Santa Claus

The poem "The Night Before Christmas" was first published in The Troy Centinal, a New York newspaper, in 1823. It was written by Clement Clark Moore and was celebrated in his time as the father of Santa Claus. In an 1859 reprint of the poem the famed cartoonist Thomas Nast drew this, the first likeness of Santa. In 1934 the illustrator Haddon Sumblom painted the modern version that we all know for a Coca Cola ad campaign.
Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus as we know him was Haogious Nikolaos of Bari. He was a Christian Bishop of Lydia, now modern Turkey. Scholars can’t even agree if he ever lived, but people have celebrated the goodness of St. Nicholas since the late 300s.
This is a drawing from a coloring book I did a couple of years ago.

Happy Birthday Ludwig

DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM!!
DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM.......
Ludwig Von Beethoven born December 16, 1770
Happy birthday Ludwig.
Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler 1820

Little Miss Muffett

Little Miss Muffett
sat on her tuffet
eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
that sat down beside her
and frightened Miss Muffett away.

watercolor 6" x 8"

Snow's a comin'

I've made a few Christmas cards for this season and thought a snow man and snow boy was appropriate.
When we lived in the Sierra's there were winters when it snowed by the feet. Of course we all went out after a good snow and made snow people in the yard. The down side was that by February we were pretty darn sick of it all. We burned about five cords of wood during the season and it was a lot of work to get it cut and hauled to the house.

I kind of miss it though.

Fruit and a Glass Bowl

Still Life - 8"x10" oil on masonite

'52 Ford Woody

A classic woody, 1952 Ford wagon. A symbol of the early surfing era. I saw this one in Santa Cruz and took a picture of it on the wharf. The background here is my own fantasy.
8"x10" oil on the rough side of a masonite board.

Grapes And A Pear

The fruits of the harvest this time of year are mighty tasty, and plenty colorful enough for a great painting.
8"x10" oil on masonite

Red Grapes - oil on paper

Done Workin'

I like old barns, so whenever I find one I take a couple pictures and work them into a painting sooner or later. This is actually a combination of photos I took at the same farm, the cat being in one place and the barn in another. I didn't think the barn was interesting enough by itself so decided to add the cat in the foreground as the focal point. It's always a tricky thing to do because of the different lighting and perspective of each subject. I think this worked out fine.
11x14 oil on canvas panel

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

This is a lighthouse half way between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. I wanted to get the feel of a pleinair painting and I think it worked out pretty good. I took a photo of the light house on my way home from surfing and painted as fast as I could to get that look.

11x14 oil on canvas panel

Truck Farm Truck

On my way back from surfing in Santa Cruz on Wed., I decided to drive up Hwy. 1 and see what I could see. There are a bunch of vegetable farms all along the coast and this cool old truck was parked out by the highway as a beacon for travelers to stop and buy some goodies.

Awapuhi

The flower of the Hawaiian "Awapuhi" belongs to the Ginger family. Formally called Alpinia Purpurata, we simply call it Red Ginger. Also called Ostrich Plume and Pink Cone Ginger the showy plant is native to Malaysia.

This is 12"x 16" acrylic on 120 lb. watercolor paper

The Real Humpty Dumpty Story

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the kings horses, and all the kings men

couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty in fact was the nickname of an unusually large cannon that was mounted on the wall of St. Mary’s Wall Church in Colchester, England during the English Civil War (1642-1649). It was intended to protect the Parliamentarin stonghold of Colchester which was being controled by the Royalists at the time. A shot from a Parliamentary canon hit the wall just underneath Humpty Dumpty causing the wall to crumble and the canon fell to the ground. The Royalists (all the kings men) tried to raise the canon on a different part of the wall (with the help of the horses) but because of the size and weight of the canon they failed and Colchester fell to the Parliamentarians.

More Roses

I decided this needed another rose for a better layout. I'm always looking for ways to make a picture better. I think I'm done with this one.

Roses in the Sky

My latest painting. A little bit of surrealism. I actually woke up in the middle of the night and this painting popped into my head. Maybe not exactly, but close,so I was inspired to paint it. I don't know what it means but I think I'll do a series of these.
Saturday it's Art on the Wharf in Santa Cruz. Fun stuff coming up.

