Birds of Prey Studies

3 days in the studio...I am mentally and physically drained of every creative morsel that I held captive in my brain. I've gotten some interesting and unexpected feedback from my current show. My paintings are my babies, my sketches are exercises to become a better draftsman. I truly enjoy sketching, but I don't put much thought into them and they are what people have seemed to enjoy the most from Aviary. They are also what people can afford. I feel this is an avenue that I need to explore. I bought 10 5x7" and 5 8x10" gold frames. I also really enjoyed experimenting with resin in my drawings and when the director of Phoenix Art Museum asks if you are going to continue to experiment you say absolutely and you mean it! So, having taken this all into consideration, I begin a new series: Birds of Prey Studies. The very top image is of a Secretary Bird and the one below is a Peregrine Falcon Chick. I used charcoal, pastel, graphite, gouache, watercolor, and acrylic on gessoed masonite. Once they are in the frames, I will cover them in resin. I am as excited as I am worn out. whew.

Barcelona Chair

I am done! This painting is on the large size, measuring 64x36". You can see it's progress here. This piece, along with Bashful, will be in Phoenix Art Museum's employee art show this week. I've been at the Museum for almost 4 years and every year my fellow co-workers impress me with their wicked mad art skills. If I must work, and work I must (sigh.), I am glad to be working in such a creative environment.

Winter Wren

I keep a sheet of butcher paper on my drawing table to keep the mess to a minimum. After a couple of weeks it is filled with random marks and notes. The more useless or destroyed a surface becomes, the more I want to draw on or paint it. I guess it is absolute freedom, I can't make it worse.

Speeding Ticket Art

Speeding Tickets via mail...so impersonal. What ever happened to the good ole fashioned pull-over? I miss the panic, the sweating, the need to come up with a feasible reason why you were going 32 miles over the speed limit. Johnny Law has been replaced with a camara. Here in Arizona it is called "automated traffic enforcement". I was literally going 0 miles an hour when I received and opened my speeding ticket.

This is an original 8.5"x11" original sketch on my notice of violation. I am selling this here. My sanction and my asking price for this piece is $181.50. Help keep my record clean.

Dad #3

Don't worry folks, he's not dead. It is a sketch from a photo I took of my dad watching tv when I visited last week. I think he looks like Jesus.