building, Los Gatos

Oil pastel drawing on pastel card

9.5 x 12 inches

Blue Bottle and Daisy

A simple oil pastel sketch, on pastel card, 
9.5 x 12 inches.

Cart and Woman in Old Bavaria

A painting I did years ago based on an old black and white photo of a scene in Germany.

Acrylic, I think it is about 12 x 8 inches or so, on canvas board.

"A Tortured Soul #1" - Van Gogh

Simple portrait of Van Gogh done in his style of painting, taken from a pencil drawing he did of himself.  Added #1 because i have another Van Gogh portrait to post, and I hope to do more!  Such an incredible life story - heartbreaking.

Oil, about 12 x 9 inches on canvas board

Mandela

Nelson Mandela drawing

12 x 9 inches charcoal on heavy watercolor paper.

Spinnicles #1

This was made with a wooden chopstick attached to an electric drill.   

24 x 18 inches acrylic on canvas

This one is sold.

Patio Chair

Just a simple pastel drawing of one of our patio chairs in the back yard.  

9.5 x 12 inches oil pastels on pastel card

Life of Plants

This is part of the compulsive-obsessive style.   

24 x 18 acrylic on canvas.

Warehouse Fire

Acrylic painting made using the technique I call "COD", which stands for Compulsive - Obsessive Disorder. In this technique I first pour the paint and then let it mix as it pleases. Then later I get compulsive about bringing out details and putting some shapes into it. My previous COD paintings normally have many many circles and dots in them. 

24 x 18 inches acrylic on canvas.  $150

Strategery

Mixed Media meant to portray some sort of planning map, so I've called it "Strategery" This mixed media has toothpicks, oribee balls (a kids toy), and acrylic paint. 14 x 11 inches on canvas board.  $70   (Note: I need to get a photo that's not so washed out blue in the white areas.  This photo is not quite accurate)

Driving Too Fast

This painting is just an abstract, sort of fitting the technique I call "COD" except it's not very compulsive in the beginning. I just scraped some paint on the canvas and then did get obsessive with adding circles, lines, and dots. This is the first time I've really used a palette knife to scrape on paint.

It reminds me of driving too fast where things in front of you become streaks or blurs, and you sort of get tunnel vision, where everything in your side vision might be distracting but can't be part of your focus.

Acrylic on Canvas, 

24 x 18 inches.

$147

The Village

This is a portrayal of a small village. The white circles are actually wine corks cut in half and glued down on the canvas board. Spent coffee grounds are arrayed in the big circle near the edges. The acrylic paint was absorbed into the coffee grounds and glued them down onto the canvas board. Fun, fun fun making mixed medias like this.!

14 x 11 inches on canvas board.
Acrylic paint, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea leaves, tea bags, and popcorn kernels.
$75

CAP 1

Coffee Acrylic Painting #1 (CAP1)
36 x 24 x 1.5 inches
Mixed Media (Acrylic paint, egg shells, and spent coffee grounds)
$390

September 2012 Abstract

Wavy subtle forms and subtle motion mixed with some of the COD style.

36 x 24 oil on canvas.  $345.

Wassily Kandinsky in oil pastels

Wassily Kandinsky,    He is known as one of the first abstract artists.   I've surrounded him (background, and in his clothes) with elements of four of his paintings.  

Oil pastels on 9.5 x 12 inches 170lb pastel card.   

Kathe Kollwitz in oil pastels

Kathe Kollwitz (July 8, 1867 – April 22, 1945) was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition, and the tragedy of war, in the first half of the 20th century. Her empathy for the less fortunate, expressed most famously through the graphic means of drawing, etching, lithography, and woodcut, embraced the victims of poverty, hunger, and war. (Wikipedia)

9.5 x 12 inches on heavy pastel card  $46

Picasso in oil pastels

Pablo Picasso in oil pastels.  

9.5 x 12 inches on heavy pastel card.  $46

East San Jose Hills

My first landscape in oils, This is a scene just east of San Jose, California, up in the hills.  It's a beautiful area.  Donated to the Fine Arts League of Cupertino Fall Fest raffle drawing.

30 x 24 inches in oil on canvas.

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman oil pastels on 9.5 x 12 inches 170lb pastel card. $46

Harvest

"Harvest" The wheat harvest in Kansas is a busy time of year when these giant combines cut through the sea of golden wheat. They race to get it done before bad weather comes in. 

24 x 18 oil on canvas.  Sold. 

Some Things I Can't Talk About

Abstract implying some images that I am not allowed to speak about.

Oil, 28 x 22 inches on canvas.  $246

Obscura

Obscura 24 x 18 oil on canvas.   Not sure yet if this is work in progress or finished.  Price of acrylic painting this size is $149.

Two on a Beach

18 x 24 oil on canvas.  Sold.

Albert Einstein in oil pastels

My first portrait in oils. 20 x 16 oil on canvas.   Sold to a friend.

Kronborg Castle

This is a castle between Denmark and Sweden that was immortalized by Shakespeare as Elsinore in Hamlet.    Special request painting.   

20 x 16 acrylic on canvas.

Scrambled Mind

The theme of this painting is about the chaos of modern life and the "scrambling" of one's mind.  20 x 16 acrylic on canvas.  $110