Grill Warm Up

This was a typical scene before a huge party. Early morning grill light up and friends to lie to what more can one ask for. I often photographed my step father with his friends around the pit. He would drink his beer and chat with friends while grilling. John L was always around and the hangers on were always dapper.

Study Long Study Wrong

If you have ever played a game of dominoes in the south, you have heard the term "study long study wrong". Or that is what my stepfather used to say to me when I played dominoes with him and his buddies. Of course I would slow the game down because I was and am a rookie at the gane. This painting was inspired by a photo taken during a family gathering. My brother referred to this as the grown up table. Even he was smart enough not to compete.

Young Americans

I love painting old photos especially if someone else took them. This is a very old family photo. It depicts my stepfathers aunt, husband and children in front of their home. I did about three paintings of this image they all have different feels.

Anointed One

I was fortunate to visit Commerce this past long weekend. We cooked, danced, took photos and enjoyed one another. I got to sketch and paint a lot on Sunday. I started out at G Lake on the campus (probably no longer G Lake). The birds were hanging out and eating the food thrown in the water by visitors . I did a few gouache paintings of the birds and visitors. Later in the morning I started sketching family and friends. Overall, very joyful about the entire visit. This is my sister Tammy. The title comes from the stroke of lavender down her forehead. It reminded me of Ash Wednesday.

Dog Wash

I am going back to old photos for another painting series. Most of the photos are from the nineties. The subject is my stepfather and one of his dogs. He is giving her a bath in our yard. Our backyard was large and great for parties.

A sketch book share.

Side Porch Peace

I'm back to making paintings of family members. For this piece, I used Golden's Fine Pumice gel medium to cover a drawing on Bristol paper. Next, I put in a watercolor underpainting. The pastel was added last with the idea of letting some of the process show. This is one of my favorite pictures of my Stepfather. He loved sitting on the side porch. I also see some of my Mother in this piece.

Hurt

My friend Roy lost his mother recently. I was in Commerce and stopped by his place to pay my respects. He was clearly hurting and all I could do was listen and offer hugs. Losing your Mom is very hard; I know. I really needed to capture this emotion so of course I drew him.

Housework Sister

This is a painting of my youngest sister doing her chores. I was sitting on the porch watching her. This is my third painting from that image. This is the largest of the three at 16 by 16 inches. I started out with a charcoal drawing which I covered with watercolor. The pastel was the final layer. I took a few liberties with color.

Card Player 2 and Bright Eyes

Pastel on Shizen Pastel paper. This is Tony a family friend that I have painted and drawn a few times. He has great features and skin. Plus he likes to dress well. My first painting of him sold through Mitchie's gallery here in Austin to a collector from South Carolina. I will do a watercolor next.

The drawing.

I sketched this little one while his grandfather (my brother) held him.

Card Player

This is a family friend that I have painted often. He photographs well. When I captured this image he was playing spades with the family. I did this drawing yesterday while hanging out in my gallery space during the West Austin Studio tour.

He Likes Hats

This is my youngest nephew from my siblings. He is now getting taller than me and the voice is changing. I would call this stage the contemplative stage that I assume we all go through. I was sitting around my sister's home after Christmas dinner and Casey sat down. The initial sketch was in ink on Canson paper. I covered that sketch in pastel while on vacation in California. I took liberties with colors because I can.

Yellow Earrings

This is another sketch from the Thanksgiving Holidays. My aunt Mary Lou was wearing the earrings. People are watching television in the background. My shoulder is again in the foreground. The others are watching the domino game. The initial drawing was done in graphite. I later added the watercolor with an eye towards leaving evidence of the drawing.

Domino Hand

My family has a competitive side. We love playing cards, dominoes...we like games. When I lose I get to sketch. I chose to leave the searching lines visible so that people could see more of the process of creating a painting

Smoke In Your Face

This is the second drawing from our Thanksgiving weekend celebration. Yes we have smokers in my family.

The Point Is

During the Thanksgiving holidays we did the traditional thing of partying and playing dominoes. Of course the game of dominoes involves trash talking and bragging. The participants and the spectators are usually animated. I focused on the lines during the drawing process. When I added watercolor and gouache I left those lines visible.

Sharp

This is a family friend that I have painted before. The earlier painting sold to a collector from South Carolina. I saw him recently and of course photographed him. He always dresses well. The first painting of him also included my oldest nephew.

Natural Dryer 2

This is the second attempt with this image. The first version was on canvas board using casein as the medium. For this version I used Terra Skin paper and watercolor. This is my baby sister hanging out clothes in Commerce. Before I finished this series of photos on my phone, she told me not to take her picture. I didn't after that.

Nice Beard

This young man grew up around me. During a recent visit home I took a few photos with a painting in mind. I liked his beard. Its still in that stage where I may go back in to make some corrections maybe.

Natural Dryer 1

When I was growing up my Mother used a clothes line. She would do the laundry at night and go outside to hang it. I would be with her outside under the Commerce night sky. That probably contributed to me now being a night owl. I loved the smell of the clothes after they had dried. My sister likes to use her clothes line now. This is her collecting the wash.

The initial sketch.

Young Skeptic/Fuel Storage

This little girls mom sat next to me at one of our family functions. She found me to be very interesting as she could not stop staring at me. I drew her of course and added the color later. I painted it on one of the 4 by 4 inch Stratmore artist tiles that I tend to keep with me for small sketches on site. I drew her dad the same day. He is the subject of the "Rhasta Rules" painting that I posted recently.

I will paint anything if it has interesting light. This is a plein air sketch of fuel storage tanks in Richmond, California. I was at the Richmond pier with Pam and turned around and saw the light on the tanks. I had been painting most of the morning and this was the last one of the outing.