Wolf Country

Today's painting came from my imagination, reading Jack London stories, and a childhood in the wild country of Alaska.  Using a palette knife, thick acrylic paint, and a lot of scratching around on the surface brought my idea to life.  I imagined hiking in the snow of a dark evergreen forest, with wolves lurking on the boundary  as I pass by.  In addition to greeting cards, reproductions prints are available for purchase on fine art paper, canvas, and as framed prints in a variety of sizes at my website.  I hope you will visit.

Summer Morning

Sometimes planning just doesn't work.  I try to be organized when creating a painting.  Sketching thumbnails, creating value scales, and choosing appropriate colors in advance is the way things are supposed to work.  When I paint with oils, that seems to be the case, but when I paint with acrylic paints, some kind of crazy mind altering vibrations seem to take over.  I'll spend the morning planning, preparing, and doing all the things I know should happen for a successful painting.  Then I paint and it doesn't work.  I wipe out the work and try again.  It doesn't work.  I wipe it out.  Finally, I figure I've ruined a canvas, so it doesn't matter what goes on it.  I start to doodle with shapes and colors and something magical emerges.  This abstract painting is the result of one of those days when the muse took over and I quit thinking.  If you are interested in purchasing the original 8x10 acrylic painting, please contact me at smallimpressions@hotmail.com. This painting is also available as a canvas print or art print in a variety of sizes up to 23.5x30. Visit my website to make a purchase. Or click here.

Underground

One of the things that I really like to do when creating is to combine representational and non-representational work.  At the top of this canvas is a landscape, but the foreground became the underground where flower petals, mud, roots, and all kinds of structures took over.  It was fun to mixed it up with color, texture, and design.  The painting was created using acrylic paint on an 11x14 inch canvas.  Contact me at smallimpressions@hotmail.com if you are interested in purchasing the original.  Greeting cards and fine art prints on canvas, paper, and metal can also be purchased here from my website.

Spider and Fly

Today's painting is the final result of layers and layers of paint, glue, paper, paint, and ink.  There are quite a few different media below the surface of this painting.  It began as an experiment using glue to create texture.  I drew the outline of a dragonfly with black glue onto an 11x14 inch canvas.  Then I added some texture with clear glue.  Then I got the idea of adding color with torn paper  and collage.  Then I decided I didn't like the way the dragon fly was looking, so I painted the entire surface with red paint.  The outline of the dragonfly still was showing and the more I looked at him, the less I liked him.  My next step was to draw some random geometric shapes with black paint.  Using some additional paint in yellow, blue, and white, I painted in some of the geometric shapes.  Finally, I splattered some alcohol ink on top.  I think the dragonfly has been annihilated, his corpse is hiding under a web of all those layers of paint, paper, glue, and ink.  Now I'm satisfied.  I must have been a spider in my previous life.  Reproductions of this works are available from my website.  Fine art prints, canvas prints, metal prints, or greeting cards can be purchased in a variety of sizes.  If you are interested in owning the original, please contact me at smallimpressions@hotmail.com.