Peter Worsley: On Painting People.

Wistful Painting Makes The Finals!

2010-02-15T10:16:00.000-08:00

Online Gallery b-uncut.com chose my recent painting "Wistful" in it's winners group for "Love's Labyrinth/Valentine" competition: http://b-uncut.com/blog/2010/02/15/loves-labyrinth-the-winners/

To see the original visit: http://www.peterworsley.com/Paintings_Recent/People/Wistful.html

Peter Worsley's Occasional Newsletter - Winter 2010

2010-02-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

• To the left are thumbnails of paintings I have generated over the last few months. I try to paint every morning. To know more about each painting, explore the Recent Paintings section of my website.

• In addition, I have written several new articles about how I paint and related topics. A complete list appears in the left column of the faq/how I do it web page.

• My website has been reworked to make it easier for you to find things. Many additional paintings are now shown. Visit My Website, and begin your exploration.

• Each painting in the Galleries on my website now has a button linking to ImageKind, a print-on-demand organization, that makes available high quality prints and cards. With one click you may go to directly select and order copies of any of my paintings.

• To collect more material for future paintings, in October 2009 for three weeks my wife and me took an apartment in Florence, Italy. With this as a base, as we toured the local area and took side trips to Venice, Rome, Siena, Portofino, and Lucca. We returned with over 2,000 new reference photographs. Two of the resulting paintings are above, and begin my Italian Series.

• My next annual Open Studios Tour is now being planned. This year the Tour will be on the weekend before Labor Day, Saturday and Sunday, August 28 and 29, with a Gala Reception on the Friday evening, August 27. Please put these dates on your calendar. We have moved the timing because many out of town visitors found it difficult to obtain hotel reservations during Labor weekend.

• Artwork by all Tour artists will be on show for a month before the Tour, allowing you time to look at samples of each artist's work and choose the best use of your available time. More details will be available in a future newsletter.

• And of course, please come by and visit my studio at almost any time. Just call or email to set up an appointment.

Regards, Peter Worsley

"Wistful," The second in my Italian Scene series.

2010-01-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

A young woman looks out of a window at the unseen activity below. Does she want to join them? Is she waiting for first sight of friend approaching? Or at someone leaving. It is for the viewer to decide. Only her wistful look is a clue to her thoughts.

This is the second painting in my new Italian series. I saw her looking out of the window, across the street from our Florence apartment. A few moments before she had been talking on her cell phone.

As usual, I took several consecutive photos and developed this painting from multiple images. The slanted format took some working out, but I feel it strengthened the focus on the figure.

Go to my website to see more details.

I Have Upgraded My Website.

2010-01-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks I have revamped my Website to make it easier to use, while adding many more paintings to the listings.

The changes include:

For each painting description web page, moving the link to order cards and prints into the left hand column.
This allows the painting web pages to be more compact and brings the small image links to other paintings in each series above the web page fold. This makes it easier to jump to another painting in the series without scrolling down the page.
Dividing all my paintings into: "Recent Paintings;" "Older Paintings;" and "Paintings In Private Collections." The latter greatly expanded group shows the great volume of my artwork already in private collections. While the Recent Paintings group separates out my newer work.
Adding two new articles: "On Oil Painting" which describes in detail the processes I use to develop my paintings; and "The Back Of Your Painting" which explains the markings and labels on the back of each painting.

To visit my website go to: http://www.PeterWorsley.com

The First of My Italian Series Paintings Is Now Completed.

2009-12-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

"Ponte Veicchio," 2009. 18 x 36 x 1.5 inches. Oil on canvas. Unframed with painted edges. Wired, ready to hang.

The city of Florence (Firenze), Italy is divided by the Arno River. Of its several bridges, the Ponte Veicchio (The Old Bridge) was originally built in the 14th. century with shops and other merchants along the span. Later, the Medici built a private corridor above the shops to link what is now the Iffizi to the Palazzo Pitti. They converted the shops to high end goldsmiths and jewelers, which remain today. The river is often used by local rowers for practice.

