Blue Ridge Sketch

Acrylic, 4" x 4" $100.00

Sunset after a Storm

Acrylic on Gessoed Board, 6" x 6" $100.00

This is another made-up picture. I guess it's the Caribbean. The

places that I have been there have made such an impression on me.

Particularly the skies.

This is one of my first acrylic paintings. You can probably tell....

There are certain aspects of acrylic that I like very much. For someone

who loves glazing as much as I do, the instant-dry factor is very

convenient. But, blending is problematical, and so is getting soft

edges. Spraying water on it, as I read David Hockney does, helps

a little bit. But it certainly is fun to play with. All in all, I think I'll

remain a big oils fan. I love the maleability of it, and the softness

of the edges that you can get with it like nothing else except maybe

pastel, or oil pastel.

Mrs. White's Yard

Oil on Panel, 6" x 8" $100.00

This was a really, really fast sketch I did of the yard next door. I
love very refined painting, as I am a diehard fan of early Renaissance
work. But, every once in a while I just get in the mood to really
let go and paint as fast as I can - even sacrificing reality if I have to
in favor of abstraction if that is what happens. I like the energy in
this little sketch - it was a cloudy day, so that is why you don't see
any shadows.

Christina in a Chinese Jacket

Drypoint Etching printed on Archival
Printmaking Paper, image 5" x 7" $85.00 Go Here

I didn't have a chance to paint today, so I am
posting this drypoint of my daughter's friend,
Christina.

I drew it with a diamond point on a plastic
plate, which has several drawbacks. First
of all, you cannot correct any mistakes, so
every mark you make must be correct or
pretty correct, anyway. Also, it doesn't
tend to have the beautiful plate tone that
copper or zinc have because it is totally
non-porous.

One thing it does do well though is take marks
from roulette wheels. Those are tools used by
printmakers to create texture. They are literally
small barrels attached to handles that have different
types of texture on them, like lines, dots, sharp
points for roughing up the plate, etc.. The texture
that you see in the background of this print was
mostly made with roulettes. Everything else was
drawn by hand with my diamond scriber.

Once I finish my drawing, I ink it up with
etching ink, and run it through my press with a
piece of dampened printmaking paper.

I love drypoint! You can't get big editions,
as you can with etching, but what you can get
is unique and beautiful.

Early Evening View from Boston Studio Window

Oil on Gessoboard, 4" square $100.00

This was the view out my studio window when I lived
in Boston for nine years. I lived on the back side of
Beacon Hill, which was an odd place to begin with -
all those buildings clustered closely together on that
little artificial hill - but there was always something
about this view that reminded me of the Middle Ages.

The odd shapes of the structures on the tops of the
tenement buildings; so many of them were surmounted with
these glass pyramids topped with little balls. The pyramids
would change color according to the light in the sky.
It was intensely urban, that's for sure. Were it not for
the Boston Common and the Public Garden a short walk
away, I think living there would have been unbearably
claustrophobic.

But, oddly enough, sometimes I miss
it. It's probably nostalgia. My studio was only my studio
until my daughter was born in 1986. What joy. Then it became a
baby's room, and the center of my life ceased to be my
artwork for quite a while. If I had to do it over, I wouldn't
change a thing.

Vita breve. Ars longa.

Irish Sketch

Pencil and Oil on Denril Paper, 5" x 7" $110.00 eBay

A lot of my ancestors, including my grandmother on
my mother's side, and my grandfather on my father's side,
were from Ireland. But I've never been there. I hope to go
there someday though. This is another one of those imagined
pictures. It is what I think a collection of buildings on an Irish
hillside near the ocean would look like on a sunny day. I had
a lot of fun doing it.

Denril paper is actually a translucent paper made for
architects. But, because it has a treated, impervious surface,
you can paint right on it in oils. You can also wipe it right
off too, because it doesn't sink in - which makes it really
fun to work with. It's also great for colored pencils, or
plain graphite. It looks like Mylar, but it's soft and pliable,
and is an actual paper. It comes in large sheets also.

Plowed Field in Spring

Oil Color Monotype, 4.5" x 6" $100.00 go to eBay

This is an example of a monotype done with watersoluble
oil paints on Yupo watercolor paper as a base. The Yupo
watercolor paper is white, of course, but it's also a piece of
thin white plastic, which is perfect for releasing the paint
onto a piece of damp printmaking paper in a press.

Before I do the painting, I will coat the plate with some
Grumbacher Slow-Drying Medium for watersoluble oils,
and roll paint into that (using Speedball soft rollers), and
also brush paint into it. It give a good overall surface to work
into. Then, after soaking the printmaking paper for awhile, and
blotting it so that there is no standing water on it, I'll place the
Yupo paper on a thin metal or plastic etching plate to raise it
up a bit, and then print it in an etching press. This method will
remove every bit of paint from the plate and give a good, clean
and sharp print.

