They Don't Only Block the Sun

9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
$100.00 + $10. s/h
contact me if interested


I do have to say, that one of the things I miss about working, is that I'm not always up early enough to see the sun rise. This is the view from our kitchen. I don't know how many hundreds of days I looked out the sliding doors and watched this while drinking my coffee. The morning clouds and cool sun create incredible sun rises.
Again, I tried to to simplify the foreground and have the center of attention be the entire magnificent vista. I wanted to check Maynard Dixon's book, Desert Dreams: The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon out of our library, but it is only available to look at in the reference room. So, I'll have to spend an afternoon down there soon.

Castles in the Air

9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
$100.00 + $10.00 s/h
contact me if interested

Again, this piece is influenced by Maynard Dixon. I tried to create a simple composition, with only essential elements. In the west we have magnificent vistas and amazing cloud formations. Often when plein-aire painting, I start the piece outside and finish it in the studio using a photo as a reference.

Feather Canyons

9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
$100.00 + $10. s/h
contact me if interested

Last week I saw a Maynard Dixon video purchased at the Tuscon Museum of Art where his work is on exhibit. I had always thought of him as a western painter and the man who designed so many covers for Sunset Magazine decades ago. I had not realized what a great illustrator he was. And, I didn't know that Dorothea Lange was his second wife. A poster of her famous photogragh, Migrant Mother, hung in my classroom for years.
His bold, simplified, marching clouds are what always drew me to his landscapes. His paintings often had low horizons and cloud formations that may look unreal to the person who has never seen a western sky.