Creekside.....

"The Creek"; 8x10; oil on panel

I love returning to subject similar subject matter in different light...

Drawing, drawing, drawing....

"Prairie Valley"; 8x10; oil on panel

Still-life and landscape a day.....almost....unlike my landscapes, I prefer to let the underpainting on the still-lifes dry completely.....

Double down

"Halfway"; 6x8; oil on panel

"Wetland"; 6x8' oil on panel

Back at the easel....

"Call Me Irrigated"; 6x12; oil on board

Finished moving my studio....happy to be finally back painting....

(Not even going to talk about Jan Brewer "pointing" at the President)

Catching up......

"Small Creekside"; 8x10; oil on panel

"Early Winter Hills"; 8x10; oil on panel

Flirting with winter.....

"Early Snow"; 6x6; oil on board

Felt a bit more like winter today....

Playing with Alizarin some more....

painting tally: 29...28 days

Alpine Spring....

"Sunlight"; 8x10; oil on panel

Eating out today for my wife's birthday, I asked about the seasonal ale selection. Shay (!) informed me that it was a Spring ale.........???? It is still January.....isn't it?

Sam Adams Alpine Spring Ale -- pretty darn good any time of the year......oh.....and the glass the company advertises with the little laser-etched thingamabob on the bottom of the glass.....it actually works.......try it

Seperate.....

"Together But Separate"; 6x8; oil on panel

Holidays over....

"Three Over"; 6x12; oil on board

Okay....festivities over; national ho-hum championship over.....time to get back to work

50x50 painting count update tomorrow

Full House Slough.....

"Full House Slough"; 12x6; oil on board

The Blind Side.....

"The Blind Side"; 6x6; oil on board

Okay gang, I went two days without trumpeting this repeatedly....but I couldn't hold out any longer.......

The Oregon Ducks are Rose Bowl Champions for the first time in 95 years!!!!

Midway II.....

"Midway II"; 10x12; oil on panel

New Year

"Midway"; 12x24; oil on panel

I wasn't going to post today. Or --- horrors of horrors --- paint either. I told myself I would take two days off this season, New Years Day and.....Rose Bowl Day.

Okay, okay......now before anyone deletes me off their favorites list (hah,ha), let me explain. I suffered through the worst years of the Univ of Oregon football program. Before the wacky uniforms, before the state-of-the-art training facilities, before Nike stock turned on the movement of LaMichael James and Darron Thomas.....there was a large group of people who showed up every Saturday, rain, shine or polar ice on the Omniturf, to watch the Ducks get manhandled by (shudder) the likes of Fresno State and Colorado. I was part of that group.

I've also been part of the group that has watched them slowly ascend the ranks of the NCAA to be big enough that they now deserve to be investigated every time someone sneezes in front of the wrong booster. I've earned this year's game-watching moment -- especially after enduring the debacle last year at the hands of one of the shadiest individuals to emerge from college sports since the Fab 5 at Univ of Michigan (see Wikipedia: March Madness).

So Monday afternoon, I'll be guiltless-ly plunked down in front of the TV with an Oregon microbrew in one hand and some kind of homemade treat from my lovely (and reluctant college-football-loving) wife, praying that this will be the year that the Ducks not only make it to a BCS game...but win one.

Lord, please don't let us be the Minnesota Vikings of the NCAA --- sorry, Dad...it had to be said.

Happy New Year!

P.S. What about today? Today is a Star Wars marathon.....so.....you know.........

"Highway Meadow"; 6x6; oil on board

Today, I debated for awhile on what to write about....it was a toss-up between a conversation I had with my wife concerning "common-sense" and an incident I observed while standing in line at Starbucks for what will likely be my last Gingerbread Latte of the year (I have a problem and need to police myself).

In the end, the two actually went together in a weird way....but I chose the latte....er, latter.

First off, you should know that I don't generally spend an inordinate amount of time "checking out" members of the opposite sex. For one thing, I'm happily married to my beautiful wife Kim for 17 years and secondly, I tend to be somewhat absorbed in my own little world as I move around the planet with most of my energies being focused on not being a nudge to everyone else. This is just as true in art as it was in music....

Anyway, back to the story here....I was standing at the barista counter waiting for my latte to be completed and happened to glance over at the order counter. In a rare moment of awareness, I noticed what was undeniably a very attractive young woman ordering -- what else -- a soy latte, sans Ginger-anything. Taller than average, very shapely, and wearing the tightest of skin-tight tights. Ironically, this Venus only held my attention for minute -- it was the yutz behind her, thoroughly engrossed in the text message he was reading/writing that demanded my notice. So immersed was he that this post-pubescent hormone factory didn't even notice the scantily clad girl eighteen inches in front of him.

REALLY?!? Even I saw her.The female barista saw her. Half a dozen guys walking through the store saw her. The soccer mom behind the yutz saw her -- and stared daggers into her back.

But not this guy. Why? Because he was texting...TEXTING.....

Is it possible that the combined cabal of Apple, Verizon, and Facebook/Twitter has figured out how to undo half a million years of reproductive instinct with the wave of an emoticon?

Or is it just the death of common sense?

painting count: 15

Winter blues.....

"Winter Blues"; 6x6; oil on board

Did I not just say that I'm beginning to dread opening up Facebook.....Christ, not again....anybody listening up/out there...enough is enough for awhile. I don't have another elegy in me....

I'm shocked and saddened at the news that my old roommate and friend from college, Scott Rademacher passed away suddenly yesterday. Scott was one of our original saxophone class at the Univ of North Florida and such an innately talented and soulful player. Even though our lives grew apart many years ago, I greatly admired his musicianship and spirit. The world is a bit more empty without you, brother Scott....

painting count: still 14 (one sold today)

First steps......

"First Tracks"; 6x6; oil on board

I almost dread opening up Facebook and my email these days.

In the last week, I've lost two of my musical mentors, Bob Brookmeyer last week....and now today came the news that the great Sam Rivers passed last night.

Sam was a force in music like no other. Throughout his long life (he played like a wildman almost up until his final day), his music touched countless numbers of musicians in all genres, from rock to free jazz. For all too short of time, I was granted the privilege of being in Sam's nurturing presence as part of his RivBea Orchestra.

If Bob Brookmeyer opened up the door to new schools of harmonic thought, Sam blew those doors apart, picked them up and then shredded them to pieces with a frightening kind of knowledge that is referred to as genius, but more closely approaches inhuman.

Sam was the one who stood behind me and gently shoved as I took my first tentative steps into the world of the avant-garde, and then showed me the path.

I will be forever grateful for those fleeting moments of Sam's friendship.

Love to you and Bea, always Mr. R.....

painting count: 15

Christmas Day

"Shaded Drive, Christmas Day"; 6x6; oil on board

painting count: 14

Christmas Eve

"Christmas Eve"; 6x6; oil on board

painting count: 13

Catching Up on posts...

"The Way Home"; 6x12; oil on board

painting count: 12

...only in my dreams....

"If Only In My Dreams"; 6x12; oil on board

Okay....so I really feel like I missed the mark yesterday. Trying to redeem myself somewhat today.

-- painting count: still 11