Sunflower and Bee

I took pictures of sunflowers that I grew this summer and discovered while I was photographing them that they were covered in insects--this one had bees buzzing around and others had ants everywhere. I spent part of my week off painting this one. It's 2' x 3' acrylic on canvas.

Ecotoons

So I've been doing cartoons of ecological disasters that have happened or are continuing to happen around the places I've lived. When you live in poor areas, people are inclined to use the land, air, and water to make a quick buck and create a few jobs for one generation, but these decisions are usually costly. They create a debt that can't be paid back. It's like check cashing businesses--you get hooked by fast money, but then you're in the hole for good. I thought it would be appropriate to paint them on cardboard boxes. Click on them to see them much bigger!

Need Cash Fast?: Appalachian Deforestation

100% Approval: Dupont C-8 Spill

Payday Advance: Mountaintop Removal

Cash Loan: Bayer Cropscience Explosion

Emergency Cash: AEP Cheshire Water Supply Contamination

Georgia O'Keeffe

In tribute to Georgia, young and old. And also so my charcoal skills don't get so rusty.

Here they are side by side. I'm not sure why I like them that way, but I do.

You work on comission, right?

So my mother in law is paying me (apparently) to do this painting that I finished last night. It's for my father in law, Chris, who took the photo that it's largely based on. Chris frequently goes to Hawaii to help his parents and he photographed this flower in their yard. The painting is for his birthday in October.

Paintings for the kids

Here are the 2 latest installments of painting for nieces and nephews.
Abbey requested "A butterfly! That's pink! And green!" Which doesn't exist, but I improvised...
Liddy asked for "The Universe!" and wanted it to glow in the dark. The universe is a little expansive (get it? Ha ha. Sigh.), so I went with part of the solar system.

Winter Leaf

That's it. That's the end of the series. I took the photo on a walk with my friend last winter. It's a maple leaf with ice frozen onto parts of it. Some of the brighter spots on the leaf are metallic paint glare--It doesn't necessarily have that much glare face to face.

Knots!

About a month ago I re-learned how to draw knots. Here are the ones I've done at my house (there are a few others that I did during various staff meetings that I'm not going to dig out of my work stuff).

Click on them to see them bigger.

They appear in the order in which I drew them.






This last one is for my friend, Bill, who LOVES dragons.
My favorites are the ferret biting it's own tail and the vine.

Birds!

I've been working with pastels lately. I love it. They're great for things like feathers and fur. These are a couple of birds from national geographic.