Hibiscus High

oil 8x16 inches magnify/purchase The landscaping in our neighborhood includes some big hibiscus bushes. A beautiful day, going for a walk, and BAM! Look at those flowers reaching up to that beautiful Southern California sky!!! I snapped a bunch of shots with my iphone, and here we have a painting. Hope you are having a wonderful summer. This might be for sale at a later date.

Nesbitt's

oil 8x8 inches magnify/purchase You might be too young to remember Nesbitt's orange soda. When I was about 19 I drove an orange Pinto around Orange County as a delivery driver for a reproduction company. It was a great summer job. I'd stop in a little market sometime during the day to grab a Nesbitt's and a candy bar. I do like orange. My spotlight made the orange glow, and that's what this painting is about. The brown drapery looked just right to me with the yellow and orange. Painting finished, I suddenly realized how 70's this painting is. I get a good feeling looking at this. Hope you do too. Now I'll go put a flower in my hair. For fellow painters out there: Painted with 4 colors: cad yellow light, cad red light, ultramarine blue and Twhite. All Utrect. Love that paint.

Strawberry & Old Stuff

oil 8x8 inches magnify/purchase Here's one of our locally grown juicy strawberries. They really are that red. The old bottle has some kind of white film inside it that glows when the light shines through.

Copper Pot

oil 8x8 inches magnify/purchase Back to my ledge series. With this piece I did something I rarely do. I painted it twice. The first go-around I didn't listen to that little voice in my head saying, "Might be too squeezed up top." I forged ahead, and right on through till at the end, sure enough, it's too squeezed up top. (It has to be either high or low, not in the center.) I was so happy with how the objects were painted, I couldn't bring myself to wipe it off. So I painted it all again, which to me, is torturous! I still like that first lemon. Need to get a ban saw, cut it out and glue it on the second painting! Ha!

Watercolor after Deschampe

watercolor 9x12 inches magnify/purchase In June I had a serious case of the blahs while struggling with various physical ailments. I thought I should be painting, but pity-partied instead. I remember hearing the master watercolorist, Milford Zornes say once, "If you have a physical condition, don't let that stop you from painting." He was nearly blind at the time from macular degeneration, bent over his full sheet of watercolor paper and painting from memory. I have no excuse. This watercolor was done when I had little energy to be creative, but just wanted to get a brush in my hand and move some paint around. I found an old Walter Foster oil painting book in my studio and thought it would be interesting to turn an oil into a watercolor. The original oil painting is by Gabriel Deschampe.

Fruit Stand Reds & Greens

watercolor 9x12 inches magnify/purchase "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!" This line from an old sports show came to mind. Last watercolor posted seemed so fun and effortless, with too much confidence I ventured outside this time for more fun....NOT! The heat got to me and dried everything too fast. So the lovely fruit stand items were overworked, and the tomato became a large sinister tomato monster, overpowering everything else. Still, I thought the set up had potential, so I gave it another try (inside) another day using my first painting as reference. I shrunk the tomato, left out a few cherries and moved an onion. The painting has life, but is still more heavy handed than the last one posted. Might be the deeper color scheme.