Roasted Peppers and Jamaican Kola Champagne

Observed and imagined objects on the kitchen table.

Freedom Park, Charlotte, NC

A quick outdoor painting at a city park in Charlotte.

Thomas Wolfe House, Asheville, NC

This house, on the edge of downtown Asheville, is maintained as a memorial to Thomas Wolfe. It was the setting of Look Homeward Angel. Painted on a brisk but sunny afternoon.   

Winfrey Point

Managed a quick outdoor sketch facing a 30 mph north wind, so the painting was made from a photo.  Color drama was enhanced from the actual view at White Rock Lake, which is pretty drab.

Rose and Pomegranate

I had wanted to paint a landscape today but the weather wouldn't cooperate..

Inner Galaxy

A quick and simple abstract design. Something to do with chiming, evolving harmonies.

Still life series

#1

#2

#3

Class project.

Older Watercolors

On the Monkey River, Southern Belize

Picnic in Cuernavaca

My bro asked me to post some older watercolors.  He also axed me what kind of engine was on the boat.  I think it was Evinrude.

Got Levitation

Simple painting of levitating objects that gave me a Roky Erickson earworm.  Posing them was a little tricky.

Le Cubisme

Un petit nuage (click to enlarge)

Current assignment is to paint in the Cubist style. K, I'm on it.  At first I began this as a mockery of Picassoesque synthetic cubism, circa 1924 (with brighter modern pigments).  However, the more I worked on it, the more taken I was with the wanton pictorial rule-breaking, surreal, and abstract color possibilities of the style.  So now I'm wondering whether any of this kind of 'magic' outlook can be incorporated  in more contemporary 'dry' realism.

Complementary Fruit Plate

This was a class assignment to paint a still life in complementary colors, in this case lime green and scarlet. The mysterious green drapery/force field is a T-shirt.  I was axed to sign a release so a photo of this painting can be published in the Richland College Student Literary Magazine.

Here's a quicker, looser painting of the same plumcot reflected in a steel bowl.

Bad Acid

I recently enrolled in a beginning painting course at a nearby community college.  Nice large studios with overhead daylight.  Great A/C, open up to 14 hrs./day!  Main vibe in class is teen Goth.  First assignment is 'paint a nightmare'.  I figure wilted flowers in a vase won't cut it.  Time to show these whippersnappers what bad acid is all about!  Giant centipede dream is well received.  Now I get props as the class psycho-geezer.  Also, I was axed to sign a release so a photo of this painting can be published in the Richland College Student Literary Magazine.

La Reyna #2, Oak Cliff

Painting of a Tex-Mex place in Oak Cliff.  Painted from a photo because it was 105° when I started, and I didn't have the nerve to set up an easel on the
sidewalk.

Zinnias and Brush Can

I think the vase and the can reflections are ok, but overall the rendering is too tight.  The problem is to be able to capture detail down to the level where light is interesting, but still get a looser feel.

Cantaloupe Slices

I'm gravitating toward a two-stage painting process.  The first stage is a monochrome underpainting.  As I paint over in saturated color, I try to simplify and focus the composition.