Brad Faegre Fine Art

Community centered

2011-04-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

In the parade of life we are all participants and spectators. The five figurative works here are my latest in a series of community-inspired subjects. As it is in all the art I create, the subject determines my materials and methods (technique). The pleasure of drawing and painting comes down to getting lost in a world of marks inspired by living.

Detail

John Creed, soft pastel on pastel paper This is a colorful, little reflection on a longtime friend and ex-neighbor who I still have the pleasure of seeing at Starbucks on weekends

Clayton, acrylic on Bristol paper This cute, little redhead belongs to Brianna, an employee at Starbucks.

Don, pencil on paper Don manages sales for a home improvement 'big box' store. Communicating something about Don's warm spirit was my objective.

Kevin, acrylic on Bristol paper Kevin is a mail carrier with a fine mind for trivia and a welcome and engaging spirit to run into at 'Bucks.

Irv's Bagel, acrylic on Bristol paper My buddy Irv playfully chides me for buttering my bagel—an adulteration from the view of his upbringing in the Catskills and Fairfax area of L.A. In response to the ribbing I returned the favor by suggesting he mistreats his bagel with donut shop confection. Irv calls me a mensch, which is sweet of him.

To examine more of my art visit my website.

Shift of emphasis

2011-04-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

The two pastel paintings shown here are of the same handsome private garden. Each was composed with a difference in mind. The first effort, above, is a smaller painting, 12” x 16”, and includes more ‘real estate’ to left of the walkway, an area that invites the viewer’s eye back into the distance with suggestions of more garden beyond the olive trees and tailored juniper cones.

The second pastel painting is 17" x 25" and extends the view in the opposite direction, to the right in order to include more foreground walkway, more stairway and stairway-landing, with part of the residence architecture rising above the gardens. Both views reveal and appeal in subtly different ways.

Both paintings were created with a 78-color set of soft pastels, painted on Richeson black pastel paper.

Detail

To examine more of my art visit my website.

A portrait of a portrait gallery

2011-04-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

A visit to the Huntington Library led to this scene of quiet reflection in a portrait gallery at the Huntington Library. I began as I usually do by roughly sketching my idea, placing dominant and subordinate shapes within my composition. My goal for this pastel painting was to express a feeling I had that day, emphasizing the subdued lighting in that art space. Figures are rendered in darkened and muted colors, set against the brightly lit gallery walls, polished wood floors, paintings and sculpted portraits. In this way the museum visitors become, in a sense, quietly ‘framed.’

Note that I considered the work done in the second image, detail. However, moments later I went back into the painting to ‘clean up’ the confusion of marks that made up the central figures face. Such finessing is always a risk: “The enemy of good is better.” In this case the painting survived, was improved, mostly. There is an alternative cost to all of our actions. What I lost in the process you can see for yourself by comparing the two details.

To examine more of my art visit my website.

Serene space

2011-02-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

Last fall I was commissioned to paint a scene of a beautiful private garden in Beverly Hills. The centerpiece of the garden’s design is a 60-year-old Sevillano olive tree transplanted from central California. The garden’s orientation and design suggested a late morning scene would be most interesting, though I visited the property at mid-day, and in the afternoon just to be certain.

A morning marine-layer dulled the garden’s effect on my first visit. Still, I made several pencil sketches and on two following visits witnessed how sunshine made the garden sparkle. From the series of pencil and pen & ink sketches created I selected the most evocative views to complete two preliminary paintings, from which one view was selected for a larger, final painting of this serene Mediterranean-style garden.

pastel, 16 x 22

To examine more of my art visit my website.

Redlands Country Club, a climb revisited

2010-11-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hole 6 at Redlands Country Club, pastel, 18 x 24

This scene of Hole 6 was one of my two choices for a recent commission for Redlands Country Club. Hole 18 was the scene selected (see my previous blog), but this scene of Hole 6 I knew I would have to paint on day. Hole 6 is a dramatic uphill fairway lined by beautiful mature oaks. I selected this approaching view on the left of the fairway to emphasize the contrast of sun-lit fairway and shadowed oak canopy.

In the work-in-progress image below you can see how I blocked out shapes/subjects making decisions about colors I planned to use, for example in the sky. Complex marks of pastel create textures that describe fairway turf, overlapping oak trees and, just as importantly, bring visual interest to the painting surface.

Detail

To examine more of my art visit my website.

The feel of a fairway

2010-07-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hole 18, "Home", Redlands Country Club

My first paintings for the Redlands Country Club were created in the early 1990s. It had been many years since I toured the course, so my first task for this commission was to get reacquainted, to see what views might provide the compulsion for a painting that would, in turn, grace the clubhouse entrance.

My plan was to choose a couple of my favorite holes, paint preliminary studies of these and let the Club’s Board select its favorite. It is a happy problem to have a golf club confound me with choices. Winnowing down to two subjects was difficult. I selected Holes 6 and 18, drawn to the shapes of mature oaks and their shadows that draped sun-drenched fairways. Hole 6 looks slightly uphill to the SE, while Hole 18 overlooks the clubhouse to the NW, including a panoramic view of the valley basin and the San Bernardino Mountains beyond.

The Club chose the view of Hole 18 and I began the 36” x 60” acrylic by sketching out the scene with #12 and #24 filbert brushes referencing the pastel study, which you see on the tool caddy to the left of my easel.

Throughout the painting process I emphasized the painting surface using a loose brushwork technique, loose but thoughtfully and deliberately applied. As author I tell my 'story' by exaggerating color, value, and form and assemble all the elements in intriguing ways for expressive effect.

Here you can't see it, but the finished painting’s surface glistens like the dew on a morning fairway.

To view more of Brad's work visit his website: http://www.faegrefineart.com/

This painting is available as a digital print: http://www.faegrefineart.com/fine-art-prints.aspx

Appreciating those along for the ride

2010-05-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

Chelsea, detail, acrylic on canvas

Chelsea is one in a small series of recent portraits of bright faces I encounter at the local Starbucks. There is a hint of the exotic in her eyes, but study any face you come in contact with and you’re likely to find something new and fascinating to appreciate. In the event that mankind ever achieves that happy tipping point, appreciating all, as Charles Dickens’ wrote, “fellow passengers on the way to the grave”, then maybe justice and peace will prevail.

