More

Beach House, Oil 20x20

Once again when driving along, I see shapes, the house in this one remindes me of paper dolls, it is flat ..flat house by the beach....

Buddy, Oil 8x8 SOLD

Buddy looks more like a bear, but in his picture his ears are back, Buddy was a happy dog.

New Paintings

Willow, Oil 6x6 SOLD

Sunny, Oil Sketch 6x6

Here's Looking at You, Oil 12x12

Apple, Oil 6x6

Start of a new painting, chalk on black gesso canvas panel.

The Cat

This is a 6x6 small oil painting of my friends cat Harry. Harry is a good looking guy, It's harder for me to for some reason to paint good looking dogs and cats, the wilder the picture or crazier the easier it is for me to capture the animal.. go figure.

Harry the cat, Oil 6x6  SOLD

New Paintings

Spot, Oil, 24x30

This is a red heeler dog with a very serious face, this was a lot of fun to do, it is loose and kinda wild.

Hwy 1, Oil 20x20

Once again this is from the drive I do a few times a month on hwy 1, the coast hwy by the pacific ocean. When I am driving what I see are shapes of the farms and the landscape.

Slices

Orange Slices, Oil 6x6

Once again I had a few oranges in the studio that needed to be tossed, so I painted them before they hit the trash. Only a few strokes with the bush, not too much, keeping it a bit abstract. These paintings are done on canvas panels that have been painted with black gesso, this is my favorite background to paint on.

                                          The Last Slice, Oil 6x6

More furry friends

                                       
This is a 6x6 oil of Rocky, the one eye was all black, which is hard to pull off, so I added a highlight, I think I need to gray that down a bit. Sometime when painting from a picture you need to add or change a few things to make it come off. SOLD

Lilly, 6x6 Oil SOLD

6x6 Oil, SOLD

This is another cat owned by the same person that owns the gray one I did below, Slits and Fur

Slits and Fur, the Cat

This is a 6x6 oil of a picture or a cat a friend gave me. The picture was just slits and fur, no defined features, no nose or eyes that popped out. Good subject for abstraction and loose brush strokes. As always click on image for a closer look.  SOLD

No Dogs...landscapes and fruit

Landscape, Oil  SOLD

This is a landscape done with a palette knife and some brush work. The landscape is what I see when I am driving on the highways through California. What I notice are the colors, and the shapes in the hills and in the farms along the road. I am not done with this yet, but I need to step back and think a bit on what direction I will go next.

The Farm, Oil 20x20

When driving down hwy 101and looking over at the farms on either side of the road, sometimes I wonder what the heck they are growing, it all  looks like patterns on a piece of fabric. 

Oil, 6x6

This is a simple study of an apple and a orange, great fall colors.

Again...dogs

Big Ears, Oil 8x8

This was a dog done from a photo in an old book I found, A Thousand Dogs. Normally when I use a photo, the dog is not too much like the photo cause I abstract it, but this one was a bit too close to the photo, so I marked on the back of this painting, the photographer's name and the date when it was taken. There is a line when using someones work to do your work. May have crossed it with this one, so I will hold on to this one and mark it up to practice.  

                                                                             Oil, 6x6 SOLD

This is another attempt at the dog I did below, which is a photo of  a friends dog. The first one below, the head is too wide and I am not sure about this one either. I do not paint as if it's a photo. I don't block out with a grid, on the photo and then create that grid on the canvas, I like the abstraction of what I do, but having said that, when I am doing a dog for someone, it misses the mark sometimes.

Nice Puppy

Nice Puppy, 12x12 Oil

Nice puppy....I have seen a few pictures of dogs barking, and thought I would try something different. Not so cute. This is a 12x12 oil. It was hard to define the month, which is mainly shades of dark black. The upper mouth has ridges, but they are different shades of black with a few glimpses of pink. All this and still wanting to paint loose and not blending much. Good problem to solve., not sure I ever solve the problems I set up for myself. 

Dogs, Dogs and Dogs

Black Lab, Oil 6x6

Rescue dog being fostered by a friend, Oil 8x8

Shaved sheep dog, Oil 20x20

 Once I started painting dogs a few months ago I can't seem to stop. They are interesting to paint, it is finding a picture, setting up the problem, drawing the image and then trying to paint, keeping loose and bright and not getting into details or over painting .....but trying to get it to look like the picture of the dog. Works sometimes and sometimes it just doesn't. The first one above, the black lab, the eyes are to close together, in the picture the eyes are apart more, I might change this if the paint stays wet or try another one. Going over a painting sometime makes it look overworked. Nothing worst then an over worked painting.

Another ....dog

Here is another oil, 6x6 based on a photo I took of my friends dog. I have many pictures of this dog and each one I use gets a different result, and I'm not sure any of them look like the same dog.... the essence of the dog maybe. Once again quick brush strokes and very loose. Clarence has SOLD.

