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.

Beowulf is the oldest surviving original epic poem in English -- Old English. Grendel is a man-eating monster; Beowulf's first heroic act is to wait for Grendel in the night, as he stalks the sleeping men in the King's hall, to seize Grendel's hand in a grip he can't escape, and finally to rip his arm off.

Detail.

This is actually pixelated a lot more than I would like. But it takes too long to load as it is.

Zooming in on Grendel. A bit easier to see where the tones come from: