Zephyr
April 16, 2015
This painting is done from a photo of the old Zephyr engine located in Albia, Iowa. Currently I am working on a series of different train engines in collage. I find these old engines fascinating and love painting them using my acrylic hand-painted papers. All the details on the engines add interest: the bell, railing, […] more »
Engine Nine Zero 45
April 9, 2015
This collage is a continuation of my popular train engine series. I have been doing engines for a number of years now. This one is a close-up of a Union Pacific. I used one of my reference photos for this. The details of the engine caught my eye: the shadow shapes, the numerals and flag, […] more »
Nine Seventy Three
April 7, 2015
This collage painting is one of my Engine Series. It is the Appanoose County Red engine, circa 1952. It has been recently repainted a bright red with white stripes. I worked from my photographs, and designed a vertical format which accentuates the dynamic bulk of the engine. Some of the foreground papers have oil pastel […] more »
Zero 27 U.P.
November 25, 2013
This miniature watercolor was done specifically for the Montana Watercolor Society’s fund-raising program. All the award winners this year were asked to complete a piece seven by nine-and-a-half inches. For me, that is a big challenge. I am more comfortable painting full-sheet paintings of twenty-two by thirty and larger. So painting in a restricted size […] more »
BNSF Seven
September 16, 2013
Lately it seems to me that I have been working on a locomotive series. When I was in Ottumwa last month, I took photos of this engine sitting briefly on the tracks and I took the opportunity to get a variety of photographs, even though it was cloudy. I prefer the morning sunlight and strong […] more »
Front, BNSF
March 14, 2013
This painting is a continuation of my engine series. It is a close-up of an engine I photographed in the Albia trainyard in winter. I wanted to focus on the abstract design qualities and omit some of the details. I drew the large shapes first and then added some of the important details. A limited […] more »
Six Four Three Two BNSF
January 17, 2013
It’s difficult to paint a huge engine on a tiny piece of watercolor paper! I chose hot press paper, so the pigments squooshed around a lot — juicy orange! I had to edit the shapes, like the big bold numerals. This engine was idling on the tracks in Albia. I also mixed in some gouache […] more »
Engine 9045
March 25, 2011
The challenge was to paint this engine in a smaller format, which is very different from my usual work on a large 22 x 30 sheet of paper. It still makes for a great design, with less nitpicking details. It brings back memories when I was very small, Dad used to take me to the […] more »
Union Pacific Engine 9027
March 17, 2011
This is the second of my train engine watercolors, a side-angled view with lots of details. I was attracted by the yellow of the engine and red stripe and the value pattern of the shadows, and didn’t notice many of the details until I started painting. It is a massive structure and I composed with […] more »