"Desert Haze"

Oil on linen panel, 8"x10"

A bright haze over Big Bend softens and mutes the desert colors.

"Sanderson Canyon"

Oil on canvas, 16"x20"

Sanderson Canyon crosses back and forth across highway 90 for what seems like more than 15 miles in and around Sanderson, Texas.

"Mountains and Clouds"

Oil on panel, 9"x12"

I love the views of cloud shadows over the mountains, exposing shape and form as they pass by.

"Pronghorn Sketch"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

Another painting of a pronghorn antelope. I am thinking about doing a larger painting with several pronhorns.

"Hoping for Rain"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

Clouds in Big Bend offer hope for some possible rain.

"Late Afternoon Whitetail"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

Late afternoon sunlight and a whitetail deer.

"High Plains Drifter"

OIl on panel, 8"x8"

One of my favorite animals is the North American Pronghorn Antelope. They are speedsters in the open prairie and very beautiful.

"Whitetail"

Oil on panel. 5"x7"

A whitetail buck in the hill country.

"A Day in the Bend"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

Another view of mountains from the desert in Big Bend NP.

"Day in the Desert"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

Another scene from Big Bend NP.

"Joy"

Oil on panel, 7"x5"

'Tis the season... a mug and a few stray marshmallows.

"Purple Mountain" revised

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

The final revised piece I am posting today. These paintings needed more work on them, they just seemed like I had initially hurried through them. The next post will be something new and appropriate for the season.

"Shark Tooth" revised

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

Another painting I have revised since last posted.

"Volcanic Landscape" revised

OIl on panel, 8"x8"

This painting has been revised since last posted in August.

"Shelter"

Oil on panel, 9"x12"

A man made shelter in the hill country offers escape from the elements, possibly for bedding or feed.

"Hills and Valleys"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

Another scene from the hill country. The sun is to the left, that is a cloud shadow on the hill to the right.

"In the Aspens"

Oil on masonite panel, 30"x24"

I am just not going to get a good picture of this painting. There is a lot of glare on it, it is dark today and I have the painting near the window to allow for as much light as possible but also getting reflections in the surface. Anyway, this is a larger version of the aspens painting done and posted to my blog a couple weeks ago.

"Sunbathed"

Oil on panel, 11"x14"

A contrast of shadow and sunlight on mountains in Big Bend NP.

"In Progress"

Oil on canvas, 22"x28"

This painting as the title suggests is still in progress. I posted it so it could be compared to the final piece when completed, however it is not that far from completion and may not change to a great extent.

"Mountain and Grassland"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

A scene from along the Ross Maxwell scenic drive in Big Bend.

"Creosote"

OIl on panel, 5"x7"

Desert Creosote brush in Big Bend NP.

"Rolling Hills"

I have done some additional work to this piece shown above.


Oil on canvas, 16"x20"

A little larger piece for me, actually painted on stretched canvas. This is an imaginary scene similar to the area near Bandera, Texas.

"A Peak in the Shadows"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

A view from high in the Chisos mountains of Big Bend NP, along the road to the Basin campgrounds looking north. Panther peak is visible to the left behind the shadowed peak.

"Solitude"

OIl on panel, 5"x7"

This painting came off quickly and much to my liking which is rare. I saw it clearly before I painted it and kept to my vision. I used an old photo from Arizona or New Mexico as the reference.

"Opuntia in Filtered Light"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

Typical of opportunistic plants in Texas, growing between the cracks in rocks that trap soil and water. With all the necessary elements in place including filtered sunlight, a prickly pear cactus has found a perfect home.

"Aspens"

Oil on panel, 12"x9"

Painted from a photo taken by my son Shaun on a recent trip to Colorado. Thanks BSP!

"Field of Blue" revised

Oil on panel, 10"x10"

Another painting I posted a while back that I painted over to try to bring to more of a finished look.

"Chisos" revised

Oil on linen panel, 9"x12"

This painting was posted a few months back. I painted over it to see if I could improve it a bit.

"Pumpkin"

Oil on panel, 7"x5"

When I posted my Tres Pumpkins image yesterday and mentioned I was looking for a scary feel to the little pumpkins it dawned on me they weren't scary at all. So, I did this solitary pumpkin lurking from the darkness to get closer to the feel I was after.

