The City of El Centro, CA took a variety of my paintings and created a medley on this signal box at the corner of Imperial and Ocotillo.
The City of El Centro, CA took a variety of my paintings and created a medley on this signal box at the corner of Cruikshank and 8th Streets.
This was a commission from a young man who was determined to learn to play guitar, and was willing to get a nice guitar so it would last him a lifetime. A Grateful Dead fan, he wanted a skull and roses painted on the guitar. This was my scariest painting to date, because I could not afford to make a mistake.
Following on from the Xzltrec, the same gentleman commissioned me to paint a second creature. This one was based largely on a chincilla.
I had an online commission from a gentleman on the East Coast to paint alien creatures for a Role Playing Game that he was in the process of creating. This is the first one we worked on together - one of thirteen species in the story.
The Glass Outhouse Gallery in 29 Palms had an array of upcycled spool tops added to the outdoor display. Laurel was using this as a fundraiser for the renovations to the galley that had expanded it to add a further five display rooms. I adopted a spool and brought it into the studio to paint. The pool of light that is the Salton Sea at the bottom (and the shape) gave me the idea for the name.
The Sasse Museum of art is holding a fundraiser where store manequins, decorated by various artists will be auctioned. I was given the option of two torsos, which I hope will sell as a pair, Mother Night and Father Sky. You can see the story of their creation HERE
This loved a small painting of mine, 'Rainflowers', but were looking for something for a larger space. With the help of my panel guy, Jim at Blue Ribbon Art Support, who created the custome size panel, I repeated the spirit of the small painting, and it fits perfectly with its companion.
Cooper's portrait was commissioned as a gift for his owners after he crossed the rainbow bridge. The commissioner was able to watch the owners open the gift, and there were tears of delight and rememberance. Here's the painting hanging in Cooper's former home.
This couple envisioned a sky of mares tails as the perfect ceiling in their new shower.
I was commissioned to put a new face on the tiki bar at 'The Dome' - Vista del Mar Estates Club House in Vista del Mar.
American Dreams Real Estate wanted to fly the flag outside their office. This was not the easiest of murals as you can probably figure from the shape of the canvas! The mural also got full sun for much of the day, so it was necessary to add UV protectant layers to make the best of longevity.
I was commissioned to paint the soul of this client's house. In doing so I was also able to incorporate some numerical symbolism for him.
This commission was a copy from a very small painting my client saw in my booth. Two larger panels were what she needed for the family room and she loved the feeling of the small painting so I made two 36x36" panels in a very similar style. As I delivered this but did not install it, I never got to see them in their forever home, so you get to see them out in my back yard for final approval!
In back-to-back baby commissions, I added Carter James' name and initial to the wall of his nursery.
A baby shower gift for a little boy who would be named Jace. I added some details that fit in with the vintage industrial theme of Jace's nursery on a kiddy sized rocking chair.
Although Missy is now in dog heaven, she enjoyed a full life with her owner. Here she is as she joined the family - a cute puppy trying to make sense of her new surroundings.
A commission of a memory. The family spent time at Upper Greenwood lake and this was a gift of the memory, taken from a photograph by a local photographer.
A commission of a memory. The family spent time at Upper Greenwood lake and this was a gift of the memory, taken from a photograph by a local photographer (with permission and delight!).
This little chihuahua is the constant companion of an elderly lady. The painting was completed based on a number of photographs, in order to get the markings on Poppy's face right as the pose was backlit.
Lloyd is the proud father of a little girl,and wanted to create a portrait of his daughter on her first birthday, something painterly, outside of what could be achieved with photoshop effects and a canvas print.
Ernie asked me to paint a skyscape from his photograph taken the first evening he visited 29 Palms and the Joshua Tree National Park. On the last day of his stay he bought a different painting of mine, the subsequently commissioned me to create his sunset as a companion piece to my dawn.
A neighbor asked for a painting of a couple of roadrunners. Had to get some example roadrunners off the net to get a better gist of their coloring, but she was delighted with the result.
Peter asked me to paint his family laughing on the steps of a university. Although figurative work is not what I usually do, I was able to come up to the challenge, including lightening the people from the darker photograph so they were more visible.
Kerry Morrison had the idea of refurbishing the sign on the corner of Highway 86 and Brawley Ave in Salton Sea Beach. The sign had gotten 'reused' as a holder for signs for local businesses, and the marina that it advertised is closed. The Salton Sea Artists Association collaborated to bring Kerry's and my design to the community.
Not the first time I have painted buildings in Salton City. This is our local market and the new owner decided to treat himself to an oil painting.
The husband's birthday gift was a composition of photographs from their honeymoon. They had stayed in one of the little huts planted in the ocean, with a beautiful sunset for a backdrop.
