9×11 mixed media on watercolor paper.
Discovered some watercolor paper I had purchased from a Ben Franklin store in Topeka, most likely early 80′s…figured that based on the price of $2.65 for a pad of 20 sheets of 9×12. 80lb. stock. It is holding up to my techniques pretty well, normally I would prefer a heavier weight. Matters not as it works and having it in my hands I am making art…not sure if the dry streak is totally over, but it is a start…by the way I did do a 8th finger piece, I will save it for a later post.
Why do squirrels lose acorns? I think they are having so much fun gathering them, finding cool hiding places, teasing dogs, chasing other squirrels that once they go to sleep and wake up the next day its like “Groundhog Day”, …but with no recall of yesterday! I guess that’s just a nicer way of saying scientifically they have no memory of their stash, thus they gather hundreds…in hopes of finding dozens.
Tag Archives: sunlight
North Fork 10 A.B.
12×20 in. mixed media. With the increase of wildfires we are lucky that Mother Nature still has the ability to come back after these events. To come thru these same areas several years later is to but marvel at Mother Nature’s skills to heal and regrow. Even with this amazing transformation closer examination shows the scars still left, showing to all what happened here. This piece kind of feels like a forest area attempting to heal itself yet still dealing with the past events. The colors show hope for a bright future yet some colors also show the deadly past this forest area has dealt with. Kind of like some of humanities history any place in the world…sad yet hopeful for a better future. As for a clue to the title try 1988 Yellowstone area.
What Was Your First Clue
20×20 in. mixed media.
Lately I have been going thru some of my unfinished and forgotten projects from many a year ago. So for your viewing pleasure a piece that has taking me 40 years to complete. This piece was one started in college and was going to be a colorful sunset type thing, or maybe bright trees. At any rate I started seeing this endless range of clouds and vast depth in a strange landscape and kind of went with that. Seems so clear now not sure why I couldn’t have seen that back then. As for the title, being a Kansas boy I thought about a saying that is old hat…”We aren’t in Kansas anymore Toto!” I believe the picture speaks to that fairly well, don’t you?
Dermatological Wonder At 6 Fathoms
9×12 in. mixed media. Let me start by saying thank you to everyone, I have hit a milestone I never imagined I would get to…1000 followers!!!!!! … I reached that early today, it is very humbling and at the same time extremely uplifting . THANK YOU ALL
The long winded titled piece was done like some of my bubble tree series, without the trees. I had a preconceived idea about goosebumps…thus the title. It has a different feel than the others like it…but I can sense being in the water for sure. Not many have seen this piece so I will let you guys and gals tell me what you think.
Haunting Aftermath
9×12 in. mixed media. From time to time I try to capture the aftermath or the beginning of a forest fire. I think it is because my sister works for the forest service in the western United States. Her dept. works on supplying the monies and resources so these brave people can work on prevention and fighting the fires when needed. Dauntless task, especially after the fire season we are having this year. My artistic visions fall more into the areas after the fires, and I try to create a feel of what was. In this piece the sun is shining brightly through a forest that is just a memory, reflecting off of ghostly trees rooted in bare exposed soil. I know nature has a way to start anew what these fires destroy, however in our lifetime these forest will never grow to be as majestic as they once were. Other mediums might lend themselves to creating this piece better, but I was trying to use the ones I know best…pen, marker, tissue paper, pencil, and acrylic.
Discarded Sunset On Kansas
Mixed media 18×24 in. on canvas. Back in the day part of studying photography was you did your own developing and printing, very challenging and costly till you got what you wanted. In this piece I incorporated some discarded B&W nature shots into my painting, along with some discarded fabric from the textile lab. My kids call it the dirty underwear picture, but I never was that cutting edge back then. A closer look and we can see a typical Kansas Winter setting near some fence rows. I also used a brite red cinnamon wrapper to add texture and color. This is a piece that has had no issue (my wife likes it) finding a home in a main traffic area in my house over the years. Talk about slow, I started this in 1974 and completed it in 1988…a story for another time.
The Other Side
Mixed media 10×14 in. Variation of several ( Between, How Many Trees Make A Forest, The Stage Is Set.) of my other bubbleheaded tree works. At some point I may revisit these and either on a much smaller or much larger scale try to expand upon this. I don’t believe those are the great pyramids so I have added mountains to the mix. 
