Sketches, sketches.....

"Trio"; 10x12; oil on panel

Fast sketches...

One of these days, I'm going to turn these into studio pieces.....

Included....

"Included" ; 8x10; oil on board

Challenges....

"Before The Snow"; 8x10; oil on board

An artist friend of mine recently sent out a newsletter discussing the idea of challenging oneself to try new things as a way to avoid dwelling on down times. I couldn't agree more. This latest series of paintings I've been doing is exactly that. It's not that I've been dwelling on anything negative -- I've actually been feeling much more upbeat and optimistic despite recent life challenges. Perhaps avoiding mortality does that...thank you Dr. Faulkner

Trying to push myself out of whatever comfort zones I've found in the short time I've been on this journey, I've been playing with different brushes, surfaces, subjects, different techniques, new color palettes, more simple structures, trying to have more fun (is that possible?!?), striving for immediacy, attempting to not think too much, learn from mistakes....whew....put like that, sounds kind of......challenging. I better get to work.....

Changes....

"Across The Pond"; 6x6; oil on board
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With regard to my previous post: the last item refers to a general group of people who like to talk more than work.....my answer to them is, as always, "shut up and paint."

Hopefully, I didn't inadvertently offend any of the multitude of tremendous artists that I respect and admire out there....

Peace all....

Perception....

Things that make me close and lock my studio door:
-Rude tourists

-Smokers

-Terrorist Attack

-Petty, condescending, self-important "arteests" (sp.)

Morning.....

"Morning"; 6x6; oil on board
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Can't talk right now...having too much fun painting....

A new direction....

"Save Some For Me"; 6x6; oil on board
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I'll get back to still-lifes shortly, but....

For months now I've had something in my head that I've been trying to get down on canvas. I love Tonalism. Ever since I started this journey, I've known that I wanted to eventually wind up in some kind of tonal/impressionist/contemporary world where I could throw all of the painting styles I love into a big pot and let my imagination mingle with the real visual world.

Ironically, one of my pet peeves in the arts is the obsession with "finding a style." I dealt with it for years in music. I fought it by telling myself not to worry about it and just absorbing everything I could and working my a** off. Coincidentally, that is essentially the message Richard Schmid, Robert Henri, and Edgar Payne convey(ed) to their students. Being on this self-guided tour of becoming a painter, I was incredibly lucky to have happened upon the writings of these great teachers almost by accident with a gentle nudge from a couple of generous artist friends.

With all that in mind, I simply set out (often blindly) and started painting as much as I could. First ragged contemporary attempts, clumsy still-lifes, immature landscapes....then plein air, which I know I will continue to dance with the rest of my life. Finally a couple of things started to click to the point where I didn't want to burn every canvas within days of finishing them.

Mind you, I still feel like things are very clumsy....but I do see glimmers of light here and there that also make me feel like I'm headed in the right direction.

Four weeks ago, I wound up in the hospital (apparently a little less than 24 hours from shuffling off this mortal coil). It's odd, I didn't know you could be grateful and depressed at the same time...but there I was....I made a deal with myself to work even harder once I was healthy. I also told myself that I was REALLY not going to worry about style and just enjoy the process.

To be continued......

Still Life continued....

"Trio Tipsy"; 8x10; oil on panel
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For a few short days my studio was invaded by these unruly - and some might suggest inebriated - pears.

Nevertheless, they were easier to work with than some musicians I've known...

Still Life......

December 1st....winter is definitely coming

Good time to stay warm with a still life

Fall

"Mountain Storms"; 10x12; oil on panel
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It seems like I was just wishing for fall to start. Now the leaves have all but turned and fallen and we've even had a short-lived snow. Everything happened very quickly this year.....of course a few weeks recuperation tends to make one feel like they missed some things.

At any rate, I'm determined to get a few more fall paintings done in the actual outdoors before everything is gone and I have to resort to photos for a month or two....

Still catching up....

Recovery continues....everyone keeps advising me to take it easy. The problem is I can't keep still that long and I have to get up and paint.

A couple more pieces....

Back to life....

