Waterfall Painting

Another green painting. I have been working on the most recent batch of about 7 paintings below throughout February; they will be more to come in the next few weeks.

Spiral Jetty

Inspired by the ...spiral Jetty by Smithson, of course.

Another New Painting

This one may or may not end up as part of the succession series; it was inspired by more ice floes.

A Break from the Blue Paintings

Inspired by a huge yellow painting I had done years ago, I was wanting to play a bit with a mild push-pull in the yellow ground, and then some other stuff happened. :-)


Jovian Landscape, Oil on Canvas, 24" x 24"

One More Succession Painting

And Another New Succession Painting

You can see how this fits into the bigger picture by clicking on the link above.

Another New Painting in the Succession Series

As you can see, the ice-floe-like forms in the previous painting extend into the bottom of this one, and then start to flop over, and - well - you can see what else is happening there.

New Pieces on Website

Check the new Succession Series gallery section of my website to see how the panels in this new series stack up and evolve from each other. Check back there occasionally to watch the progress of the whole large painting as it evolves.

Third Painting in the Succession Series

The idea behind this series is similar to the idea of ecological succession, which is a sequence of gradual supplanting of one community of (life) forms by another, each stage building upon the previous stage.

This painting evolved from the ropey forms in space of the second painting, and quickly moves into circular forms inspired by ice floes that bump into each other, thus building up the edges of the forms.

Second Painting in New Series

The first painting in the previous post below was inspired by an aerial photograph of cracks in an icy lake. This second painting evolved from the top edge of that painting, and takes a whirl into space with ropey forms dancing in three dimensions. Both are 12"x12" oil on gallery-wrapped canvas.

Start of a New Series

Every time I take a class with the wonderful painter Andrew Long, my work starts changing...

I took a class with him last spring, which helped greatly in the development of my rather freeform abstract encaustic paintings.

I took a longer version of the same class with him this past fall, and my work is evolving again. He really makes you think in ways you haven't thought before.

I have started several new series in the past many weeks. I am working out some new ideas I'm having about painting through these several series of paintings.

I plan for the final work in the first series to be a large painting made up of many 12"x12" paintings. The process of creating each new work in this series evolves from the previous work. The first painting is the seed for the whole series, and each new painting unfolds from an edge of the previous painting, continuing from the previous work, yet with the freedom for each new panel to go in a slightly different direction.

Here is a quick shot of the first seed painting in the series:

Blue Genie 2007

Had a small wall at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar for the holiday season, and sold quite a few prints of my latest abstracts. Thanks to everyone who managed to come out for the show!

The Blue Genie guys are very hard-working, extremely talented, and they put on quite a great show. It was a fun, funky and very unique venue. It's great that the artists don't have to be there to mind the store, so to speak: the Blue Genie folks handle all aspects of the show for the several weeks they are open during the holiday season.

Here's a shot of my little space before the start of the show. Some of pieces hanging on the wall are original oil or encaustic paintings, while most are full-size limited edition Giclee prints mounted on gessoboard. The editions are limited to just 25 per image per size (2 sizes - small and full-size). As this was the first time I offered any of these images as prints, I have not yet sold out of any editions--so be sure to contact me if you're interested in any of them!

Artspoken 12x12 Opening

Wow! It was packed! We arrived almost at 6 on the dot, and the small gallery was already extremely crowded! It stayed that way the entire time, too.

Several people I knew showed up, even though I hadn't managed to get my second invitation sent out to everybody. Met a couple of the women who run the gallery, who were both so very nice to me. They hung my little poppy paintings in a great location in the front room, all together -- I loved how they looked there.


There were a lot of nice paintings in the gallery -- some darling little happy flower paintings also in the front room -- in acrylic with wood-burning, if I remember right, lots of nicely done representational pieces -- landscapes and still lifes -- a few lovely abstracts, and some gorgeous photos here and there.

It's a nice space, too. I'm not sure you could have fit one more painting on the walls, though. :-)

East Austin Studio Tour 2007

The tour this year was great. Even with a little rain on Saturday, over 110 people did make it to my little home studio for the tour. I believe most of the people who came had specifically picked out my work to come see. Considering there were about 210 artists and over 100 studios on the tour this year -- and that my studio in not located in the thick of East Austin -- I'm very happy that many people managed to make it here.

People loved my color, loved the new abstracts, and the poppy paintings were extremely popular. I had to deliver the originals of the poppy paintings to Artspoken Gallery on Friday for the 12x12 show coming up in 2 weeks, but I had made some full-size Giclee prints of them, and archivally mounted the prints on cradled gessoboard, so they served as an excellent stand-in for the originals.

The tornado series was quite popular as well. One of the guests asked if I had painted them on location, En Plein Aire(!). Ha! I wish. But I'd have to paint really fast! :-)

One darling young man who was among the crowd late on Sunday said he'd been to so many studios with dark work, he really wanted to end his day on a happy note, and so came here.

