Canyon Country Oil on board, 7"x5" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. Backlit Chamisa bushes in the mesa and canyon country of southern Utah, near Lake Powell. I love spending time in the silence and solitude of that vast landscape.

Memory 7 Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Memory 3 Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD A common sight in the Oregon valley where I grew up: cattle in their thick winter coats being fed hay against a stark backdrop of windbreak willows.

Memory 6 Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD This is another of my "Memory" series. I introduced the first-- a painting of my daughter wading in a stream--on the May 21 post. It may seem like the wrong time of the year to be painting snowscapes, but I felt compelled to do this one. It's enjoyable and challenging working from these old poor-quality Polaroids I took many years back and trying to recreate my memories of what it felt like to be there. These old sheds collapsed long ago.

From the studio wall:

"My different styles must not be seen as an evolution, or as steps toward an ideal. Everything I have ever made was made for the present and with the hope that it would always remain in the present."

-Pablo Picasso


"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

-Walt Whitman, Song of Myself


"On the whole, money does artists much more good than harm. The idea that one benefits from cold water, crusts and debt collectors is now almost extinct, like belief in the reformatory power of flogging."

--Robert Hughes

"Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes."

–Annie Dillard in The Writing Life


"The sound of the water says what I think."

-- Chuang Tzu

Shell Series #7 Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

SoCal Oil on board, 7"x5" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD This is pure southern California to me: a Modernist-style beach house beneath the swaying palms, glowing in the sunlight.

Borrego Jumble Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US.

San Miguel Fountain Oil on board, 7"x5" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Slice of Light Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US.

Dryland Morning Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Memory 1
Oil on board, 5"x7", NOT FOR SALE

I decided to squeeze in another posting here before Monday's official one. I painted this for our daughter Melissa's 33rd birthday, May 18th. Here she is at about the age of 10. She'll always be this age to me (any parent will know what I mean.) This is the first of a series of paintings I've been working on I call the "Memory" series. Most are based on photos I've taken long ago with cheap plastic Kodak cameras or Polaroids. The photos are very poor quality--a blessing that forces me to rely on my memories and less on the literal source image. I am loving rummaging around in my head trying to recall and make resonant those far-off visions.

A new painting will post tomorrow. More quotes from my studio wall:

"The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."

--John Muir


"The bluebird carries the sky on his back."

--Henry David Thoreau


"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed."

--Storm Jameson


"I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart."

-- ee cummings

Trickle Through Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Water Lilies Oil on board, 7"x5" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Onshore Breeze Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Cellphone Watercolor on paper, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US.

Walker/Surfer Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD Even on a crowded shore, the ocean has a way of putting us into our own serene, contemplative worlds. I've noticed that surfing is actually quite a solitary activity, as is beachcombing.

Keeper's House Oil on board, 7"x5" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD One of my favorite places, Yaquina Head lighthouse on the Oregon Coast. We visited this past summer on a trip down Pacific Coast Highway. The whitewashed walls were gleaming in the bright sunlight of this cloudless day.

I'll post again Monday. Here's some more quotes:

"For me, art shouldn't be a fixed idea that I have before I start making it. I want it to include all the fragility and doubt that I go through the day with. Sometimes I'll take a walk just to forget whatever good idea I had that day because I like to go into the studio not having any ideas..."

--Robert Rauschenberg


"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

--Hans Hoffman


"...I could imagine, as the years went on, my body becoming something outside of myself, something to cheer on, an old friend who is huffing up the hill on a bicycle."

Jane Hamilton, from "A Map of the World."


"...I noticed the wide open screen door. I stopped because my feet suddenly felt like two flabby pink erasers."

Jane Hamilton, from "A Map of the World."

Still Water, Yosemite Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD The river bars in Yosemite are this wonderful white decomposed granite, eroded from the towering walls of rock that loom above the valleys. What a magical place.

Antique Vase Oil on board, 7"x5" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. This large coil-built vase sat on the back porch of my parent's home for years. I'm told it is very old and likely Chinese-made. I love it's rich brown color and rippling surface.

Small Pine Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

The Frenchman Oil on board, 7"x5" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD This is actually a French housepainter's sash brush. I love the look of this brush even more than I like painting with it, especially that beautiful copper ferrule.

Coastal Fog Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Tin Roof Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

I'll post a new painting Monday. Here's a few more quotes:

"Nowhere in the American national character is there as deep a divide as that between our reverence for 'unspoiled' nature and our enduring devotion to 'progress.' "

--Joel Garreau, in Edge City.


"I always saw better when my eyes were closed."

--Tom Waits


"Everything is miraculous. It is a miracle that one does not melt in one's bath."

--Pablo Picasso


"Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you."

--Annie Dillard

Ocean Waves #6 Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Pelican Flight Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD Brenda and I are planning to move to eastern Oregon soon. We're looking forward to it in many ways but one of the things we'll miss is being near the ocean. We've been spending as much time as possible at the beach and of course I've been painting it. These are very straightforward views--horizontal patterns of wave and sometimes a strip of sand. I'm interested in paring them down to essences, and in exploring the incredible changing light.

The Walking Path Oil on board, 6"x6" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Thanks to Dan over at EmptyEasel.com for featuring my blog in a very nice article today. Take a look at his site, it's full of information for artists and art enthusiasts alike. Don't miss the opinion articles in the archives.

Work Gloves Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD

Clear and Crisp Oil on board, 5"x7" $125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US. SOLD