Eola Hills Studies

These were done exactly seven years ago after spending time in the wine country of Marion County. All are 12x12 and painted quickly. Oil on canvas

Palm Canyon - Vintage Tipton for Sale!

The winter of 1979-80, I spent in Thousand Palms California, a working class suburb of Palm Springs. Though it doesn`t seem very well known, the hiking in that area is outstanding. The palm canyons that are part of the  Agua Caliente Cahuilla Tribal Reservation are particularly beautiful. I painted this that winter as a Christmas gift to my parents.
My mother is now moving into a retirement home and it`s too big for her apartment. I offered to try to sell it since I didn`t want it back. The homes of all my family members overflow with my work. It`s time to set this one loose.
'Andreas Canyon' acrylic on canvas 42x48, framed* 50x56, $3000

*photo of frame on request

Minto Brown March

oil on paper 16"x12"

Heat Lightning-Shasta Bally

Shasta Bally is the hulking mountain that dominates Whiskeytown Calif. Two years ago I was driving over a pass in the Trinity mountains and saw heat lighting over this peak. I think it is just an electrical storm too far away to hear the thunder, but we called it heat lightning in New Mexico. On a spring evening, the storms over the Sangre de Christo mountains would flash and illuminate the clouds purple. Across the valley, thunderstorms would be sparking the night over the Jemez mountains. Such a beautiful sight! and unfortunately one I never see in western Oregon. This is a second version, the first was a watercolor done the day after that memorable ride.
oil on canvas 36"x36"
My friend Lyn Relph has written a fascinating book about 'experience' as a way of 'knowing' rather than through received knowledge. The connections he makes between science, philosophy, the arts, religion, and technology throughout human history is truly provocative. I`m reading it a second time and not even a friend would do that if it wasn`t great.
Our Experience, Ourselves

Spring Again

This painting from the mid-nineties sold very quickly and I didn`t get a proper photo. I took this in the frame shop and thanks to Photoshop, I made it more accurate for my records. The painting was built from many small drawings I did in Laurelhurst Park. I love botanical illustration and wanted to create a painterly version.
For anyone local, I just walked Iron Mountain and it`s full of flowering trees I think might be wild plums. The fragrance was wonderful.
oil on canvas 20"x66"

Kauai 5

I knew of this cove from photos years before I eventually saw it. When I flew over and recognized it, I felt affection, 'we finally meet'.
oil on cradled panel 20"x20"

Hanalei Sketch

This was done from memory after I returned home. Nothing is taken from the actual landscape but what I loved about that area is here. Though the earth is red with iron and visible in places, I used this orange hill to emphasize the overwhelming fertility.
oil on paper 6"x6"



available work [updated]

Kauai 4

I`ve always avoided painting sunsets. The odds of painting a cliche are about 95%. But we all love to look at them! The ones in New Mexico were far and away the most spectacular I`ve ever witnessed. On a summer evening, especially after a rain, the whole sky, every bit of it would turn into a theater of moving color. It would seem to last for hours. In Hawaii I saw a different type. Because of the latitude, the day ended quickly and the sunset was brief but often radiant. Probably from the humidity. It would proceed from some rosy clouds, then the air itself became pink, then me too. As darkness fell, high up in the sky, some clouds still caught the last of the fading sunlight.
oil on cradled panel 20"x20"

Kauai 3

This is the Alakai Swamp. I recognized much of the vegetation as the 'houseplants' I`ve seen all my life. My guidebook said this is one of the few places in Hawaii where you can walk in the clouds. The goal with the painting was to depict the tangle of growth through purely painterly means. That sounds obscure but it means that the process had to be fun. Not methodical. So through quick gestures,  piling and pouring on paint, then smearing, blotting, scraping and carving through the wet surface until it coalesces into something that felt like that rainforest.
oil on panel 20"x20"

Kauai 2

Before hiking to the high elevation Alakai Swamp, the clouds parted for an instant and gave me a view of the Kalalau Valley.
oil on panel 20"x20"

Minto Brown Winter 2

One of two paintings done on location at Minto Brown Island Park. I was with seven other painters and a photographer. It was a somber looking day but not too cold and it didn`t rain.
watermedia on paper 12"x9"

Minto Brown Winter

We had planned it for a long time and it was worth the effort. Portland people went south and Eugene painters came north and we met at Minto Brown Island Park on the Willamette. The sky was overcast and brooding but we all were diligent and produced work that expressed the muted mood of this late winter day. Almost nothing better than making paintings outside with good people! Celeste Bergin has some photos on her blog. She chronicles everything!
watermedia on paper 12"x9"


available work