First Friday Santa Cruz: Opening Exhibit @ Pacific Trading Co.

Hola, one and all: come see “As the Crow Flies”, a collection of nineteen of my paintings. They shall be at: Pacific Trading Co., 1224 Pacific Ave., in Santa Cruz. I’ll be there from 6-8pm each First Friday in May and June (May 6 & June 3) They’ll be up for all of May and […]

Figure Painting

I haven’t shown or published a ton of figurative work. During college (Towson University, 1988-1992!) I made figure drawings ’til I was blue in the face. Thanks Stuart Stein, Carmen Robb, Jose Villarubia! (et al.)You all made me practice, practice, practice! It’s not that I don’t love the human figure…..here’s another piece: I especially love […]

Abstract Expressionism? Or just art?

I finished this one last week. Actually, this has three siblings; it belongs to a series of four. Back in October, the Santa Cruz Open Studios event went on, and I sold a bunch of small paintings on paper. Inspired by commerce, I decided to make some variations on the themes found in those pieces. […]

Route 66: Nostalgic Acrylic Paintings

Here are some paintings I worked on during the summer of 2010. The challenges I gave myself were two simple ones: work in a series, and choose a theme with broad appeal. As usual, I’ve been adding a lot of layers of paint and plenty of texture. The partial shape of the “state route” shield […]

“Art Studio” KUSP: Scott Rasmann interview with Kirby Scudder

Hey, last week I spoke with Kirby Scudder about my newest painting series, As the Crow Flies. Kirby has a radio segment that plays every Tuesday at about 4:45pm on KUSP. Here’s a link to the Art Studio archive: Scroll down and you can find two interviews with me. Mr. Scudder is crucial to the […]

“As the Crow Flies” opening at the Mill Gallery, Santa Cruz

Here are some photos from the opening of “As the Crow Flies” at the Mill Gallery last Friday. Thanks to Lucas Clark for the swell pics!

How do you make an abstract painting, anyway?

While I’m on the subject lately of painting techniques, I thought I’d present one of my newer paintings. “Crow Song” is another in the series of “Black Eyed Angels”. As usual, click on an image for a closer look. While I was using the metaphor of crows, I was reminded of Sting’s tune, All This […]

How to make an abstract painting with texture

After awhile, I got a little bored with painting traditional-style paintings. I started adding texture to the mix to make things interesting. Click on these photos for some close ups- then you’ll really see the texture. Here’s the basic process: Assuming you’re all ready with a canvas that’s all stretched, gessoed and ready to go….apply […]

A Murder of Crows

This is the most recent painting, finished just last month. The title comes from the old expression of a group of animals, “a gaggle of geese”, “a school of fish”, etc. A group of crows is the deliciously sinister “murder of crows”. The exact metaphor I’m using here I won’t spell out for you readers, […]

New works: Tree of Change

Here’s another very recent painting, “Tree of Change”. I actually painted this piece before “Tree of Life”. I wanted to experiment with the idea of transition from top to bottom within a painting. The lower half explores the winter metaphor (which can be seen in “Out of the Forest”) and the upper half uses the […]