Here you can see where I took advantage of the white canvas, allowing it to appear, here and there, around and in the subject to add contrast and drama to the scene. I often use acrylic colors as others use watercolor, to stain and create wash-effects. Mixing this technique on canvas with opaque applications and an 'active brush' creates an exciting, expressive surface.

To examine more of my artwork visit my website.

Full spirit

2010-05-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

John Balsamo, 1936- 2009

pastel, 25.5" x 15"

A few weeks ago (and a few blogs prior to this) I began a portrait of John Balsamo, commissioned by his son, Sal. I learned that John was a people person, a gregarious man who loved to cook—anything he could find in the kitchen—and he did it exceedingly well.

John emigrated from Sicily with his family following WWII. He was many things in his adult life: among them a barber, the owner of a grease collection business, and later a propane business.
Sal's stories conveyed a passionate man who "always had a cigarette and a cup of coffee in his hands", so I imagine and painted John that way.

To examine more of my art visit my website.

Field Hand

2010-05-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

Spring Harvest, pastel, 18 x 24

Last night I painted this still life as a demonstration at Village Art Center, part of the City of Fullerton Art Walk. A few hours before the event I went to a local market and purchase produce for my demonstration. Back at my studio I assembled the various objects in an interesting way on a table and quickly roughed-out a sketch using a dark, red-brown pastel stick on an olive green colored pastel board. This drawing left me plenty of room to improvise later using just the memory of the objects and the evening’s time constraint to simplify and stylize my subject.

This morning in my studio I made a few improvements to last night's effort, signed the painting and photographed it for the blog.

To examine more of my art visit my website.

Warming up

2010-05-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

Z-Man, acrylic on watercolor paper

After a period of drawing and painting inactivity I often develop a hesitancy as I resume my work at the easel. My method for working through the awkwardness and reacquiring that sense of confidence and ease is to begin sketching strictly for fun, creating playful things, like caricatures. In this example, I took my neighbor, Joe Zizi, and I began playing with his happy disposition, added his passion for golf, added a touch of 'superhero', and included his beloved Jack Purcell sneakers.

To view more of Brad's art visit his website.

Painting John Balsamo

2010-03-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

John Balsamo, pastel

John Balsamo was 7 years of age when he and his family left Sicily, Italy for America. This was following WWII and they disembarked at Ellis Island, NY. John’s is a familiar melting-pot story, one of passionate determination, hard work, and success.

I never met John. He died last year. What I know of John Balsamo I learned talking to his son, Sal. Sal’s stories helped breathe life into the family snapshots he shared with me and all of that information has fed my imagination as I approached this commissioned painting. The pencil sketch, below, is the pose I have chosen for John and the portrait study, above, will be a guide to capturing John Balsamo’s expansive spirit. I will share the finished painting of John in the next blog.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Marks that add up to something

2010-02-15T17:07:00.000-08:00

Two large abstract paintings were recently commissioned and they provide this opportunity to reflect on the world that comes into existence between the brain and the hand.
Whether representing subjects or abstracting them beyond recognition some rules always apply. The most basic being that visual art, to be successful, must attract the eye of an audience.  

Detail, acrylic

I learned this lesson in college while working in abstract painting methods, particularly one popular at the time: non-objective painting. The aim of the non-objective method was to intentionally avoid making references to the world of our visual experience. A painting professor of mine was busy exploring the possibilities of applying paint with a large window squeegee. Not a 'finesse' painting tool, I thought, but he had the MFA, so I gave non-objective painting a try. Ultimately, denying the value of both shape and object was too restrictive to be challenging and expressively rewarding. As a result, I transitioned into creating abstract, shape-based worlds, diffused and mysterious, like the one you see below.    

Marks the Spot, ink on paper, 1975

By the close of college I was turning back to the challenges of making interesting marks that could inhabit shaped-based worlds of my child and adult fascinations. That vein continues to yield treasures.

To view more of my artwork visit my website.

Moment and movement

2010-01-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

A railroad fan once expressed his appreciation for my work by noting that unlike most paintings of trains, mine seemed to be moving. It was a great compliment and I think he got it about right. Certainly that has been a challenge and preoccupation throughout my art career.

In a new series of 12 paintings for St. Jude Medical Center I explore this interest, depicting life in that medical facility, focusing on people giving and receiving care. Through the scenes I choreographed my shapes so figures overlap, gestures exaggerated, creating movements that draw the viewer's eye through the compositions. In the detail below you can see how figures, static and in arrested movement convey the underlying value we all place in the state of well-being.

The paintings of St. Jude are on display at Village Art Center, Fullerton, CA, through March 15, 2010. For more details click the website link below, go to the profile page and scroll down to Shows.

To view more of my artwork visit my website.

Fires that burn brightly

2010-01-04T19:35:00.000-08:00

Fireflies (work-in-progress), detail

I created a pastel painting of an autumn scene in the last blog. After completing it I found my thoughts heading back to a delightful experience I had in Washington DC, one sultry evening following a rainstorm: fireflies! It was my first encounter with the tiny creatures and the experience burns brightly, still. I may paint these flying filaments in that more urban setting one day, but for now this quiet scene fills the void.

It's amusing to note that for all the painting 'real estate', for all the hours spent mixing and applying acrylic-colors to the canvas, the purpose, meaning and focus of the effort resides in the sprinkling-placement of a dozen, or so, tiny dots and drybrush-dashes of intense light.

Finished, detail

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Autumn's angles and tangles

2009-12-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

Autumn's Angles and Tangles stage 1, work-in-progress, detail

stage 2 (nearly finished)

As trees shed their leaves in the fall and winter their trunks and limbs reveal a world of movement, of angles, arabesques, and tangles. This painting owes much to that seasonal appreciation for a changing world.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

The Sound of Snow Melting

2009-12-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

Detail from The Sound of Snow Melting

As a heavy snowfall melts off a forest there is an almost imperceptible hiss to the quiet, something we confuse for silence. Fond memories like that--especially at this time of year--are a frequent spark and compulsion behind my art.

