When life gives you lemons, draw them, 11 x 14 inches dry pastels, graphite on paper

"When life gives you lemons, draw them." (Nikki)

"Color! What a deep and mysterious language." (Paul Gauguin)

Art for sale

« Previous Entries Next Entries »

Silent Witness

Friday, April 21st, 2006


 

Silent Witness, Juniper at Grand Canyon, Arizona USA, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper
Silent Witness, Juniper at Grand Canyon, Arizona USA, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, Paper Places series, 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.

Arkansas July 6:45 a.m.

Tuesday, April 18th, 2006


 
Hwy 30 through Arkansas, July 6:25 a.m., 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, sold

Hwy 30 through Arkansas, July 6:45 a.m.,14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, Paper Places series, 3-inch-wide white double mat, 26H x 22W inch white custom wood frame with crackle finish, sold.
Driving back to Texas on our annual 2 1/2 day trip to eastern Ontario, I enjoy being on the road before sunrise. On lengthy journeys it’s best to take advantage of every splendor along the way, then the trip doesn’t seem to take so long.

Eucalyptus Tree

Sunday, April 16th, 2006


 
Eucalyptus Tree, Queensland, Australia 14 x 11 inches oil pastels on paper
Eucalyptus Tree, Queen Mary’s Falls, Queensland, Australia, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, Paper Places series. 3 inch wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.

Post-dated note: This drawing earned a spot in American Art Jury’s 2007 Spring/Summer online exhibition and gallery http://www.artjury.com

Galahs in Traffic, reworked

Friday, April 14th, 2006


 

Galahs in Traffic - flocks of Galahs fly in front of cars, many laying dead beside the road to the Kangaroo Island ferry, South Australia
Galahs in Traffic, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, has 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.

Flocks of Galahs fly head on into cars on the highway while driving to the Kangaroo Island ferry, South Australia. A tragic phenomenon – many lay dead on the side of the road, for miles. This is a busy highway, and next to stopping, it was almost impossible to miss them.
This started out to be a drawing of the Norfolk Island Pines growing in the south-central coastal regions of Australia. It’s not unusual for me to completely re-work oil pastel drawings after a day or two of work, when they could be called finished. Sometimes after a period of study, radical changes are in order, as in this case. After two days of work, while recalling the horrifying scene that day, it was clear that the style in the first stage of the drawing was stagnant and ordinary. Adding the blurry, in-your-face Galah is much more effective. See the first version here.

Post-dated note in 2007: Galahs in Traffic placed in Artjury.com’s 2007 Fall/Winter Juried Online Exhibition.

Post-dated note, 2022: Accepted in the J. Mane Gallery’s Fins, Feathers and Fur 2020 exhibition.

Dusk

Friday, April 7th, 2006


 

Dusk, singing sparrows, 8 x 10 inch graphite and dry pastels on charcoal paper, cards available only

Dusk, 8H x 10W inches dry pastels, graphite on charcoal paper.  A few sketches for Poet Hannah Gerber’s book The Perfection of Small Birds will be posted this week. This one was inspired by “Dawn”, a recent acrylic painting.

Gold In The Mountains 02

Sunday, April 2nd, 2006


 

Gold In The Mountains, Kananaskas Valley, Alberta, Canada 14 x 11 inches oil pastels on paper
Gold In The Mountains 02, Kananaskas Valley, Alberta, Canada, 11H x 14W oil pastels on paper, 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
Aspen / Poplar trees in the Rocky Mountains during Autumn display large yellow-gold leaf masses, represented here with strokes in a diagonal direction. Textures in varying directions add interest, as in tree trunks  marked vertically across the entire page, grounding the drawing as a whole with regard to composition. The green-black portion displays the vertical growth of evergreens.  Horizontal strokes were appropriate for the mountain, with the golden glow of distant poplars softening its nature and place it back in distance.

Ancient Mayan Bowl Chair

Thursday, March 30th, 2006


 

Mayan Bowl Replica Chair, 29H x 29W x 29D inches mixed media furniture
Mayan Bowl Replica Chair, 29H x 29W x 29D inches durable, functional, comfortable refurbished vintage 1960’s plastic lawn chair, mixed media: woven canvas strips, plaster cured and painted, varnish and wax.

This replica of an ancient Mayan artifact re-utilizes a vintage plastic lawn chair that was considered Art in its own day. The refurbished chair was created by a process of weaving canvas strips and white glue paper-mache style over the entire plastic top and bottom, layering wall plaster sanded in between coats, acrylics paint, varnish, graphite, marker, more varnish, then waxed for durability. Three more chairs are yet to be created with historic Art themes from other cultures.

The original bowl design is from the Late Classic Period of Mayan history, 600 – 900 A.D. Common Era, portraying two water Gods witnessing the birth of the all-important Maize God who emerges from a turtle, symbol of the earth and origins thereof. Customarily, hieroglyphs written along the top rim show the bowl-owner’s name and what the bowl was used for.
Inspirational resource: Maya, Divine Kings of the Rainforest edited by Nikolai Grube ISBN 3-8290-4150-0

  Mayan bowl Chair process

Post-dated notes: Accepted into Grand Prairie Arts Council Juried Exhibition and Sale Sept./Oct. 2007, and won Second Place cash award, 3D Category. Also accepted into Artjury.com’s 2007 Fall/Winter Juried Online Exhibition.

Bluebonnets 03

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006


 

Texas Bluebonnets, 16H x 12W inches dry pastels on paper
Texas Bluebonnets, 16H x 12W inches dry pastels on charcoal paper, unframed, off-white mat.

Bluebonnets Abstract

Monday, March 20th, 2006


 

Bluebonnets Abstract 36H x 24W acrylics on canvas wrapped sides painted, narrow frame
Bluebonnets Abstract, 36H x 24W inches acrylics on canvas, trim frame. I’m trying a new angle on the subject, and kept my glasses off for this one so I can see abstract better!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Draw Them

Friday, March 10th, 2006


 

When Life Gives You Lemons, Draw Them - 11H x 14W inches dry pastels on charcoal paper
When Life Gives You Lemons, Draw Them, work in progressWhen Life Gives You Lemons, Draw Them, 11H x 14W inches dry pastels on charcoal paper, cream colored mat.

Left: the first version of the ‘Lemons’ still life was acceptable yesterday, but I felt the drawing did not have quite enough “zest”, so took the drawing a little further, adding more color and marks.

« Previous Entries Next Entries »