So you may have noticed that I've been pretty remiss in my regular postings. The story is long and somewhat gory, so I won't go into too many details here....I'm sure I'll have something to say as I go on here, but for now...I'm just happy to be alive.

The short version is: emergency abdominal surgery can really kick your a**.

I was all set to update and post following my first plein air festival experience at Plein Air Moab when, one day after returning, I was in doubled over with peritonitis and in the hospital for surgery. 24 hours longer and it would have been game over.....'nuff said for now....

To briefly catch up, here are few pieces from Moab....these are all available on DailyPaintworks; click here.

It's about the work....

"Last Days of Summer:West Fork"; 8x10; oil on panel
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"The Park House"; 8x10; oil on panel

A friend watching me finish a study the other day commented "I don't know how you do it....amazing..." To my amusement, they were referring to the fact that I try to finish at least a small study every day (I don't always post them because...well, frankly...some just aren't any good, and therefore are only for me as information about what didn't work).

In all honesty, I feel like a slouch many days. One of my favorite "big-name" painters, when he started out, did five studies a day -- small, 6x8, etc -- but still, five?! Another fellow painter that I greatly admire averages a 16x20 a day. And yet another one that I follow did 21 paintings (medium size), plein air, in seven days....while fighting the elements at the Grand Canyon....and 20 of them made it into a show with the likes of Curt Walters, P.A. Nisbet, and Scott Jennings (for those of you who don't carry those names around in your head everyday....these guys have about fifteen Prix de West awards between them).

What I'm getting at is, for most of the painters out there, this is not an idle pursuit. Not a relaxing distraction to wile away the hours. It's work, pure and simple. And like anything else, those who want to do it well work....very, very hard. That isn't to say that they don't enjoy every moment at some level while they're doing it -- only a masochist would pummel away at something eight or ten hours a day, if they didn't. But there are days when you realize that things aren't going the best they can. The pain isn't moving, your brushwork looks like a highway map of Los Angeles, the drawing is off....whatever. That's when you pick up the brush and say, "It's about the work. Let's try and get one thing to work today and I can sleep tonight."

Incidentally, music is exactly the same. The number of days in my previous life (and still current), I would shake my head and tell myself, "today, it's just about putting in the work..."

This is the answer that so many people look for when they take a class of a workshop in anything; they just don't know it. They think there is some little secret that will be imparted them in the class, and "poof" they'll be brilliant at whatever they're dabbling with. The vast majority of them (those that profess to be VERY serious about painting or flute playing or whatever) don't want to hear that the reality is....it's work and lots of it. Some days it's going to be bad.....heroically, tragically bad. Most days it will be okay. And some days, that moment will happen, the heavens open up, the adrenaline rushes, and you realize that something worked that didn't work before......and nothing is the same after that. Those are the days you work for.....

"West Fork"; 8x10; oil on panel
"The Park House"; 8x10; oil on panel

Still wishing for fall....

"Last Days of Summer #5: Schnebly Afternoon" 8x10, oil on panel
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It seems summer just wants to hang on....

Every morning Kim and I wake up to a cool breeze from Oak Creek Canyon and say to each other, "this is really it....."

(For those of you wondering, I don't pay any attention to The Weather Channel. They seem to be far more preoccupied with inventing plausible-sounding scenarios that are designed to scare the hell out of everyone in different parts of the country, and then investing in some serious production effects to make it that much more real-looking, rather than just telling us what the weather is doing. For that matter, even when there is a significant weather story -- i.e. Irene -- it's not enough for them. They insist on saturating the five days preceding and following with hysterical reports of what could happen. It reminds me of when I was a little kid and we used to have to go through the nuclear bomb drills -- as if a forty year old school desk at St.Mary's Academy was going to shield any of us from a thermonuclear explosion. As you get older, you start to wonder just how much of all of that was propaganda masquerading as vigilance. We have to have something to be afraid of....always.....if not an evil empire, then terrorists.....if not terrorists, then a recession or mortgage collapse....if not economic strife, well then how about the most unpredictable of all events -- the weather. Certainly the most frightening of all the evils that could befall us because, let's face it, does anybody really know how the damn thing works? The more money they spend on doppler radar and computer modelings, the fewer times they get it right. And then comes the fall-back position -- my personal favorite. The "30% percent chance of rain" prediction....that lasts for three weeks.....And when the heck did a stock market update become a relevant weather story......)

