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The Portland Paintings

Each painting in this series is created using cotton paper with original deckled edges made by hand at Oblation Papers & Press. I can't seem to resist calling this series Tiny Scary Portland. The first thirteen of them showed in August, 2009, at the Talisman Gallery. The next set is scheduled to debut at the same place on May 27, 2010.

The Picture Jasper Paintings

I began borrowing ideas from stones in my childhood rock collection several years ago, after studying abstraction with Mary Snowden and while studying composition with Larry McLary at the California College of Arts & Crafts. In the spring of 2006, I began focusing on creating paintings using jasper and agate as my inspiration for shapes and colors.

Referring to the stones, I create charcoal drawings. You can find those studies here. Then, referring to the drawings, I create paintings, using a palette that pretty closely matches the colors found in the original stone. Some of the paintings are very similar to their source stones, and others are hardly recognizable.

I think of the paintings as illustrating the unearthly landscapes of Dante's Divine Comedy, about which I'd taken a seminar while studying at Reed College in 1999-2001. With things as they are in the world, I don't find these to be times for Paradise or even Purgatory, and so a line or a passage from the Inferno accompanies each painting.

Portraits, Florals, and More

I also enjoy painting portraits of children and animals.