I think the only downside to doing the tour is that I can't go ON the tour! I would so love to have been able to visit so many of the other artists' studios.

WAR-Artists Respond Opening

Great opening with huge crowds! Most of the comments on the show were about what a fabulous show it was - what a great variety of art of such high quality.





I got a lot of wonderful comments on my work, especially the digitally-manipulated photo piece "What Have We Become?" A number of people told me how powerful they thought it was.





I also got some great comments on my nuclear bomb paintings. One guy said they were such unexpectedly cheerful little nuclear bombs; another painter in the show told me they looked like they were skipping to school! Dare I say, mission accomplished?

Here are a few pics from the show:

New Series

California Burning
Encaustic on Cradled Plywood Panel
12" x 12"

The Devil's Wishbone
Encaustic and Beeswax on Cradled Plywood Panel
12" x 12"


Chuka Nunchaka
Encaustic and Beeswax on paper on Cradled Plywood Panel
12" x 12"


Life's a Beach
Encaustic on Paper on Cradled Plywood Panel
12" x 12"

More Recent Work

Tocharian Vignette
Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Cradled Plywood Panel
12" x 12"

"Impression of Poppies" Painting Series

This series was inspired by a split-second view I had from BBC News of poppies growing in a field in Afghanistan -- it just showed a couple of pods on stems. I took it from there. As with all my encaustic paintings, there is a depth of beauty to these that has to be seen in person to be appreciated.




"Impression of Poppies"
Encaustic on Paper on Board
12" x 12"





"Poppies in Blowing Duststorm"
Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board
12" x 12"





"Poppies in a Windstorm"
Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board
12" x 12"





"Stoic Poppies in an Earthquake"
Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board
12" x 12"

Upcoming Events

It's confirmed: I will be opening my house studio again this year for the East Austin Studio Tour, Nov. 17th and 18th, 10am - 5pm. Check my website or calendar for more specific details as the time approaches.

Then, I will have some work available for purchase at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar, from December 6th through the 24th. Again, check the website or calendar for more details.

But even before those, I found out today I will have some work in the show at the Dougherty Arts Center, titled "WAR-Artists Respond." The show starts Nov. 1st and continues through Nov. 27th.

More New Work for Show on War

I started this project about a year ago. My idea was to use iconic media images as image transfers encased in wax, and tie a number of images together into a large piece. I wanted to pick some of the most recognizable images that I think almost anyone would know; images that said something about how we as a human race treat each other.

I did a couple of them last year to check out the possible process. Then I spent many hours searching mostly online for just the right images.

I came up with a composition that included way too many images at first, then eventually narrowed it down to the most interesting and iconic 25 images, but finally, I eliminated all but nine images for this piece.

I decided to manipulate them digitally to reduce them down even further to their iconic essence, and then I decided to print them as Giclee prints. After mounting the prints on boards, I painted the whole surface with a single color of encaustic.

Finally, I linked all the images on boards together with chain links.

I got it all done and shot in time to apply to a local show about war -- with a good 15 minutes to spare before the deadline!

Here's the piece:

"What Have We Become?"
9 Digital Prints with Encaustic on Masonite, and Chain Links
37" x 34"

New Atomic Bomb Paintings

I wanted to get more of my planned large series of atomic bomb paintings complete in time to apply to a local show dealing with war. I've got only 5 done now, and these last two need a little tweaking, but for now, here they are:



"Operation Bravo"
Encaustic on Plexiglas
12" x 12"


"Castle Romeo"
Encaustic on Plexiglas
9" x 12"

Publishing New Works

Vacation interrupted my rhythm of painting, and shooting pictures, and blogging...so here it is late September, and I have finally gotten the paintings I finished before vacation shot, and am just now getting them posted.

This one is a fairly fanciful voyage into creating a third piece to fit in between two of my other recent pieces to create a triptych.

"Nebulous Nebula"
Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board
12" x 12"

Here's a small mockup of the triptych:



This piece is a sort of fractal enlargement of a section of my "Behind the Wall" piece; this is called "Grandma was a Stromatolite:"


"Grandma was a Stromatolite"
Encaustic on Watercolor Paper on Masonite
12" x 12"

Finally, this one, called "Carbonated Mountains:"


"Carbonated Mountains"
Encaustic on Watercolor Paper on Masonite
12" x 12"

Song Kun at the Hammer Museum

Our last day of vacation -- we headed over to the Hammer Museum to see Eden’s Edge, a show of 15 LA Artists. It was very interesting; all the artists are far more capable of extreme obsession than am I. I liked some of the work; though not all.

On our way out, we almost missed a small show by emerging Chinese painter Song Kun, who filled a small gallery with 97 daily paintings of her life…fabulous! Her work ranges from part drawn, part painted canvases to fully realized and very well-done representational works to a number of blank canvases. At first, I took one quick pass through the gallery, intending that to be it; then went back and looked at each painting more closely, then went back again, by this time fully drawn into her mesmerizing paintings. This was my favorite art of all that I’ve seen on this coastal trip!