Climb Out of the Box

SOLD

Climb Out of the Box

11x14 Original oil on canvas

Degas Impressions

Degas Impressions

 

18x24 Original Oil on canvas

 

It is true. There is someone who feels as I do.

                                                  -Edgar Degas

Amber Waves of Grain

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Amber Waves of Grain

12x24 Original Oil on canvas

 

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

                                                    -Twyla Tharp

Autumn Walk

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Autumn Walk

12x24 Original Oil on canvas

 

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

Coneflower

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Coneflower

12x16 Oil on stretched canvas

The City That Never Sleeps

The City That Never Sleeps

22x28 Original Oil on stretched canvas

Part of City series

New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it - once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.

 

                           -John Steinbeck

Chi-town

  SOLD

Chi-town

 

22x28 Original Oil on stretched canvas

Part of City series

• Chicago


• Two years living in the windy city and it feels more like home that many places I've been before


• Drove all night to get to it at first. Delirious in the morning and didn't know a soul. I remember driving in on I-90 and seeing the city looming up, the traffic crunching in, space getting tighter. Falling into the midst of chaos, exit and then suddenly swallowed up in the heart of Chicago.


• Learning how to ride the L, red line, green line, brown line...best Indian food under the train tracks, $5 slice of pizza as big as your head from Bacci's


• The peace of running down N.Lake Drive by the lake, with the lights of the Hancock looming behind. You know they plant palm trees in the summer by the lake. HA. Then winter.


• Walking through the snow at night to talk to the homeless. I forgot to wear two pairs of socks that first night. I thought I got frostbite my feet hurt so bad. Walter sat at his usual spot at Ohio near Michigan. He held a sign saying "GOD IS GOOD". We were the ones doing "ministry" but HE preached to us about Jesus and told us he was a farmer planting seeds. So many of them, all with their spots, don't remember their names, all so happy to share a friendly chat while our bodies became numb.


• Michigan Ave, the Magnificent Mile. It is magnificent. Towering buildings, glittering shops. Beauty that amazing man created. Fascinating to think that part of it was originally lake and came into being through one squatter, Streeter, who stuck his boat on a sand bar, made land out of sand and garbage, invited more squatters to his "independent district" and fought off the authorities with guns and boiling water.


• Watching the tops of roofs with peeling paint and graffiti skim by. Riding the pink line out to Little Village, a slice of Latin America. New Life springing up. But more kids killed in shootings. And in Humboldt Park you have people like the Osgoods giving their lives to reach kids from broken homes, holding them back from the relentless pull of the gangs. Telling them they are loved and have futures.


• This city, so full, so rich. Fear, hope, exhilaration, endless stories, peace in chaos, growth. Wonderful.

The Poppy Field

PRIVATE COLLECTION

The Poppy Field

 

34x40 Oil on stretched canvas

• Thanks for being a fellow creator


• one who oozes art out of their fingertips, whose creativity can't be contained and must come out


• a fellow traveler, wanderer, wonderer


• one who holds onto the smallest beam of light in the darkness and waits for sunrise

3 New Commissions

I always like creating custom paintings. Here's a couple I've been working on lately.

Gentle and Strong-Original Modern Contemporary Elephant Oil Painting

Gentle and Strong

18x24 Original Oil on canvas

• truthful and gentle always shall my love be to you


• the ones who have learned to be gentle are the strongest


• an elephant's faithful...one hundred percent

Hum-Abstract Impressionism Hummingbird Oil Painting

 

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Hum

18x24 Original Oil on stretched canvas

• Back porch steps, late afternoon sun


• Birds flutter in the feeder


• I don't think I've ever seen a hummingbird land before. He sits on the clothesline


• Teeny tiny body. So fragile you could crush him in your hand.


• Why is it that all grandmothers seem to have learned to enjoy things like birds and flowers?

 

Derelict-Abstract Impressionism Abandoned Building Oil Painting

Derelict

24x36 Oil on canvas (Abstract Impressionism Abandoned Building Oil Painting)

• I drove for an hour to a finger of land amongst lake tendrils


• Back road photo of a rundown barn in a field


• I'm so tired, but if I can only get a good photo this will be worth it


• Forgotten barn, no trespassing


• Fading light, body tired, soul sore


• You may be abandoned but I found you


• Not alone

The Dam

PRIVATE COLLECTION

The Dam

24x36 Original Oil on stretched canvas

Something always brings me back to you. It never takes too long.

                                                               ~Sara Bareilles

 

This one goes to two special people! Sometimes you run into people that you immediately connect with. In my case those people are usually passer-byes. Why can't we all live in the same place?

