Category Archives: people

Destiny and Her Mustang

We all grow by doing the difficult things. At first, I turned down this commission due to health problems. I regretted that decision the same day. Destiny Boyce is a remarkable young person about to enter high school. She stands here with her handsome Colorado Mustang, Tebow. Tebow was adopted years ago through a Bureau of Land Management program, semi-wild at the time. His then owners provided basic training, then put him out to pasture for a decade. He doesn’t like the rider being in charge, and is still unpredictable. With love and considerable grit, Destiny began training him just four months ago, and though he still needs more hands on, Tebow has recently won awards, and is happy to follow Destiny anywhere she goes– which will be far indeed. “Destiny and Her Mustang,” 8 x 8 inches, colored pencil on black Bristol board.

SOLD

The Band

Every morning throughout high school, Cary and I arrived just before eight a.m. in the band room. We became close friends in no time. We were in all the bands together. We practiced marching routines in a muddy football field. We wore suits and ties to perform in the symphonic band. In the pep band we played at every football and basketball game (except the night I called the coach a… well, never mind that). And in the Swing Band we played at dances. He played alto sax, I played tenor, and we both had Selmer Mark VIs. We were both in the pit orchestra for the school stage productions and both of us composed original tunes and scored them for our senior play. And we played for graduating seniors more than once, till finally others played “Pomp and Circumstance” for us. Half a century later, after Vietnam, the Air Force, careers, and raising families a thousand miles apart, Cary and I reconnected. And it’s if no more time has passed than it took us to walk from the band room to 2nd period.

Gifted

Hippies

“Hippies” A lifetime ago. Coming up on my 50th wedding anniversary (marriage didn’t survive all those 50 years, but the anniversary continues unabated). Around 1972, shortly after we were married, I did a painting of us–a little dramatic, but, hey, I liked it. About 30 years ago there wasn’t room enough to hang onto everything, so some paintings went to a landfill. That was the end of that painting.

Recently, I came across a tiny, blurred photo of it in the background of a family photo, and decided to paint it again, guided by that smudge of an image.

NFS

Father and Child

“Father and Child” 6x6in. Acrylic on MDF.

I began work on this painting over a decade ago. When my hand tremor appeared, I quit painting. But I revisited the pencil version of this piece over the years to make minor changes to it because I was not satisfied with it. It was originally 24″ x 24″. After a number of revisions, I painted this tiny version, and I’m satisfied with it.

The “style” is a combination of Ancient Egyptian art, Graphic Design, Art Deco, and Art Naive— and it’s my favorite style to work in. I developed this approach in the mid 1980s. But I expect this is the last piece I’ll do in this style; the hard edges are too difficult do with a trembling hand. Yes, the image is riddled with unintended symbolism (I’ve no idea how that happened).

SOLD

Mark Twain

Mark Twain painting done on a Lenovo 10″ Pad

Painting of Mark Twain

This piece was created with SketchBook app (AutoDesk), on a Lenovo 10″ Pad, using a MEKO stylus. I’m a big fan of author and humorist Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). This is my first painting using the SketchBook app (after a bit of mucking around to try things out) and I find the app is quite powerful! I don’t paint well with my hand tremor, but SketchBook has undo levels, paint over, erasers, layers, even limited cut, size, and paste options, for those of us who blunder our way through a painting.

Typically, my paintings are for sale, but since this is a digital painting, and not very large, there is nothing to sell, unless I offer prints or mugs or other products featuring the painting (watch this site for info).