This image is rather impressionistic, but I like the sense of
space that it conveys.

Sunset in the Tropics

Oil on Gessoed Wood Panel, 6" x 8" $125.00

This is an entirely made-up painting, with a nod to Frederick
Church (whom I could never hope to equal). I have been to Jamaica
several times, but always to the north coast of the island. I love it
there. I think the landscape, above and below the ocean, and the people,
are beautiful.

I have also always admired Frederick Church's painted
"sketches" (amazing smaller paintings he did in preparation for huge
studio paintings - a typical 19th Century artist). I have had a book
of them that I got in a great sale at the National Gallery years ago, that
I have pored over many times.

So, here I am imagining that I am looking
at a sunset over the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. It's just a feeling I'm
trying to get, nothing exact - but I do think I caught something of the
humid atmosphere there, so I am happy about that!


P.S. I have decided to go through and put the prices under all of my
paintings, as I have been advised to do that, and also feel that perhaps
people are embarassed to broach that subject. I plan on opening up
my ebay store again, eventually.

Oil Sketch of Alan

Oil on Gessoed Rag Board, 7" x 9" $100.00

This quick gestural sketch of one of my
favorite figure models, Alan, was done
with a limited palette, using burnt umber,
naples yellow, cadmium red light, and
cobalt blue. The gesso had been washed
with a light neutral gray before starting.

I was trying to demonstrate to my students the
mapping out of broad planes of light and dark, and
how one can simplify the complexity of the back
just to get started (the back can be so intimidating).

Although this is an "unfinished" sketch, I felt that
I had really "caught" Alan, and his energy and grace.

Sunset over St. John

Oil on Linen laid down on board, 3 1/2" x 5" $80.00

This tiny landscape of St. John in the Virgin Islands, is one of

several that I have done of this same composition. The shapes

and colors of these clouds just fascinate me. The pink really

was this intense.

Egret in Huntley Meadows Wetlands Park

Gouache on Canson Watercolor Paper SOLD

4" x 6"

This beautiful white egret really stood out against

all the darker reds and greens of the wetlands. It is

good that they stand there for so long!

I love working in gouache. It is similar to oils in that

you can work fairly thickly and continually overlay

different colors. But you have the option of also using

washes, which is nice for underpainting or just

giving the whole composition a particular tint.

I like the sketchiness of this piece.

This was done in a Canson watercolor notebook,

and because the dimensions of the piece were so small,

I didn't have to worry about wrinkling. In watercolor, that

certainly is one advantage of working so small!

Bearded Iris ll

Watercolor, Gouache and Pencil
on Archival WC Paper, 5" x 7" $120.00

Go to eBay

I just couldn't get over all of the colors
in this iris. They were really something.
I was experimenting with Aquapasto
today. A wonderful watercolor teacher
at the Art League School, Tedd Betts,
who passed away a couple of years ago,
told me that you could squegee a thin
layer of this stuff on your paper with
a credit card. He used it to incredible
effect. Particularly in painting trees
in the wintertime. His paintings were
beautiful. It's really a shame he wasn't more
well-known in his lifetime.

Using the medium has its advantages and
drawbacks for an artist. You can completely
lift any paint put over it, and washes can be
laid down next to each other without flowing
into each other, but that's just the thing -
the washes don't really flow at all, and that
can be frustrating. I guess the solution would
be to figure out what effects you want to achieve
before you start, and use the medium where it
would be most effective. Anyway, it is fun to
play around with.

Memory of Ellett Valley, Virginia

SOLD

Watercolor on Acid Free Watercolor Paper, 7" square

This was one of the most beautiful places that I was ever in.
It was a valley that basically ran parallel to the town of
Blacksburg, Virginia, on the other side of a small mountain
range. Back when I spent time there in the 80's, before they started
building developments with "cul de sacs" and mini-mansions, it was
full of wonderful old pig farms, and Virginia vernacular architecure.
It also had rolling, twisting roads, almost like a roller coaster that
seemed to go on forever...not to mention the cornfields, sunflowers,
sweetpeas, and cows. I haven't been there in years. I think I'd rather
remember it like this.

Milena Posing in a cold light in class

SOLD
Oil on Canson Paper, 10" x 13"

This semi-clothed nude study was done very
quickly in an interesting technique that was used
very often by both Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec.
It is know as peinture a l'essence, which literally
means, "painting with solvent". If you notice, a lot
of Lautrec's paintings were done on cardboard.
Well, this is how he did that.

