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Bison or Buffalo

Call them Bison or call them Buffalo, this is my first take on painting animals of any size. I wanted them to be somewhat abstract but when they were too abstract it was missing something. I like them now, I think it's done. Have to wait till it is dry to decide for sure. American Buffalo in the Snow, 24x36, oil on canvas.

I think I found it...

Ever since I painted first Crazy Horse I, almost a year ago, I have been drawn more and more to the idea of Western Art. As I paint buffalo and Native Americans, I want to know more about the actual natives that inhabited this continent before it was invaded and they were killed or herded onto reservations. So I am doing more research on the indigenous people of the San Francisco Bay area right now, the Ohlone, and I plan to do more research to make my art more authentic. Indigenous people and animals...that's where I am headed for now. In the meantime, I painted a triptych of natives in the style I have grown to like a lot. I want them to appear to be dissolving or disappearing into the can

Gifts

A friend lost her beloved friend Bearley a few months ago and I decided to paint a picture of them together. Finally figured out why it wasn't working out, she was wearing a beige sweater in the reference photo and Alida just isn't beige, so I changed it up a bit and now I am happy with the result. I hope she will be too. At the same time, my brother Chris mentioned that he wanted me to paint a picture of a cabin that he had built, by hand, in the Pennsylvania woods more than 20 years ago. He loved the place, but life got in the way and he had to sell it. My sister-in-law sent me some mediocre pictures of the cabin and I created a painting from them. He will be celebrating his 60th birthday

My very own skull

Finally, I found a skull to call my own. On a family vacation we made a trip out to Virginia City, Nevada and a store there had several fine specimens. They were a bit pricey, but I really wanted one. My wonderful nephew-in-law negotiated a lower price with the owner and I bought it. I am so excited. It will be a feature in many upcoming works, but right now, it's just going to be a decoration in the vacation house.

Sun Art

Since my 9 year-old great-nephew was visiting from Pittsburgh, I decided to do something fun with him that I haven't done since I was a kid. Nature prints, or sun art. We made a bunch of these beautiful pictures and actually framed one for a bedroom upstairs in the Truckee house. Love it. I will be doing more because they are fun and beautiful.

San Francisco, CA, USA

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