Tropics

Continuing with nonobjective work, this is a re-post from the summer of 08. It was commissioned by my brother Gary just months before he died. He wanted something with 'hot' color, probably for an icy day like today.
David Levine left us yesterday. He was famous for his caricatures but what an accomplished painter! Somehow he merged fine art and journalism. He was an unknown mentor who showed me early on what watercolor can do.

Silk Road

This is one of the occasional paintings I like to do where there isn`t a subject.
Still seems like a landscape though.

Backwater Shore Study

In late November I revisited Minto Brown Park/Nature Preserve in Salem. This time it was sunny early in the day and later becoming overcast as I prefer. The place is teeming with colorful wetlands. I collected lots of source material that I`m just now studying. This is my first new effort.

Beside the Creek

from 2004

Fallen Leaves Mossy Rock

Fog on the Mountain 5

Fog on the Mountain 4

Fog on the Mountain 3

The Fog Burning Off

November Dusk Study

Steigerwald Study 3

Someone famous said 'I can`t paint what I want, only what I would have wanted, had I thought of it first'. Yes, each painting takes on it`s own life no matter what is in the mind. When I was working in the Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge last month, there was a place near the river that was pulsating gold. The wind was blowing and everything was moving. All of it yellow; grasses, trees and earth, with a morning blue mountain behind. It seemed ephemeral. Here I try to give form to feeling.

Fog on the Mountain 2

Fog on the Mountain1

One of a couple of larger pieces coming from my walk in the rain on Thanksgiving.

Steam and a Mill

The industries on both banks of the Willamette River in Oregon City look bustling. Visually, they`re extremely complex with great gusts of steam obscuring, then clearing from the view. It`s noisy, damp and busy. And then barely beyond the factories upriver are the Falls. In winter, they are an arc of glorious tumultuous water. Just fascinating. I`d like to focus my work here someday.

Fog on the Mountain Study 2