'FIGURE 39'

It was an interesting coincidence that we set this up with drapes as prop- and the model, who is also an actress, looks like she is posed on stage. Its rare to find a figure model who is willing to stand in a pose for 2 hours. Bravo!

Oil on canvas board

11" X 14"

'FIGURE 38'  

I was working on the gesture and flow of the model seated with draperies and pillows surrounding her. 

Oil on canvas

11" X 14"

BOXER AT REST

This was painted from a live model. He brought the 'props' for the part of a boxer. His muscularity and warm skin tones were a pleasure to paint. He told us that his ancestry is African and Native American.

Oil on board

11" X 14"

'YELLOW PEAR'                                                                                       

The pear and its reflection on the kitchen counter  caught my eye and so I spent the  morning with my paints and tried to re-create the sense of color and light.

5" X 7"

Oil on board

'MEHER'

Meher Baba 

The word Meher means compassion. This painting was created for a fundraiser to benefit a rural free clinic in a remote area of India. The clinic was established by Dr. Goher, a close disciple of Meher Baba. She devoted her life to Meher Baba both as his personal physician and through her work attending to the medical needs of the very poor villagers who came to the clinic. Although Dr. Goher has passed on, her clinic continues to serve in the loving way she established it, and relies on donations. Small donations go a very long way.

http://www.meherfund.org

14" X 18"

sold

"MEHERANA ROAD' Landscape  Cathey's Valley, California

This was painted on location last spring in the late afternoon. When the sun is low the colors on the ridge across the road become a riot of oranges and reds. 

Oil on board, unframed

11" X 14"

'RED HILLS' 
 Carquinez strait landscape

I was experimenting with inventing a composition using thicker paint, lots of color and working some with a palette knife. This was done during a workshop with Jerrold Turner- a wonderful painter and generous teacher.

9 "X 12"

Oil on linen covered hardboard

ROCKS AND OCEAN

The Pacific Coast near Asilomar

I saw this view of the ocean from a sea-weedy bluff just south of Asilomar. The composition looks like a Chinese brush painting... I used to own some and looked at them at lot- so they influenced the way I saw this scene.

9" X 12"

Oil on linen covered board

CLOUDS & WATER

This is the small quick painting I did after 'MAUVE CLOUDS'. The fog was rolling in over the horizon by then.

Oil on hardboard

5" X 7"

'MAUVE CLOUDS'
Asilomar Seascape

Another painting day at the beach. The fog bank hung over the horizon, making the colors all purply.

9" X 12"

Oil on hardboard

WAVES CRASHING

Seascape at Asilomar beach 

This was the small study I dashed off after OCEAN WAVES. It was one of those overcast summer mornings, so the colors appeared intense without the very deep shadows of a sunny day.  I believe that is because the pupils widen to let in more light when the sky is darker. 

Oil on hardboard    

5" X 7" 

'OCEAN WAVES'
The waves rolling in to the shore at Asilomar, California

I observed the waves rolling in for a long while before beginning to paint. They are moving so fast that you really have to paint from memory when on location at the beach. I like the way the blue-green intensifies in saturation just under the curl of foam. Paintings is always about edges, color, brushstrokes and relationships.

Oil on linen mounted on hardboard

9" X 12"

'PACIFIC GROVE'

I painted this small one quickly after a longer study. Its nice to have all the colors mixed, ready and just get it down. A foreign tourist watched me for a while and then exclaimed, "Isn't it wonderful, you just stand there and paint!!"...  sounds so easy.

Oil on hardboard

5" X 7"

Model in a Red Dress

This was painted from a live model in two long sessions. We all thought the dress and shoes reflected her bold personality. I was going for a color statement based on the red chemise.

11" X 14"

Oil on Canvas board

RIVER ROCKS II

This was done quickly with the palette paint remaining after a concentrated effort on the first version. I think the expressionistic paint strokes and color came together well in the smaller, faster version. 