New stuff

There is a female coyote at Ano Nuveo State reserve that walks the beach each day, checking for anything dead. She is a real mess, but always seems to be up beat and in step. This is a 8x10 Oil of that coyote. I am still working with this painting, I like the coyote, but the foreground I still want to play around with. 

Coyote, Oil 6x6

Trees, Oil 5x7

The Hill on Hwy 101, Oil 5x7

Above are a few new works, things are a bit slow. I have painted some things that I am just not happy with, so I am in a little slump. Slumps are good sometimes it means there might be a break though just around the corner.  Now where is that corner ......

Clarence, 8x8 Oil

Yesterday, I was a dog. Today, I am a dog. Tomorrow, I will probably be a dog. There's just so little hope of advancement. ......Snoopy

The above is an oil on a 8x8 canvas panel of Clarence, my dog Willy's good friend. The brush strokes are bold, no blending and the back ground is a dark green, which pops against the oranges.

Willy, Oil 6x6

This is Willy, our dog. This is a 6x6 oil of a black and white photo that was posted when he was a puppy. The photo was posted by the resue group, Wonder dogs in San Francisco, we took one look and went for him. He is now about 2 years old and looks a bit different. We are not sure what he is, a bit of this and a bit of that .....so I painted a bit of this a bit of that.

Little Red, Pit Bull, Oil 6x6

This is a "loose" oil of one of the many dogs taken from Michael Vick's house. Michael Vick was convicted of dog fighting, along with killing dogs.  There were around 50 dogs of which only a few were expected to be allowed to live. With the help of many good people 46 or so dogs found places to live out their lives. This one Little Red went to play at Best Friends, a place that lets dogs that are not allowed to be adapted live out their life. 

All the Dogs

Below are all 12 dogs done in the last few weeks. I put them all together on my studio wall. Pretty cool. These are all 6x6 oils, done on canvas panels, one on canvas. In addition is a springer spaniel....goofy eyes. I am not trying to make these look just like their pictures, what I am trying to do is capture the feel of the dog with a few strokes and blocks or shapes of color. I'm always amazaed when I first start and I do about 10 minutes of painting and it starts to look like something......it appears, then sometimes it leads me.

The Springer, Oil 6x6 SOLD

The Lab

Below is a 6x6 oil of a yellow, white lab. I think the eyes are a little crossed, which reminds me of Barbara Streisand. If I were to name the dog it would be Barbara. The back ground is black gesso, I tried not to over lap too many brush strokes. When I was done I liked the background black, but I don't like to leave the gesso showing, so I painted over the gesso with a blue black oil. I like the light dog against the dark background.

The Lab, Oil 6x6

More Dogs

Here are two more dogs, both done in oil and under 90 minutes. I try to paint under a certain amount of time to keep the painting fresh, if I work on it too long I can tell and it doesn't seem fresh. Another thing I like to do is add a line or two of random or opposite color, just for a pop.

The Setter, Oil 6x6

Waiting, Oil 12x12

The Big Boys

Here are the two bigger oil paintings of dogs that I have been working on, with backgrounds added.  What I like best is the big brush markes, colors next to other colors, and the abstract nature of the paintings, and still, you can tell that these are dogs....I hope.

                         

The Basset Hound, Oil 20x20

Chuck Oil 24x30, SOLD

Dogs

Here are the follow ups on the below works. The smaller one where I showed the start in black with white chalk is finished (I think) and is below. The big dog Chuck I worked a bit on and need to come up with a background now. Finally another start of a larger dog, a goofy basset hound, lots of color.

The Nose, Oil 6x6

Still working on Chuck Oil 30x24

The Basset Hound Oil 20x20

New Paintings

Below are two images of a bigger painting, 30x24 of another dog I'm working on. This will be the biggest one so far. This is from a small painting I did, which sold, of a friends dog named Chuck. So far the strokes are big and bold and very abstract, which I'm liking. The third is another start of a smaller painting. Most surfaces are painted black prior to painting, I also chalk in the image, sometimes highlighting the dark and light areas.

Start of a bigger painting of Chuck

This is a close up of Chuck 

                                                        Start of a 6x6 oil of a ??  Yes a dog
                                                    The image is drawn with backboard chalk

Three abstract landscapes

Below are abstract landscapes based on photos I took from hwy 1 and Ano Nuevo State Reserve. I take photos, then go back to the studio and sketch  focusing on the shapes. I use the photos when I paint to help with the colors, and the darks and lights.

South Point Ano Nuevo Oil 6x6  

The Fog Coming In Oil 12x12 SOLD

The Hills on Hwy 1 Oil 8x8  SOLD