New Year

These drawings are framed up and ready to go to Copper Moon Gallery in Taos, NM.
These images are used on the gallery holiday card. "New Bird" and "New Flower", ink and watercolor on paper, each 9 by 12 inches.

Off to 7000 Feet

I'm loading up the last pieces to take with me for my show at Copper Moon Gallery in Taos, opening this weekend. These paintings are acrylic on canvas, 24 by 36 inches. The drawings are all pencil on paper, 11 by 9 inches, either horizontal or vertical.


"Squabbling Magpies"


"Bison de Oro".


"Gray Wolf".


"Eagle".


"Elk".


"Red-Tailed Hawk".


"Jackrabbit 3".

We leave shortly, with any luck.

More drawings

"Jackrabbit 2", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on Arches watercolor paper.



"Black Bear", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on Arches watercolor paper.

And, a couple of drawings...

"Opossum", 9 by 11 inches, pencil on paper.


"Magpie", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.

"Strokes of Genius 5: Design and Composition"

The new edition of Strokes of Genius 5: Design and Composition has just been published by Northlight Books and includes this sketchbook drawing. It was executed during my two and a half weeks stay in Taos two summers ago. I had been joined by my wife Becky and our friend Erik Tosten for the final week of my stay and we visited the small town of Arroyo Seco. We stopped in at Abe's Cantina and Erik and I pulled out the sketchbooks and started drawing.

When we left Becky realized she had left her makeup bag in the ladies room. We went back to get it and another patron had found it and left it with the bartender who stashed it behind the bar. Nice folks. Go by if you get the chance.

We're back.

We had a great trip to California. While at my niece's and her husband's vineyard I did this pencil drawing on Windsor Newton paper I took with me. It depicts their latest label. I left it on the piano.

More drawings

I have mentioned before that my September show at Norwood Flynn Gallery, "Inside and Out", will include some drawings. Here are some more of them.


"Small Harvest", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.


"Rock, Vase and Pepper", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.


"Mockingbird", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.

Drawings

At my September show at Norwood Flynn Gallery I'm showing, in addition to my usual paintings, a series of drawings. Until recently, I've never approached drawings as finished works in themselves. This will be an interesting experiment in seeing how they are received. I had a lot of positive feedback from other drawings published in Southwest Art magazine and in Strokes of Genius 4.
Here are what I have so far.


"Llama", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.


"Rock and Rose", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.


"Jackrabbit", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.


"Hawk", 11 by 9 inches, pencil on paper.

Hands

These drawings of hands clasping are for a painting I'm sending to an invitational show at the end of this coming week. More about that when I post the painting.
I was listening to Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain" while I was working on the sketchbook drawings. That fact is unrelated to the subject, but "Sketches of Spain" is always good drawing music.

"Strokes of Genius 4"

Strokes of Genius 4 is a collection of drawings published by Northlight Books. Here's a photo of me holding the page with "Urban Still Life", one of my two pieces selected for inclusion in this edition. The other drawing is "Oak Tree".
I'm obviously gratified and flattered to be included.

October Southwest Art feature

Below are my page from an article on drawing and my ad in the October issue of Southwest Art Magazine.
I was obviously happy to be included along with nine other artists in this article on drawing. Whatever I'm known for, drawing probably isn't it, until now at least. The editors chose "Oak Tree", a pen and ink drawing from my sketchbook. My thanks to everyone at Southwest Art for the notice.
Drawing is the foundation of my paintings, since I either base the painting on a drawing from my sketchbook or on paper, or I draw the image directly on the canvas. I've never been one of those "put up a blank canvas and start moving paint around" artists, although I've always admired that process.

"Oak Tree" and "Urban Still Life" are both in Strokes of Genius 4: Exploring Line, also to be published in October. More on that as it develops.

Pic for tat

I did this ink and watercolor drawing a couple of years ago. I had been considering designing my own tattoo for awhile, and I decided this image would be a good one. So my friend and tattoo artist Riley Padgett inked his interpretation onto my left arm. So here it is:

Looks pretty good, I think.

Is it too late for an Earth Day drawing?

I don't think so.

Jump

This is a rejected (apparently, since I never heard back from the potential client) sketch for a diptych painting intended for a children's hospital. The kids depicted aren't exactly jumping, but they're flying after navigating through a series of challenges. But one has to jump before one can fly, don't you think?

Sketchbook section

I have added a new "Sketchbooks" section to my web site, showing random drawings in pencil, ink and sometimes ink and watercolor.

Hummingbird drawings

These sketchbook drawings are studies for a painting I'm planning on the subject of hummingbirds and the sound they make as they approach a flower or feeder and then fly away.
They're based on photographic reference, since drawing the little speedsters from life is beyond my capability. The illustrator Brad Holland quotes a historically famous artist (whose name I can't recall) as saying a great artist should be able to draw a person jumping out of a window before he hits the ground.
Brad goes on to say he can't do that. Neither can I. That may be a little too demanding a standard.
Anyway, the drawing below shows the hummingbirds as they will appear in the painting. The background is still to come.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day is a popularity contest between two (although there in some cases could be more) people. I hope whoever wants a Valentine has one or gets one soon. I already have the best one, though.

Late bird

A student found a dead bird outside the classroom and brought it to class wrapped in a paper towel. She laid it out and proceeded to do several very nice drawings of it. So I decided to do a drawing of it, too (and I'm only showing mine).
It was poignant seeing the bird separated from its previous life and I hope in our different interpretations we depicted it with dignity.

Coffee is good fuel.

Although I never drink it. I've never acquired the taste. I do drink iced tea, though, no matter what time of year it is.
This sketch, of a patron who may have had one frozen latte too many, was done on site at a particularly famous corporate coffee shop.

"Strokes of Genius"

I'm happy to report that two of my sketchbook drawings, above, are to be included in the un-humbly titled Strokes of Genius 4: Exploring Line, published next year by North Light Books. I'll revisit this when the book actually comes out. There were 112 artists chosen for inclusion out of 1650.

The top drawing is in pencil, and was done while I was waiting for a burger at a restaurant. The bottom one was done with a Sharpie. The sprawling oak tree was in a field. You can click on them to see them larger.