Downstream Tahquitz

                                                          watermedia on Yupo 26x20

If this creek, just west of downtown Palm Springs, had a normal flow in a normal year, those massive polished boulders and cliffs would have largely been submerged. But there is no normal anywhere any more. California faces an extremely serious drought which is predicted to have a major economic impact. It`s hard not to wonder how President Gore would have persuaded the country to act. When we were away in the desert, there were wildfires on the Oregon coast, in January, in the rainforest!! The Republican Party can`t die quick enough, we have hard work to attend to.


available paintings in the studio

Tahquitz

  

                                                          watermedia on Yupo 26x20

Downtown Palm Springs is flanked by the massive Mt. San Jacinto. At the base, clearly visible from anywhere in the city, a canyon opens into the mountain like a mouth. It beckons to anyone curious. When I was a Californian I really wanted in there, but it was owned by the Agua Caliente Cahuilla tribe and was off limits. Around 2000 they built a visitor center and opened it up. I found this out planning my little trip. It was the first place we went and I knew quickly it was worth the wait. The twisting sycamore trees along the creek where ghostly white with last autumn`s red leaves still attached and they were spectacular! Now California is in a serious drought so when we reached the falls, the flow was more of a trickle which gave emphasis to the fragility of this landscape and made it a tender scene. It also allowed for close observation of the cliffs which were sculpted and smooth from centuries of runoff. It was cool, dark, quiet and breathtakingly beautiful. Western Oregon is full of amazing waterfalls, I love them. This was altogether different, this was like a temple.


available work

Rainforest Bog 2

                                                         watermedia on Yupo 26x20
Another piece that came from a walk along Tryon Creek a couple of weeks ago. Obviously not real literal, I was more interested in boggishness.
My web page is updated with images up to the end of 2013. Once again, Jeremy McWilliams did a beautiful, prompt and affordable job. Sometime in the last year, I noticed Scott Gellatly `s site had expired and suggested he contact Jeremy. He did and now it`s fresh and current! J. M. is a pleasure to work with!
It was bound to happen. There is now an app that does watercolors better than anyone!


Available Work in the Studio

South California

                                                                   watercolor 6x6
                                    Painted in Oregon before my trip to the Coachella Valley.
I left my home state of California so long ago I never miss it. Until I am there. Our visit to Palm Springs brought back some happy memories. I briefly lived there 34 years ago and I grew up 60 miles away. It was so sweet to be near the hulking giants San Jacinto and San Gregornio again. These were icons to me as a kid. Visible only when the Santa Ana Winds blew the smog away. California has cleaner air now and I think is a better place than when I left. Walking in the foothills, canyons, oasis, and washes of the desert was like being with an old friend. See what I saw;

Rainforest Bog

                                                        watermedia on Yupo 20x26

 This happened on the weekend and I like it. I`ve had a bunch of stinkers lately so having something I want to study feels good. On a walk along Tryon Creek last week I had a look at a small bog from a trail above it. The water was clear and the mud underneath was visible. Without leaves on the trees the sky was reflected and the surviving winter plants were glowing. The view was spatially very complex and ambiguous. Painting it required layering which is a tricky task on Yupo. When I had as much watercolor transparency and incident as the 'paper' could hold, I dried it slowly and vigilantly with a hairdryer. Then I sealed it up with Krylon Matte Finish and dried that thoroughly. Next was a coating of acrylic matte medium which also completely dried. The result was a chaotic watercolor entombed in plastic. Now I went in with translucent acrylics, using soft brushes, and knitted the thing into a whole.
 We`re about to travel to Palm Springs for a short and sweet 'honeymoon'! Never in my life did I expect to use that word for myself. The lesson to me is to never give up on humanity. An impulse deep inside wants us to grow past our animal origins and 'tribal' loyalties toward something better.


available work in the studio

Over Utah + Jonathan Apgar

                                                  Over Utah watermedia on paper 48x36
                                                                             1990

 In 1990 I flew from my home in New Mexico to the Northwest for a visit. I had a pocket sketchbook with me and did the drawing  somewhere over Utah. The juxtaposition of the geometry in the agriculture against the organic eroding landscape, fascinated me. The painting was one of many large watercolors I did in Chimayo NM.
 I`m posting this because I`ve been knee deep in my annual website update. For some reason this is never simple and takes way too much time. And I`m having old slide images transferred to CD so I can view them again. To my dismay, I found out many were already losing color though they had been stored properly. Listen up painters! if you want a lasting record of older work, get those slides  transferred as soon as you have time to sort through them. I had no idea they would deteriorate so quickly. Picture Perfect in the John`s Landing neighborhood of Portland did a quick, quality job for me at a great price.
 Last weekend I stumbled on the work of Jonathan Apgar on Pinterest and it stunned me. Although completely abstract and painterly, they seem to have spatial qualities we see in the landscape with divisions created by casual patterns and biomorphic shapes. Often the paintings are dense with strokes in odd and original colors. There is a haunting character to these massive works, take a look. On his generous website, he even shows a tutorial on building stretcher bars! I asked him if I could post some of his images and he was kind to agree.

                                                    Two Heads Black Stripes oil 94x69
                                                                  Jonathan Apgar

                                                 Myth of Redemptive Violence oil 96x84
                                                                   Jonathan Apgar

                                                                Cabal oil 114x84
                                                                 Jonathan Apgar


available work in the studio

Nebbia Invernale

                                                                  oil on Yupo 8x26

 Again, Google translator cuts through the title dilemma! Winter Fog in any language! Why didn`t I think of this earlier?
 January can be so mundane, I love it. It`s peaceful again and a good time to figure things out.


available work