Starting The Dam

Here is the start of The Dam. A fun semi-abstract painting! I'm planning on adding more texture but keep the colors subtle. I've been trying to find time to paint the past couple weeks but it just hasn't been possible. Next week I start working full-time so who knows when I'll have time!

Midnight Stroll

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Midnight Stroll

12x24 Original Oil on canvas

The darker the night, the brighter the stars.
The deeper the grief, the closer is God.
                                -Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment)

The Olive Tree

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The Olive Tree

24x36 Oil on canvas

Iris

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Iris

5x7 Oil on raymar panel

Umbrella

SOLD
Umbrella

12x12 Oil on canvas

Docked

SOLD

Docked

12x12 Oil on canvas

Sail Day

PRIVATE COLLECTION

Sail Day

12x12 Oil on canvas

Side by Side

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Side by Side

12x12 Oil on canvas

Clover

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Clover

24x24 Oil on canvas

By the Tracks

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By the Tracks

16x20 Oil on canvas

One does not always know what he can do, but he nevertheless instinctively feels, I am good for something! My existence is not without reason!...How can I be of use, how can I be of service? There is something inside me, but what can it be?
                   ~Van Gogh

Side of the Road

Blue Toadflax

Violet Wood-sorrel

Bachelor's Button

False Garlic

Crimson Clover

Lance-leaf Tickseed

SOLD

Side of the Road

Six 4x4 Oil on canvas

A tiny collection inspired by the roadside wildflowers that appear in spring and light up the grass with sparks of color.

Windblown

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Windblown

22x28 Oil on canvas

I can hear your whisper and distant mutter. I can smell your damp on the breeze and in the sky I see the halo of your violence. Storm I know you are coming.

                      ~Robert Fanney 

Things Wished For

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Things Wished For

11x14 Oil on canvas

If you are a dreamer come in
If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar
A hoper a prayer a magic-bean-buyer
If you're a pretender come sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in!
Come in!
                      ~Shel Silverstein

The Cellist

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The Cellist

4th in the Musician series
24x36 Oil on canvas

He stares at the cellist, and feels himself relax as the music seeps into him. He watches as the cellist's hair smooths itself out, his beard disappears. A dirty tuxedo becomes clean, shoes polished bright as mirrors...The building behind the cellist repairs itself. The scars of bullets and shrapnel are covered by plaster and paint, and windows reassemble, clarify and sparkle as the sun reflects off glass. The cobblestones of the road set themselves straight. Around him people stand up taller, their faces put on weight and color. Clothes gain lost thread, brighten, smooth out their wrinkles. Kenan watches as his city heals itself around him. The cellist continues to play...

                          ~Steven Galloway (The Cellist of Sarajevo)

The Guitarist

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The Guitarist

3rd in The Musicians series
24x36 Oil on canvas

The Musicians: In Progress

The Guitarist...half-way done.

The Pianist

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The Pianist

2nd in The Musicians series
24x36 Oil on canvas

"It broke over me," he said simply,
"I knew it would," said the man.
"Warm and gold," said Old Parson.
"Yes," said the man.

                ~Elizabeth Goudge (The Child From the Sea)

The Musicians: In progress

The Pianist
In progress...getting proportions right. When I do people I have to draw them out first. They are tricky but oh so great! 

Far, Far Away

SOLD
"Far, Far Away"
20x24 Oil on canvas.
Palette Knife

Lets let the wind whip our backs and the sun beat our faces...instead of all those other things.

Balloon 3

COMMISSION
11x14
Another Balloon for my little niece's b-day!

"Come fly with me. Let's float down to Peru."
                                    -Sinatra

The Fiddler

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The Fiddler

24x36 Oil on stretched canvas.
First painting in The Musicians series.

"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music." -Albert Einstein

Though famous for his work in physics Einstein was also a proficient violinist. 

Screech

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Screech
12x12 Oil on canvas
 Palette Knife

Plain and Simple

Plain and Simple

18x24 Oil on stretched canvas

I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.

-L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Avonlea)

Wild

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"Wild"
12x36 Oil on canvas

"Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn't expect."
                                                                              ~Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls)

Burn and Die

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"Burn and Die"

30x40 Oil on stretched canvas.

My hopes were heaven-high,

They are all fulfilled in you. 

I am the pool of gold

When sunset burns and dies.

 

                 -Sara Teasdale (Peace)

Going Dancing

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"Going Dancing"
12x12 Oil on stretched canvas

Brush and palette knife

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
                                                                             ~Nietzsche

Labradoodle

COMMISSION

Labradoodle
11x14 Oil on canvas