Back at it!

Here are two new paintings.  One is a completely imaginary Fall camping scene.  We had glorious fall color this year and this painting was inspired after a camping trip with my son.  I painted the lighthouse from a Google maps image of a lighthouse Prince Edwards Island.  Hope you enjoy them!

This is a new painting inspired by an evening spent muskie fishing on Lake Katherine near Minocqua, Wisconsin last August.  It was an almost perfect evening.  No muskies but good company, beautiful scenery, and good memories!

Been awhile!

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted something.  I did not get much painting done this summer unfortunately but hope to rectify that this fall.  I do have two things to share.  One is an oil painting of a tundra scene with fireweed in spring.  I don't often play with oils but it's fun for a change.  The other is a watercolor that is larger than I normally paint.  This one is a pastoral farm scene that is 15 x 22 inches.  I'm very happy with the lost and found edges and loose style that I was able to achieve.  I hope you like them!

Another stormy sky!

School is winding down for the summer and I have more time to paint!  I have a 4-day show coming up in downtown Stevens Point this week and I'm madly trying to get some paintings ready for that.  Here is one I did yesterday.  I seem to have the stormy skies and sailboats on the brain lately. 

I woke up early this morning and felt like painting.  This started out as an improvisation and turned into an abstract seascape.

"Spring lambs."  Here is a new one that I painted for the Weekend Drawing Event at WetCanvas.com.  Hope you like it!  This one is 8 x 10 inches.  I had planned it as being a large panoramic landscape that happened to have sheep in it  but it wasn't working so I cropped it to this smaller portrait.

This is a portrait of a Harpy Eagle that I painted for the April Fur and Feathers Challenge on WetCanvas.com.  This one is 11 x 14 inches.  I may make a few corrections but I'm going to let it sit a few days.  I hope you like it.

This next one was painted last year.  It has been on display in the Wustum Museum of Art in Racine, Wisconsin since December as a part of Watercolor Wisconsin, 2012, a state-wide watercolor only art show.  The show ended this last weekend and I just retrieved it.  It's called "Africa."  It started off as an improvisation and morphed into an abstract landscape that reminded me of the 4 years I lived in Mali and Tanzania.

"Mañana brumosa." I painted this last December before my recent trip to Costa Rica.  With the exception of the lake, this could be the view from outside my window at Cabinas Capulin in Santa Elena.  Our three days there were full of low misty clouds like this.  I painted this on rough textured paper and used a scumbling dry-brush technique for the sky.  Hope you like it!

I recently had the opportunity to spend 3 weeks in Costa Rica.  What a beautiful county and such diversity in a small area.  This painting is not of any particular place but just came out of my imagination while thinking about the trip.  I was trying to capture a misty morning in "la selva" (the rainforest). Great thing is I get to go again this winter! 

I painted this yesterday for the 'Virtual Paintout" of Gdansk, Poland.  The VP is a blog by an American artist Bill Guffey.  Each month participants virtually travel to a different part of the world via Google Streetview.  The objective is to use Streetview to find an interesting subject to paint in any style or medium that you like.  I found this scene with haystacks along a river.  To visit the Virtual Paintout go here!

Joining the club!

Hello World!  I have finally gotten around to setting up a blog which I have been meaning to do for a very long time.    I am hoping to use this to show my work and let people know a little more about what inspires me and how I work.  Hopefully somebody may even read it!  I painted this yesterday (it's roughly 6 x 10 inches) while taking breaks from doing my income taxes.  I definitely needed the stress relief!  For whatever reason roses have been been inspiring me of late.  I have been trying to see how little I can put on paper and still suggest their beauty and fragility.  Here is another one ( a miniature 3 x 5 inches) I did a couple of weeks ago.  Hope you like them!