Category Archives: blog

Happiness Revisited

Happiness Revisited
Happiness Revisited

36″ x 24″.  Acrylic and Latex.  When I created this, I was experimenting with using a few partially few cans of spray paint of random color.  I sprayed on the colors at random, creating a nebulous background onto I streamed latex of similar, but not exact, color in order to create thin lines with a hard edge to contrast with the background.  I named it after studying it and deciding these would be what might be considered “happy” colors associated with clowns, children’s parties, circuses, etc.  The “Revisited” came from a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald “Babylon Revisited” in which a man returns to the neighborhood where he used to party hard to collect his daughter, the product of his wilder days.  I thought of symbolizing someone returning in a sad story, this painting could be emblematic of someone returning to happier days with a happy ending.

Navajo Sunset

Navajo Sunset
Navajo Sunset

24″ x 36″. I was experimenting with creating a peaceful feeling using horizontal lines and using a brush instead of my usual splattering.  I named it after my first impression, which was that it reminded me of the sun setting over the reservation to the west of Farmington.

Flores Gratia Floribus

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Created around May 22.  36″ x 24″.  I was eager to try something new using hard lines and had this brown canvas lying around, one of the last of several I recently bought.  “FLORES GRATIA FLORIBUS” is Latin for “Flowers for the sake of Flowers”.  I got the idea from the Metro Goldwyn Mayer motto “Ars gratia Artis”, which is Latin for “art for art’s sake” and was a catchphrase/slogan for the Impressionists.

Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico

Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico
Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico

I created this circa 2009-2011, when I was living in Corpus Christi, Texas.  It is latex and spray paint, 36″ x 24″.  I tried to give the sun some texture by dribbling paint onto it, but I did it miserably and ruined the painting in my mind.  I write it off as a lesson learned. Though it is hard to tell in this photo, the upper right corner has been damaged in storage.  It is an interesting work, nonetheless.  I was experimenting with complementary colors and a sort of impasto technique for the waves.  The thin gray line in the lower right is not part of the painting, but a screw-up in my photography, which I shall correct when I have time.  Now I must paint.

A Winter’s Day

A Winter's Day
A Winter’s Day

Another created during May 22-13, 2015.  This is latex on Rustoleum’s Lagoon (satin finish), 36″ x 24″.

Once I had sprayed the background and while it was still wet, I decided to tinker with a subtractive process and scratched some random lines into the paint with a stick (I have been painting in my front yard of late–weather permitting) revealing the white canvas beneath.  Then I carefully dipped a brush in white latex to maintain control over the paint and dribbled white lines approximately parallel to the scratches.   The result gave the feeling of distance between the white paint and the faded white near it.  This looks like a light snow falling from a clear, blue sky and thus the name.