....okay...that was a bit of a tangent -- but it's been bugging me now for a few months. Sorry about that.

Let's just say that every morning Kim and I hope that the Weather Channel is just as wrong about the predicted high for the day as they are about Kansas being taken out by a volcanic eruption.

Until then....

"Last Days of Summer #5: Schnebly Afternoon"; oil on panel; 8x10
"Across the Strait"; oil on panel, 8x10 -- leftover from the Northwest trip

Last of the Summer Heat...(hopefully)

"Last Days of Summer: Sunrise Junipers"; 8x10; oil on panel
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The heat is definitely on....

And not just the ambient air temperature in Northern Arizona. Even though we're officially into the fall season now, the temperature today was close to 90. I don't know if it's actually considered an Indian Summer, but whatever it is, most of us are ready for the cooler temperatures. Our corgi puppy Lucas, always a nudgy bundle of energy is even feeling it. After heading out to hike the trail at 6am, he was ready for a serious nap in the air conditioning -- he usually needs another two or three hours of heavy play-time, even after a four mile hike, before "nap" enters his mind.

For me, the word "heat" carries additional meaning. I've committed to entering my first-ever plein air festival. Right in the middle of a major slump...paint-wise (see previous post). Bear in mind, I'm not counting any chickens or such before they whatever, I just want to get some experience and be part of an event right now.....but I don't want to make an a** of myself either. Nevertheless, the registration fee is paid, panels are ordered....I'm doing this thing.....and I've got about ten days to get my head together.

"Last Days of Summer: Sunrise Junipers"; 8x10; oil on panel

Stubborn....

"Last Days of Summer: In Oak Creek"; 12x16; oil on panel
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"Last Days of Summer: Coffee Pot View"; 8x10; oil on panel
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So, two days ago, I hit one of those walls. You know the kind I'm talking about. The kind that you inexplicably don't see coming at all. I say "inexplicably" because when you come up against it, the frigging thing towers over you.

In short, I lost my swing. Big time. Hook, slice, shank.....water hazard, sand trap, heavy rough....you name it -- for the last two days, I've been in it. Could not paint my way out to save a paper bag.....see, I'm even mixing metaphors.......

Just in time for my favorite season too. I actually thought about throwing a panel in frustration into the canyon. I'm ashamed to say, it wasn't environmental awareness that stayed my hand. It was economics -- these damn things are expensive.

Anyhoo....I only know one way to conquer walls like this when I come to them. I get depressed, I get angry, and then I get to work. The really lovely thing about this blog thing is that you, dear reader, get to go through this with me (should you choose to do so). Unlike when I was in college, suffering through blockages in music, secure in the delusion that I was doing so in complete anonymity -- I wasn't, of course; there are no secrets in college music buildings because everyone can hear everything you're doing -- I'll document it here in all its gory detail.

Call it cathartic......

"Last Days of Summer: Coffee Pot View" 8x10; oil on panel
"Last Days of Summer: In Oak Creek" 12x16; oil on panel

Last Days of Summer cont...

"Last Days of Summer #2: Towards Brin's Mesa"; 8x10; oil on linen
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The second daily study for the end of the summer....

This is looking back towards Brin's Mesa in Sedona; 6am - 8am

"Last Days of Summer #2: Towards Brin's Mesa"; 8x10; oil on linen

Last Days of Summer

"Last Days of Summer #1: Chavez Ranch at Oak Creek"; 8x10; oil on linen
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A long hot summer is staring to come to an end. The monsoons of the last week brought some cool mornings and nice evenings. I know we're supposed to get a slight warm-up this week, but fall is definitely in the air.

I've been frustrated with my painting of late....nevertheless, I have to keep up the brush mileage.

With this in mind, and the autumnal equinox just around the corner, I started a series of quick plein-air studies to mark the last days of summer...

#1 Chavez Ranch at Oak Creek; 8x10; oil on linen

Moving along....

"At The Crossing" 8x10; oil
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Difficult decision behind, I needed to clear my head...

