I have been inspired by skyscrapers lately. For this piece, I worked from a photo taken in 2000 of Minneapolis. The design got a bit complicated, so I edited and kept adding shapes while working. My initial design was bare-bones. I attempted to harmonize the colors, but that kept changing too. I’m pleased with the […] more »
This painting of two pugs, named Winston and Henry, was a commissioned piece. It is to be a wedding gift. Basically, I worked from the provided photo and tried to capture the very expressive faces of the dogs. more »
I read about artists completing a painting every day and wanted to try it. Although, since I had other things going on, it took a couple of days instead of one. This design is a smaller section of the Minneapolis cityscape I’m presently working on. I’m finding it’s a challenge to work this small with […] more »
Continued inspiration of the urban landscapes. I used a photo take many years ago and loved the view from the parking ramp with all the intricacies of the city — the sky walk, rooftops, capitol dome — all the geometric shapes and shadows. more »
In this view, I used a photo taken of downtown Des Moines a few years ago from the top of a parking garage. The architecture and building forms interested me. The panoramic view from above was inspiring! Of course, I took artistic liberty with most of the building colors and used a strong value pattern […] more »
This design started horizontal, but I decided to change the format and the initial sketch. I thought it would be more dramatic as a vertical composition. I took the photo of this old dairy barn many years ago on a trip to the historic barn in Cantril, Iowa. On the way home, the sky turned […] more »
This piece was inspired by an old bicycle I saw at Bradley Hall. I took a variety of pictures, including the interesting shadow shapes, and then did a preliminary watercolor painting. After this, I did some loosely sketched contour drawings of this bike and didn’t plan a design to work with, as I usually do. […] more »
I was inspired by the shapes of the classical and electric guitar taken many years ago. I previously completed a realistic drawing of these and decided it would be fun to do one using abstract shapes. I began with a very loose contour drawing and no previous design — just arranged shapes and let things […] more »
For this painting, I picked a single blossom and put it in a drinking glass. This is part of my daffodil series; maybe I should have titled it Endless Daffodils. more »
I can’t seem to get daffodils out of my mind — their subtle coloring and their ruffled petals draws my attention this year. This painting was done combining a couple of my photographs and is the fifth one in this series. more »