God rest ye merry gentle-person.

This is as close to an alter as I have right now... Pictured clockwise, an evergreen bamboo plant, my 'Andy the Red Nosed Warhola' ornament, one of my favorite Windham Hill Winter's Solstice CDs from the early 90s, an improvised bookmark, a lovely candle I got last Christmas, and some pressed cottonwood leaves, all surrounding an old Buddha sculpture, with paper beads from Africa given to me by a friend who has passed, and a Knit hat made by my old girlfriend Junebug when we were twenty-one.

Red Sun

Red Sun – 18"x14" – Acrylic on canvas

I went thru many iterations on this piece, most of which are still present in the finished piece. Venturing into new teritories with this work. It is a veil of swirling sub atomic particles, above and merging with a landscape reduced to is most elemental forms. All you need is... a horizontal line and a circle (and ...love).

Thirty years ago today

It doesn't seem like that long ago that the wall came down. Everyone was excited. A blow for freedom. Heady days. Some enterprising souls were selling pieces and I just had to have one! 

Fifty years ago

...BTW from an event that happened 20 years before that, you can now buy pieces of the stage from Woodstock! Click: https://www.peaceofstage.com/

Winter Sunset on the Highline

( Winter Sunset on the Highline – 7x5 – Acrylic on canvas board )

 Snow underfoot,

near the end of the day,

the shadows lengthened,

and I turned my face

toward home.

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 
                                    – – Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, 

Borderlands 1

Borderlands 1 – 8x8 – Mixed media on cream colored paper

The genesis for Borderlands 1 came from a dream. Or actually from the borderlands between sleep and waking. It came to me in the briefest of moments. As I came awake, I blinked, and the image flashed in my mind's eye for just a split second. No time to focus to really record it consciously. The painting is just a fleeting memory in graphite, colored pencil and acrylics.

Study for Vertical Veil Stripe Sculpture

( Proposed sculpture – Wood, aluminum, concrete, paint – Approximately 6 x 11 x 1 ft. )

( Drawing on paper – 8.5 x 5.5" ) 

Another piece that never saw the digital or literal light of day... This is a first idea sketch for a proposed outdoor sculpture. Using 6 or 8 foot tall 4x4" verticals from pine or hollow aluminum. Painted in enamel or acrylics varnished in polyurethane. Mounted on pyramid shaped concrete blocks (similar to footers for decking) painted black. Envisioned varying number of verticals grouped in a straight line, circle or semi-circle. I try to constantly evolve my abstract work. Here taking the Striped Veil concept into three dimensions...

Denver Arts Week, Nov. 1–9, 2019, is a nine-day celebration of all things art in The Mile High City, featuring more than 300 events at a wide variety of art galleries, museums, theaters and concert halls, many of which are deeply discounted. For more info click HERE.

Happy Halloween

Freesias

Freesias – 12x9 – Acrylic on panel – Click here to bid – Starting at $250

Happy Halloween! This is a now finished demonstration painting I did for an art talk and demo for the Windsor Gardens Art Club here in Denver earlier this month. Freesias are one of my most favorite flowers. I love their graceful arching stem, and their fragrance is intoxicating. Native to the East African continent, they come in a variety of colors, but I thought this rusty, fall hued cluster would be apropos for my October demo.

'Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. I'm chasing the merest sliver of color... I want to grasp the intangible... Color, any color, lasts for a second, sometimes three or four minutes at most. What to do, what to paint in three or four minutes? They're gone, you have to stop... Ah, how painting makes me suffer!'