This painting was developed from several photographs of the bridge and the surrounding buildings. I set the sun coming from the left at a fairly low angle. The rowers were captured at another time and positioned to provide some "life" in the foreground. Actually, there are quite a few heads of other people to be seen appearing above the river edge walls on both sides.

Recent Interview with me about my online art marketing processes.

2009-12-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Below is a recent blog by Moshe Mikanovsky about an online interview with myself:

Artists Online Presence – how one artist does it?

Posted by Moshe Mikanovsky

Artists Online Presence – how one artist does it?
It’s been 3 months now since I started actively marketing my art online. I have my portfolio website, this blog, a store at Zazzle, my licensed art at Ketubah.com and UJA Federation, and I am using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for networking with the world. I am having a blast! But, when I saw how many sites are out there for artists to promote their art, I got a bit discouraged. Who has the time to create and maintain all these sites?

Peter Worsley

Until I got the following response on LinkedIn to the discussion about my article, List of 66+ websites for artists to build online presence. Peter Worsley, an artist from Santa Barbara, California, wrote to me:

These are all the websites at which I have presence:
AbsoluteArts, Artflock, artId, ARTslanT, ArtWanted, Boundless Gallery, Fine Art America, Fine Art Registry, Juried Art Services, Noenga, nuzart, ImageKind, RedBubble, Saatchi Online ( Saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery), Simply Licensed, WOW- Window On Web, Zatista, Zazzle
None of them are producers. But I like Zatista for its potential for original art sales. ImageKind is the best for prints and cards because they allow the uploading of the highest resolution images. Though I have sold more cards through Zazzle.
Mostly I only use their free services, though I pay for ImageKind, and maybe some others I cannot remember which without looking them up.

Including his own portfolio site, I counted 19 sites on which Peter is maintaining an online presence! I was very impressed and intrigued. The main questions I had were “how much time does he spend on maintaining all of these sites?” and “how does he do it??”
So, of course I had to ask Peter, and here is what I found:

All my paintings have been photographed or scanned, and I have prepared a folder of files for each painting. Every time I edit the original image, or use it as a card layout, the original of the altered file goes into that folder.
I prepared a table list of all the websites that I use, and a copy of that table goes into each painting folder. If that image appears on any specific website, a check appears on the table for that image. This table was created after many of the websites had been launched. I found that keeping track was getting out of hand.
After a new painting is completed, I create a new folder and decide where I want the image to appear. I create a new table for the new painting, scan the painting, resize the painting into a variety of sizes to meet various website standards, and mark the table as images are uploaded to the selected websites.
Typically, new paintings go to my website (PeterWorsley.com), and to Boundless Gallery, Fine Art America, Fine Art Registry, ImageKind, RedBubble, Zatista and Zazzle.