A familiar spot...but different view. Some might consider it sacrilegious to depict Red Rock Crossing without showing some semblance of the iconic Cathedral Rock. I figure I'm going to be painting this spot for a long, long time.....there will be plenty of time for Cathedral Rock paintings.

"At The Crossing" 8x10, oil

Back to work...

"Red Rock Crossing Study" 8x10
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A sign in one of the bars in Jerome reads: "No Whining."

...good advice....

"Red Rock Crossing Study" 8x10; oil

One of those days....

"Perkinsville Road" 8x10; oil
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Gotta be honest, folks....been one hell of a sh**ty day.

...painting seems to be going nowhere, hung out to dry by a long-time friend, myself and wife insulted by a colleague, and professional integrity questioned by a client....some days you just want to wander off into the forest and tell the world to f**k off.

....but then I remember, others have it worse (please see previous post).....

Benefit for Carol and David Marine

"Sequim Lavender Farm"
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As many of you know, the terrible wildfires across Texas are ravaging not only the state, but people's lives. I've just heard that the very talented artist, Carol Marine and her family lost their home and Carol's studio to the fires while managing to escape with very few belongings.

Even though we've never met face-to-face, Carol has been a inspiration to me as I've begun this journey into painting. Her energy and enthusiasm is contagious and her dedication to daily painting was one of the forces that got me to actually get a brush in my hand after so many years of wistfully thinking about starting. Her husband David is the programmer behind the Daily Paintworks website which has allowed so many of us to share our work. I'm grateful to both.

In the hopes of raising some money for the fund that as been set up to help them, I've placed this painting (there might be more, as well) in an auction with a very low starting price.

The winner will receive a confirmation of the donation.

Daily Paintworks

"Lake Crescent Morning" 8x10
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"Sail Rock Study 2" 8x10
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Short and Sweet.....

Daily Paintworks.com rocks! Simply said, it's an inspiration to be on a site with so many talented painters.....check it out.

So.....I'm still trying to catch up from the trip and getting things posted -- as well as getting back into the habit of blogging. But today, I'm going to jump ahead for a minute.

Sail Rock, in Sedona, is one of my all-time favorite rock formations. And in this town, that;s saying something. Cathedral Rock and Coffee Pot may be more well-known, but there is something about this large fin of sandstone jutting out from the surrounding Mesa and rising above the uptown area that intrigues me. The shadows change throughout the day, presenting challenges nearly every hour with the morning being especially tricky. Needless to say, I'll be posting several studies here and on DPW until I find my way around this subject, and on to a larger canvas for a studio piece.

"Sail Rock Study 2" 8x10, oil on panel; also one from the trip...
"Lake Crescent Morning" 8x10, oil on panel

More plein air from the road......

"Face Rock study" 8x10
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A study of "Face Rock" on the southern Oregon Coast. The rock tells the story of an Indian chief's daughter that is lured to the ocean by an evil spirit. Unwilling to succumb to the spirit, the girl turns away and looks to a benevolent Chinook moon where she was frozen in time.

Cathing Up...

"Bob's Fishin' Hole"
8x10
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It's a very busy summer. The Northwest trip lasted about six weeks and produced my first significant series of plein air sketches -- significant in number, that is......that other criteria....well we'll just see how that shakes in terms of my future endeavors. It was educational, that's for sure. But I'm hooked for good....so much so, that I'm throwing caution to the wind, and heading out to do a couple of open invitational festivals in Utah this fall. Somewhere in there, I;ll also being squeezing a short trip to Yosemite to perform at a world music festival and several days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Rounding out August is the Sedona Arts Center members show. I'm finishing up a piece from the Grand Canyon -- my first! Oh well, as they say, go big or go home.....

Rediscover....

Oak Creek Boulders
8x10, oil

Had an interesting thing happen this evening as I was packing up to leave the studio. A couple pulled in to the OJHS (Old Jerome High School) parking lot with an Airstream in tow and asked if I knew of a good place to camp for the night. I informed them that there were a couple of places nearby, but that the best place was about a half hour away in Sedona. Right on Oak Creek, base o Schnebly Hill, amongst the red rocks, etc...I might be a bit partial because I live there full-time, nevertheless....I told them I was heading that way if they wanted to follow me.

