Elaine 12x16 Acrylic

Snow Melt 11x14 Acrylic

Available on ebay.

Nature supplies so many abstract shapes and designs. We miss so much running from one place to another. This is abstract realism. There is something poetic about the patterns of nature. Like the poetry of Robert Frost.

Gray Day 9x12 Acrylic

Available on ebay.

I am primarily a people painter, but I really want to paint more landscapes. But I don't need to tell anyone north of the equator that it's cold out there!

Logan 8x10 Acrylic

Sold

This is my grand-newphew Logan. One of the two most handsome babies ever! (So I am a little biased!) His cousin Landon was born just a few days before.

Becca 12x16 Acrylic

Becca posed this evening at painting class. This was a 3 hour pose.

Black Dress 11x14 Acrylic

SOLD

Trish Revisited 16x20 Acrylic

I like painting Trish. For some reason, I always get her likeness. She posed for the Tuesday evening class.

Dreamer 16x20 Acrylic

This is Celeste again. This pose and her face have a very Pre-Raphealite quality. That's what I like about this painting. This was painted from life. I am not sure it is done yet. I may work on it more.

October Evening (detail) 16x20 Acrylic

When I paint, I love to capture the moment. And what is life after all, but a series of moments. When I paint, I am most focused on the moments. Life is fragile, isn't it.

Untitled-In Progress 24x30 Acrylic

This painting is in progress. It is a large painting, 24x30, so there are a lot of details yet to be worked out! But it is fun working this large! I will post the painting again when it is finished. I think it is going to end up with many more changes!

Rivers Edge 11x14 Acrylic

I can't offer this painting for sale because I don't know of its whereabouts. Sometimes when I go to paint, I will use an existing canvas that has a nice painting on it, but some little thing bugs me about it, so I create another painting! I think this painting is somewhere under a thin layer of paint! Thankfully, I did take a photo of it. Looking at it again, I wish I would have worked out the bugs! It does have a spiritual quality about it.

Celeste 11x14 Acrylic

When I look at Celeste, she very much reminds me of the "Girl With A Pearl Earring', the girl in the famous painting by Vermeer. Maybe I will paint Celeste in a similar manner.

Russian Lady 16x20 Acrylic

$195. (includes shipping)

She posed for a painting session one Tuesday evening. I asked her what nationality she is? She simply said, 'I am Russian. I am Jewish.'

Far Away 16x20 Acrylic

Available on ebay

Well, 2009 is behind us! And it kicked my southernmost regions! 2010 offers better prospects. I am not complaining, I am working in healthcare which has many rewards of it's own! Unfortunately, one of the rewards isn't offering time to paint and to be consistent about it. Life being what it is, and responsibilities being what they are, time has to be taken to do what you love. And what can I say, I love painting. The model for this painting is Celeste, an excellent artist in her own right! And an excellent model as well!!

Tammy 16 x 20 Acrylic

Yes, I am still alive. This year has been an uphill climb. Enough said. This is a painting of Tammy from the other night. I am posting it today in honor of her birthday!!

Empty Frame 9x12 Acrylic

SOLD

I wanted to take an object and see if I could make a visually exciting composition.

Celeste 16x20 Acrylic

Beth Painting 11x14 Acrylic

SOLD

On my last post, I mentioned I had a lousy cold, and I did! It went away, but what replaced it was a sense of exhaustion that lasted a month. The only time I wasn't tired was when I was sleeping! So I just dragged myself around to work and then back home. I figured I caught something working in healthcare. Funny, you run into a lot of sick people working in healthcare. Go figure. Anyway, here is a painting from an outing with students. I liked the way Beth was sitting on her foot, painting, oblivious to everything but her work.

Available on DailyPainters.com.

Kelly 11x14 Acrylic

I haven't posted much in June due to my ever changing work schedule (which is finally settling down) and catching a lousy cold (as opposed to a nice cold), such is life. This was painted last night at acrylic class. It was a 3 hour pose, but I reached this point in 2 hours and a fellow artist said it was pure poetry, so I left the building for a while so I wouldn't go back into it and paint the poetry out of it.

Peaceful Afternoon 16x20 Acrylic

$225.

Working outside all afternoon, the conditions changed constantly from sunny to cloudy and back to sunny again. It made for interesting light dancing on the water.

Arleen 16x20 Acrylic

From life drawing class last night in Davenport, Iowa.

Wine And Roses 9x12 Acrylic

$45. + shipping

As artists, I think most of us are in the same circumstance, except for a fortuate few, who have to increase our income through so called 'regular jobs'. This causes a regular tug-of-war between making the regular pay check and making art. It really isn't bad unless we sometimes forget that the reason we are making the regular pay check is so we can make the art. Everything must be kept in persceptive.

This painting is available using Paypal on Daily Painters.com.

Trish 16x20 Acrylic

Every once in a while, a painting comes along that, when upon completion, makes one stop and wonder how each step came in line to bring about the finished work. This is such a painting for me. It was painted in a 3 hour life drawing session. It approaches what I want to accomplish in my art.

Mary 16x20 Acrylic

I hate to leave my blog for long periods of time, but life keeps coming at you. It is what it is. There has to come a time when you must dig in your heels and simply say 'ENOUGH OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD' and paint. The past year and a half has been very turbulant. This is not an excuse, or a pity party, but it is a reason for a lack of consistency. There are many artists who are no longer artists because life and responsibilities chew up all available time. Artists simply find a way to go on or they don't. I have no intention of entering into the 'they don't' category.

Mary sat before a group of students during a painting demostration.

Nancy's Rose 36x48 Acrylic

This month, I have been working really big. This painting was a battle in the making, but it was still fun. Not for Sale

Hallie's Rose 36x48 Acrylic

This painting is a far cry from my usual paintings in both subject and size. But it was a lot of fun to paint. I loved working so big after working relatively small for a long time. Not for sale.

Natalie 16x20 Acrylic

This is from life drawing last night at Bucktown.

Teanna 8x10 Acrylic

On my blog profile, I mentioned that painting is a search. Well, life is also a search. The pieces seldom just fall into place. This is one of my biggest challenges as a Daily Painter. Life keeps coming at you, and one must weave this way and that. This past year, I have been doing a lot of weaving, hoping that everything works itself out. Life turns the way it turns. To make goals work out, one must really work for it, and it doesn't always come easy. But we don't hang it there and paint because it comes easy, we paint because we love to paint.

My entries from the last year have not been consistent because it has been a transitional season in my life. For this I apologise. Soon my schedule will do something it hasn't done in a long time. It will make sense.

Blue & Violets 11x14 Acrylic

In a biography of Doc Holliday (not known for his quotes), he said something very profound, 'There is no such thing as a normal life, there is just life.' I couldn't agree more. I keep waiting for normal, but I have this feeling it isn't going to show up. I guess we just better proceed with what we have.

Brown Dress 16x20 Acrylic

I love working before the live model. You have to stay focused. Color and brushes moving rapidly to cover the canvas because time is running, and soon the moment will be ending.