I tend to shy away from titles like this. It just fits though. I don't like to romanticize or anthropomorphize nature. Nature just is and even though this may seem to be a work of fantasy, the live oaks, when they lose their leaves the branches are seen to bend and twist in fantastical ways.
2017-03-09
In the fall, in the afternoon, the sun hits the tops of the trees in a distinct orange band. I tried to capture that without being too heavy handed. The media is pastel, size 30 x 22 1/2.
2016-10-22
This is an image that I have worked over and over. You can tell by some of the damage in the corners from pinning and unpinning. It is rare that something is ever completed all at once. This one is an extreme, probably one of the oldest and newest. It was started about 15 years …
Nature and Abstraction
I make a mark that calls to be completed by another mark. The accumulation delineates leaf and branch, water flow, rocks and rock fall, in seemingly random ways. Like nature it may happen without thought but it is by no means random, just not fully understood. Action creates a response in art and in nature.
Dead Bird
This was first done in 2014 around the same time as the larger birds, #4. I reworked it in 2016, cleaning it up to a certain extent and darkening the blacks. This is, like the large birds a work of imagination, although based on a relatively common site. We found this cuckoo on our front …
Sitting at the Edge
This is a work entirely of imagination. Like many works this came about in playing with media in this case graphite sticks that I had made and washes of homemade ink. While this is not a landscape per se, it does show the interest in flow. It also shows my love of the graphic work …
Small Pool, 09/2016
This is one example of a work that I pulled out of the drawer after thinking it was finished. I try to be very careful and give the work some time before jumping in. This was originally done about the same time as the six large paper pieces, Look Up, Look Down. Like a lot …
Look Up, Look Down #3 (birds)
The only time I ever went hunting was with my brother when he came to the ranch to shoot doves. I was on crutches, which made the whole thing comical if not dangerous. Imagine going after birds you shot when you have to hop to do it. My brother ended up cleaning the birds since …
Look Up, Look Down #2
Much of what I started doing about this time (2013-14) started focusing more on imagined detail. I say imagined since I mostly don't work from photographs or directly from life. The drawings in this series involve the often overlooked, seemingly insignificant detail. These are things that in a well manicured environment would be eliminated. Since …