As I got in the truck to head down the hill, through the town of Cottonwood, and out into the Verde Valley to Sedona, it struck me how extraordinary a thing it was that not only would I offer to lead somebody over twenty miles across the valley, but that they would trust me enough to follow a stranger down a road they clearly had never driven, to a place they had never been. Just a couple of years ago, I might have eyed these folks with suspicion wondering "what's this guy's angle?" And I would've assumed they were doing the same.

With this in the front of my mind, we set off towards Sedona. As we got closer, I realized how it must have looked to them; traveling down this strange piece of highway, the landscape changing from scrub and grasses to juniper and pinion, each curve revealing an ever-changing series of red rock cliffs and formations until you're sitting at the very base of these amazing monuments while waiting for a red light near New Frontiers grocery.

It's not that I take our unbelievable natural surroundings for granted. Each day I drive to the grocery store, it's all I can do to not pull over and gaze at the rocks -- often I don't make it and I think "I live here!"...But it's different when you consider it in terms of a first timer. Tonight, an even stronger level of thankfulness swept over me as I remembered that, come tomorrow, I don't have to leave this place. That I get to go back to Jerome and paint. And I don't have to go back to being suspicious of everyone's motives every moment of every day. That even though there is still ugliness and danger out there....right now, in this place...as the brilliant Michael Workman puts it, "There are still good things."

Plein air study: "Oak Creek Boulders" 8x10, oil on panel

White Rock in shadow

"Wilson Mountain"
8x10; oil

Not as easy as it sounds.....

No revelations -- when I get one about this, you'll be the first to know

Plein air study: "Wilson Mountain"

Near Home.....

"Home Away From Home"
8x10 study; oil

In need of a break from red rock madness, I looked around for something a little different. At this point in my fledgling painting life, I'm just looking to paint anything from life....but in this case, after four days baking in the Arizona sun, I was being a wimp. What I was really looking for was: what can I paint without leaving the cover of my patio?

Since we live full-time in our RV in a beautiful park on the banks of Oak Creek, the most obvious choice was: an RV. Not all that exciting...but it made for a good exercise.

A friend and I always talk about critical elements to paintings. In landscapes, it seems important to me that someone viewing the painting should feel that it would be someplace they might like to spend some time. Several months ago, I saw a painting of an RV park in American Artist magazine that had exactly that feel to it....I tried to capture a modicum of this as best I could in this little sketch. It will definitely be a guiding concept when I do some future paintings from the comfort of home....

sketch: "Home Away From Home" 8x10; oil

Red Rocks are your friend

Schnebly Hill
6x8; oil

They are my friends......they are my friends.....
If I don't show them any fear, maybe I can learn to paint them
Red Rock study 3: Schnebly Hill

Insanity of Red Rocks

From Schnebly Hill
6x8

Don't get me wrong...I'm having a great time trying to figure these guys out. But as anyone who has been to Sedona - or the rest of the Colorado plateau for that matter - these rocks screw with you. The light changes about every twenty minutes, you start to lose yourself in the cracks and crags, and then there's the whole temperature thing.

I'm not talking about the desert heat. I'm talking about the fact that there are cool green colors in front of warm red colors -- something quite different than the usual cool colors receding into the background.

Second study: from Schnebly Hill

Plein Air

Steamboat Rock - study
6x8; oil on panel

I know, I know....I've been very remiss in posting of late. But I have a good reason: plein air. I'll just say one thing -- I get it! Not that I get how to be good at it -- yet -- but I get why it's so important...and fun. Hell, it has even made me go out and paint something that I thought I would not even want to try -- the red rocks around Sedona. Again, I'm not professing that I get HOW to paint these iconic structures...but I get why it's important to try and paint them.

First attempt...."Study: Steamboat Rock"

Things change.....

"Eastern Hills"
9"x12" acrylic on panel
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So here I am, breaking one of my cardinal rules....blogging/emailing after drinking a bit. Didn't I learn anything from watching "The Social Network?" On the other hand, the whole idea of a blog is that it is a forum where we can present ideas without being constrained by the normalities of many other venues in society.

