a graphite portrait

When was the last time I picked up a pencil to draw with??—it might have been about 4 years ago. I’ve been wanting to return to working on the faces project and drawing with graphite just feels fun. My original goal was 500 faces, just because it sounded neat, but is that even possible at this slow pace? Doubtful. This felt difficult, I was not happy with the blending of tones — maybe it was the paper or the pencils, or just how much time had passed. Here is a portrait of a woman I admire.

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my website has temporarily moved!

I’m not sure how I got so busy, but for now, see it here.

Return to Virginia City!

I went up to Virginia City with a group of painters a few years ago, I was glad to be able to go again. The airbnb place had a number of problems, but the view was quite spectacular – the east side of the mountain range was visible for many miles in each direction. This was a 45-minute sketch on the first morning.

Sue Wilson made a video http://www.pleinairlinks.com/dagroup/050818virginiacity.html

back to Italy!

I have been aiming to return to Italy and was finally able to do that this fall, with my friend and co-painter- and traveler Maeve. We signed up for a week workshop in the countryside near Florence, which we determined is really just the right amount of time to get warmed up! The very first morning we got up early to paint, and what met our gaze was almost a complete white out! It turned out to be a very nice environment for painting, and, yes, we used more than just white!

See a short video of our stay https://youtu.be/CTG8DHxEO0g

These paintings are all “alla prima”, meaning they were painted all at once on location and have not been touched since. I am planning to work on them more, but here they are in their raw state. The very long one was an experiment of painting on a rolled-up linen ground, I may not be able to get the kinks out of it, and it’s very rough. You may see the occasional bug on the surface.

sky abstract

Lately, I’ve been wanting more air, water, more fluid merges between colors and shapes. I sometimes just want the edges to disappear. Though this is not there, and it’s just a starting painting, it is going in the right direction at least, and I am hoping to be able to complete it with soft edges.

Showing with the Plein Air Painters of Mendocino!

I am telling you a bit late about my current showing in Mendocino with the Plein Air Painters of Mendocino at the Annual Whale Festival Art Show & Sale which opened last Friday — the show will be open all weekends in March.

Join us this Saturday evening for our Opening Reception!

Come see beautiful landscapes and seascapes inspired by the natural beauty of the North Coast — two floors filled with paintings, whimsical ceramics and woodwork.

A recent painting from the uplands of Maui, oil on canvas.

Holiday Owl

White on white is pretty fun, there are an amazing number of variations. In fact, however, some of these whites got so wild they are no longer white, but blue, orange, etc. Since I had so much fun creating the mountain goat I decided to try an owl, keeping it super-simple, because of the time constraint. This was a gift to @sathier.