R.I.P.

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 […]

Art Lover Video: Stephanie & Arusi

Once a month I make an Art Lover video that takes one painting from meeting the animal through the finished product. This is the first that has incorporated a little time lapse video. My intent is to introduce my animal subject and show the bones of my process. And have it be fun, engaging & […]

Wild about Elephants

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 […]

Hot off the “Press”

                  Here are the newly finished paintings of Wyatt and Ajax, the Amur Leopard couple I met at the Santa Barbara Zoo last year. Ajax (the female on the right) had just arrived from a zoo in the U.K. because the AZA had determined that a mating […]

Seven Wonders of the World

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 […]

Revisiting

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, […]

choosing the next

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, […]