Empire State Building on 5th Ave. N.Y., N.Y.

I was browsing through the photos from our trip to the East Coast two years ago and liked this of the Empire State Building. The Big Apple is an amazing city with 8 million people during the day. Most of the people in Manhatten go home after work to the surrounding areas of New Jersey, Brooklin, etc. and come back the next day. This is my take on the crazy busy-ness and colors of the city.
Watercolor on 140lb. Arches paper

Painted Lady - 2

                                   Another Victorian Painted Lady on Alameda Island, Ca.
I'm  not sure if this is a Victorian or was built after 1901. The later ones were called Queen Anne's .

Plein air in Davis, Ca. at the Great California Paintout

This past Saturday I went to Davis, Ca. to paint with at least one hundred other artists during the "Great California Paintout". There were people all over the town with their easels set up painting away, and I was one of them. This little house on First Street caught my eye so I gave it my best shot. I'm not used to painting outside so it was a challenge to me. I really enjoyed my self and will paint "en plein air" more often.

This weekend is the KVIE Art Auction for our local PBS station. My watercolor painting "The Ant and the Grasshopper" will be auctioned on Sunday at 4:00. The auction is on TV as well as online at
http://kvie.org/artauction . The action starts on Friday night at 8:00 and continues through Sunday.
This is a real honor for me to have my work picked along with the other fantastic artists.
Take a look and brows through the art.

Painted Ladies (Victorian)

                                                                  Victorian Painted Lady

The "Painted Ladies" term was coined in 1978 in a book about the colorful Victorian houses of San Francisco. The houses were built between 1846 and 1901 during the Victorian era. After Queen Victoria died in 1901 the the Eduardian era continued the style until about 1926.
Many thousands of these homes were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1905 but many more in the areas south of the city survived.

Obama's On The Road (again)

I posted this cartoon in January and I think it's still relevant. Lots of show and no go but, everybody likes a good show right? Snake oil and magic too.

Grapes and Pears - oil on canvas

For some reason I really like painting fruit. I like the simplicity of the shapes and the challenge of getting the colors and shadows right. Some people say I have a gift for drawing and painting but that sounds like I don't have to work at my art. I have worked many years on improving my art and still work at it every time I paint or draw. Not all of my paintings turn out well either, in fact I think my average is about 50%. I guess that's why it's called art "work".