The Sound of Melting Snow was inspired by an experience cross-country skiing among the Mammoth Lakes, CA. It was the day following a very heavy snowfall and the landscape was just gorgeous. I rarely paint a scene I've done previously, but this one is an exception, so enjoyable was the first attempt (by the way, that first painting is available as a print. See Prints on my website.

I did change the scene a bit to suit my temperament and need to explore new ground.

Fall colors, winter's approach

2009-12-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

Just off Highway 395 on the way to Mammoth Lakes a creek with ice at its edges sparkled in the cool, morning sun. Cattle scattered as they heard me approach. The vegetation, in autumn colors, was inviting to the eye, but overgrown. In my painting I cleared out some of the thicket to expose more of the water and distant horizon. I further editorialized using color and shape: rich colors contrasting with muted ones; warm contrasting with cool; flowing shapes contrasting with angular, all of it to express my sense of the place and the planet's power to feed our soul.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Chapel Light

2009-10-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Chapel Light, pastel, 16 x 22

The chapel at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, CA is one of 12 painting subjects chosen to describe this fifty-two year old community health care resource. Other scenes depicted include: Maternity, Infusion Center, Mobile Clinic, Critical Care, and Centers for Rehabilitation and Wellness.

Plans are underway for the artwork's public display. Chapel Light will be the first of the St. Jude paintings to appear in an exhibition of my work, beginning November 4, 2009 through January 6, 2010 at Cerritos Library, 18025 Bloomfield Avenue, Cerritos, CA. For more information on this exhibit please contact: 562-916-1389.

More exhibits are planned and these will be listed on my website on the Profile page under Shows.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Drawing the line; what is and isn't there

2009-10-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

This past spring I had the pleasure of reunited with two friends, sisters I've known since junior high school. Cathi Carvalho & Cindy Lucus dropped by my studio and I must say I'm always impressed and intrigued by novices who show a keen technical interest in my work. On a hunch I invited them to go out painting with me and, sure enough, they agreed without hesitation.

So late in the summer we found a free day to drive into the Santa Monica Mountains to paint out of doors (en plein air, if you prefer that artist’s term.) It was a warm, clear day and after setting up three easels next to one another and the other necessary artist's materials, we got down to 'lessons.'

First, I shared some general information, distilling what I could of my thirty-some years of experience into a message useful for my friends, hoping to help them clear some of the first hurdles every beginner must jump. Among the 'basics' we talked about prior to stepping up to paint was the value of sketching.

Drawing, like all art-making, is an exploratory process too valuable to be ignored and rushed past (though too often it is). Not wanting to bore my friends I kept my little 'lecture' short. Then I began a pastel painting to demonstrate how I worked the medium and how they might want to approach their own easels and blank painting surfaces.

The gals jumped right in and I was quite impressed with their determination and good spirits in the face of a challenging unknown. If anything bothered me about the day it was that I should have talked more about sketching, about the rewards of this creative lubricant for the mind's gears. The following day I decided to share an email with Cathi & Cindy to add some thoughts about the process of drawing and painting and including the artwork below to help illustrate my commentary.

Cindy and Cathy agreed to let me share their experience in this blog.

The six small sketches above are not the same subject as the one rendered in the pastel painting below, however the subjects are similar and this similarity helps emphasize the role that line can play in effectively defining form and imparting the artist’s expressive intention, or ‘voice.’ Note in the sketches how a single line can outline form; how several lines can effectively describe a surface's contour and texture; how an accumulation of lines can describe the values of, say, a cast shadow; or denote the local color of an object, like a red apple.

Created years ago the sketches are evocative works because of their notative brevity. With so little there to actually see a demand is placed upon the viewer to become involved and, in effect, complete the image themselves.

The pastel painting engages for similar reasons as artist's materials and methods (technique) combining with the artist's temperament to provoke a response. Burned, Brushed and Polished was created as a workshop demonstration back in the mid-90’s and the action and controlled furry of the line-work builds upon the 'story' assembled that day.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Vulcan's Harvest

2009-08-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

Vulcan's Harvest was painted at least a year ago, maybe longer. I thought I wrote about it in a previous blog, but a quick review tells me otherwise, so I’ll take the time now. The subject is one of nine long-extinct volcanoes located near San Luis Obispo, California. These features back some 23 million years and stretch for miles up to and including the volcanic plug that is Morro Rock, Morro Bay. In my scene, nearby farmland provides a quiet, pleasing foil for this reminder of a more explosive past.

I painted on Wallis Museum pastel paper and stained a mottled umber hue, my aim in the painting was to convey the clean, humid air that one encounters along the coast in the summer months as the marine layer burns off. The other obvious desire was to describe the dramatic terrain. However, it is a little element that provides the final nod of my approval, the rolls of baled hay that dot the fields, like giant game-pieces on a some grand board game.

(Note: some paintings just don't get an accurate representation in this blog format. This painting is one of them. On this blog the colors appear drained of richness, so I will place the painting among the images on the homepage. There the painting should fair better. On the homepage you will likely have to refresh your browser to scroll through to find Vulcan's Harvest.)

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Warm Marleen

2009-08-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

This acrylic portrait is one in a series of Starbucks subjects. Marleen is behind the counter many mornings with an attractive smile for everyone.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Jumbled mosaic

2009-08-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

Borax Flats, pastel, 18 x 25

The drive north on Hwy 395 along the eastern spine of the California remains a rich, creative vein for me as a landscape painter. One can't help focus on the austere Basin and range environment with its broad vistas, big skies, and long horizons. In this austere scene a lone shrub-like tree has great evocative powers. Add a dynamic, mosaic-like jumble of stylized desert vegetation, the desert basin stretching behind and distant mountains and I feel a half-century melt away. I'm a child again, small yet aware of some bigger picture.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Reflections

2009-07-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

Travis pastel 17" x 11"

This painting is one from a new series of drawings and paintings featuring people at a local Starbucks. In the portrait I convey Travis' whimsical spirit by composing his pale, Irish complexion, sandwiched between the contrasting colors of red hair and teal-green apron. His gaze may be obscured by the reflections in his horn-rimmed glasses, but the character at work behind them is clear.

