Vineyard and olive field near San Gimignano

Oil on linen
30x40 cm (about 1.0 x 1.3 feet)

Painted on location today, near the many-towered town of San Gimignano in Tuscany. The sun was intense and bright. The olive trees in the distance are set off by a vineyard in the near foreground.

Heart #2

Oil on canvas
100 x 120 cm (3.3 x 4.0 ft)

I showed this painting in an intermediate phase when I called it Blue Fields . It is a fun color exercise, I was playing with student grade cadmium red and phthalo blue, plus white. There are no other colors in this painting.

Red, green, and blue tractor trailor

Oil on canvas
40 x 60 cm

This is one of the paintings that came out of the painting festival in Noordwijk. I liked the colors in this tractor. Flower pickers working by hand were filling it with calla lillies.

Rothko springs a leak.

Oil on board.
31 x 53 cm (about 12 by 21 inches)

This board has been through many iterations, some may remember it as a work of the week last year (Some call it Art, and Some call it Kraft). I like the texture and colors in this small painting. It is now finished, I will not paint over it again.

Blue and purple fields

Oil on canvas
about 80x100 cm

This painting is about playing with paint and is about the texture and color of the painted surface. Every mark leaves a history, and there are layers and layers of painted surfaces on this canvas. It was lots of fun to make.

Heart

Oil on canvas
92 x 60 cm (about 3.5 by 2.3 feet)

This is a canvas I just cannot leave alone. I've finished versions of it several times. I signed and posted it to work of the week in May 14-20, 2009, as "Wave #2" and also in December 7-13, 2008 as "Wave." It started life as a different composition that I painted over and can be seen online as work of the week in October 19-25, 2008 titled "Fire."

"Fire" was originally about the loss of my volunteer for youth little brother in a house fire. Maybe the evolution of "Fire" into something that resembles a scarred but vibrant heart is meaningful, going through a water phase metamorphosis. It certainly was not a conscious decision on my part. And in fact, this canvas did not evolve into a heart until the very last minute. A delivery person from the art supply store stepped on the second to last version of the finished painting, and I so I had to rework it. It sort of accidentally transformed into a heart shape. But now, I'm really and truly done with this canvas and promise never to ever, ever rework it again. I wish that I had all the prior versions of this canvas back because I think it would make a fabulous series. This painting makes me profoundly sad, but also reminds me of why and what it is to be alive. I suppose we all carry around heartache and joy accumulated from a lifetime of experience.

Details of "Heart" are posted below.

Blue fields

Oil on canvas
100 x 120 cm (3.3 x 4.0 ft)

Working big again, and in layers. This painting is not finished, but I thought folksy might enjoy seeing it in an intermediate phase.

Red field

Oil on linen
40 x 50 cm (about 1.3 x 1.6 feet)

I've been looking at the paintings of a Croation artist, Kresimira Niksica. Looking at his work has freed me up to do completely different things with paint on canvas.

The Quicker Picker Upper

Oil and paper on linen
40 x 50 cm (about 1.3 x 1.6 ft)

There are paper towels worked into the paint on this canvas - my brother in law came up with a brilliant title for such a painting, "the quicker picker upper." (For those who don't know, this title is is an old advertising slogan for Bounty paper towels.)

Blue Spot

Oil on linen
30 x 40 cm (about 1.0 x 1.3 ft)

More abstract today.