Oil on hardboard

5" X 7"

'RIVER ROCKS MARIPOSA'  

Painting the rock formations along the Agua Fria river, Mariposa, California this spring was an exciting challenge for me.  With the sounds and events of natural life unfolding, I set up my easel and gear in the cold. I set to painting nature's rock sculpture in fast changing light; trying to make water fluid, rocks solid, the land dewy and warming in the early morning.

Oil on Canvas board

9" X 12"

"FIGURE 35" 

Nude with Blues and Greens

Oil painting

11" X 14"

Oil on Canvas

DOOR OF DAWN
The sun rose over the hill and as it broke through the trees it resembled a radiant key-hole.

Oil on hardboard
5" X 7"

AGUA FRIA AT DAWN

I rose at the barest hint of daylight to set up for painting en plein air by the Agua Fria. The California wildflowers were profuse in April- varieties that grow in the higher elevation of the Sierra foothills were not familiar to me. The sun rose just behind the hill and lit up the cold blue rocks and water with warm light. I was working with a value filter.. basically a small sheet of red film in a mat. Looking through this filter helped me to see the patterns of light and dark as abstract shapes first. Some painters teach that the values of these areas should remain clearly delineated.

Oil on canvas board

9" X 12"

ROCKY

I dashed off this little painting after laboring long on another rock painting by a creek in the Sierra foothills near Yosemite valley. This little guy popped up on the rock and posed for awhile. 


Oil on hardwood
6" X 6"

REFLECTION IN COMPUTER SCREEN

I turned off the computer and painted my reflection. When the nest is empty a woman has time to reflect on herself. Thinking about issues of beauty, fading beauty, and the beauty in the little details of a silver hair or a wrinkle.

Oil on maple

6"X 6"

FIGURE 33
The fun thing about developing a level of comfort with our models, is that sometimes they will try out some fantasy/costumes. This familiarity makes for interesting paintings.

14" X 18"

Oil on canvas board

'TOMATOES IN STRIPED BOWL'

Something caught my painter's eye, and so I seized the moment. My thoughts went to a recent e-letter from Robert Genn's list called the painter keys, about 'kissing'. Should objects touch? How much overlap is enough in a composition? I also thought about something I heard Wayne Thiebaud say in an interview on 'Spark' (pbs.org), he spoke about articulating the variations of light in a painting as glint, gleam and glow.

Oil on canvas

5" X 7"

"ALL CRACKED UP"

OK, I haven't lost it just yet. This is my response to the Daily Painters Website challenge! The first week of the month there is a group theme.
I haven't been posting lately, but I have been painting..

6"X 8"

Oil on maple hard wood panel

CLOUDS

The cloud formations have been magnificent lately- so I started this from a window view. I was thinking about composition ideas I've been reading about, like dominance and subordination or notan, light/dark shape relationships. Since this was small I decided to paint more thickly than I usually do, pushing the paint around.

Oil on hardboard

5" X 7"

PACKING PAPER ON SILL

This crumpled packing paper caught my eye as it looked like sculpture. I was really challenged to paint it in a cool blue room, with the warm western late afternoon light.

Oil on canvas
14" X 18"

FIGURE 32

This was done in two sittings from a live model. I tried to finish it in one sitting, but I decided to leave behind my goal and do what the painting needed. It was fun to paint her warm reflective skin and red hair. I have shifted my approach to a more 'a la prima' painterly style.

Oil on canvas board

12" X 16"

BOX OF HEART CANDY

I bought this at The Pasta Shop on 4th St. in Berkeley- They are a foodies paradise.

Oil on maple

6" X 6"

PERSIMMONS AND POMEGRANATE

This was done more from invention than life. It made me think about painting in a more theoretical way, painting what I think would happen with light and color reflection.

Oil on maple

6" X 6"

sold

'POMEGRANATE'
I've been hearing a lot about the pomegranate's health benefits lately. That's good news to me because I like eating them and painting them. I was looking at the edges and at how even the deep red color is really a red-grey except in some spots where light makes a pure bright note.

6"X6"

Oil on maple

sold

FIGURE 30

I challenged myself to paint this in one sitting rather than the usual two, working more freely with color than I usually do.

Oil on canvas

12" X 16"