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Just a moment's rest

2009-04-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

Young Presley, pastel

My friends have a youthful boxer. “Presley” is growing into his body. He’s all play and investigation, cocks his head often as if attempting to know what you are saying or thinking. Presley is pretty adorable for all those reasons. In this color-sketch I aimed to express Presley’s personality by placing his stance in a slight tilt, a bit off-balance to emphasize that rare moment of awkward pause in a youth’s frenetic pace.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

A good-natured Josh

2009-03-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

Josh Gagnon-Palick pencil on Bristol board, 8.5 x 11 (detail)

I sketched this caricature of a friend's grandson, Josh Gagnon-Palick, while the young fellow was here visiting from Minnesota. Josh is fun to be around, smart, kind, and with a good sense of humor. I think my rendering captures Josh. That was my goal, at least. I kept the distorting of features to a minimum, allowing the loose drawing technique to express something of Josh's happy nature.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Morning Road

2009-03-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Morning Road, pastel, 12 x 16

Working on a grey-toned pastel board, I first sketched my composition by defining the shadow areas of the landscape. For this I chose a rich, very dark blue-purple pastel stick. Following that beginning I purposefully reduced the number of colors/ values I applied in order to create this scene of a rural road in La Habra Heights. This shorthand approach demands more of the viewer, because it provides less visual information--for example, notice how the chain-link fence on the left disappears into the shadow cast by the tall trees across the road, and yet in our minds' the fence is there. The payoff from this practice comes in our engagement with both the painting surface and the painting subject; we see both in a new way.

Note: After posting Morning Road last night, I arrived at my studio this morning and felt the urge to fix something in the painting. This led (naturally) to my finding reasons to 'noodle' elsewhere: I added a cool green to the shadows of the orange trees, further defined and emphasized the hillside trees to the left and behind the citrus trees, and fiddled with both the sky and the shadows on the right of the road. All-in-all, improvements were made and without sacrificing too much in the process, but, again, that wisdom applies; The enemy of good is 'better.'

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Emily's spirit

2009-03-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

I see Tony at Starbucks most mornings. A photograph of his little girl, Emily, smiles out from the contours of his coffee mug, a pleasure for all to see. Emily had a kidney removed just a couple weeks ago and Tony tells us she is doing just great. I'm not surprised. Her grin, alone, seemed to guarantee that result.

I painted this portrait on an earth-colored background to compliment Emily's warm personality. The close-up detail is included so you get a second dose of her bright eyes and sweet smile.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Poets and muses

2008-12-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

One summer morning Terry Davis introduced himself on his way out the door of Starbuck’s, a coffee in both hands. He stopped to express his appreciation for a painting of mine, a character study of a colorful, local fellow. Terry and I chatted about my art, about our community, and then he came back to the subject of portraits and asked if I could paint one from a photograph. That was when he shared about the loss of his son, Jimmy on July 3, 2007. Jimmy was 26. Terry seemed happy to share stories about Jimmy and before leaving me he explained he was on his way to the local cemetery where most mornings he has a coffee with, as he said it, “my boy.”

To create an expressive portrait it is always helpful to meet the subject, for much can be gleaned about a persona from a short chat and observations. However, without this opportunity in Jimmy’s case the best alternative was to ask questions and listening to stories.

Writer Ray Bradbury has said that when people talk about those things they deeply love, they become poets. And so it was when Terry and his wife, Candy, came by my studio to share a handful of family photographs of Jimmy and many heartfelt stories, stories that would inform and influence the painting I created for them.

Following their visit Terry quietly oversaw the project. His wish was to surprise Candy with the finished painting for the holidays. When the portrait was completed I rang Terry and had him come by to see it. Pleased and moved, for a long time he stood close to the painting studying it, smiling and admiringly explaining how he could see in the work Jimmy’s animating-bright spirit at many different ages and stages of his life. “That’s my little Boy” he said chuckling. That was sweet to hear.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Quiet understanding

2008-12-01T06:04:00.000-08:00

Winter Solace pastel, 17 x 25

On the cusp of December and with winter near I had the urge to create a winter scene. As usual I began the task with a feeling in my chest and a friend or three in my thoughts. The creative urge mirrors our most basic impulse: the desire to be understood, to share, and just as hopefully, to give understanding back to the world.

In this work I wanted to express the quiet of a forest after a heavy snowfall. For added drama I made the scene at day's end, where contrasting light and shadows, cool and warm complimentary colors convey the challenges and beauty of life, even in extremes.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Across the universe

2008-11-16T19:11:00.000-08:00

Joey pastel 13 x 10

This jubulant, young fellow at a local Starbuck's inspired a comparible painting approach: brisk and bold strokes of bright, rich colors. For me painting is always a curious blend of shape-making and emotions-venting with the aim of discovery. Making art is as basic as that, but I've discovered a universe there.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Detail

The sensual pleasure of life's beat

2008-10-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Rising From the Valley pastel, 25" x 37"

All of my work tries to express my underlying sense of the roiling-quiet majesty underneath the surface of things. In this detail of the work in progress you can see what I like to describe as the "dance" going on--the placement of line and value that forms a visual tempo to both the composition and my interpretation of the 'living experience.'

Like dancing, success in drawing and painting often depends on knowing all the basic 'steps' and then truly listening for life's beat and rhythm for cues.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Abiquiu, New Mexico: inspiring territory

2008-09-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Basin & Mesas pastel 17" x 26"

On the road north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, I found the the geography of red earth and green basin very provocative. Amid the weathered mesas my imagination and spirit soared.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Back with a brush

2008-09-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

I met Roger Lehman at the local Starbuck's. Roger brings his dog Max with him most mornings and as Roger sits on the patio and reads, Max lies by his feet and watches the comings and goings with Sphinx-like attention, both regal and sweet.

Roger saw some of my artwork about a year ago and introduced himself one morning. I learned that he not only enjoys looking at art, but enjoys 'pushing the paint around' for pleasure, too. He had expressed an interest in watching me paint in acrylics and so after several months away from the medium, this morning I prepared to do that again and invited Roger to come watch.