That said, here's my radical revelation: I love masonite! Shocked? I can understand that. Maybe it's just the margarita talking...After all, does anybody really understand the difference between this stuff and other engineered wood panels? For instance, did you know that it's one of the only wood panels produced that doesn't use formaldehyde...I didn't. I mean, what was the chance that anything used for desktops and roofing in the 1940s was going to be naturally based and environmentally friendly?

Anyway, aside from it's unique quality to piss off the likes of James Watt, Christine Todd Whitman, and Stephen Johnson, it makes a very fun painting surface...It might also be pretty effective in the banging-the-head-against-it category should the need arise.

"Eastern Hills" 9x12 on masonite panel is a slightly different attempt at folding a bit more realism into the imagined landscape.

Moving Forward

"Morning Field"
8"x10" acrylic on canvas panel
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Even though I'm ashamed that I've been away from the blog for a couple of weeks - mainly because I promised myself this wouldn't be one of those things I'd be hot on for a short time and then drop after a few weeks - I've been pretty diligent in the studio. Several still-lifes, lots of sketching and studying, and some new landscapes have managed to emerge amidst ArtWalk preparations, and puppy neutering rehab. Lucas managed to be more spastic and silly while he was stitched up, collared up and drugged up....in a word, he was the quintessential Corgi.

Again it feels like every day in the studio brings something new that six or eight months ago I wouldn't have dared to attempt...to some they may seem to miniscule, but to this wandering saxophone player, they're beyond huge.....

On familiar ground, "Morning Field" is the last of the small acrylic studies that I plan to re-visit in larger oil format...

Guerilla painting...err...painter

"Don't Fence Me In"
8"x10" acrylic on panel
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New -- fresh off the pochade box....

Poplars

"Poplar Trio"
9"x12" acrylic on panel
SOLD

Truck back home (please see aforementioned Grand Canyon accident).....Lucas recuperating from surrendering his manhood....everybody finally healthy.....

New paintings! Yes!

Celebration of Art

"BEFORE THE RAIN" 10"x10"
acrylic on panel
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It's interesting how the universe sends you a message when you need it. Granted sometimes, you haven't a clue what that message is -- or where it's trying to send you. Witness my recent encounter with the fates at the Grand Canyon wherein my sturdy truck suddenly decided to be much less so. Still no idea what was going on there....

I was beginning to think that someone had decided to reiterate that message yesterday as Kim and journeyed down to Scottsdale for a day of extensive art viewing that we had been trying to arrange for months. Ten miles outside of Sedona, the enigmatic and ubiquitous "VSC Trac" dashboard light came on. Keeping with the spirit of our society's dauntless march toward technological subjugation, this light can apparently indicate anything from the engine may burst into flames to a loose gas cap. Upon calling the dealer, we determined that the engine was probably not going to burst into flames, but little else. After discovering that the gas cap was indeed loose, I made a calculated decision -- on to Scottsdale. Now understand, I don't normally gamble on the word of dealer service reps coupled with educated guesses when it comes to cars, but damnit, we really had been trying to get to this thing for months -- and if we didn't go this day, it probably wasn't going to happen.

Message number one: If you really want something, the universe is probably going to make you work for it a bit more than is comfortable.

We made it to the Scottsdale Celebration of the Arts with no further drama and immersed ourselves in one hundred artists that had traded their comfy homes and studios for a large mega tent off the 101 freeway for interested on-lookers and aspiring painters like yours truly that can pester them for three months. I know how some days can be in my own studio when people walk in and ask questions like: "Is that paint by numbers?" or "Did you get that idea from the guy with the red afro on channel eight?" I figured after two and a half months, some of these folks might be more than over it. Not the case....in the least. They were, without fail, the most generous, warm, and enthusiastic individuals I have ever encountered. (The car ordeals were forgotten.)

Message number two: Perseverance pays off....on every level.

The last couple of weeks have been a series of questions for myself...Am I making the right choice? Should I be venturing down this new road at such a point in my life? Is Kim going to kill me if I break another car? (I was driving on this trip as well)....