And from here, followed this interview:
I see in the second list that you update fewer sites than in the first list. Is there a reason for that?
The first list was, hopefully, inclusive of all the sites where I have a presence. (There may be others where I have posted an image, but for the moment I have no record. If I uncover others, they will be added to my basic list.) Some of these websites may have a limit on how many images are free. Others I may have decided the website is going nowhere or the website seem to offer me little in return for my effort. Still others I am disillusioned: for example AbsoluteArts.com. This was probably the first online gallery where I listed images, beginning years ago. I even paid the $100/year for their premium membership. There was no useful feedback, no easily accessible reports on visitors, it was harder for visitors to search, etc. Of course some of these things have improved over the years. But I dropped my premium membership. One of these days I will update my posted images.
How much time do you spend on average on these activities when creating a new painting?
An hour or two.
Which application do you use to maintain the table list of the sites? Do you want to share the fields/columns of the table with the readers of the article?
Microsoft Word. The list is very simple – the name of the site and a checkbox for posting the painting in it.
Do you use other sites to network? We met on LinkedIn, but which other sites you use?
Years ago, while working for myself, in other fields, I learnt that one must dedicate about a third of ones time to marketing. Without that, existing work will dry up. I have continued this philosophy into my art career.
I have recently felt that participating in forums is of growing importance as a part of my marketing campaign. By participation, one becomes known by one’s social group, that leads to referrals and spreads knowledge about my website and blog.
As a result, I am starting to identify and work various Art related forums. I have not made a list, but will do soon. So far, the ones that look interesting are: LinkedIn – Art Professionals Worldwide; Linkedin – Work At Home Artist Group; Linkedin – Visual Artists and their Advocates; Linkedin – True Artist: living the art; Linkedin – Fine Arts Forum; b-uncut.net/forum (this has a very clumsy interface); Online Professional Visual Artists Forum. There are others, and some of these may go nowhere and be dropped.
What is your biggest tip for artists who want to maintain online presence?
Keep working the forums. Keep up your website, and make sure it is simple in design and very easy to access your art. Assign a regular amount of time to work your marketing. Keep your pricing consistent across all your outlets – online and off line. There are always new innovations appearing. Be ready to grasp them and use them for yourself. Be ready to drop anything that does not seem to work for you. But keep an open mind.
I saw on LinkedIn that your background also has marketing positions, logistics and ownership of a company. I am sure you take from all these past experiences into your current life as an artist. Can you share a bit about that?
I am a marketer turned artist. Marketing is in my blood. I love working the brick and mortar galleries when I have a show. Also, I am lucky that I am an artist who does not have to sell to live. But I am always trying.
Do you sell and show also offline such as galleries, art fairs, group shows etc? If you do, how do you see it complimenting the online sales/presence?
I always show at our local collaborative gallery and often join in local Group Shows. Though, I think twice about any art show that costs serious money. Talking to real people at local shows helps me get meaningful feedback.
I have done art fairs, but at age 80, I find the physical work necessary to set up and take down too difficult for me these days. The same goes for painting plein air, which I love. Today I only paint from photographs.
How much traffic do you get to your portfolio website from all of this online presence?
I use Statcounter.com and Google Analytics to watch my web and blog traffic. All the marketing in the world is useless without eyeballs looking at one’s work. On my website I now have over 100 page hits a day, with about 40 unique visitors. This has gradually grown over the last year or two. Alas, my blog is much smaller. As for my website, I have gone through two major redesigns. Feedback I receive is that simplicity is key. It must not take away from the art itself and must be extremely easy for people to find the art they like.
One of the tools I developed is my website online articles for Art Collectors and other artists. The majority of my landing page hits are on these pages. I have half a dozen more under development, but they take a lot of work to produce. With Google reducing its dependence on key words and upping the importance of content, these articles get good coverage from Google searches.
I look upon my website as a continuous work in progress. I have a long list of new website developments I will introduce over the next year or so. On the other hand, I sell very little directly from my own website. Another thought to ponder.
I just admire Peter for his organized matter and keeping it up, with many different efforts, looking at it in a holistic way – where at the end, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I would like to thank Peter for sharing his experience. Please visit Peter’s website at www.PeterWorsley.com. You can also visit his ImageKind store, Fine Art Registery, or just search for him on the other 16 sites he is utilizing.
So now it’s back to making art, or marketing it online, or putting your own system to manage your online presence, so next time you have a new painting you won’t forget where you should put it.
Cheers
Moshe

Board Game: Another New Social Realisim Painting

2009-11-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

In a quiet corner, five boys are about to begin playing a board game. As one looks on, another quickly reads through the rules. Stacks of markers and cards are on the floor near his knee. An open box of supplies is nearby. The other boys glance at each other while waiting to begin.

This 16 x 20 inch oil painting on canvas, is based upon some photographs I took behind the scenes at a Mexican Market several years ago. I like the typical interactions between the boys. There were six boys in the original event. But I reduced it to five to improve the composition.

Back From Our Trip To Italy.

2009-11-07T17:06:00.000-08:00

We have just got back from Italy.

For three weeks we used Florence as our base to visit museums, churches, and historical sites in Venice, Rome, Tuscany, and up the coast to Portafino.

In addition we returned with 2,000 photo images of scenes and people, to use as resources for developing new paintings over the next year or so.

Watch this space!

"Santa Barbara Sunset"

2009-10-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

This beautiful sunset is so typical for Santa Barbara.

