Mustang
(Painting #15)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
$175

My next car (and almost as sexy as painting #5).

My Smoker
(Painting #14)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
NFS


Getting my grill on...

Paint
(Painting #13)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
$175

With just these three colors whole new worlds are created...

Temptation
(Painting # 12)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
Sold

Does desire lead to temptation, or is it the other away around? I've been thinking a lot about what an iconic symbol the apple is in our storytelling. Eve, Snow White, William Tell, Johnny Appleseed, to name a few, all had their part in weaving their tales into our collective consciousness.

Bubble Wrap
(Painting # 11)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
$175

A desire or a compulsion? I found a piece of bubble wrap under my workbench and shot a close up of it with my camera. I placed the wrap against a black background and moved the lights in close. This created a pattern that was very extreme in terms of values and abstraction. The patterns of the plastic allowed for a very fluid approach to painting, which was a lot of fun. I might make a larger version of this after 50/50.

Books
(Painting #10)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
$175


A random selection of books from my shelf...

Pie!
(Painting #9)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
Sold

April makes these incredible fresh fruit pies all the time and this example is from one she baked on Sunday. I went thick and juicy on the paint, Theibaud style, on this one to capture the extreme yumminess of the slice that was soon devoured after it fulfilled its duty as my model.

Thunderheads
(Painting #8)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
$175

This was painted from a watercolor I made years ago of the view toward the Sierra foothills from the central valley. The haze of the valley obscures the mountains, but the afternoon thunderheads rise above to a height and scale that is dizzying.

Meds
(Painting #7)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
Sold

Not to worry, I'm not desiring these myself, but I do think people in general are over medicated in this country.

Home
(Painting #6)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
Sold

Saturday morning, 50/50 works in progress...

Oh Yeah
(Painting #5)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
Sold



I'm a guy. What can I say?

Eames LCW
(Painting #4)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
Sold

Originally introduced in 1945, still available through Herman Miller and various licensed distributors. However, the market is flooded with Chinese counterfeits.

Shell
(Painting #3)

oil on canvas panel
6" x 6"
Sold

This is a shell I found on a beach in Kauai thirty years ago and since then it has sat on a shelf in our bathroom. Why do we decorate our bathrooms with seashells- what started that trend?

Doughnut With Rainbow Sprinkles
(Painting #2)

6" x 6"
oil on canvas board
$175

Yes, I did eat this after finishing the painting. The photo below shows the painting at about the halfway point, the background and doughnut were roughed in and the sprinkles layered. Now that's motivation!

Rose

6" x 6"
oil on canvas panel
painting #1
Sold

50/50 begins tomorrow, all set to go...

Panels for my objects of desire.

I got my 50 panels today and have started to prepare them. This time I'm applying canvas to each panel for a little more "paint grab". Last year I simply primed my panels with gesso, but the problem with that is the oil paint tends to slide around too much. (Notice I'm using April's rolling pin...don't tell her!)

Like last year, you will be able to reserve a painting as it appears on this blog. Leave a comment or email me to reserve a particular painting. First painting will be posted Monday. Yow!

Raven (Swallows the World)
oil on panel
6" x 6"
private collection
From 50/50 2009

50/50 Again!

I am pleased to announce that I have been juried into this year's 50/50 Show at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, CA. Starting Monday, May 17th I will be posting a new painting everyday, for 50 days. My theme this year will be Objects of Desire.

This blog was started a year ago to post my 50 birds and at that time I decided to keep blogging for a year to see what would happen. Well needless to say, it has put me in touch with artist friends all over the world and has kept me on my toes in terms of staying on top of my game. How great is that? I look forward to another year (at least) and if you haven't done so already, please find me on Facebook.

And be sure to check in everyday, if you can, on this 50 day journey.

A Succulent Cluster
4" x 7"
photographic print

Today I found myself back in the darkroom after thirty years. I spent the day with my friend Modesto, who teaches at the Exploratorium, a world-class science museum in San Francisco. Now usually when I get together with Moe, we build high-end stereo speakers from scratch. However, this time we made cameras out of paint cans. Yes, paint cans. Welcome to the world of pin hole photography where just about anything can be transformed into a camera. Cameras have been made out of sardine cans, luggage, cowboy boots, automobiles, even empty rooms. The images are almost always dream-like and wonderfully mysterious.

The photo above was take with my "camera" of a succulent plant in Moe's backyard onto photography paper with a 50 second exposure. Later, after development, it was printed contact style, using a contrast filter onto a second sheet of paper to get the positive image.

My new camera, it costs way less than my Nikon digital SLR.

The camera is a 1 quart paint can with a pin hole through a thin copper sheet for the lens. The shutter is the black plastic sheet, which is raised to expose the print paper inside. Some pin holes use regular 35mm or 120mm film, but others like this one use photography paper which is inside, flush against the opposite side of the can. To remove the paper a paint can opener is used to pop off the lid. So much fun!