Bernie

Bernie the Lhasa Apso pup. 9 months old

Beyond the northern boundry of India, where Mount Everest stands is the land of Tibet. The capitol is Lhasa, where the breed got its name. A country of huge mountains and deep valleys, wind swept plateaus, warm summers and cold winters, it is the home of the Lhasa Apso. Genealogical tables show them to be in existence as far back as 800 B.C. and bred as a special indoor sentinel. They are well known for there keen hearing,watchfulness and are fierce protectors. Originally called a" Bhutan Dog" or Tibetan Terrier. They are lovable and smart little dogs and are sometimes used as performing dogs. They do not shed and the hair will grow quite long and flowing.

Napoleon Duck

These are the days that try mens souls and drive men mad. I'm talking about politics.
Seems to me that people who run for political office, whether it's City Councilman, Mayor, Senator, Governor or President of these United States all wind up like a Napoleon Duck.
All a bit daffy if ya' know what I mean. Whoever said "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" was right on. It seems that power goes straight up to their pointy heads and then they get to wear pointy hats. Coool.
The real Napoleon (Bonaparte) rose to fame during the French Revolution (1789-1799) and was so popular and powerful he crowned himself Emperor of France and the King of Italy. Now that's ballsy. He was a brilliant commander and had a lengthy streak of military victories however his invasion of Russia was his undoing and his Grande Arme'e never recovered. Still it took a coalition of armies from Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, The United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal to defeat him and restore the Bourbons to power (1814). Two and a half million troops fought in the conflict and as many as two million dead. (Wikipedia) Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba (off the coast of Italy).
Less than a year later he was back and regained control of the government. The coalition of governments, as before, each sent 150,000 troops and Napoleon was finally defeated in the battle of Waterloo, the last conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. He was exiled again, this time to the island of Saint Helena ( one of the most isolated islands in the world, in the South Atlantic Ocean).On the trip he teaches himself English and makes friends with the British sailors to such an extent that they are reprimanded by their officers for being too friendly with him. He says to his Irish doctor O'Meara:" So you are a doctor and I am a general. How many men have you killed? I'll wager more than me!". He spent his final days building sand castles and playing the kazoo.

The Ant And The Grasshopper

Aesop's fable 'The Ant And The Grasshopper' dates as far back as the third century. As the fable goes...The ant works hard all summer long collecting food and building his house while the grasshopper plays and dances and calls the ant a fool. When the winter sets in and the snow starts blowing , the ant is nice and warm and well fed and the grasshopper is out in the cold with nothing to eat. The grasshopper either dies out in the cold or has to beg for food from the ant. Your choice as to endings depending on how mean you feel at the time of telling.

Hawaii's State Flower

Many consider the red hibiscus the flower of the state but the yellow hibiscus is the official flower of Hawaii. This is adapted from a photo I took in front of the Mahana Hotel on the magical island of Maui. This is also a popular surf spot called Rainbows which gets pretty darn good on a north or west swell.
Mahalo.

I am what I am and that's all what I am...

Avast and ahoy!! Popeye and spinach, what a kickass combination, huh? I've done some watercolor Popeye's but this is the first acrylic. Kinda' Pop Art-ish me thinks.

11"x14" acrylic on board If you're interested in purchasing this painting leave a message.

Groovy Ghoulies

In the early 1970's, Filmation produced "Sabrina And The Groovy Goolies" an animated series based on the Sabrina character in the Archies comics. The Goolies were a bunch of hip monsters who took off from the most popular monsters of the 1930's films, Frankenstien, The Wolf Man, The Mummy and Dracula. I was an animator on the series and after production was finished I was able to grab this B.G out of the dumpster. It's a shame so much good art work was thrown away but a half hour series would produce volumes of animation drawings and cels, layouts and backgrounds; so what else could they do?

