A narrative painting about intersecting lives.
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Sunday, August 3, 2025
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Symphony in Orange and Green
Another work in progress, I nearly gave up on this one. It has turned around, though, and I may end up really liking it.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Tokyo Rococo
This is a work in progress. The challenge will be when to stop. Updated 8/3/2025: Now it's done.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Pam
Here's another portrait study taken from the BBC's Portrait Artist of the Year. The sitter was Pam Hogg, a British clothing designer. She was an interesting subject, which everyone picked up on. I'm thinking of doing a larger portrait of her from the same angle. We'll see...
Monday, July 14, 2025
White Hydrangea
I rarely do still life paintings, but I came upon an early Matisse still life of flowers in a vase and felt compelled to do one.
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Portrait of Monica
This is a portrait sketch of the Italian actor Monica Belluci. I've painted her before from this same image, but this one was done fairly quickly, and I liked the green showing through in the lower part of her face and in the upper right of her forehead.
Monday, July 7, 2025
Head Series #2
Here's the second head done from imagination with the self-imposed time limitation of 30 minutes.
Monday, June 30, 2025
Head Series #1
This is a challenge I've set myself to paint a series of imaginary portraits, each in under 30 minutes. This is the first one.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Coit Tower at Dusk
This is another in a series of urban scenes I've been painting lately, done mostly with a palette knife. Updated 8/1/2025: I toned down some of the oranges to draw more attention to the tower.
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Floodlights
Another palette knife study of a somewhat abstracted cityscape in the rain. Just playing with abstract elements within a cityscape.
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Sacto
A painting of downtown Sacramento. I did it primarily for the warm color palette.
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Emily
One of my favorite shows to watch is the BBC's Portrait Artist of the Year. I decided to paint one of the sitters as an exercise. The competition for each portrait is what can be accomplished in four hours. I spent 3.5 hours on this one. It could be good practice to do more of these, since many of the sitters are unfamiliar to me. Emily is an award-winning singer/songwriter based in the U.K. I thought she had a regal bearing and I liked the three-quarter angle. Updated 5/29/2025: I changed the background a wee bit with an overlay of lavender.
Monday, May 19, 2025
Facade
This is the finished painting of an abstract that I started way back when, then consigned it to the time-out room forever. Patience.
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Fierce
A portrait of a young Choctaw Indian woman. I found her stare compelling.
Thursday, May 8, 2025
A Heart of Gold
This painting has been in the making for a while. It was a slow process as I sat with it and pondered how I wanted to paint it and what I wanted to say through it. I'm happy with the result.
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Saturday, May 3, 2025
Monday, April 28, 2025
Yellow Frock
This was an exercise in relinquishing control. Sometimes you just need a reminder . . .
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Sunday, April 20, 2025
The Unfolding Flower
A painting of a rose in closeup as it unfolds its petals. I've done this before but thought I'd try it again because of its abstract quality. Plus, I was jonesing to paint in reds, a color I find challenging to get right.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Hip Hop Hooray!
Monday, April 7, 2025
Flippers
This painting presented an interesting conundrum. I originally painted it in landscape format, which would have rotated this image 90 degrees counterclockwise. However, I found it a bit disconcerting to paint it in that format, so I flipped it to portrait format, which is the way you are seeing it. I had painted another pair of swimmers in 2023, called "Floaters," and this one is the next incarnation visiting this theme. I find these narrative two paintings quite amusing. Updated 4/9/2025: I decided I like it better in landscape format, which is how I originally meant it to be. Works just fine this way.