June 2010

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With Whistler in mind, I ventured back to my favorite spot. I tried to just concentrate on capturing temperature and light instead of detail. It was a hot day in June, but on the pier, a nice breeze was pushing the clouds along. If I could, I would do a whole exhibition on this vantage point. How fleeting the hour, still constant this statue .

smoke screens

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A smoke screen is a release of smoke in order to mask the movement or location of military units.
I have been thinking of the ephemeral quality of smoke. This was on my mind when I painted forty candles,some of which I painted while they burned.
That was last year. Maybe this subject is one I should revisit, for this coming birthday.
Everything is so fleeting.

Lake Tahoe From Mountain Peak

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The lake was formed about 2 million years ago and is a part of the Lake Tahoe Basin with the modern lake being shaped during the Ice Ages.
In December I was commissioned to paint a landscape from a photograph of this small island in a bay. One afternoon on this trip, as we were coming around the lake, there it was! This tiny island, the same vantage point as the painting.
It was Vikingsholm, along with the "Tea House" on Fannette Island and Emerald Bay.
I would like to think that somehow I was on the right path. Something was leading me in the right direction.

Fulgora Candelaria

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My childhood neighbor's one job was to empty the bag, once a week, in the summer, from this massive insect zapper. We would dump the bag on the ground and look for anything still intact. My entomological collection grew from this chore.

This study is oil on primed paper

Once Belonging to the Neanderthal

Fontmaure Jasper

Period: Middle Paleolithic Period 80,000 - 40,000 years ago

Provenance: Fontmaure, West Central France

Mousterian tools that have been found in Europe were made by Neanderthals and date from between 300,000 BP and 30,000 BP
Neanderthals evolved from African apes along a path similar to humans.
Their stone tools were sometimes finished well enough to show some aesthetic sense. It is here that I am fascinated. That leap. That cognitive ability to "see" an object and realize from that abstract thought.
A rock is shaped into a tool.
A blank canvas into a work of art.

These are studies for a series of larger paintings, reflecting on stone tools that once were in the hand of the Neanderthal.

From Fort Ave.

I love the smokestacks in the distance in Monet's "At Argenteuil".
Thinking about how quickly the landscape changes with time. I used to be able to see the harbor and the oil drums from my old studio window, within six months, new housing went up, along with roof top decks,and the view was gone.

This is "From Fort Ave." Measures 8" x 16", oil on primed paper.

That Was Then, This Is Then

One Summer I was noticing a willow tree, one that I would pass every day on my way to work. What an interesting tree. Willow trees are also quite prevalent in folklore and myths.
I cut a branch and fashioned a loop and hung it on my wall. Not but a day, lightening struck this old tree and split it in half.
The branch stayed pinned to my wall, the leaves turned yellow. I decided to paint it and title it,"That was then, This is then".
In Persian literature, the recognized adjective for 'willow' is lunatic (مجنون), and lover (or lovers' heart).


This painting is 40" x 60", price by request
oil on canvas