Daylily

Daylilies are native to the temperate areas of Japan, China, Mongolia and Korea.
A very hardy plant, it is drought resistant, will grow in almost any type of soil and is resistant to most diseases. They are so hardy that those that have "escaped" grow along roadsides as if they were wild. Most people are familiar with the more common orange and yellow daylilies but hybridizers have grown them in a rainbow of colors. They bloom from late spring to early autumn.
8"x10" oil on canvas panel $160.00

Red Hybiscus

On our trip to Maui last month I took several pictures I plan on using as reference for paintings. This is the first one I've had a chance to paint since we got back. I think it turned out quite nicely.

There is no single flower as widely associated with the Hawaiian Islands as the Hibiscus. This exotic blossom is not only the official State Flower of Hawaii (the Pua Aloalo, or Hibiscus brackenridgei), it is also recognized as a symbol of the tropics and of island culture, worldwide .Although Hawaii's state flower is a yellow hibiscus, the color red is most often representative of the flower, whether placed behind a hula dancer's ear, depicted on-screen or in print, or used as a design in Hawaiian Fabric, aloha shirts and mu'u mu'us (or dresses).

11"x14"oil on board

Steve

My old pal Steve has a birthday coming up and I thought I'd do a caracature of him.
He loves to play golf so I drew him with a putter. Personally, I think playing golf is a good way to end up insane. I played for a time when I was in my twenties and decided I'd rather be surfing.

Watercolor, and pen and ink

Another Day on Maui

Three Little Pigs

The story of the three little pigs was first published in the early 1800's. It was a lesson about wasting time and playing instead of working hard and achieving goals. The two silly pigs were almost eaten by the Big Bad Wolf but managed to get to the house made of bricks and safety.
In 2007 some elementary schools in England changed the story to "The Three Little Puppies",so they wouldn't offend the Muslims.
Muslims consider pigs as unclean. They also consider dogs as being unclean but maybe the schools didn't get that memo.

Out In The Tules

"Out in the tules" is an old term meaning 'far away'. The word derives from the indigenous Mexican word tullin, a thick water grass common to the marsh areas of Mexico City and the central valley of California.
8"x10" acrylic on canvas panel $150

Big Boy

Between 1830 and 1948 there were more than 40,000 steam engines built to pull passengers and goods. The largest engines were called "Big Boys" and pulled 32 tons of coal as fuel and 20,000 gallons of water to create steam. Their mileage was pretty poor tho, burning 1 ton of coal and almost 1,000 gallons of water per mile. They had to stop and refuel every 25 miles but the "Big Boys" could develop 7,000 horse power and pull a train of cars a mile long.

The guage of the tracks in the U.S is 4ft 8 1/2 inches and can be traced back to the width of the Imperial Roman army war chariots. The chariots had to be pulled by two horses side by side. The chariot wheels had to be spaced far apart to avoid the hoof marks yet not protrude past the flanks of the horses to avoid entanglement with passing traffic or roadside vegetation. Since all chariots were made be Imperial Rome the size was always the same. That measurement has continued for more than 2,000 years.

water color 9"x12" $85.00 If you are interested in buying this original painting contact me.

The Last Tomatoes.....or...... Arivederci Roma

About a week before Christmas, Debi and I picked the last of the green tomatoes before the first freeze. Here it is Jan. 4th and we still have about a dozen left. Pretty amazing to me, but I did some research and found out tomatoes have the same ripening hormone as apples. Also.......

The tomato is native to the Americas and was cultivated by the Incas. The Conquistadores brought seeds back to Spain and the Mediteranian countries soon adopted the tomato as if it were their own. The British, however, believed it caused stomach cancer and brain fever and told the citizens to avoid the fruit. The same fear persisted in the colonies until 1812 when the Creoles in New Orleans put tomatoes in their Cajun cooking.

The tomato is in the same family as the potato and petunia.

The tomato is the worlds most popular fruit.

Botanically, tomatoes are a fruit because a fruit is the edible part of a plant that contains the seeds. A vegetable is the edible stems, leaves and roots of a plant.

In 1893 the supreme court ruled in the case of "NIX v. HEDDEN" that the tomato is to be considered a vegetable. This was not the first idiotic ruling a supreme court would make.

8"x10" oil on board $100