coleus, grapefruit, lime

I'm happy with the shadow play and looseness of the background and plant.  11" x 12"

apple on styrofoam

A small, table-top tableau.  The apple is sitting on a block of styrofoam I carved
for one of my concrete pots. A mix of observation and fakery. 9" x 9"

concrete pots

A couple of weeks ago, I got interested in cast concrete as a sculpture medium.  I
seem to have stumbled onto a styrofoam - sand cast - grind process that works
well and poses minimal health risks. Here are some small planters I made that
are going on sale tomorrow in a holiday craft show.

last rose

I'm happy about the background and the rose which hit sort of an expressive
abstraction.  Cropped the image to improve the composition. 8.5" x 9"

Coleus

Another small, spot-lit indoor arrangement.  8.5" x 9".

Persimmons and limes

Pretty quick kitchen table set up. Worked lots of medium into the paint on a separate
palette before mixing colors.  8.5" x 9"

Peas

I'm happy about this because I started from a loose underpainting and didn't
move to detail too soon. 15" x 10"

near St. Jo

Roadside view of a field in the Red River hill country west of Muenster and north of St.
Jo, Texas. Despite an approaching line of black squall clouds, I pulled over and setup
knowing I was going to get wet. This was painted in about 15 minutes.  I quit when I was
too soaked to work on it anymore.  It's rough and I had just sampled a Texas tempranillo
at a local vineyard, but it makes me want to try a looser, more intuitive, first guess
approach.  8" x 12"

Nance Farm

1850's farmhouse in Desoto Texas. Once on 640 acres, now cut down to 2 acres
surrounded by tract housing. Painting was started on location. 12" x 15"

Barton Springs

Spring-fed city pool in Austin, Tx.  What a great place for a summer swim!! 12" x 16"

Enchanted Rocks

Sheets of gneiss spalled into boulders at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area near Fredericksburg TX. Serene and timeless, but hot as an oven! 16" x 26".

Night Cactus

Two monochrome views of cactus and boxes under a flood light, painted at night.  16" x 16".

View from Enchanted Rock

Billion year old granite at Enchanted Rock. Painted from a telescopic photo of 

Little Rock, about 1/2 mile west of the main dome. 13" x 22".

Enchanted Inferno

Huge granite boulders at Enchanted Rock State Park near Fredericksburg, Texas.
I should have known what I was getting into, but I set up and painted this in broiling
midday sun. I had an umbrella, but I was basically in a heat stupor while I worked
on it. 12" x 15".

nice yard, Neches St.

Came across this really inspired yard arrangement in Oak Cliff that straddled sun and
shade. 11" x 16".

at the Taquería

Dudes greet at the takeout window of Taquería El Si Hay in Oak Cliff, Tx. 11" x 15".

Inks Lake (again)

My second try at painting the "Devil's Waterhole" at Inks Lake near Burnet, TX.
The devil aspect seems to be that bathers lose their minds here and take crazy
risks jumping off the cliff.  The rocks and water are pretty much as is from my plein
air adventure.  I blew the background hill though and had to repaint it at home.
It's kind of an odd silvery green because it's coming back from a drought that
killed half the trees. 12" x 15".

Mechanic

Painted from a snapshot of a man working at an outdoor table behind a lawn mower
repair shop in Oak Cliff, Texas. 12" x 10"

Waxahachie

Sketch of a brilliant red caboose at the Waxahachie train depot.

Larkspurs

I've been fighting weeds to reclaim a former stone fishpond for flowers. I got
a nice stand of larkspurs this year. This was a pretty quick painting, 13" x 9".

near Wilburton, OK

I think this is an old kiln. I spotted it while driving a back road of southeastern Oklahoma,
which is way more scenic than I expected.  I joined a little online daily painting group
recently and quickly realized I'm by far the most "square", literal-minded participant.
So I'm trying to be a little more expressive here with my shapes and colors.  15" x 21".

mostly carrots

West of Venus

The view west from 'downtown' Venus, Texas.

big Hedge

Some homeowner on my jogging route has carefully engulfed their house with shrubbery.

Paluxy River near Track Site 3

This was started as a 9" x 12" plein air sketch from a bank of the Paluxy River near a set
of dino tracks in Somervell County, Texas. The sketch was a mess but I was able to
rework it at home. Eventually I figured out I needed to de-saturate the distance colors
to give it some depth.

Devil's Waterhole, Inks lake

Morning sketch of the shoreline at Inks Lake state park in the Texas Hill country.

wisteria at Ft. Worth Botanic Garden

I started this as a plein air sketch at the Ft. Worth Botanic Garden, which is an exceptionally nice place to paint. Forgot the sun screen, so the foreground had to be faked later and it shows.

my neighbor's porch

My neighbors painted their house bright blue, which looks great with their azaleas. This is pretty quick and loose for me. I'm trying to tune up for some plein air painting this spring.

Cut mango

Got a nice mango at Fiesta Mart and painted its reflection in a deep Revere Ware pot.

Rite of Spring

For years, my father would paint the first flowers of spring from our yard.

my Horned Toads

I've been making clay horned toads lately. When I was a child they lived in our yard, but
now they are extremely rare.  I'm using soft iron wire wrapped in newspaper as an
armature. I'm having trouble managing shrinkage of the clay and my toads tend to shed
their legs.  The poor chap on the left is unfired and probably will never be strong enough
to go in a kiln.

Lasagne ai Funghi

Um, I haven't been painting much lately - I've been working on this recipe for fungus
lasagna. Actually this is just the armature for what I want. The bumps look random
but they're arranged so multiple copies of this shape would fit together without any
seams.  Here's a bottom view:

Dust Bowl Ranchers

Painted from a still I snapped of a PBS show about about the Dust Bowl. I didn't quite
catch the narration, but I think this pair were brothers who committed suicide because
they couldn't pay a bank loan. 16" x 20" purplish monochrome.