We are planning a visit to a faraway friend, and want to give something that would represent our lifestyle. I went to my large file of reference images and selected this for a small 8 x 10 inch painting to carry with us.

I used the same scene, but with figures, for an earlier larger painting "Sunset Stroll." This painting is cropped closer in, has more detail, no figures, and has slighty different color rendering.

"Picnic" is a New Family Painting

2009-09-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

A sunny afternoon in the park is just right for a picnic. While the mother, helped by the children, lays out the blanket in a convenient shady spot, the father stands ready holding bags loaded with picnic goodies.

We were visiting the Huntington Library, in Pasadena, California. With its Art Collection and Botanical Garden. It is a wonderful place to enjoy art surrounded by beautiful scenery. The art is housed in various separated buildings, and we walked between each gallery in warm sun filtered by shady trees. As we walked, I took many photographs of interesting groups of people.

After returning and examining the images, this family group resulted in another painting for my Contemporary Social Realism series: http://www.peterworsley.com/Paintings/Interactions/Picnic.html

Choosing A Social Media Channel to Promote my Art.

2009-09-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

For some time I have been struggling as to how to best use Social Media to benefit my art promotion. By Social Media, particularly I mean: Facebook and Twitter; but also my Blog, my Website, and my opt-in email list.

For me, Facebook has been a mess. It is a very flexible tool, but as I have used it, it mixed family messages with my Art business messages. But recently Facebook has introduced its Fan Page which change the whole picture.

As a result I now have:

• My Website - which is a database of my recent paintings; a database of various articles that I have published designed for Art Collectors (potential Art Buyers of my paintings), and for Artists and others who are interested in how I create my paintings; and a database of older paintings which will soon be launched.

• My Blog - which I use to introduce new paintings; new articles of interest to Collectors and/or Artists; and occasional commentaries on Art related subjects.

• My Twitter - which are very short emails that go to self-selected followers of my twittering. I use Twitter to spread the word about new entries to my Blog; new events such as upcoming show openings; major changes to my website. Each brief twitter usually includes a website link to a longer message with more details.

• My new Facebook Fan Page - which I intend to be for longer writings about new paintings, website articles, new Blog entries, and discussions with other Art enthusiasts.

One of the advantages of the Fan Page, is that a fan or follower of the page does not have to have their own Facebook listing. Like Twitter, such a person is a self-selected follower who gets to hear about my postings (usually by email messages), but may participate in writings and discussions on my Fan Page. Also, like Twitter followers, they may leave at anytime.

At this time I have a mix of family, personal friends, and Art friends on my Facebook. I plan to invite each Art friend to join me on my Fan Page as a Fan, and for some, remove them as Friends from my regular Facebook page.

• My opt in email list - which I will continue, much as before, is for those who prefer this method of occasional communication. This list consist of people who have expressed interest in knowing of only the most important events of my Art life.

Now to invite people to follow my activities by one or more of these paths.

"Family Time," another new painting.

2009-08-31T21:00:00.001-07:00

A young couple pause to have a leisurely cup of coffee, while their daughter drinks some milk. They lovingly look at their little girl, while enjoying each others company.

This 12 x 24 inch oil painting was derived from a series of photographs I took at an outdoor coffee shop in Palm Springs. The open simplicity and color depicted in the painting is in marked contrast to the chaos of the table clutter and backgrounds of the original photographs.

Contemporary Social Realism

2009-08-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

For some time I have been searching to relate my current paintings to a specific style. Recently I connected to the Social Realism style as close, and have been researching this area. The result has been the summary article shown below, and now on my website.

This is still a work in progress, and over the next few weeks I will be showing examples of the paintings by the various mentioned artists, and adding links to the key references:-

Contemporary Social Realism

(Much of this material has been extracted from Wikipedia and Yahoo! Directory.)

Summary:

Social Realism, sometimes known as Socio-Realism, in the past depicted social and racial injustice, and economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic.

The movement started as a style of painting in which the scenes typically convey a message of social or political protest edged with satire.

Later it expanded to include scenes of normal American life beyond the gritty side, and had a strong influence on mid century popular culture.

