Yellow Road

Another, recent oil on stretched linen painting 22" x 28."  This one is based on a photo I shot of a farm road in Petaluma earlier this year, combined with a mother of pearl cloud shot near Oslo, Norway I found in an old book "Clouds of the World," by Richard Scorer that I bought in a used bookstore in Hawaii.  The rest is imagination.  I always like pictures of roads.  They symbolize, for me, the endless possibilities in life.

Roman Arch Pink Tree

Here is a recent 28" x 22" oil on stretched linen painting.  I first went to Spain in 1969, for my junior year abroad at UCSD.  When I wasn't studying at the University of Madrid,  we took field trips and/or I hitchhiked all over the country.  I took this picture somewhere in Spain on one of my trips - although I remember nothing about it.  By googling "roman arch," I found another more recent photo of this same scene indicating it is in the village of Medinacelli in central Spain.   Looking for new material to paint last month, I rediscovered my old slide, added a scan of a beautiful pink tree watercolor painted by Samuel Palmer in 1829 called "In a Shoreham Garden," and did a few other manipulations in Photoshop CS5 as a guide.  My perspective is a bit off but the new painting is quite soothing in a fantastical kind of way - and it brings back nice memories.

Portrait of Jenny

New oil painting 8x10 is from a 1977 sketch of friend Jenny Paradies.  Above composite includes a head & enlarged heels.  Seems a perfect picture for Halloween!

Distressed Wood with Bugs

Nature, even when it is decaying, can be simply glorious.  The wood is from the side of a building in decline in Pt. Reyes Station, California

Contraption

Done for Illustration Friday

La Jolla, California 1973

Photo taken in the backyard of the house Ilene O'Malley lived in in Bird Rock in 1973.  People identified:
1.  Herman Rumper
2.  Craig Lorenz
3.  Richard Becker
4.  Unknown
5.  John Lyons
6.  Marcia Wheeler
7.  John-Paul Carrere
8.  Jenny Paradies
9.  Ilene O'Malley
10.  Martha Kuhl
11.  Tom Peifer
12.  Unknown
13.  Betsy Jaffe
14.  Dean Altizer
15.  Raoul Contreras
16.  Kathleen Price
17.  Chris Baer
18.  Nancy Hoagland
19.  Unknown
20.  Greg Becker
21.  John McCarthy
22.  Tom Baer
23.  Unknown
24.  Joe Peretz
25.  Annie Peretz
26.  Unknown
27.  Barry Wayne
28.  Nancy Hancock
29.  Marty Baer
30.  Valerie Hans
31.  Robin Anderson
32.  Anna Price
33.  Barbara (then girlfriend of Rob Hillcrest)
34.  Bill Haverland
35.  Griff Stokes
36.  Paul Seaton
37.  Tom Moran
38.  Lucy Autrey

Pink Beast

I was painting over a crummy earlier oil painting when this pink beast appeared!  Where he came from I do not know.  Under the beast are four bad portraits I did of fully, or partially, veiled Saudi Arabian women.  I'm intrigued why any woman would agree to cover up her entire body to the top of her head - especially when it feels so good to allow a breeze to softly blow your hair on a beautiful day.  Oil on canvas board 16x20