To use this technique, the oil paint has to be placed
on blotter paper or paper towels overnight to soak
out all of the oil from the paint. The next morning
(or the day after that...), the paint is transferred onto
a palette and can be used to paint on bare, unprepared
paper, diluted only with turps or paint thinner. No medium
is used, of course, because that would defeat the purpose
of having removed the oil in the first place. It is really fun,
and great for gestural figure painting! You should try it!

Sharon's Back

Drypoint Etching, Printed on Archival
Italian Printmaking Paper, 3 1/2" x 4 3/4"
$75.00 Go to eBay

This is my model Sharon again. Always
graceful, and always inspiring.

Sharon Posing during Figure Class

Drypoint Etching printed on Archival
Italian Printaking Paper, Image area
5" x 7", margins, 2" $100.00

I did this from a photograph that I took of
this model. She has been modelling for me
personally, and for my classes, for about 12
years. I have done at least ten paintings of
her. She is a fantastic model, even now at
the age of 50, after bearing, raising, AND
homeschooling six children! She just has a gift
for modelling. And, did I mention - she's also
an artist, with a real gift for color, but unfortunately
not a lot of time to make art. I own one of her
paintings. It's a luscious painting of a tomato done
in acrylic. I keep it in my kitchen, and get enjoyment
out of it every day.

I did say, when I introduced myself, that I would
be working in several different media. I just can't
help it. It is not that I am a dilletante. I actually
have a Masters in Printmaking, but have been
much more of a painter in the past 25 years. But,
every once in a while I get struck by the urge to
make drypoints.

They don't take long. All you have
to do is make a drawing with a diamond-tipped
scriber on either a zinc, copper, or acetate plate,
ink it up with etching ink, soak your paper and blot
it, and then run it through your etching press, and
Voila! You have a print. And you can make about
ten more good prints.

To get more than that you really do
need to have your plate electrolitically steel-faced
(can't do that to plastic, of course). They (whoever
"they" are...) have actually taken some Rembrandt plates
that he himself cancelled by scoring them with a big
X - indicating he didn't intend to make any more prints
from them - and had them steel-faced, just to make
money off of them. Greed will make people do really
inane things. Expecially in the art market.

Bearded Iris

Watercolor and Gouache on Arches Cold Press

Watercolor Paper, 4.6" x 4.6" $100.00

I really thought this bearded iris was spectacular
and I just had to do a painting of it. I didn't have
much time though, so it is really just a sketch.
Next time I think I'll use oils. They are SO much
more forgiving! I'm so glad that its finally spring!

Phalenopsis Orchids at US Botanical Gardens

Watercolor, gouache and pencil on hotpress watercolor board,
4" x 5 3/4" $100.00

I was very intrigued by these orchids. I was at an orchid exhibition.
They were everywhere! They were purple, white, cream , pink,
tiger-striped - just about anything you could imagine. Of course we
see them in the supermarket all the time, all alone in those pots.
But this was in a huge room FULL of orchids of so many varieties.

It was mesmerizing, and so beautiful.

Purple Datura Flower in the National Botanical Garden

Gouache and Watercolor on Watercolor Board
4" x 5 3/4" $80.00 go to eBay

Wow!!

That was all I could think when I saw this
spectacular Datura. It was about seven
inches long, with a trumpet-like opening
(I'm sure you'll eventually see a painting
of that also...) that was about 4" in diameter.

I was a little embarassed, because I was so
transfixed by the beauty of this plant that I
couldn't move for a few minutes. I had to keep
staring at it; got fifteen pictures of it,
from every angle that I could.

This is a very sketchy picture, and, except for
the color, I hardly feel that I did it justice -
except I have to say I do like the looseness
of the composition. There were so many other
types of vegetation around it - other smaller
orchids, types of leaves and grasses - it would
be very daunting to paint all in detail. One has
to be in the mood. And frankly, sometimes I
am. But not today.

Pewter and Cherries with Turquoise Fabric

Pastel on Wallis Sanded Paper, 4" x 4" $100.00

This is a fragment that I chose to select out of
a larger still life that was placed inside of a black
"drawing theater" - a black box that is only open on
one side. It is fun to place objects in it and then play
around with the angle of lights shining on still life objects
in the box.

Different types of effects can be created by how
far inside the box the objects are placed, and also,
from how far an angle the light shines in, or across.
I use this in my drawing classes with just black and
white objects to teach tone and value recognition.
But it was fun having this colorful still life contained
in this box, and even more fun working on the
sanded paper, which never seems to stop holding more
pastel.

I had a happy accident when I sprayed the piece near
the end with Sennelier Fixatif Latour for pastel. It is
not an aerosol, but rather comes in a plastic pump
bottle, and sometimes spits out little circular dots
of fixative. This happened on the pewter goblet,
making just the right kind of texture for that object!