Eventually, it fell out of favor as other more edgy styles took over.

Today, there is a revival of a style of colorful paintings showing ordinary people going about their everyday life - Contemporary Social Realism.

Early Movements and Adoption.

Social Realism became an art movement during the late 19th Century, was adopted by American painters in the early 1900's, and became particularly important during the Great Depression of the late 1920's and early 1930's. It is closely related to American Scene Painting and to Regionalism styles. It fell-out of fashion in the 1960's, but is returning to influence thinking and the contemporary art of today.

The term dates, on a broader scale, to the Realist movement in French art during the mid-1800s. In the 20th Century, it refers back to the works of the French artist Gustave Courbet and in particular to the implications of his 19th Century paintings "A Burial at Ornas" and "The Stone-Breakers," which scandalized French Salon–goers of 1850.

Many of the early artists who subscribed to Social Realism were painters with socialist (but not necessarily Marxist) political views. The movement has some commonalities with the Socialist Realism used in the Soviet Union and the the Eastern Block through about the 1990's. But the two are not identical - Social Realism is not an official art, and allows space for subjectivity. In certain contexts, Socialist Realism has been described as a specific branch of Social Realism.

Realism, a style of painting that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see, was a very popular art form in France around the mid to late 1800’s. It came about with the introduction of photography - a new visual source that created a desire for people to produce things that look “objectively real.”

Realism tended to be heavily against Romanticism, a genre dominating French literature and artwork in the mid 19th century. Undistorted by personal bias, Realism believed in the ideology of external reality and revolted against exaggerated emotionalism. Truth and accuracy became the goals of many Realists.

American Social Realism:

The origins of American Social Realism lie in the Ashcan School painters, who in the first decades of the 20th Century depicted the commonplace, gritty, and unglamorous realities of city life. John Slone, Robert Henri, George Bellows, and George Luks were prominent members of this diverse group who painted scenes from everyday life. Later, Reginald Marsh, though not a member of the Ashcan School, continued this tradition, taking lower Manhattan and the Bowery as his themes.

The Great Depression:

The advent of the 1930's Great Depression and the enactment of the New Deal’s programs beginning in 1933 stimulated a broad trend toward sociopolitical commentary in American painting. Many artists were commissioned to decorate public buildings with murals dealing with American subject matter.

In the Depression era, American painters began to grapple more openly with such themes as joblessness and poverty, political corruption and injustice, labour-management conflict, and the excesses of American materialism. Works in this vein by Ben Shahn, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Charles White, and Jack Levine, all of whom worked for the WPA, are notable for their overt and sometimes scathing pictorial criticisms of American society.

American Scene Painting:

But other artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, John Steuart Curry, Edward Hopper, and other Regionalist painters also dealt with everyday life in their works, but in a romanticized way that was basically incompatible with explicit social protest or criticism.

Their work, often called American Scene Painting, depicted scenes of typical American life and landscape painted in a naturalistic, descriptive vein during this same Depression period. Sometimes it is referred to as an umbrella term for rural American Regionalism and the urban and politically oriented Social Realism painting, but its specific boundaries remain ambiguous.

As an Antimodernist style and reaction against the modern European style, American Scene Painting (including American Social Realism) was seen as an attempt to define a uniquely American style of art. The term did not signify an organized movement, but rather an aspect of a broad tendency for American artists to move away from Abstraction and the Avant-Garde in the period between the two world wars.

Popular Influence:

American Regionalism and Social Realism had a strong influence on popular culture. Its imagery appeared in magazine advertisements, and influenced American children's book illustrators such as Holling Clancy Holling. Norman Rockwell is the most popular and easily recognizable painter of this style and period.

Loss of Popularity and Rebirth:

But in the later part of the 20th Century, this style of painting grew less popular. The movements towards new ideas and new ways of expressing old ideas predominated. It seemed each new artist wanted to out do or over extend the thoughts of the previous artists.

