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, […]

meeting my subjects…

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 […]

one step follows another

It all feels experimental these days. I begin each painting with the scary but exciting sensation that I have no idea what I’m doing. This is clearly not completely true, but there is a kernel of truth in it that I think is vital because that’s where play and experimentation live. Since each day’s work […]

Rosamund Gifford Zoo

Ain’t he a beaut. (I think he’s a he but I’m actually not sure.) He was very engaged. His home is a biggish but not huge cage with chain link walls and ceiling – sky above, a bit of a hill, tree, downed trees and branches for climbing. a tiny pool. There was one glass wall for paw-to-paw […]

More Books… Finally

 Patience.   So much patience. Finally three more altered book sculptures from my 10-volume World’s Popular Encyclopedia, 1937, series are finally done and photographed.  Pictured here is a closeup of Volume 5, Heart/Heat.  The sculpture is made from Volume 5 itself, set on a base salvaged from an old Singer Sewing Machine table that my […]

Waiting for Paint to Dry

Alas! Acrylic has never been my medium. In my hands I have always found it inelegant and clumsy. This is not to demean any of my wonderful artist friends who handle it so well. My pet peeve has been how quickly it dries. Nonetheless I do use it from time to time as underpaint or […]