– – Monet quotes from wall signage at the Denver Art Museum's: Claude Monet – The Truth of Nature exhibit

Monet is in the House

An exhibit of Claude Monet's paintings opened this week at the Denver Art Museum. I was fortunate to get a walk in ticket on the second day. The show spans every decade of his career, from his early caricatures to his late waterlily paintings when his vision was affected by cataracts. The work to me is very uplifting and I spent over 4 hours there despite the overwhelming crowds. The exhibit designers wisely included a looping soundtrack of an orchestral version of Eric Satie's Gymnopedie No.1 to sooth the masses.  When I was in Boston the MFA hosted a Monet Series exhibit in 1989. Many of the works from those series are included here. It has been a long time for me, but I'm happy to say the drought has ended! I'm planning to visit many more times. Denver is the only stop for this exhibit in the US and runs thru February 2nd, 2020. For more info about Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, visit:  http://denverartmuseum.org

Random   1979 – 2019

Random 1979 – 30x40 – Mixed media

I wanted to note the anniversary of a work I did 40 years ago this month. I had gone back to school at Metro State College (now a University) here in Denver. I was in Robert Mangold's sculpture class and had been musing on the theme of Connect-the-Dots for a while and was trying to push the concept as far was I could. I was a huge fan of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's who had erected the big orange Valley Curtain near Rifle, CO 7 years earlier. Like him I wanted to involve as many people as I could in the art making process and also work in a scale beyond the boundaries of a museum or gallery. I decided on the theme of a 'random' drawing (I had done several other more figurative pieces). I fashioned 100 - 6" circles out of Masonite, an I/8" thick untempered MDF board. Painted them black and stenciled white numbers on each one. Over 3 days, October 15, 16 & 17, in front of the Auraria campus library, I handed the 'dots' out to anyone who wanted to participate. (The red dot in the middle indicates the origin of the drawing at the library near downtown Denver). To document, I recorded everyone's name address and phone number, plotting each dot at their address on a USGS map of Denver and the Front Range. My intent was to reconnect with the participants once a year to see how the drawing changed as people moved over time. One individual told me he kept his in his car so he was changing the drawing all the time! Alas, this was in the days long before the internet, and tracking down each of the 100 students proved to be a futile endeavor. So the piece stands alone, and I can only imagine how it has evolved over the years. Christo's Curtain took 28 months to create and only lasted 28 hours before it was torn apart by the wind. My piece is also in the wind, but I like to think its still going. I did meet Christo and Jeanne-Claude the following year when they did an artist in residence at Colorado State University. Also in 1980 this piece was included in an exhibit of artists using maps, entitled cARTography at the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Christo and William T Wiley were also in the show. Random has never seen the digital 'light of day', so I present it to you here, 40 years on...

Keiko's Reign

Keiko's Reign – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

This piece could also be titled Keiko's Rain with the gauzy, streaked look of the grey veil. But there is something musical about this work as well, with the multi colored calligraphic 'notes' dancing across horizontal ledger lines. Perhaps its because of all the baroque concerti I've been listening to lately...

SOLD    Nearing Nirvana

Nearing Nirvana – 15x45 – Acrylic on canvas

This piece set a high watermark for price paid for one of my paintings. For this, I am very grateful. The reclining Buddha is an image I've always loved. It depicts that moment at the end of his earthly life when he was no longer able to sit upright and meditate, he layed down before going into Mahaparinirvana, the ultimate state of Nirvana, an everlasting state of peace and happiness, free of karma and rebirth. 

"You don't have to be in the right state of mind to paint or create. It's what puts you in the right state of mind. 
It fixes you. It's like the magic elixir." –– Alyson Khan

Arizona Falls

Arizona Falls – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

This one started out as another piece in the Veil series, but morphed into a color field piece. A recollection of the shimmering mirage of Arizonan hues: rusty reds, gold and greens hanging on for dear life in this wondrous desert scape. A companion to Spring Cleaning, Stand in the Fire with Me and Wabi Sabi. Please see the abstract page on my website, click here.

"The future has arrived. 
It's just not widely distributed yet." –– Unknown

The Foggy, Foggy Dew

The Foggy, Foggy Dew – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

Sometimes paintings don't go the way you originally planned. This one was a case in point. One of the best underpainting I've ever done and it gets almost totally obscured by the veil. Sometimes we see thru the glass darkly. As Neil Gaiman describes the creative process, its like driving thru the fog with one headlight out! 

