This is a scene in the old warehouse district in Milwaukee, now renovated (but not overly so) to include lofts, restaurants and shops. We were there on a beautiful summer evening in 2008. Figures, streets and cast shadows in the late afternoon sunlight appear many times in my paintings...it's one of the subjects I enjoy very much and return to again and again. This one is 14" tall and 18" wide.

This is an early morning view in August of Lake Michigan from one of the elevated trains in Chicago (on the Red Line. I don't remember exactly where but somewhere north of Lawrence Avenue). Chicago is one of my favorite cities and I really like the views from the EL. I plan to visit the city again this coming August. One of the challenges with an urban scene like this is to avoid getting too fussy with details but still have a convincing painting. This painting is 18" x 24".

This is a scene in southern France in early spring when the grass in the pastures has turned green but the trees are still winter-bare. I liked the collection of hilltop farm buildings. In painting this I was thinking of a composition of mostly neutral colors, with some areas of green and a few accents of complementary red. Showing the distant trees on the horizon as bare trees, without painting every branch, was an interesting challenge.

The painting is 20" tall and 16" wide. I painted it on Saturday while listening to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Lucia di Lammermoor. It was a breathtakingly good performance and I am naming the painting "Lucia's Farm" in its honor.

This is a typical early morning scene along the Gulf of Mexico, with shell collectors, birds and a large ship, perhaps a tanker. I decided to use a very limited palette of colors in painting this. All of the colors you see were mixed from Cobalt Blue, White and various shades of cadmium (yellow, orange, red). Although it does not work with all subjects, I think it's fun to see what can be done with a small group of colors...and color harmony seems to be almost automatic when painting this way. The painting is 20" tall and 16" wide; I call it "The Treasure Hunters".

I call this painting "Just Between the Two of Us". It is 9" tall and 12" wide.

I have been out of town for a week spending some quality time with family, and just got home in time to do some painting on Saturday. I often start my painting day with some quick figure studies. If I haven't painted for a week then I am more likely to make some mistakes...but sometimes the paintings have a fresh quality that makes up for this. In fact I am quite reluctant to fix mistakes late in the painting. It is possible to spend a lot of time making corrections...and knock the life right out of the painting in the process!