My springboard for this painting was a sky I remembered seeing outside of Oklahoma City a couple decades ago, a sky that hinted at a storm brewing far away. Anticipation was in the air that day and I took that feeling and memory and dreamed up a California's experience that would compliment it, forming--it was my hope--a compelling composite scene. Using a #10 oxhair filbert brush, I began mixing and applying paint. Here is what the painting looked like when Roger and I broke for lunch.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Drawing personality

2008-08-30T15:19:00.001-07:00

Janetta pastel 17 x 11

The local Starbuck's is a social encounter that I enjoy, where employees and customers are part of that 'parade of life' that brings meaning to the day. I've drawn quick gestures and painted full scenes of this local subject many times and Janetta is my latest.

One day I was waiting for my drink and studying the play of light in the store. Kevin was at the register and Janetta was closer to me and making drinks. The mixture of warm ceiling lights and cool daylight pouring through floor-to-ceiling windows bathed the scene in exciting colors. Janetta's translucent, cranberry-colored dish earrings and bleached-white hair added to the playful effect and urged me to express--in my 'artist's' shorthand--the goodness of that moment.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Painting in Santiago Canyon

2008-08-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

The other day a friend and I went painting in a rural section of North Orange County. We chose a spot next to the highway with a 180 degree inspiration. Clarence snapped shots of me as I painted in the morning and after a lunch break I photographed him at his easel. I hope to share some of those sequenced images in a future blog.

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Strong feelings for Yosemite

2008-07-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

Recently a young couple politely reminded me I hadn’t added to my Blog in several weeks. The nudge was needed. Learning that Andrea & Richard had fond ties to Yosemite National Park I chose this painting for the Blog with them in mind.

The work was created last February at The Hillcrest Festival of Arts where I was demonstrating and exhibiting. I began with a white pastel board, first staining it with earth tones that I planned would impart a warmth to the scene when it was completed. Next I sketched my subject: shapes of trees, deer (three would give way to just one in the end) and the iconic Half Dome in the distance.

Here are a few shots taken that day of the work in progress.

Summer Deer, pastel, 17" x 23"

Visit my website to see more of my work.

Animals in the Imagination

2008-07-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Arthur at the Kitchen Sink

Look into their eyes and the sense is that you are on their 'frequency', somehow. I doubt we really are, but still they make us feel in touched with the wild, and that is certainly special.

Domestic pets--mine, friends' and strangers'--are a favorite part of my life and a favorite subject to explore in my work. Here are a few images from my 'sketchbooks', quick records of those looks they give and the sweet mysteries they evoke.

Carrot and the Stick-- at the Beach

Theo the Cat

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Redesigning on day-4

2008-06-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

Two unconvincing and uninterestingly-shaped rocks proved a wincing obstruction to the melody of the compositional movement among shapes, so they had to go! One rock had looked okay at the start, but in time I had made it look like a discarded mattress on the side of a rural road--the thought of that happening to the Grand Canyon gives me a shudder!

Anyway, unlike ’mattress-rock’ the bigger boulder to its right troubled me from the very start. I thought I’d get away with chiseling it a little here and there and make it right, unfortunately, the problem was big and structural: 1) it was an uninteresting shape 2) it looked too much like plump clam shell 3) its lateral contours lined up too closely with the neighboring ‘mattress: very ugly!

In the end I just started over and redesigned the two shapes so they added to, not subtracted from the painting.

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Day-3 painting "Slow Ruin"

2008-06-14T14:53:00.002-07:00

I continued, today, describing the ‘mechanics’ of Nature: How are rocks and earth worn down and how would light describe those forms I am creating? Exploring evocative color relationships and allowing them to speak through an interesting, cohesive, and direct technique, remained the other part of the day’s focus.

Second day's effort on "Slow Ruin"

2008-06-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

On day-2 of Slow Ruin I continued organizing a flowing distribution of interesting shapes and contrasting values. Strengthening the darks in the foreground shadows added additional mystery and drama to the scene.

At the beginning of my art training, my high school art instructor gave this most valuable piece of advice: “The secret to making great art is knowing when to quit.” A surgeon-friend with a love of painting, upon hearing this saying of mine, shared his version of the advice--a more sobering lesson in the context of medical training: “The enemy of good is better.” Clarence amplified, saying a surgeon can finesse a patient to death.

Even with only a canvas or drawing at stake, I do stay vigilant from the moment I begin a my work, aware that at anytime I may see something amid the marks I've made, something I like too much to risk losing. At that moment, if I’m smart, I call it quits.

However, for now the painting continues, tomorrow....

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Day-1 of "Slow Ruin"

2008-06-10T11:50:00.001-07:00

This is my latest effort, a pastel painting begun yesterday that I expect to be working on over the next few days and sharing its progress as I do.

The desert southwest is a favorite place and inspiration: ancient, expansive, and mysterious. That land-scape inever ceases to inspire me. In fact, I often wake from sleep with some view of the Grand Canyon in mind.

Experience and memory are a reflective kaleidoscope that fuel discovery. This piece of artwork began as they all do: following a period of daydreaming; reflection brings creative release, but it isn’t until I begin making marks on paper or canvas that conceptualization has the pleasure of seeing action and, eventually, a physical record to further savor and revisit.

My first mark on this painting was made with a pastel stick of dark, cool brown color. I begin assembling big shapes and sweeping movements to please my eye and express my general sense of mystery and appreciation for being alive in this world.

Rough-hewn shapes and simple lines evolve and give way to more refined and complex shapes and rhythmic forms as additional color and contrasting values are applied. My first aim is to create an expressive and intriguing painting surface; rendering a subject (if there is one to render) comes second. Like a sculptor I chip-away at stone in order to liberate both form and feeling.

I often find that chance marks created are at least as interesting as those things I plan for. An example, in this scene, is the block of stone perched in silhouette at the center on a sloping debris-field. It (as well as other shapes in the scene) has a descriptive brevity that allows it to remain stylizied and abstracted: a shape, while also convincing us in a kind of evocative shorthand that what we are seeing is a rough, hard-surfaced block of earth of enormous weight. One of the pleasures of painting is living, at least for a time, in more than one interesting world. More on this is coming....