Doubts removed. Thank you Shanna, Aaron, James, Kirk, Sondra....

(Also, the car issue was diagnosed by the dealer as a bad gas cap....so I'm safe for a bit longer)....

Stormy Weather

"STORMY DISPOSITION" 12"x16"
acrylic on panel
SOLD

No insights today; just a new painting....peace

Mixed Messages

"MIXED MESSAGES" 12"x16"
acrylic on panel
currently at Gallery 527
Click here to bid on this painting

Listen up kiddies, I've got two new lessons for you.

First up: Karma is a bitch.

Less than twenty four hours after using this very forum to elucidate about some recent close-calls with unobservant drivers near our studio and home, I wound up in an accident on a snowy road at the Grand Canyon that has shaken not only my confidence in the four-wheel drive capability of my previously mentioned truck, but left me questioning what the universe is trying to tell me from time to time.

Which brings me to lesson two: The universe has a perverse sense of humor.

As I was driving up to said canyon grandness, I was bemoaning the fact that there wasn't any snow on the ground. This is because my wife and I, both being artists have been waiting two months for weather -- any kind of weather -- to arrive here in Northern Arizona. You see (as other artists will attest), bad weather makes for great paintings and photographs.

I was worried that once again, the National Weather Service had promised us snow, and all that I was seeing was rain. Granted, rain is better than nothing, but snow is better.

About ten miles south of the canyon, the snow hit. And it was clear that all of my concerns were unfounded. At this point, just for kicks, the universe had someone pull out in front of me at a snails pace as if to remind me of the previous evening's rant. Not to be deterred from my winter wonderland mindset and with visions of Moran Point covered in snow and hoar-frost, I slowed even further, shifted into four-wheel drive, and settled back to enjoy a slightly longer drive to the spot where Kim and I were meeting up.

So here I was, in one of the world's wonders draped in new snowfall, with my lovely wife and happy puppy, nestled safely and warmly in a large four-wheel drive vehicle. None of which matters when a snow-covered ice patch decides to send you into opposing lanes.

Mixed messages indeed.

Back at the easel finally; and for sale....

"BACKLIGHT" 10"x10" acrylic on panel
SOLD

Sometimes it's not about art. Sometimes it's nice just to have a forum in which to vent. Like this time...

Unrelated to painting, over the last week or so, I've been unfortunate enough to have several drivers pull out in front of my car on a highway between Sedona and Jerome (AZ). And all of them have been at the same intersection/side-road. Now granted, we're not talking about I-405 in LA here; most of the time, there's barely another car around for more than a mile. But...it is a highway. Those of us traversing it lawfully are usually doing so at between 65 and 70 mph....others are often proceeding at a somewhat more brisk clip.

Anyway, being a four-lane highway, when a mid-tone sedan with one or more octogenarians -- did I mention that the majority have been a bit on the elderly side? (I don't want to generalize, but...) -- suddenly pulls onto the the highway at 7 mph with less than 1000 yards warning, and in my lane; well, it's more than a little distressing. Now understand, by necessity, I drive a very large pickup...it checks in at around 12,000lbs.

I just can't comprehend what these yutzes are thinking when they do this....did mom and dad never tell them to look both ways back when they were little ones? Anyhoo...to move this anecdote along...because I was forced to reduce my speed by nearly 90 percent as I moved into the VACANT adjacent lane, I got a good look at the offending driver. Oblivious, unaware, vacantly staring straight ahead, hands dutifully at ten and two on the steering wheel, and apparently applying equal pressure to brake and accelerator -- brake lights illuminated, but neither slowing nor accelerating.

Three hours later, he walked into my studio...same expression. Didn't look at the paintings, photography, or even the excessively cute puppy bouncing up and down in front of them. Walked out without uttering even a grunt.

I've always known that most people go through life asleep, I just wasn't aware that the dead had now started to arise and were driving imported sedans.

Martini time...

Sometimes it's just about the painting... My mind was strangely quiet this weekend. Perhaps being in awe of the slew of great painters I've been studying. So many brilliant painters, so much paint to place Pear Martini: 8x10 oil on canvas panel