"Wild Flowers" oil on linen, 32"x 32". Available for sale, contact artist. I'm thankful I grew up in a world, where there was still an "age of innocence" and reality was not virtual, and the simple pleasures of life, were more natural and not man made! These two sisters made the perfect models for an afternoon-evening photo shoot out in the woods. With my wife and their mother along, we made it a family outing, and I was able to come away with many ideas for future paintings. By the time we finished up, the air had cooled off considerably and their noses and cheeks and toes were noticeable rosy and red...but they gamely humored me to the last ray of sunset!
"Girl at the Fountain" watercolor, 22"x 18", Sold. giclee prints available. From the beginning of time, the source of water was central to life and living. In Italy, fountains are still central in every town and city, as reminders of days gone by, when daily trips to the fountain where required to maintain life.
"Tuckered Out" oil on linen, 36"x 24", Sold. Giclee prints available. In the hyperactivity of the day, parents can sometimes doubt, "from whence came this child?", but at the end of the day as the child falls asleep in their arms, the parent is again reassured of them being the gift from above that they are!
"Bed Time Stories" oil on linen, 24"x 30", Sold. giclee prints available. My wife and "little angels" finishing the day with the bedtime ritual of reading books. After I had taken photos of them reading together, my son decided to put on the "angel wings" and as we all laughed hilariously, he proceeded to jump on the bed in a very non-angelic way! That too I suppose should become a painting someday.
"Cabin Builders, Home Makers, Nation builders" oil on linen, 36"x 30", Sold Giclee prints available. In building my log studio, our two kids would come out and try to build their own cabin, giving me the idea for this painting. Homesteaders, like my great-grandparents, who with great hope, toiled and labored with blood, sweat and tears, to carve out a home and a future from the raw materials of the land. This painting should have been a family portrait, but with my wife working nights and sleeping days at the time, I used the "baby sitter" and a doll as the fill in for the mother figure and her new born. Now I wished I would have waited for my wife to model! In this painting, my daughter is imitating the mother with her little dolly, and my son, like his dad is building a cabin to protect the family from the elements.
"Maypole Dancer" oil on board, 12"x 9". Available for sale, contact artist. At a Renaissance Fair, I watched with great interest and fascination, as a local dance school performed this old time Maypole dance. Later this young woman agreed to model for some of my Italian painting ideas, and though she was not Italian, she definitely looked the part!
"Laura" oil on canvas, 20"x 14", Sold. Giclee prints available. Our beautiful exchange student from Spain,( she was beautiful within and without) who enriched our lives with the year she spent with us! After years of schooling and hard work, Laura is now, like both of her parents, an Architect in Madrid.