I am working on Colorfix pastel board, the color is Elephant Grey, 23" x 36."

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The desert theme

2008-05-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

Red Rock Evening, pastel, 18" x 26"

Drawn to daydream of experiences often leads to paintings, like these, scenes inspired by Arizona and New Mexico.

Navaho Country, pastel 18" x 26"

Desert Bloom, pastel 18" x 26"

Storm Near Abiguiu, NM, pastel 18" x 26"

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Austere beauties

2008-05-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

Passing Shadows pastel 11" x 14"

Lone & Level Sands pastel 16" x 22"

A buddy of mine, Dave Michaels, recently spent several days up in 'Maynard Dixon country', in and around Escalante, Utah. He and I share an appreciation for both Dixon's work and that kind of geography. A couple years ago on a painting trip Dave and I had just turned away from the Sierra range onto a flat stretch of road near Mono Lake heading east in search of a subject to paint. It was flatness on both sides of us: sky and basin and little more, and yet at the same moment we spoke, "This is it!" We enjoyed a good chuckled at our timing and we soon concluded that the scene had what we called a 'Dixon-esque' nature and challenge to it.

On this trip, Dave emailed along the way to share a few of his impressions. Inspired by what he was describing I couldn't resist the itch to think about desert lands with their austere beauty and in the studio created a scene or two. The first (above) is new, the second is a few years old, but both are an attempt to communicate that spirit of agelessness: land, friend; hard to separate.

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Painting how it feels

2008-04-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

Grazing on California, pastel, 11" x 14"

Subtle effects of light on my disposition are a big part of what drives me as a painter, particularly a landscape painter. I am in my element trying to express those feelings visually. It is in the subtle mix of muted colors and shadowy shapes that my imagination comes most alive, tickling my sense of mystery, reminding me of the etheral and changing contours of this mortal world.

(detail)

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Life on the raildroad

2008-04-09T20:39:00.001-07:00

For years I have painted railroad subjects: trains and the people who work on the rails. Steam engines are such dramatic subjects, but then so are the people involved in that industry. Here are a couple samples. More drawings and paintings can be found on my website, including selected prints.

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Expressive possibilies

2008-04-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

These two small paintings were created on different colored pastel boards: one brick-red and the other black. As you can see in this comparison, each offers its own dramatic possibilities. The earth-hue of the one (top) is a natural for describing the warm mood of a desert afternoon, while the black board adds a contrast-bump to all of the colors applied to it, in its case to convey the chill of a desert morning after a dusting of snow.

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Drawing on what you know and feel

2008-03-27T08:37:00.001-07:00

Vanishing California, pastel, private collection

Sketch of Redlands' Citus, drawing, 8' x 10'

I was searching through a drawer of drawings recently and found this sketch created some years back while out painting with a buddy, Dr. George Riday. The quick sketch records a scene that is vanishing from Southern California: citrus groves; residential and commercial construction have been encroaching over the years. George and other good friends have joined me on many occasions to enjoy and render the patterns and rhythms of the citrus groves in and around the City of Redlands.

Months after this sketch was created I used it to create a demonstration painting before an art association in the City of Upland. That painting (top image) began with me composing the subject in a few loose brush strokes and simplified shapes on a tan-colored Museum Board. (See the top, shadowy part of the palm on the right for an idea how I applied the watercolor to describe my subject in rough shorthand).

Next, over this (dried) watercolor I applied soft pastel in colors to convey the quiet intensity of a hazy morning's sun and the warmth of adult and childhood experiences growing up in California.

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Coffee Hounds

2008-03-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

Soulful Sarah, (or "Hello Joe!") value sketch in pastel

With the last blog about how Starbuck’s has inspired me, I thought a blog acknowledging another inspiring subject, in this case the ‘dog’s who come to Starbuck’s’ might be in order.

On a couple occasions I’ve sketched Sarah, a Basset Hound who comes with her owners on weekend mornings. She’s a favorite of mine, a good subject in shape and demeanor. Sarah sits quietly at her owner’s feet--can’t recall hearing a peep out of her, come to think of it--and she just seems to take it all in through those sad (and sweet) Basset Hound-eyes. The drawing of Sarah was created using one black and one mid-gray Holbein pastel stick, broken in a third, to render the Soulful Sarah on white drawing paper.

Another regular at ‘Buck’s is Arthur and his three Labs. Art and his wife train dogs for the blind. He's a quiet and easy-going fellow, like canine pals. Usually you’ll see his ‘boys’ comfortably stretched out on the patio near Art’s feet, seemingly much better off without the caffeine.

The aim of this pastel sketch was to describe the gestures of Art and his buddies, not their details. However, in getting the gestures right, identity and interest are almost assured.

Hound of the Bassetville, pastel

Art & the Boys, pastel

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Life at ‘Buck’s

2008-03-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Tropical Brew, pastel, 13" x 15" (print available)

Year’s ago I got into the pleasing habit of heading over to the local Starbuck’s early in the morning. The routine involved sitting by the window with a hot cup of Earl Grey and The Nation, or The New Yorker magazine in hand. Watching the world outside astir and the steady flow of customers coming through the door made for a rewarding experience and one that has inspired more than a few paintings and drawings of that experience.

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Inspired by the city our Constitution built

2008-03-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

Nuts! pastel

Standing before The White House, or on the hilltop property of the much less visited, cared-for, and celebrated home of ex-slave and (later) statesman, Frederick Douglass, the great ideas on which this country were founded haunt and inspire. Our Constitution has been under attack from its birth, more from within our borders than from outside, truth be told. In the last few years Old Glory has become a logo for the ‘marketers of consensus’, drained of meaning by a group of suited and self-satisfied lapel pin-heads. Shameful.