“We don’t paint our feelings, we FEEL and paint.”  
                                                                                                                                                –– Michele Cassou

Pebbled Path

Pebbled Path – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

Still within the Veil Series, exploring new color palettes. The title comes from the way the painting looks and the way life sometimes is. Not always a smooth path. I'm enjoying the cooler mornings lately, crunching along the very finely graveled runners path next to the Highline Canal Trail that is just outside my door. You rarely have to travel far for inspiration.

11:11 –  I Am One

11:11  I Am One – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

Another in the theme of the Veil. This time on an 11x11 grid with the dots spaced roughly one inch apart. The title for the piece comes from the two times a day when it's 11:11. I see the numbers as being in alignment, all one(s). And so it is with myself that I am, we are, in alignment and one with our higher self. This is just a reminder for me of the truth of being.

A quote by Toni Morrison  (1931-2019)

"I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom."  

Blue Green Veil Two

Blue Green Veil Two – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

The second in this series has a distinctly different feel. It is looser and rather than predominantly warmer colors in the background, I've introduced some cooler temperature colors, Dioxazine Purple and a lot of Napthol Crimson which vibrates well with the green.

Blue Green Veil One

Blue Green Veil One – 12x12 – Acrylic on canvas sheet

Another in the Veil series. All my abstracts seem to fall into that category. This is the first one however using a teal hued veil. The others all being white, buff or black. A whole new horizon of color possibilities has opened up.

Melon-Cow-Ly @ Core's WOW Exhibit
August 2nd – August 25th

My recent painting Melon-Cow-Ly will be on display at Core New Art Space's inaugural exhibit "Wide Open Whatever" at their new location 6852 W. Colfax in Lakewood, CO 80214. The Grand opening coincides with the 40 West Arts District Art Crawl on Friday August 2nd from 6-9pm. The exhibit will run thru August 25th. Gallery Hours are Friday 12-5, Saturday and Sunday 12-5. For more information, please visit coreartspace,com or call 303-297-8428.

“We do not see things as they are. 
  We see them as we are.”   — The Talmud

Contiguous Forty-Eight

(Acrylic on canvas sheet – 12x12)

Contiguous Forty-Eight gets its name from the underpainting connecting all the elipses. And of course there are 48 of them. Like the lower 48 states. We are all connected. More similar than not. Cut from the same cloth...

The diagonal underpainting echos my earlier Veil Squares, only the color isn't as saturated and is much more loosely rendered giving the work a fresh, energetic appearance that looks like its in a state of becoming. 

Namaste. 

80 Days Around the World

(Acrylic on canvas sheet – 12x12)

It has been awhile since my last abstract. A continuation of the Veil Series. This time using a more rounded motif. This merges my love of Roy Lichtenstein's Ben Day dots and the colorfield painters. This piece is only 12x12, but I envision it in a much larger format, and hope to get to work on more soon... (The canvas sheets I use are a light weight, medium textured acrylic primed canvas, not paper, made by Fredrix and comes as a Canvas Pad, which I cut into the square format.) I almost always use the square format for my abstracts. In college I noticed American impressionist Childe Hassam used square canvases a lot, which is unusual for a landscape painted of that era, I admired his work and began using that configuration more in my compositions.

Auf Wiedersehen Beetle

Sadly, yesterday, after 81 years, the Volkswagen Beetle, "the People's Car", passed into history as the last one rolled off the assembly line at Puebla, Mexico. Over 21 million of the Type 1 above were produced, surpassing Henry Ford's Model T, in 1972, as the most produced vehicle ever. Which does not include the two iterations of the New Beetle. Although I've only owned a 65 Bus and a 79 Rabbit, I've had many adventures in friend's Bugs. I'm sad to see them go, but I still get to see one almost  every day. In our communal garage, my German neighbor still has a rare orange 73 with an automatic transmission which she bought new, parked next to my car. 
So long old friends, it won't be the same without you...

