"Spend a lifetime in hard work with a humble mind.  Get into the habit of doing what you see, not what you know."

Charles Hawthrone


This is a painting I did at home last night.  It's based on a photo I took at Morro Bay more than ten years ago.  This is a special place to me.  24 x 30 oil on canvas.

Responding

"Just do the steps that you've been shown
          By Everyone you've ever known
                   Until the dance becomes your very own"

-Jackson Browne, "For a Dancer"


One thing I love about landscape painting, especially painting outdoors, is the idea of responding to the world around you.  There's something immediate, direct, and visceral about it.  Not slavishly copying what you observe but almost more of a compulsory and expressive response like a dancer to music.

I'm a bit of a wall flower, but sometimes I get up the courage to sway to the music a bit.  This painting was from yesterday after work.  16 x 20 done in Acryrlic.

Verdugo Hillside

"Always, at the back of your soul, there is something that says to you, "Mortal, drawn from eternal life for a short time, think how precious these moments are." 

- Eugene Delacroix


Today after work I went up in the hills and tired out a new watercolor block that I got.  It gives me a little more room to work (7 x 10) than I normally have when doing these sketches in my moleskin sketchbook.  I really like the hot pressed paper too, it's smooth but holds up to washes and scrubbing.

A Morning in the Hills

I was blessed with a day off of work this last friday so I decided to make the most of it.  I got up early and went to the hills with two canvases, a thermos of coffee and more than a few butterflies in my stomach.  I always get so nervous when I go out to paint but once I get started I always enjoy it.


"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" 

-Vincent van Gogh