A few years ago I stood in front of the White House for the first time, and I was surprised by the sudden swell of pride and fascination I felt for the place. Without Gettysburg and Antietam, FDR and JFK I doubt it would have stirred me so. This nation has gone through a lot to preserve the foundation of its common voice, if not always its common sense. Standing there with Washington’s tall spirit nearby, I looked past the stone and iron fence to the iconic, pillared façade in the distance. In between, two squirrels played on the expansive lawn of ‘their’ semi-private, manicured park. I wished I could be one of them, just for a day. In the warmth of that late spring morning the ‘landscape painter’ in me overtook the citizen, daydreaming what other interesting views could be had that too few get the opportunity to see and enjoy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Good Life; Study for Nuts!, pen & ink

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The reward of the surprise

2008-03-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

I demonstrated at the 48th Annual Hillcrest Festival of Arts not long ago and as with most 'public' events my painting process was punctuated by lots of conversations. People are full of questions and comments for artists and I enjoy discussing the creative process: subjects, materials and methods.

Painting before the public is really painting 'for the public.' It demands a different kind of attention than I exercise when I’m working in solitude. In public my focus is necessarily split between a personal desire to express a thought in visual-terms and entertaining others. For those watching, as with the artist, the greatest reward is in the surprises.

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Painting courses

2008-03-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

Shadowed Bunker at Riviera C.C., acrylic o/ canvas

Golf became a subject of mine in the late 80’s when I was commissioned to paint a portrait of a high school golf phenom, Bob May. (Years later Bobby and Tiger Woods played a thrilling sudden-death final at the 82nd PGA Championship at the Valhalla Golf Club.)

Andy Thuney's Swing, pen & ink

The portrait of Bobby led to recognition and opportunities for me in the golf world, starting with an offer from Andy Thuney, Golf Professional at Hacienda Country Club (now Professional Emeritus at Hacienda) and golf broadcaster on Fox Sports. Andy invited me to visit Hacienda to find subjects that would inspired, which I easily did. It's a lovely place! A similar offer soon followed from Eddie Merrins, Director of Golf at Bel-Air Country Club, author of Swing the Handle, and now Director Emeritus at Bel-Air.

Painting at these two beautiful and distinguished Southern California golf courses--both born in the boom of oil and Hollywood--led to other opportunities and more artwork. Among my subjects: San Francisco Golf Club; Riviera; PGA WEST; Redlands Country Club; Newport Golf Club; The PGA of Southern California at Oak Valley; golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson, Sam Sneed, and another high school golf phenom, Tiger Woods.

"The Little Pro", Eddie Merrins, pen & ink

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Sweet revisits

2008-02-06T09:47:00.001-08:00

A friend saw this new pastel and emailed to say that it reminded him of his youth in Monticello, a small town in upstate New York. It brought back good memories, he told me.

Sundown was begun a few years back, inspired by the memory of an afternoon drive through California's San Joaquin Valley in the early 90's. Using a broad, nylon brush I began by staining a sheet of Wallis (white) pastel paper with watercolor in a cool, blue-green hue. [Note this 'underpainting' appears throughout the work, but is especially obvious in the shadow areas, for example in the body of the central tree]

Once the watercolor dried I began teasing-out my recollection. As I did, other arresting moments of a similar kind came to mind to influence the work's early development. However, about an hour into the painting something interrupted me and the pastel remained unfinished and filed away, out-of-sight and out-of-mind until a few weeks ago. That much time away from an unfinished idea can often break my connection to, and interest in, it. In the case of Sundown the challenge to revisit and explore remained strong.

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Neither hide, nor trumpet it

2008-01-28T09:41:00.000-08:00

At a public painting demonstration last year I was asked how much thought do I put into the placement of my signature? It was a good question. The answer: more than you might think.

At first glace it would appear to be a throw-away consideration: we’ve been signing our names since elementary school; so what’s the big deal? However, I frequently wince at the sight of an over-wrought and poorly placed artist’s signature. Awkward looking signatures are often a microcosm of the art itself: an idea not fully considered and presented effectively, a somewhat confused statement, from start to finish. Given time to study and practice, structural kinks can be worked out, but the signature remains an important often overlooked or under-addressed consideration.

Being a skilled visual communicator can be a passion, but unless viewers recognizing authorship by name that art is a hobby, not a profession. My name is my ‘brand’ and as such it hails the viewer’s attention to my unique communication skills and point of view. Assuming I have something to say and a unique way of saying it (ideas and a style), the signature shouldn’t obstruct the success of the first two. Toward this goal a few common sense ‘rules’ might be a good place to start. The signature should announce with a confident and consistent style, but avoid becoming a ‘flashing marquee’ of conspicuous size, color, and placement. Neither hide your name, nor trumpet it above the composition it takes credit for. In other words, be wise and find a balance. The artist’s signature shouldn’t compete with the artwork; it should complete it.

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A second run-up to the Canyon's Rim

2008-01-14T15:02:00.000-08:00

Sunday mornings I usually go to my studio to leisurely organize and straighten up the place while listening to Harry Shearer’s, Le Show on KCRW. I’m usually through with my 'housework' and preparing to paint something by the time Ian Masters’ Background Briefing/ Live from the Left Coast airs on KPFK at 11.

This past Sunday I spotted this little ‘study aid’ pinned to the wall. I had created it for a previous blog in order to show the early stages of composing a painting. Now I was tempted to throw the rough 'notation' away, but instead I placed it back on my easel and enjoyed a second interpretation of a favorite subject: desert canyon lands.

The close-up at the end shows how looking past the subject to the painting surface reveals a complex field of colorful marks and shapes that is a pleasing world in and of itself.

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Building a composition with contrasting shapes

2008-01-03T13:55:00.001-08:00

This scene came about after I spotted an unfinished acrylic painting in my studio the other day. The acrylic began its life a couple summers ago, late one afternoon at Mono Lake. My friend, Dave Michaels, and I had chosen the Lake as our second painting location for the day. With the tall Sierra Mountain Range against our left shoulder, the sun was soon threatening to set behind the mountains and with it our painting light. Dave and I worked quickly that evening!

When I get around to finishing that acrylic painting I will share it and a snapshot of us at work. However this different view of Mono Lake, just finished, will have to do.

On black pastel board I composed contrasting shapes of vertical trees against the long horizontals of lake shore and distant mountains to express a feeling, acquired over several decades, about this open and beautiful place on the eastern spine of the Sierras.

Note in the detail how the foreground vegetation creates a rhythm through shape and placement.