"We are a landscape of all we have seen." -- Isamu Noguchi

Sidewalk Yin Yang

Acrylic on Canvas board – 7x5 – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $100

I was out for my morning constitution the day after a strong thunder boomer rolled through. My path was strewn in places with a multitude of leaves. These two in particular caught my eye.

Interior with Landscape

( Acrylic on Canvas board – 8x8 – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $150 )

Where I'm house sitting they have a beautiful minimalist landscape painting (artist unknown) sitting on a credenza, leaning against the wall. So I decided to do an interior 'plein air still life' of the scene viewed from the dinning room table. Without the lamp's shadow on the painting it almost feels like you're looking out a window at a rural countryside with a horizon rising up to meet a pale pink sky. Fortunately Wallace, the inquisitive kitty, allowed me a few unimpeded moments to complete the piece.

Ketring Meadow

( Acrylic on Canvas board – 6x8 – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $125 )

I've been house sitting in Littleton, CO and on my morning walk came across this sunlit meadow amongst the trees in nearby Ketring Park and just had to capture it en Plein air!

Compersion.

I learned a new word this week: Compersion. I thought it was a typo at first, but I found, according to Wikipedia, it means... "The feeling of joy one has experiencing another's joy." Contrasting with Jealousy or Schadenfreude, the gaining of pleasure from someone else's misfortune. Too much of that going on in the world! So now I have a word that describes the feeling I have when seeing someone enjoy my artwork or getting some really nice comments online or in person. Thank you all and namaste.

I found it in a book at the library that is a compilation from the webcomic - Kimchi Cuddles by Tikva Wolf, who is a freelance author and illustrator focusing on the topics of healthy communication and relationship dynamics. Her work is used as an aid by therapists and educators, and has been translated into several languages.

Click here to learn more.

Happy 1st Day of Summer!

Where the Bunnies Are

( Acrylic on panel – 6x6 – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $100 )

I love my early morning walks on the Highline Canal trail. Listening to the birdsong, seeing the light on the trees and the land. And spotting the occasional deer or fox, and of course the ever present little cottontail bunnies hopping all over the place, sharing their habitat with us. Always brings a smile.

Melon-cow-ly

( Acrylic on board – 6x6 – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $100 )

As summer draws near and the temperatures rise I get a hankering for sweet, sweet watermelon. I got an organic mini and combined it with an expandable accordion cow toy I've had for a while and been wanting to use in a painting. Et voila: Melon-cow-ly.

Happy Father's Day!

This is a drawing of our dad we found when my brother Paul and I were going through the last box of our mom's stuff a couple months ago. Interestingly neither of them ever mentioned its existence! They were married for two weeks when the Korean War broke out and President Harry Truman extended everyone's tour of duty an additional year. We believe the drawing was done while he was in Korea, and I was just a twinkle in his eye...

Michelangelo's Father

Snowball Sunrise

( 5x7 – Acrylic on canvas board – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $100 )

I went out for my cardio work and was greeted along the trail by this beautiful snowball bush glowing in the raking light and shadows of the morning sun. 

"Seek art and abstraction in nature by dreaming in the presence of it..." -- Paul Gauguin

Dream Catcher

( 6x6 – Acrylic on board – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $100 )

Dream catchers are believed to have originated from the Ojibwa Chippewa and Lakota nations. The Ojibwe word for dreamcatcher asabikeshiinh, means "spider," referring to the woven web inside the hoop. As the Ojibwe people continued to grow and spread out across the land, The Spider Woman, co-creator of all humanity, found it difficult to continue to protect and watch over all the members of the tribe as they migrated farther and farther away. This is why she created the first dreamcatcher. Many Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams, both good and bad. When hung above the bed, good dreams pass through the web and gently slide down the feathers to comfort the sleeper below. Bad dreams are caught and dissolved by the light of day. Following her example, mothers and grandmothers create them to protect their families. Mine came from my Aunt Katie who is my godmother. I have attached to it feathers from the flicker woodpecker and the blue jay. Flickers are a symbol of spring and renewed hope for me, as they return at this time every year and tap out a message from nearly every stove pipe, gutter and tree trunk in the neighborhood seeking to attract the perfect mate. Hope springs eternal. Sweet dreams!

ie: Spring Cleaning 
Please always remember and don't ever forget...

