When you meet all the animals whose portraits you paint, sometimes they die. And you learn about it. Most of them have lived long and well-cared for lives, but not all. When I learn another has passed, it suddenly makes them seem more real than ever. The most recent to pass was Rudi Valentino. He […]
late November, 2020 After 10+ years on the East Coast, I have moved back to Colorado. To the bottom of the state this time. To Trinidad, (no, not the island), a town of about 8,000, ten miles north of the New Mexico border. Midway between Denver and Santa Fe. Why? First, it’s Colorado, which I […]
Join me for a tour of my new solo exhibit at A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton MA. Through New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2018.
The more I paint elephants, the more I love them. Here are Thai and Simunye, just finished. Measuring 48×48, each portrait is close to actual size. Thai is a 50-year-old Asian male and Simunye a 20-year-old African female. They are so different: their skin, ears, foreheads, their texture and coloring. They may be the most […]
I may have forgotten to mention that I’ve chosen SEVEN of my endangered species paintings for limited edition prints, in two sizes: 14″ x 14″ or 20″x 20″ (plus an inch all around for the white border). No prints are larger than their original painting, so my 16″ paintings (such as Indah on the left […]
Last month, for the first time ever, I revisited animals I’d met in 2014, some of whom I’d already painted. “Things change” is one lesson learned. These animals live in communities. Things are dynamic. Life happens for them too. Michael was my favorite gorilla in 2014. Belonging to the bachelor troop of three at the Houston Zoo, […]
shipped 20 paintings out of the studio. empty walls. Working on a 48×48 portrait of Sango, a beautiful lion and first-time dad I met almost a year ago at the Denver Zoo. Usually, as I get involved in a painting, I have some sense of my subject coming forward and entering the painting. If their presence is weak, […]
Last week I finished painting a Malayan tiger I’d met in Houston in May 2015. While painting, I didn’t know the tiger’s name or age or gender. I only knew that two of the more than twenty times I came to visit, the tiger would be awake, sitting up in the grass, surveying their world […]