But today, in the beginnings of the 21st Century, a desire to display a brighter, lighter form, as Contemporary Social Realism, has emerged. Some collectors and artists, including myself, are embracing this return to reality with the depictions of today's everyday life of ordinary people in the bright colors of the earlier styles.

"Parasols and Purses" another new painting

2009-08-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Five ladies are walking purposefully in line, along a path on a bright sunny day. A green field lays behind them. The first lady shades herself with a colorful red parasol; the last, with one that is yellow. Each woman caries an equally colorful purse or handbag. The rear lady carries a rolled pamphlet.

Though each is looks towards their destination, beyond the painting. Somehow there are interactions in their eagerness to move forward. Are they of the same family? Or, maybe part of a tour group? Where are the going? Only the viewer may guess.

This 12 x 24 inch oil painting on canvas, is the latest in my Social Realism series once again shows a group of ordinary people going about their daily lives. It is loosely based upon some photographs I took of these women walking along a path at the Huntington Library and Art Museum near Pasadena, California.

New Portrait Successfuly Delivered.

2009-08-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

Don in his mid eighties. He is a good friend and long ago my first supervisor when I was a fresh arrival in the USA from England. This was painted from my photographs taken when we met recently, and given as a present to Bette, Don's wife.

These little 10 x 8 inch oil on canvas portraits are a delight to paint and bring great joy to the recipient.

Consider commissioning a portrait.

"County Fair" has been delivered to a happy customer

2009-07-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

I have just delivered the "County Fair." The customer appears very happy. As I have mentioned before, it has been a commissioned project for a client who wished to document his boyhood memories.

The 16 x 32 inch oil painting on canvas, is a recreation of a 1940's County Fair at the small Kansas, USA, town of Burden. To start project, I asked him to prepare a sketch map of the fairground area as he remembered. Then together we decided on a viewpoint. From this beginning the finished painting was developed, and now includes: the home stretch of a horse race in progress; a packed grandstand; a judges' tower; horse barns; a Ferris Wheel; a busy carousel; picnic grounds; crowds of people; and many details of a fairground midway.

The project was exciting because it required research as to conditions and styles in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Such things as clothing, dress lengths, hats, jockey clothing, horse tack, automobiles, trucks, and many other details required investigation, often using Google Images. As the painting developed, my client was able to add guidance from his memory.

Such paintings, memorializing a time period or event, are both challenging and interesting. Let us discuss such a painting for you.

2009-07-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

My commissioned project to paint for a client an image of a County Fair, a new crowd scene project, is nearing completion. I have finished the actual painting process and a few days ago invited the client to again view the painting. He has accepted it with a couple of very minor corrections, and I will now let it thoroughly dry.

Next is the scanning step, followed by titling, tagging and then giving it a finished coating of medium to unify the surface finish.

The client should receive delivery of the painting in about three weeks.

Successful New Show

2009-07-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Through July 2009, I am the "Artist Of The Month" at Gallery 113 in downtown Santa Barbara. I am showing 12 paintings with a common theme of human "Interactions." A few are the same paintings I exhibited at my May 2009 show with a theme of "Memories from France and Mexico", but also includes several new paintings, not shown publicly before.

The theme "Interactions" may be defined as occurring when two objects have an effect upon each other. The idea of a two-way effect is essential – communication.

With the paintings exhibited in this show, I am continuing my basic explorations into the interactions between ordinary people in everyday settings. They are part of what I call my 21st century Genre figurative or "Social Realism" series.

Social Realism began around the turn of the 20th century and was fueled by the social conditions of that age. The movement reached its peak in the 1930's when American artists strove to be free of European artistic influences.

Many of those paintings, like mine, were bright and colorful, drawing in the viewer with their vibrancy. My paintings follow a more contemporary trend where this movement is being resurrected in figurative scenes.

A new painting commission - Burden County Fair 1940.

2009-06-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was approached by a local follower of my artwork with a request to undertake a commission painting. He told me that he had been brought up in Kansas and wanted to capture his memories as a young boy attending a local County Fair.

He was specific as to the location and many of the things he wanted to see: the horse race track, the Ferris wheel, the grandstand, and many details of the fairground midway. Plus, the time was to be set at about 1940. After some more discussion, I requested that he prepare a sketch "map" of the fair layout, which we both agreed would the basis for the final painting.

