A "Little Landscape"

This little landscape was based on a friend's photo taken of our California hills. Painting smaller is in no way easier!

5x7 oil on canvas board

Things I'm thankful for....

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Vicky Chen - artist

Vicky Chen is a talented printmaker who rents a space in Benny Alba's studio. She graciously let me photograph her at work .

You can see some of her wonderful prints on her website HERE.

6x6 oil on board

Not Cold Cut...Caldecutt Tunnel

This is bore #3 of the Caldecutt Tunnel in Oakland. This is based on a shot I took from my cell phone when heading west toward Oakland from my part of the East Bay. The orange glow is from the Sodium Vapor lamps used inside the white tile tunnel.

I think this is the bore that George Lucas used in a chase scene in his first feature film THX 1138.

I was imagining I was about to drive into the mouth of a giant monkfish. Okay.... so I need to cut back on watching Discovery Channel.

12x24 oil on canvas

Airport Aerobics

Most of us have participated in Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks Blog.

I spent waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time with this one. The disadvantage of submitting it so late is running out of clever titles for one thing and the inevitable comparison one does with the other awesome submissions.

Check out those fabulous paintings on Karin's site HERE!

12x12 oil on board.

Saved from a fall

This is a close up of my other painting from my day out with the Pleasanton Art League. Just as I was packing up, it flopped over and landed on the top edge on the ground. So when I got it home and I just repainted the top 1/2 inch or so to salvage it.








8x10 oil on Raymar panel

Plein Air Debut

Everyone who has been a part of Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge knows Edward Burton.

I'm lucky that I live a couple of town/cities away from Edward. He was kind enough to let me know his plein air group was going to painting in my town.

[That's Edward painting a tractor]

Forrest Farm is a City Park and where there is a Farmer's Market on Saturdays. While we were there, the park employees were giving tours to a couple groups of school children.

My first attempt was looking at a clump of trees near a creek bed and the second was a tractor at the rear of one barn. They also train sheep dogs on this park land and it's so cool to see these dogs do their job out there.

The group plans to come out again next week and I'll try to join them again.

Both paintings are oil on 8x10 RayMar board.

Remember our Veterans....

Protecting your body of work

Many of you already follow Alyson Stanfield's ArtBiz Blog. For those who don't I wanted to share some important information about protecting your life's work.

Imagine you seeing another person ( we won't even call them an artist) selling an image or product [ jewelry, glassworks] that is almost identical to yours. You send them a letter to please not copy your work. To your surprise, YOU get sued by this person alleging YOU are stealing their copyright.

This is the nightmare John T. Unger is going through. Listen to the phone call between John and Alyson and learn some basic ways to protect your work - one that involves what you do already when you post on your blog. Click HERE for the phone call.

An abstract now and then....

I like doing them because I can't do one all the time. I just have to be in the mood/moment and it becomes a mental doodling of sorts.

This turned out the way it did with no preconceived notion of where it was going. Do abstract artists have a set image in their mind all the time when they set out to paint?

"Vessel"

20x16 oil on canvas

click to enlarge image

Clockin' In and Out

I'm sure many of you have never had to do this, but I used to have to use a time clock to document when I arrived and left work at a men's clothing warehouse many years back.

What brought this memory back? I was at a downtown Oakland Art Gallery for an informational talk held in the basement of the building. The basement is also a part of the gallery as you can see the modern paintings and photos on the walls. However with all the contemporary images that commanded my attention, the one thing I was fascinated with was this vintage time clock.

I painted this on a wood panel and kind of like the way the painting itself turned out to be rustic and vintage looking itself.

16x20 oil on wood panel

Malissa again

The only thing you may recognize is that determined look again. This is based on an old photo that I don't recall who I got it from as an emailed jpg. I was afraid I'd lose this image of a 6 or 7 year old Malissa warming up behind stage before the yearly performance with her old group Motuaina here in Bay Area, so I decided to paint it.

I loved being a part of the group for the 5 years we were there. Now she has decided she would rather concentrate on competitive soccer. I miss the family atmosphere, the dance, the culture and the costumes. It was great while it lasted.

9x12 oil on board