(Ladies, please look away!)

Spring cleaning got you down bubby?

Here's some wisdom from ol' Uncle Eddie to post on your 'fridge from mine!

Spring Cleaning

( 16x16 – Acrylic on canvas board )

I did this painting over a month ago after I sold three other abstracts, but have been kinda busy with the Plein air stuff while the trees were blooming. It was in the 80's this week, but it's supposed to snow again tonight into tomorrow, so that will be the end of them for this year. In case you were wondering, the latest recorded snow date for Denver is June 12th! So not out of the woods yet...

Here it is about a month from summer and my spring cleaning gene is finally starting to kick in. I recently got a couch and that necessitated rearranging the living room, and somehow that mission has expanded to my include studio and office area. Yoikes! Moving bookcases,  stereo habitats and art supplies is a gargantuan undertaking. But compared to those folks on Netflix's Marie Kondo series, I consider myself fortunate. I think I only inherited the pack rat gene from one side of the family!

I love color field painting and this work fits nicely into that genre as well as my veil series.

Dandelion Rain  (Plein air & studio)

( 6x8 – Acrylic on canvas board – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $125 )

I went over to Cook Park in Denver to see what I could see and came across this beautiful expanse of green with waves of yellow dandelions. The day started and ended dry, but in-between I was greeted by several showers and gusty winds. All in all, a good day, but I had to finish the painting in the studio.

Does Not Reproduce @ Von Lintel Gallery – Los Angeles

The last time I was in Southern California, I found the Culver City Arts District not too far from Santa Monica and loved it! I got on the email list of a few of my favorite galleries including Von Lintel, who had been based in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City for 14 years before moving to LA at the end of 2013. Well, they are on the move again, this time to downtown LA and their grand opening show: Does Not Reproduce opens on May 25th. In their announcement they implore us to pry our fingers from our smartphones and come see the art in person! OMG! WTF! Kudos Von Lintel!!!

"The exhibition will display works of art that suffer significantly from their translation to a 1080 x 1080 pixelated square.

This exhibition makes the case that the pixelated facsimile of art on a backlit screen, where depth, detail and materiality become all but indiscernible, is not a substitute for the experience of standing in front of the actual artwork and engaging with it. Put your smartphone in your pocket, look at the art and allow yourself to get lost in it.

Buck the trend and visit the exhibition ‘Does not reproduce’ in person."

The new location is: 1206 Maple Avenue #212, Los Angeles, CA 90015.

Happy Mother's Day!

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (detail, above), known as Whistler's Mother, painted in 1871 by James McNeill Whistler is arguably America's most famous mom. I always thought this was a small painting, but its a big ol' thing. (See below). Her name was Anna. And alas, we now have to travel all the way to the Louvre Abu Dhabi to see her. Here's to all the moms and people who function as a mom to human children, furry critters and organizations too. Thank you for who you are and all you do...

Notre-Dame de Paris

( 6x9 – Acrylic on canvas board – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $150 )

WHEN YOU PURCHASE THIS PAINTING, I WILL DONATE 100% OF THE PROFITS TO THE RESTORATION EFFORTS OF BOTH THE CATHEDRAL AND ITS ARTWORK.

I know we all felt helpless watching as the cathedral burned and the roof collapsed during the devastating fire on the 15th of last month. I wanted to do something to help. So I went to the easel and decided to 'donate' this painting. And now you can also help and feel good that ALL of the after tax profits from your purchase will go to helping rebuild this 12th century icon. I thank you in advance.

I did the painting from a scene in the movie Colette, staring Kiera Knightly. It is the story of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette who bucks the gender norms of turn of the century Paris to become the most beloved female French language author in the country's history. The image depicts the cathedral in 1895.