Upon looking at the quite detailed map he presented, we decided on a viewpoint that showed the required activities and objects. With all this in mind, I prepared an intial thumbnail sketch to futher pin down the painting. From this we agreed on the aspect ratio and the size of the final painting (so that it would fit his available hanging space). Also, the sketch allowed me to correct details where my own interpretations did not agree with his memories.

He had already done quite a bit or research. He had some photographs, and prints from Google Images of specific objects, events, and scenes from that period. As I started painting, I have augmented these images with many others from my own research.

There will be many figures in the final painting which raises many supplementary questions: What were the woman's dress styles and length from that period? What kind of head gear did men and boys wear? What do Kansas skys look like in the summer? What did older Cars and Trucks look like at that time? What was racing regalia like then for both horses and riders? And so it goes on.

I have got about half way through the initial layout. I have been sending him digital photographs of the work as it progresses. Soon I will have him over to my studio to see where I have deviated from his memory. I love big crowd paintings. The project is both challenging and enjoyable.

Ice Cubes

2009-06-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

Nothing signifies better a hot day than an ice cool drink.

As a diversion from my usual people paintings, some photographs I had taken while on a cruise ship lead to the development of this contemporary 16 x 20 inch still life oil painting.

Two abandoned beach chairs stand with a small table between them. The table supports five glasses containing full and partially finished iced drinks. The colors combined with the ice, bring out the heat.

What happened to their owners? Maybe they are soaking in a nearby pool or the ocean.

Beach Builders

2009-06-10T16:05:00.001-07:00

Boys love digging in wet sand – building canals, castles, moats, or a hole to the other side of the world.

Several years ago, we saw these two enjoying themselves one evening while visiting Avila Beach, on the Central California Coast.

I loved the interactions that were going on between the boys, and took several photographs, from which this 12 x 24 inches oil painting was developed.

Serious Conversations.

2009-06-10T15:44:00.001-07:00

Four Latino men were discussing the problems of the day. One seated man seemed to be giving his opinion while the others listened. But another is leaning on his bicycle pausing to hear the story, before proceeding on his way.

Maybe the four are friends who gather often to ponder on the issues of the moment.

I discovered this group among the many photographs I had taken while traveling in Mexico during 2006. Their study in human interaction intrigued me, and I used it to constructed this 16 x 20 inch studio oil painting.

Waiting At Starbucks

2009-06-10T15:24:00.001-07:00

We were sitting at a table near the line of people waiting to place their order at a Starbucks coffee shop. Service was slow. Perhaps everyone wanted a complex order.

But this row of mostly young people found waiting as an opportunity to socialize.

As sat there, I became fascinated by their shoes. I pulled out my digital camera and with my hand close to the floor I took a series of photographs from which this 18 x 48 inch oil painting was developed.

I added the napkin on the floor (which has the imprint from someone's lipstick) to bring interest to the foreground. The painting is a study of imagined human interactions. The body language from the legs, leaves much to the imagination.

Rhone In Spring

2009-06-10T15:10:00.001-07:00

This 24 x 36 inch oil painting shows the trees lining the Rhone River in southern France. They are just breaking into leaf.

The river is high and the water, fed by the recent rains, is rushing under a nearby bridge. Though cold, the sun is shining and a woman wheels her baby along the river bank, while enjoying the view and the lovely day.

This painting was developed form several photographs taken during our 2008 visit to that area.

"Woman Reading" oil painting.

2009-06-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Catching up, this is the first of a series of paintings I have recently completed, but failed to post to my blog.

"Woman Reading" is another of my series of oil paintings capturing memories from our 2008 trip to France.

The 30 x 24 inches canvas depicts a sunny spring day. A young woman is sitting on the wall along the bank of the river Rhone. She is deep into reading a book, oblivious to us walking by. Her bicycle leans nearby against the wall.

She did not notice us as we strolled along the broad pathway, enjoying the view. I sneaked some photographs, from which this painting was developed.