Oil Painting
18 x 14 inches
I enjoy painting scenes like this one where the foreground is in shadow and the middle ground is well lit.

Oil Painting
18 x 14 inches
The unique architecture of Paris.

Oil Painting

16 x 20 inches

A viewpoint on a high bluff in Lyon, France.

Oil Painting
12 x 16 inches
Ellen and I just returned from a trip to France, which is a country full of great subjects for painting, both in the countryside and the towns and cities. My postings will probably be heavily weighted toward French scenery for awhile. Beyond painting ideas, we really had a great trip.

Oil Painting

16 x 20 inches

A scene in Galveston, Texas. Galveston was at one time, I believe, the largest city in Texas...in any case the old section of town is pretty large and I find it very interesting.

Oil Painting
18 x 24 inches
For those who know the Teton Range in northwestern Wyoming, this will be a familiar sight. Few mountains in the US present such sharp, dramatic peaks. When I painted this I had intended to soften some of the edges between shapes at the end. But I got called away from the painting and did not get back to it as soon as I expected...so it was pretty dry when I returned to it. With a little more effort I still could have softened some edges, but decided I liked the painting as is, though it is a little more crisp-edged than most of my paintings. It is a good rule to stop working on a painting if you like it the way it is.

Oil Painting

12 x 16 inches

An old farmhouse in western Illinois. A very spacious landscape, and the house seems very spacious to me as well.

Oil Painting
14 x 11 inches
This painting was done on location in Silver Plume, Colorado, an old mining town west of Denver and one of my favorite places to paint.

Oil Painting
16 x 20 inches
A street corner in Chicago. I was immediately attracted to the old brick building here, with most of what we see in shadow. I was in Chicago earlier this month, and once again marvelled at how much great urban scenery the city has.

Oil Painting
16 x 20 inches
A scene in the old part of San Antonio, Texas. Last week I tried a different method of painting. Usually I start a painting and don't stop til I'm done. Last week I started several paintings and then went back over the next few days and finished each one. My reason for doing this was to give myself more time to look at the paintings in the early stage and make sure the layout of shapes was good. (few things in painting are worse than realizing you've laid a lot of beautiful paint into a bad composition). I think the effort worked, though it's too early to tell if I'll keep working this way. The above painting is one of that series. I wish I had thought to photograph it right after I had blocked it in, so I could illustrate this point.

Oil Painting 20 x 16 inches a summer scene in Chicago

Oil Painting 18 x 14 inches A scene in the far south of France

Oil Painting
24 x 18 inches
a cafe in the far south of France, just north of the Pyrenees and the Spanish border. I don't think I've ever painted a scene with this much pink in it, but in this case it seemed like a good idea.

Oil Painting
18 x 14 inches
In the US Library of Congress.

A great interior space, and since it is full of architectural ornament, a space which tests the artist's ability to simplify what the scene presents. I really enjoyed painting this.

Oil Painting
16x20 inches
An evening scene at an elevated-train station in Chicago. There are two things that interested me in this scene...one was the group of figures on the train platform, and the other was the shapes of light between the figures and other shapes of the train station. I generally look for these "negative shapes", but more than usual in this silhouetted scene.

Oil Painting
18 x 14 inches
A rainy autumn day along Pennsylvania Ave in Washington DC