Mystery Muse 40x30

It's that time of year. Slogging through mud and wet, partially decomposed vegetation brings out the best in me. I have been approaching my favorite marshes and swamps and catching the tail end of the monsoon cloud action as a bonus. I tried to make a teaching video the other day. Well, I did record and teach through an entire painting. It turned out real good 'cept for one thing. I oriented the camera to capture the pallette and painting...vertical. Come to find that there is no way to format the captured video horizontally. So, unless we want to get sea-sick we'll have to wait till the camera crew shows up again. Stay tuned.

The Way of Water 18x24 Boy with Girl on Horse circa 1989

I must've been all of 27 years when this picture was took...a mere lad caring for a little child. That's my daughter holding the reigns of a horse that spooked real easy. He liked to buck me off...when he could. What was I doing letting her ride that wild bronc? Well, if I remember right, I sort of lived in a fantasy world then. I imagined myself a village doctor and one-time school teacher as I dwelt amongst backwoods natives in the hinterlands of ol' Mexico. At the very least it afforded me the opportunity to hone my woodworking, six-shooting and adobe making skills. Not to mention the spinning of yarns in multiple languages.
The Santa Cruz river (effluent) flooded the other day. I went out to check on my duck traps (don't worry, there ain't no such thing) and found some pretty cool vistas as the sun set...inspiring this nice new painting.

Sky Blue Water II 24x36 Painting Classes

How many times have I heard the song Magic Bus by The Who? I finally looked up the almost indiscernible (to a Viking) words "...a thrupence (three pence) and a sixpence everyday..." If it weren't for words that make you flip the Brits would have nothing on the rest of us. Of course their use of toothpaste is nothing to be envied but toss around terms like "thrupence and sixpence" and I think you can just about own the world. I'm toying with the idea of getting a Camera with an external mic so's to make a few teaching videos. I'm not looking forward to rolls and streams of film piled on the splicing room floor but if we can make some informative how-to vids without losing too many thrupence it might be a good project. I'll keep the blog posted.

Painting Demo Speed painting-Tea Commercial

Montana & California...respectively

A couple of new paintings I was able to get in edgewise. I'm using more paint on the canvas as I'm slowing down with all my work. I like the effect a lot and have even been taking time with some of these new ones letting the initial layers dry and doing glazing techniques. It makes for a rich depth that's hard to get in alla prima painting. Anyway, tales from the crypt are forthcoming so stay tuned. We have decided that one the best careers of the future is that of Grave Robber. I've only done it a couple of times but a franchise business model might be in the making...or I'll keep painting. We'll see.