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 »
My goal for this piece was to design an abstract collage in a small, square format. A lot of my colored paper scraps were accumulating on my art table, and I saw the possibility for an interesting composition. After arranging the scraps of paper on a piece of foam board, I tacked the edges down […] more »
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 »
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 »
This collage was completed using the leftover paper scraps from a previous collage, Journey. I was inspired by the geometric shapes and the colors. I gravitate to square formats, and did this piece smaller than I usually do, moving the shapes around and playing with the design until I found the composition pleasing. I use […] more »
Recently I have been painting some scenes of Bentonsport, a very scenic area on the Des Moines River in southeast Iowa. Last year I painted some of the shops on Main Street. This is a small brick church with the classic tall spire, surrounded by tall pine trees and brick wall in the foreground. It […] more »
Old, rusted machinery captured my interest again. I zeroed in on just a section of this threshing machine. Its parts are interesting as large, abstract shapes. There is a limited palette that I used for this composition, and a square format, which is more difficult to work with than the usual rectangle motif. I love the circular […] more »
I enjoyed assembling my paper scraps for this creation. It began with the background piece and I moved smaller pieces on top of the brown, and also cut shapes to insert papers behind the openings. It started as a rectangular composition, but when I started gluing the pieces, I decided it would be a stronger design […] more »
Recently I decided to continue my train series of paintings and went out to gather more photographs to work from. My main focus was the abstract quality of this boxcar. The shadow shapes were interesting and added strength to the composition. I shot a close up of the brake at the end of the boxcar […] more »
I have always loved the Bird of Paradise flower and wanted to paint it for a long time. It is a bold, tropical blossom and I tried to capture the saturated warm colors of it. I worked from my vacation photograph and challenged myself to use a different format, the square. The background was not […] more »