A couple of long-time friends from Salton City decided to retire to Rosarito. In their new home they wanted a large commission painting for the dining room - a central area of the main living space in the house. After looking through photos of my prior work they decided on a combination of two views of the winter solstice looking south east across the Salton Sea. I named the piece 'Yesterday's Tomorrows' to reflect the fact it was a scene taken from their yesterdays in Salton City to play a part in the tomorrows of their retirement.
This desert couple have been fans for years and have become friends. They saw I had listed 'Salton Solstice V' on FineArtAmerica.com for someone to get a reproduction as the original was sold. They decided to get a new original for Gwen's birthday treat.
A couple from Oregon were vacationing in the desert and attended the Art under the Umbrellas show. My painting 'Away we go' was one they both loved but was the wrong size for the small space. So, I painted it again in the right size. Here it is at home in Oregon.
Jim bought a boat and wanted to do something awesome with an area of white plexi that was a wall to the cabin. He chose a painting of mine that had been sold, so I repainted in suitable dimensions and he took the image and had it printed on vinyl and installed on the boat.
Maria and Ruben are welcoming baby Iker into their home with a new room with gray chevrons on the wall. Oh why was geometry so long ago?....
The City of Palm Desert commissioned me to create this mural as part of the Traffic Signal Box Beautification program. The boxes are on the south west corner of Town Center Way and Fred Waring - hence I named it for Fred.
A couple in Desert Hot Springs commissioned this mural for their new home. It is the view from the front of the house - without the neighbors' trees, Desert Hot Springs, freeway, railroad....
When undertaking this second request to produce a holiday wreath to be auctioned for the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City, my mind started with the question 'what do I have that is round'. A friend had recently decided a bicycle was destined for the trash can, and wheels are... round. The panels are little leftover pieces from a panelling project around the house.
I was excited to get an opportunity to decorate an orange for Riverside Art Museum. The fiberglass orange (one of a hundred that were being decorated for the event by various artists) is produced by Cowpainters.com - and I had long coveted an opportunity to put skies on their non-flat surfaces. The dawn I painted is as it would appear if you looked in every direction, except that it is on the outside of the 'dome of the sky'. Click HERE to see how it was done.
These gentlemen loved my technique, and were looking for a couple pieces of art of a specific size. The liked 'Three Ancient Sentinels, which has triangular pieces, and the colors in 'Coffee Bean Morning' which has circles. So they purchased 'Sentinels' and I repeated 'Coffee' in a triangular cut. The pieces complemented each other very well.
This couple also fell for my collage technique and thought of a photographic triptych from a visit to Cape Cod. This was very much a collaboration piece as they also came to visit my studio to select and arrange the strips so they could get it just how the liked it best. The triptych is on fiberboard panels 11x14".
I was asked to create a holiday wreath to be auctioned for the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City, and considered how wreaths were made before stores existed that sold you the parts - the actual holly tree branches. Here in the desert there is no holly but there are mesquite trees, and I'd just pruned mine. The 'flowers' are made from plaster, formed around a round stone called a concretion, and wired onto the branches. The twelve skies represent the twelve months of the year.
My good friend and art dealer, Rick Panetele (Incredible Artist), was showing art to Kaiser Permanente staff to choose for a large wall, and they fell in love with Tranquility with Tree. Before they could get as far as choosing other paintings that worked with it to fill the area, he suggested a canvas reproduction that would fill the whole space. The proportions weren't correct, so I worked with Pixel2Editions to photoshop to the right size, and they printed and we assembled it in their conference room. At 5x10 feet, it was too big when built to fit either in my truck or in the freight elevator.'
The 2013 'pairing artist' project for San Diego Alzheimer's Association. "James" had painted a broken down house, but the reflection in the water was perfect. I thought it was so poignant of the way that an Alzheimer's patient's life fades. My responding refractured watercolor not only echoed that construct in the trees, but I also added someone diving into the 'waters of the Styx', and a sonnet:
At the edge, after my day is done,
sense of fulfillment resting in my heart,
my body's atoms coming all apart,
returning to the dirt from where they've come
I'll stop, before I dip these aching toes
into the water of the after life
(my soul arrived before the speed of light
- I don't know how, but that's the way it goes),
So I can see the breadth, the depth, the height
I leave behind, before my dive will break
the surface and destroy what others take
to memory, being slower still than light.
The vision in that lake will, by and by
return to stillness, leaving only sky.
In the last few years I was approached to create a painting for auction for San Diego Alzheimer's Association. This is a cause close to my heart as both my father and his mother died of this disease. The patients are able to go to art projects where they can paint the memories they can no longer express verbally, and artists create a piece in response to this. "Jessie" had painted umbrellas on a beach in the sun. Aware of her position at the end of her life, I extrapolated to sunset, rested the umbrellas on the sand, added Jessie, and the words "Did you ever notice as you walk down to the water, it is so happy to see you, the whole ocean waves hello?"'