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My Man in the Rorschach Shirt: John Clair, continued

2007-12-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

Back we go to the subject of one of my first Blogs: John Alden Clair. In John’s weathered but still handsome 85 year old features is a world of living and determination. The first time I spotted John shuffling along carrying his Trader Joe's bag I thought what an interesting fellow! I was reminded of a short story by Ray Bradbury, The Man with the Rorschach Shirt. In the story Bradbury describes a man who encourages others--strangers on the street, on the beach, wherever he walks--to 'read into' his evocative, handcrafted shirt. Each person, upon seeing the shirt describes it, revealing their 'history' within the dance and shimmer of fabrics, threads, yarns, and other attachments--the garment functioning as a kind of mirror, you might say. Well, John is something of a 'happy provocation' for me and others in our community. In his colorful loose print shirts and ready smile is a wirey little mystery worthy of a smile back.

In My Man in the Rorschach Shirt, like all my creative-work, I try to stay vigilant for that moment when the effort announces it completion.

The Man with the Rorschach Shirt pastel 25" x 18"

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In the Mind's-eye

2007-12-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

It’s a common pitfall in drawing and painting to become too involved in one area at the expense of the whole. To avoid this loss of visual unity I always imagine a painting into existence. This means that before I ever approach my easel or commit a mark to a drawing pad I invite my mind to (first) wander in search of a subject of interest and (second) transform and compose, rendering that subject into a form that is most compelling to me. The process can happen in a flash, or take hours, days, sometimes months and longer.

Once the idea is in mind the first marks I make are sweeping and fluid, establishing a rhythm and visual dynamism. Upon this framework I build more complex and interesting shapes (see the first two images below).

Like a sculptor working on a rough-hewn block of stone, little by little I chip away, defining and refining shapes, subject and surface.

My intent as a painter is never to replicate my subject. I have no interest in being a slave to my subject. My preoccupation and passion is truly for what happens when the worlds of subject, object and medium collide on the painting or drawing surface. That combustion is fuel, clean and green, for my imagination and my soul.

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Shadow Mysteries

2007-12-14T13:32:00.000-08:00

The fall and winter seasons are a special time for me, an extra treat for the senses. And no time of day is better than the evening, when the sun’s rays transit more obliquely through the atmosphere. The result is a world bathed in lovely umbers, ochre’s, and sienna’s and punctuated by draped shadows. Inherent in this play of light and shadow is a question; what the mind cannot see clearly, it makes into mysteries.

In these three examples afternoon shadows set the mood of the paintings. Cool and muted colors describe the two kinds of ‘limited’ illumination that define the shadow areas, just enough, to draw the viewer into the work and engage the imagination.

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Building a painting on a colored surface

2007-11-28T10:33:00.000-08:00

I enjoy painting on colored surfaces. Whether warm or cool in color, prepared by me or purchased from a manufacturer ready to use, my objective is the same: allow the painting ground’s surface-color to peek through the layers of applied paint for expressive effect.

For this painting I chose a neutral gray, an unusual choice for me for this reason: I daydream a painting into being, first 'seeing it' in my mind's-eye, as a finshed composition, always with a definite mood defined by color. As you might expect the color-temperature of the scene in mind influences my choice of 'under-painting.' Neutral grays don't get the nod from me all that often.

However, in this autumn scene of a waning sun outside of Page, Arizona, a middle-value gray with a bluish-cast works nicely as a foil to the vibrant and contrasting warms colors, both muted and intense, that tell the story.

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Inspring friends

2007-11-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

Dave Michaels loves to paint! It was this enthusiasm of his that renewed my passion for the subject a few years ago. It bears a mention that Dave is an Emmy-winning director of Network sports and it is his talent and success in that art form that makes his passion for standing at an easel all day seem both odd and fascinating to me. In both words and actions Dave approaches making art like a child approaches a wading pool in the summertime. Infectious, I truly enjoy ‘splashing around’ beside him. Learning from each other is exhilarating!

It began as a boastful joke, but now has become our pracitce when painting together: create two works a day at two different locations, one in the morning, before lunch, and another after the meal-break. The challenge has been rewarding, as has been the company. I have assembled a handful of photos to share, photos taken while Dave and I made the rounds last summer along the eastern spine of the Sierras: Tioga Pass, Yosemite; Mono Lake; Mammoth Lakes; and the Chalfant Valley. I hope the photos convey the fun and rewards of painting and doing so with good friends.

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Drawings of John Clair

2007-11-12T19:40:00.000-08:00

John Clair is a familiar figure in motion around my town of La Habra . John tells his friends that he spent a good part of his life making pipe organs. I’ve seen one of them in his storage unit! A good-natured man with a colorful sense of dress to compliment his white hair, John’s slightly bent-over shuffling walk makes him easy to spot on the street. John covers a lot of ground at 85, remarkable really! I had John ‘painted’ in my mind’s-eye long before we ever met at a local Starbuck’s and he agreed to sit for me. I’ve created a pastel study of John, but not that painting I have in my mind’s-eye, not yet. When I do I’ll share that too.

John Clair pen & ink 9” x 10”

John on the Move pen & ink 11” x 9”

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Painting at the University of Redlands

2007-11-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

College Campuses are interesting subjects for a painter. Over the years I’ve painted a number of college campuses. This began when I was a student at Pitzer College , a part of the Claremont Colleges, in the mid 70’s. The most recent effort in this regard was at a plein air painting event at the University of Redlands this past October. The work here, a sketch and two finished paintings are from that week-long event. The U of R is a handsome campus at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, with its Administration Building on the hill and expansive Quad of lawn and mature oak trees. The place always inspires new interpretations.

The Quad at U of R Pen & ink 8” x 10”

Heading to Morning Class acrylic 11” x 14”

Morning on the Quad pastel 12” x 16” Private Collection

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Welcome!

2007-10-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

Evening at June, acrylic

I look at this Blog as an opportunity to share with you, to ‘journal’, if you will, with text and images. In this way I can discuss in greater depth the subjects that interest me as an artist. I expect to post new entries each week. You can expect to see both new new work and old, painting demonstrations and quick sketches, some posted the day created. The point of all this is to share the pleasure of being alive to explore in visual terms yet another thread in the web and tangle that connects us all.

Brad Faegre

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