"Tres Little Pumpkins"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

A very loose technique on this painting of the little pumpkins. I am attempting to stretch my abilities and painting loose can be very expressive. I was trying to get more of the scary halloween feel to the otherwise autumn looking small gourds.

"On the Rocks"

Oil on panel, 9"x12"

I have painted this scene before as a smaller piece. This time I tried to create a more "finished" look and make it a little larger.

"Layers"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

A view that exposes several layers of mountains in Big Bend NP.

Northern New Mexico #2

Oil on linen panel, 9"x12"

This is almost the same imaginary scene from a few posts back, modified a bit and a little larger panel.

"Cloud Revisited"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

This is a little painting I did a while back that was sitting around and it just looked unfinished to me. I modified it a bit and have reposted it.

"Karen's Bowl with Lemons #2"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

This is the second painting I created of my friend Karen's handiwork.

"Karen's Bowl with Lemons"

Oil on panel, 6"x6"

As mentioned last week, I have shifted gears and done a couple still life paintings and now working on a portrait piece, This is the first of two paintings I did of a bowl created by my friend Karen from work. She takes a pottery class on Tuesday nights and has gotten quite good at her craft. I wanted to keep this bowl but she already had plans for it. Darn!

"Northern New Mexico"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

This is from a compilation of photographs given to me by my sister Joan. She had requested I do some New Mexico paintings from areas she and my brother in law John have traveled. I took liberties with creating a composition then using the photos as a reference.

"Shark Tooth"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

I don't know if this formation actually has a name or what it might be, but it looked like a shark tooth to me, so that's what I named it. I was trying to make an interesting painting out of what was a rather uninteresting photo.

"Mountains and Sky"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

This is such a common scene in the Big Bend region of Texas. There are so many mountains and such vast distances visible as you travel from one area to another. This particular scene is north of Marathon on hwy. 385, approaching the Glass Mountains.

"A Brilliant Ending"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

This is a contrived scene very similar to the scrub oak scene I posted a few days ago. I just modified the composition a little and added a more colorful sunset in the background.

"A Dreamscape"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

Another imaginary scene of the hill country. This is reminiscent of the area between Rocksprings and Uvalde, north on 674 or possibly Hwy 55. Beautiful country there.

"Into the Sun"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

Another imaginary scene. This is a scrub oak on a hillside with the sun setting behind it. I have a few more of these in the works then I might switch gears again and move to some portrait and figurative works and maybe even some still life setups. Who knows, who cares?

"Rolling Hills"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

An imaginary scene reminiscent of the rolling hills between Bandera and Boerne, Texas.

"Viva Castolon"

Oil on panel, 6"x8"

I was going through a stack of my paintings the other day deciding which to throw away and which to keep when I came across this painting and decided it had potential but I wasn't happy with it. So, it is almost entirely repainted and barely resembles the original attempt. Rather than starting over I realized the composition would work and what I had done would serve well for an under painting.

"Steep and Rocky"

Oil on panel, 8"x8"

A scene from a very steep, rocky and treacherous mountainside in Big Bend National Park.

"New Mexico"

Oil on Archival linen panel, 8"x10"

This is a painting I did a few months ago that I painted over. I felt the initial effort was lacking in many areas and liked the scene enough to give it another go. I think it is better now than it was.

"Oak Tree"

Oil on panel, 5"x7"

A quick change of pace back to the Hill Country and an Oak tree with some distant hills.

"Dry Arroyo"

Oil on canvas, 24"x24"

What have I been doing the last 10 days? Well, I started this painting months ago and never completed it. I decided I would finish it and after painting in detail then painting out detail over and over again, I have finally decided to leave it alone and get on to the next. I loved this scene of erosion channels, rocks, dirt and silt in a dry arroyo in Big Bend National Park.

"Casa Grande from the Basin"

Oil on panel, 11"x14"

This is a scene of Casa Grande from inside the basin. A frequent camping spot for my family as my kids were growing up, the Basin offers views of the Chisos Mountains in 360 degrees.