The City of Indio commissioned me to create this mural as part of the Traffic Signal Box Beautification program. The box is on the corner of Monroe and Avenida del Mar - hence I named it Marilyn, though I believe the street Monroe is named for a president. I had many positive comments from passers-by when I was painting it, so I think the residents like the city's project.
A mural of historical buildings in Salton City on the front of the West Shores Chamber of Commerce.
This gentleman fell in love with another 5-piece work for a long hallway, but the painting had sold when he returned to my booth. So I created a variant on the theme with variants on some of his other favorite skies.
This is from a number of different photographs of my clients shoreside property at Mutiny Bay. I incorporated all the elements they often see from this view. This was also an interesting artwork to create as it was one of the first I created on a wraparound panel.
This young lady is totally into tie dye - and purple. As she and her parents prepare to move into their new home, I was commissioned to paint the fireplace surround and one wall of her bedroom in tie dye! Wild!
When this client bought his new Harley, they decided that the blank garage wall was too plain to park such a bike in front of. They liked my desert dawns, so I combined a couple of existing images into a mural that makes the Harley feel suitably pampered.
This was a project for ArtReach San Diego. We were given a bench and license to decorate as we chose. It was sold at the silent auction at ArtWalk.
Another commission for ArtReach San Diego. This time we were given a theme - the art of the kite, and asked to design something. This gave me the perfect opportunity to not waste some panels that were slightly warped - perfectly giving the effect of kites billowing in the wind.'
A Southern California family has a second home in Colorado. This is the summer view from their porch there, in the collage format they were enamoured with when they saw my work at an Art Fair in Orange County.
I worked this commission in oil from my customer's photograph. He lives in Washington state but loves the Salton Sea area. When he was visiting we met at a show in Palm Springs - and talked about a possible commission. During that trip he was blessed with this wonderful sunset from North Shore Yacht Club. We considered many of the photographs he'd taken, but both kept coming back to this one. I added a few birds and removed phone wires, otherwise it's just as he saw it!
My friend Adrian is a property developer in England and France. His latest project is an old house in Eymoutieres in central France. This oil painting is from his photograph - except that I removed some of the more modern trappings of the house - the antenna and electic boxes.
The Ryans went to Bodie when the snow was melting. This watercolor was from a combination of three photos - two of the town, and one of the couple sitting on a totally different porch. The most interesting challenge of this piece was that to give the couple good light as they sat on the porch of the nearest building, I had to change the angle of the light. Yes, all the buildings had to have their shadows and lit sides reversed!
I was asked to capture the essence of the song 'The Cat in the Cradle' by Harry Chapin, to remind my client that he needs to spend time with his son. I feel that I have come full circle since ten years ago when I wrote poetry inspired by artwork in an art show.
Doug had recently returned from vacation and was contemplating having a photograph turned into a painting. We looked at several of his most favorite photos - I suggested this one as the one with the most interesting composition - Snake River.
This bird was bred in the US (licensed) from a pair of rare birds imported from Africa. Moses had fledged and was ready to go to his new owners. His breeders asked me to do some paintings of their first 'offspring'. I did several from different poses and this was one of the ones they chose.
Moses enjoys an apple.
Norm Niver, a local advocate for preservation of the Salton Sea, asked me to paint the view from his back window - both as it is now, and as it might appear if the Salton Sea is allowed to dry up. I based the dust storm on one photographed in the Owens Valley, after that was allowed to dry up.
When redecorating the home office, my client decided that green would be the perfect compliment to the black and white decor so far. She loves calla lillies and asked me to do something different in the composition also.
This lady chose three favorite birds and asked me to match the size and style to my Black Phoebe that she had purchased. Poses were selected and for each I worked from a variety of photos, to capture pose and feathering.
When this couple bought their new home, his dream was to have some large apples on the wall in the kitchen. This mural is about 4 feet square, and I was able to make the dream a reality.
This mural was to fit with the existing installed art - the bird with reeds and full moon. The clients wanted a backdrop of the view from their bedroom - again the Santa Rosas, but this time from a much different angle. The moon would not set full over the mountains to the west, unless perhaps at dawn. The other challenge posed by the bird is that the foreground is firmly attached to the moon, which is background.
This five-piece work on 12" square canvases was designed to fit an unusual space in Roger's dining room. Two small windows are either side of the top image. He chose 'Old Moon' and I did a variation on this that matched his tan wall in the lower part of the sky.
Another commission to fit a narrow hallway. The 6" square wood tiles are placed in a line going up one side of the hall and down the other. Individual tiles are about 1/2" deep and do not overwhelm the narrowness of the space.
