Back Yard View

Here is a recent painting of an ordinary space in our backyard which caught my eye.  The painting is oil on canvas, 22″ x 24″.  I thought the vertical rectangular shapes of the surrounding environment suggested an upwards movement which complimented the gesture of the tree.

Salton Sea

Here are a few pieces that I worked on over the past week at the Salton Sea.  My grandparents have a beautiful home there in North Shore and we have been making trips out there since we were children.  I believe this landscape is one of the most unique and visually striking in California.  The light is brilliant and the landscape sun-bleached, it is full of decaying man-made structures set in vast spaces, and the area has a recent history of major transformations.  The mirror-like sea produces some of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen and creates an amazing sense of deep space due to the plane of the water that is often dead calm like a sheet of glass  from immediate foreground to  distant background.

Some of these works are more sustained and others are quick sketches, and most of the works still need touching up in the studio.

Salton Sea Palms – 18″ x 24″ oil

Path to Beach – North Shore – 19″ x 22″ charcoal

Salton Sea Harbor – 24″ x 16″ – graphite pencil

Salton Sea Sketches

There were a lot of interesting cloud formations this past weekend at the Salton Sea. We even got some rain which is very unusual.  These are some very quick paintings done on cardboard.

Big Sur

This is a small painting completed two weeks ago up in Big Sur.  I made the trip with artists’ Joe Forkan and Eric Merrell.  

This painting was done on the last day of the trip just before packing up.  Eric gave me a square piece of board with worked perfectly with the subject.  I had a wonderful time interacting with Eric and Joe.  It is very interesting to observe how other artists practice their craft.