Flour And Water Doesn’t Make A Peter Max
A 19×24 in. extremely mixed media. Before I get back to my current stuff I thought I might at least show one more, my first mixed media circa 1972. It was during a time when I was trying many different approaches to art and I personally liked Peter Max and the Beatles. (who didn’t at that time) This was about the time I changed majors from architecture to art education. It was also the first time I discovered tissue paper and recycling less liked art, of my own of course. This work uses flour, tissue paper, ink, pen, sand, paper, elmer’s, varnish, and papermate flairs. For being 40 years old it looks brand new, shining just it did then…can ya guess where the recycled art was useful?
Voyage Of The Cranes
Mixed media 9×12 in. Remember when I was talking in my Chaos In The Bay page about my first attempt of doing a sketch…well this is it. Stained glass without the glass! Actually I may try to do something equine with framing, why you ask? The initial layers of this were very brite and rich and after several coatings I managed to get to the shades you see now…however if you hold this up to a brite light those rich colors come thru…almost like a night day type thing…accident but maybe something to experiment on. By the way I am referring to the birds, ie… cranes.
How Many Trees Make A Forest
Mixed media 9×12 in. This is a piece that I came back to many times before I felt it was finished. I liked the division of the work and the way the squares formed up, but I kept struggling with the ovals … until I started shading the lighter one. That was when it started to fall into place for me. As to the title…it seemed very obvious to me once I stared at it for 10 days or better.
The Stage Is Set
Mixed media 9×12 in. Something is ready to happen, but what? Where is this place or where in time is it? This is nature in a pure untainted state ready for the next step/phase/act/scene…but what? Almost a Seuss feel to it without a hint of …whatever is next !!!
Sunset Thru The Woods
Mixed media 12×18 in. I wanted to show the trees and how light seems to go thru or around them at sunset. This is based on what I see out my back door and in the fall it is so intense it is hard to see anything in that direction. I maintained my triangles concept thru out the piece…can’t begin to remember how many times I applied color and acrylics to this…I like the top to bottom effect of light and dark colors. Yes this is part of the Fall series, for what it’s worth there was 20 pieces in that series…not sure I will be showing all of them.
Sunset In The Channel
Mixed media 12×18 Fall series. This one has a cold and deeper water feel to it without the yellow and I almost didn’t try it. I wanted to make the reflective sunshine a little less obvious and make the peaking waves stand out more. Felt this would lead the viewer to look deeper between the waves to find other details in this piece. Not as many leaves to be seen might be why I feel it has a deeper water feel ( I am sure all the blues didn’t hurt too) . You might notice I made the signature more a part of the piece than others, haven’t made my mind up on that yet.
Going To Seed
Mixed media 12×18. What do you do with a piece that you love the colors but composition wise just doesn’t do anything for you…RECYCLE! A piece that was titled “111 Overton County,” got a second life and provided something special for me…”going To Seed.” This has some of the same elements as others in my Fall series (it is fact part of it) but I was a little more spontaneous in my line work. The image of the reflecting window helps to balance out my scene and actually gave me hope I was had something working.
Some Will Fall Today
Mixed media 8×12 . Simple piece using triangles and squares to show the ever changing process during the Fall. This was a lite sketch in my sketchbook that I took to a finished state. It started my bug to focus on the Fall. I also noted that this process wasn’t giving me as much depth as I would like, but loved the colors.
Autumn Sunset Shades
A 12×18 mixed media. Background color comes mainly from this goldenrod paper, which makes this Fall series piece pop. I did the leaves first then drew the trees in, it made it harder but the blue was patiently placed in next to last. I like the effect/over laying in the background first. The line work after (white) this gives the bright almost blinding light I get to see with each sunset out my back door. To me there is a definitive difference in top and bottom by use of colors. The spider web of lines is key to pulling this together and giving a fore-ground vs. back-ground illusion in my mind.
Fall Thru The Cracks
A 12×18 mixed media. Another one of the Fall series. I can’t begin to say enough about the finish and textured surfaces I was able to achieve, practice does make better. Too bad my photography skills or equipment can’t show it very well.
JUST A TEASER of WHAT MIGHT BE
I have a show coming up and have been playing with the layout, course it will change again once all of these are framed and matted. I am lucky enough to be able to show for a full 2 months, and I am toying with the idea of two different setups…one each month. The hard part will be picking what makes the available space. If any of them really appeal to you leave a comment, at this point I can use the input. Thks
