San Miguel de Allende

I found this new blog - thevirtualpaintout.blospot.com where you use Google streetview to browse around the world and find things to paint. This painting was created using that link to San Miguel de Allende. Because of all the craziness in Mexico now, I'll probably never get to see this beautiful city, but it was really fun to find this spot and paint it.

Anderson Mill

I got to go plein air painting with Austin Plein Air last week. Anderson Grist Mill near Lake Travis was the location. The group is great to be with - very accomplished artists who share their knowledge freely. I had a wonderful time, and will definitely join them again.

I like this painting because it is so loose and spontaneous - qualities that are hard to get in the studio.

Bedroom is where you find it

Spanky spends about 8 hours a day sleeping in this chair. He is the epitomy of couch potato, and a boy after my own heart. We try to be more active, but the chair beckons after a day at work. This is my first foray into oil painting after a really long absence. Now I remember why I love working in oil so much. There is such richness that you can't get with acrylics, and it's a forgiving medium.

Desert Lace

This is another collage reworked. Again, I'm not sure it's finished. It's funny how things look finished, then you take a photograph of them, and you see things that you didn't see before - like that dark line going diagonally across the painting -- soooooo....back to the easel.

Oil Spill

Damn BP. Having known folks who made their living off drilling for oil, I understand the excitement when a well comes in, and the money starts rolling in. It's pretty hard to think disaster, but no drilling is ever clean - no matter where you are.

Greed

Sometimes I just gotta say it. This and the painting before are statements about what's going on in the world

New York

This was a failed collage that had absolutely nothing going for it except a little texture provided by some rice paper. Although the color in this photograph doesn't do it justice, it's a really nice piece now.

Chrysler Building and Friends

Also an old painting that I tore up and reworked. Sometimes a more interesting image comes from that process.

Escape

This is a collage that I also reworked. Better now, but I'm not sure it's finished. I'll put it on the wall and look at it for a few days and see if something else develops.

Window to the Past

This is an old painting that I did in a workshop several years ago. Like most workshop paintings, they don't really have time to gel into something you like. So, reworking has been an exercise that I've enjoyed. I like it now.

Bird Food

It's been a really long time since I have painted anything, and this last weekend, I made up for it. All the things I've been wanting to do came spilling out. Sunday was a delight because I had my good buddies Ava and Shiela in the studio painting with me.

I've always thought that you cannot create in a vacuum.