Boating Party 11x14 Acrylic

Taken from a photo of a boat out floating in the middle of the Mississippi River. They were listening to a concert going on in a park. I don't remember who was playing. Jazz I think. Some unusual cropping going on here. Probably a compositional no-no, but I did it anyway. 

End Of Winter 11x14 Acrylic

This is a view out my studio window. I really had fun painting this one. I just turned myself loose and went at it.

Kite Flyers 11x14 Acrylic

This is my cousin and his daughter flying a kite on their farm. I was up on a deck and was able to get a good view.

Daydreamer 11x14 Acrylic

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It's good to be in the right place at the right time. This is why I always have a camera handy. There is a park in downtown Davenport, Iowa along the banks of the Mississippi River where people hang out and get lost in the moment and in their own thoughts.

Out Beyond Utica Ridge 11x14 Acrylic

In the eastern part of Iowa, bluffs rise up from the Mississippi River and turn into rolling hills and then stretch out to the flat farmlands. Utica Ridge Road runs through these rolling hills. I sat up on the side of a lonely dirt road and painted this sketch. In the time I was painting, 45 minutes or so, three cars stopped to make sure everything was all right. I like this part of the country, I think it is the same everywhere, people care about one another. It is a real neighbor helping neighbor mentality out here.

Lady In Red 5x7 Acrylic

Lunch In The District 16x20 Acrylic

There is an area in downtown Rock Island, Illinois known as The District with shops, galleries and bistros like this one. I like to walk down here at noon in the summer when the weather is nice. There are always painting subjects everywhere you look.

Covered Bridge 16x20 Oil

Reached way back and yanked out an old one. Back in high school when I was working in oil. Please don't ask how long ago that was. Remember Laugh-in and Gunsmoke on TV, and not the reruns either. This was painted entirely with a palette knife. I came across it this afternoon stashed away behind a desk. Not for sale.

Brothers 12x16 Acrylic

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I posted this painting back in December as a work in progress and then forgot to post the finished work. Well, better late than never.

The Stars Look Down 24x30 Acrylic

I've always wanted to do a painting of a night scene looking into a lighted window. A heck of a challenge. The stars make us feel insignificant, but I think the stars are insignificant compared to a single life. This old house is directly across the street from my house. I may repaint the figure in the window, I'm not sure yet. If I do, I'll repost it. As hard as I tried, it didn't photograph as well as the original painting looks. 

Freedom From Fear 40x40 Water Soluable Oil

This is a painting from a few years back, much larger than my daily paintings. Not for sale.

Portrait Of My Mother 9x12 Watercolor

My mother is 89 years old now. I think it is fascinating that when she was born, World War I was still raging. When she was a little girl, she saw Charles Lindburg. Later in life, she saw John F. Kennedy. And still later, shook hands with President Clinton. She remembers the Great Depression. She remembers exactly where she was when she heard the news about both Pearl Harbor and 9/11. She raised three sons and buried one, the worst thing that could happen to a parent. I think our country should honor our elders more. They are a wealth of history. Not for sale.

Cork This! 8x10 Acrylic

I was at an Irish Festival listening to an Irish band. My mothers' maiden name is Ryan. My great aunt died on the boat trip over here from Ireland and was buried at sea. This lady had on this sweatshirt that said Cork This!, refering to County Cork, I assume, but I couldn't resist but get a picture. 

Ballet Teacher 4.5x7 Acrylic

Ziegfeld Girl No. 6 Acrylic 5x7

Painted on Multimedia Artboard, this Ziegfeld Girl is smaller than the others, which were painted on canvas. These are extremely good practice in portrait painting.

Beachsitter 5x7 Acrylic

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This is painted on Multimedia Artboard. I like this surface. I use the smoother side because the brush moves more quickly over it. On the right in the 'about me' section, I indicated that this blog is a search for me, and it certainly is. Doing art, after all, is a kind of baring of your soul. But I know the search in my personal art is to portray the pschological aspects of life using the physical form. This has always been my interest in making art and looking at art.

Ziegfeld Girl No.2 Acrylic 11x14

SOLD

Ziegfeld Girl No.1 Acrylic 11x14

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I love portraits. The landscape of the face fascinates me. Here is a woman whose only history I know is a photograph, but she lived, grew up, loved and had all the heartaches we all experience. I wonder what her life was like.

Charity Cat 5x7 Watercolor

It's Charity's world and I'm just living in it. When she gets this wild look in her eyes, I know she's going to be in my lap in a second. And it doesn't matter what I have on my lap at the time, even a palatte full of paint won't stop her. Then it's off to the bathtub to wash paint off her paws. She just loves that. I have the scars to prove it.

This is watercolor on bristol board. I couldn't resist the way the camera distorted everything when I took the picture looking straight down on Charity, so I decided to exploit it. There are water bottles and paintings in the room I use as a studio.

Lincoln 5x8 Charcoal

I love Lincoln. Not the Lincoln on the penny and the five dollar bill, but Lincoln the human being. In a life time full of suffering, he had the sense of humor to laugh whenever he could, often at himself. When you look up 'life ain't fair' in the dictionary. that's where Lincoln's picture ought to be.

Girl With Camera 9x12 Acrylic

I like these monotone paintings. They remind me of some of the illustrations inside the Saturday Evening Post and other magazines. Sometimes monotone drawings and paintings appeared to illustrate stories in place of full color illustrations. I always thought they held a certain charm.

In Line 9x12 Acrylic

This is a drawing done with paint. A painted drawing. It is acrylic using only burnt umber and white. The woman was in line at a concession stand at an art festival. I couldn't resist the dress and black shoes.

Trisha 11x14 Acrylic

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Trisha is a friend who I have known for a while. She was wearing this wonderful black dress. I asked her to pose for me. She sat down and struck this pose and that was that.

Imaginary Landscape 12x16 Acrylic

Sitting down at a blank canvas can be very intimadating. If you let it. The hardest part is the first brushstroke. After that, one brushmark flows into another and an image begins to take form, and then you have something that you begin to sculpt and correct as an image emerges. Then it is a cycle of putting in and taking out until you have said what you wanted to say. The hardest part is always getting past your own fear.

Intuition 11x14 Acrylic

This painting is a departure for me. The painting is entirely out of my head. No model and no references used. I am looking for work that is meaningful, personal. The portraits are very meaningful for me, but I am searching for that inner voice I know is there when I look at a blank canvas. I am listening to that still, small voice of intuition that I hear whispering Imagination, Spirituality, Poetry.

Tonya 24x30 Water Soluable Oil

Long before she was married, Tonya told me I was going to paint her portrait in her wedding dress. So I knew what my assignment was when the time came. She is another on top of my favorite people list. In fact, she is Hallie's sister. I have been painting both of them since they were ankle biters. Her husband is in the Air Force and just got back from Iraq. Not for sale.

Hallie In Florida 11x14 Acrylic

Hallie is top of my favorite people list. I have been painting her since she was crawling on all fours. She recently told me she hated posing when she was little. I said, 'Why didn't you say something?' Not for Sale.

Outlook 5x8 Watercolor

SOLD

I like the mood of this painting. A young girl looking out on the waters of the Mississippi River lost in thought over who knows what? Her current situation? Her future? A crisis in her life? I often think when I look at people about what expereinces they have had in their lives that have shaped them, and continue to shape them, into who they are. People are endlessly fascinating to me.

Shading The Sun 9x12 Acrylic

It was a bright, chilly morning and this lady was holding a piece of paper up to shade the sun from her eyes. She glanced in my direction just as I snapped a picture. These are the moments in time that I love to capture in paint.

Up On A Pedestal 8x10 Acrylic

SOLD