Well I looked into the sky for my anthem 
And the words and the music came through 
But words and music can never touch the beauty that I've seen 
Looking into you -- and that's true

-Jackson Browne

"If you hear a voice within you saying, "You are not a painter," then by all means paint... and that voice will be silenced, but only by working." 

- Vincent van Gogh

Here are a couple of paintings from this week.  Its been pretty breezy lately which has made conditions beautifully clear.  Driving home each day I've been really drawn to the foothills looming over Pasadena and tried out numerous new locations in hopes of painting them, but I couldn't get anything to compose right.  The clear air got me looking for longer views but that never really panned out either, and working in the wind proved to be quite challenging at times.  A few strong gusts almost had me fishing my tripod out of the L.A. River.  Anyway, painting is difficult and sometimes you wrestle with doubts about what your doing, but I guess you just have to keep going.  These are both 8x10 oil on panel.

"Rembrandt and Shakespeare, Bohr and Gauguin, possessed powerful hearts, not powerful wills. They loved the range of materials they used. The work's possibilities excited them; the field's complexities fired their imaginations. The caring suggested the tasks; the tasks suggested the schedules. They learned their fields and then loved them. They worked, respectfully, out of their love and knowledge, and they produced complex bodies of work that endure."

-Annie Dillard, "Write Till You Drop"


These are a couple of paintings I did this week.  Work has been pretty busy lately, so spending some time after work painting by the water has been really nice.   I actually did a couple more of this  bridge and overpass, but they didn't quite come out.  These are both 8x10 oil on panel.

“We do not want merely to see beauty... we want something else which can hardly be put into words- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses, and nymphs and elves.”

-C. S. Lewis