February 15, 2009


A Humble Request

I was looking at my Web stats, and saw that a site with a long list of links
to "Christian Artists" has, without clearing it with me, listed me as such an artist.
When I started showing works with words like "Saint" and "Heaven" in the titles,
I was worried that people given to hasty and superficial viewing of artists' work
might jump to some such conclusion.
In the immortal phrasing of Richard Milhous Nixon, let me make one thing perfectly clear.
I am not a Christian. I am a religious man in much the way that Einstein was, who said,
"A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate,
of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty
-- it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude;
in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man."

Please view my works in that spirit.

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November 27, 2008




"Saint Francis Looks Into the Promised Land"
Oil on Belgian portrait linen, 40" x 20" unframed.

Darker shadows, more contrast, more birds. But not quite done yet.

I am struck by the way the few birds I've added in the background
help so much to deepen the sense of space in the lower part of the painting,
compared to the earlier version below.

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November 16, 2008




"St. Francis Looks Into the Promised Land"
Oil on Belgian portrait linen, 40" x 20" unframed.

This painting needs more work.
More birds, some fine tuning of colors, details, values and textures. The usual.
But it's been far too long since I put anything new here, so I'm posting this, even though it's not done.

Looking at this piece, a viewer might wonder, "is St. Francis really seeing the Promised Land?
Or is it all in his mind?"
It is my hope that the painting will work either way, however one sees it,
because the essence, what you might call the "kernel," of the image will be the same.
The kernel here is: the contemplation of the object of the heart's deepest desire.

I hope to complete this painting in the next week or so, and will upload then a final image.

November 11, 2008


"St. Francis"

I defended my doctoral thesis in the OSU Physics Department
this last June 20 -- successfully.

You may now address me as "Dr. Day."

I resumed work on the painting
"Saint Francis Looks Into the Promised Land" over the summer.
I hope to post an image of it on this page, this weekend.

May 29, 2008


"The Pause"

The last few months have brought a hiatus in my work in art.
Dad gum it all.

I'm working on finishing my doctoral work in physics
at Oregon State University, and my thesis defense is scheduled
for the middle of June.

What will happen then? Yea, verily, events will come to pass.
There's a painting on the easel, barely begun, called
"Saint Francis Looks Into the Promised Land." I hope to have
some images of it to post by late summer.
And maybe some other stuff sooner.

Wish me luck on my thesis defense.

November 24, 2007




"The Arrival"
Etching, aquatint and drypoint, 18" x 24" unframed.
Paper: Arches 120 lb. hot-press watercolor paper.

September 3, 2007




"Aquinas in Heaven"
Oil on portrait linen. 48" x 24" unframed.

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274 A. D.) was probably the greatest philosopher of the Middle Ages in Europe. In my view, his principal work, the Summa Theologica, can be placed beside any of the great medieval cathedrals, as a monument to the human yearning after the sacred.

From his writings, an image of him has taken shape in my mind. I see a monk (he belonged to the Dominican Order), with a mind of astonishing calmness and clarity, both supple and strong, toiling away in his monk's cell, striving steadfastly and patiently over the years to work out the divine order of things.

The image in this painting is then a poignant one, for me. It is St. Thomas, set free. His monk's cell is a memory from another life,
and all his questions have been answered.

May 30, 2007

A new painting. This one's still something of a work in progress. But it's time for the world to see it.



"Bach in Heaven"
Oil on portrait linen. 36" x 24" unframed.

You will be able to see this work in the show which Oregon Crafted will hold in the Eugene Public Library,
Eugene, Oregon, July - August 2007, in association with the Oregon Bach Festival.

Jan 20, 2007

Some other commitments have been really eating into my time. But I managed recently to give some time to a new etching -- for my soul, and because I needed new work for a show at a local gallery.



The Forest is Alive
Etching & aquatint, 24" x 18". Paper: Arches 120 lb. hot-press watercolor paper.

November 4, 2006

I needed to take a break from working out illustrator brochure ideas, so I did a painting:



Swimming in The Dawn
Oil on Belgian Portrait Linen, 18" x 26", 2006

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August 26, 2006

Well, I guess the image posted below on the 22nd wasn't the actual final version of the Apollo and Daphne image. There's something very intriguing about this problem. In any event, here's another:



This is done with colored pencil on a sheet of watercolor paper, prepared with two coats of Higgins Permanent India Ink.

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August 22, 2006

Here's a final version (THE final version?) of the Apollo and Daphne image:



This is done with scratchboard, which I've never used before, and colored pencil, so it came out a bit different than I expected.
It's interesting, though, to compare it with the sketch below.

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August 16, 2006

Apollo and Daphne (Ovid's Metamorphoses)

Another sketch for my new illustrator brochures. I'm still not sure what's the best medium for this one -- scratch board? etching? watercolor?

The story: Apollo insults Cupid's archery, so Cupid pulls a mean trick: shoots Apollo with one sort of arrow, Daphne with the opposite sort. Apollo falls for Daphne; Daphne can't get far enough away from him. She prays to her father, the swift river Peneus, for help as she flees Apollo. Peneus changes her into a laurel tree. But Apollo still loves her, and so the laurel wreath becomes the crown of those poets who are beloved of Apollo.