Late Snow

We had a bit of a surprise here last Monday. I woke up, opened up the blinds and there was almost six inches of snow, wet, heavy snow. Not a word about snow in the forecast. Caught 'em napping. Strangely enough some of the weather forecasters seemed almost proud of being totally clueless. So this one's for you.


Egg Tempera on panel
7.25 x 13

It's not last week's snow. This is an older piece, haven't worked in tempera is quite a while now, but it seemed appropriate. Besides it's not a bad little painting. I just never got around to getting a good picture to post. I used to really like tempera. It allowed me to do things I couldn't do with oils. That's mostly because I didn't understand how to use oils, a problem i have since overcome. At least that what some people tell me. Personally I think the jury is still out on that one. Anyway, it's a nice draftsman's medium. It does have a really nice subtle quality that oils just don't have. Sometimes I miss it.

Transcendental Landscape

egg tempera
20 x 30


Most of my work is pretty approachable. The subject matter is right there and it really doesn't require a whole lot of thought. But maybe if you were to take the time to give the piece some consideration, maybe, just maybe there really is something more there. This painting is different. It's not a particularly pretty picture. It wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be looked at and thought about. Maybe there is something worth looking at.

I remember having this in a show once upon a time. Most people glanced at it and walked on. A few people said it reminded them that they still had to rake the leaves, but there was one woman who seemed to get it. She stood there for the longest time, just staring. I found that extremely satisfying. She has no idea how close I came to taking it off the wall and giving it to her.

Hard Candy

Still no new camera so I'll have to dig back into the vaults. This is actually one of my favorites.


Egg Tempera
10 x 16

Back in high school I had a science teacher that painted a bit. When he found out that I also painted and sold he couldn't understand how I could stand to part with a piece. He said it would be like selling one of his kids. Assuming that to be true, it's probably a good thing I don't have any kids. Most of the time, once something is done, its done. Get it out of the way and move on to the next. Being a good capitalist, I consider sales a good thing. There are a few exceptions though. This one I would have trouble parting with for some reason.

Here's a detail.

Wild Iris

Egg Tempera
10 x 7.5

Here's another of my intimate landscape series. This is from the same day and same place as the previous post, just a little further down the hill.

Intimate Landscapes

Egg Tempera
10 x 10

When you take a walk in the woods it's easy to miss the forest for the trees. But look closely, there are a lot of little things that can be quite fascinating. For years now I've tried to find the beauty in the small things as well as the total landscape. As a result I've come up with a series of what I call "intimate landscapes." Wild flowers are the most obvious example and their quiet beauty among the dead leaves and downed trees deserve some attention.

In a couple months the wild iris will again be blooming. This particular scene is just a small part of an entire hillside that is literally covered with them. It's really pretty hard to walk there without stopping to look, but I've watched people go by without even noticing. Maybe I'm making too much out of it, or maybe I feel it's my job as an artist to open their eyes to what's around them. Either way I'll keep looking. If you like this one, stay tuned, more to come.

Elephant Rocks

Egg Tempera
24 x 35

I struggled with this painting, and I'm not entirely sure I'm done with it. It's turning into one of my bone pictures, pieces that I keep going back to and playing with like an old dog with a bone. Anyway it's a view of another state park, this one featuring these huge granite outcroppings. Everybody climbs around on them and has a fine time. One thing that I always found strange about the place is that puddles form in the little depressions in the rocks . That in itself isn't odd, but every one of these little puddles is filled with tadpoles if you're there at the right time of year. The idea of frogs jumping around on the rocks just seems odd to me.

I love the textures and colors of the rocks. That plus the light filtering down through the trees onto the granite is what drew me to this particular piece.