A Child's Portrait

Ricker - oil on linen - 14 x 16"

This is the first oil portrait I've done in years! I could not believe how difficult it was, and how long it took. I really was out of practice. I worked from photos that I took myself. It is difficult to get a child this young to hold still for a photograph, let alone a painting. Here he was talking to me, and see how happy and animated he is!

It was worth the effort. I am happy with the end result! And the boy's grandparents love it! That's what's important!

Closing of SFMOMA

 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art will be closed for two years while an addition is added to the present building. There will still be exhibits, but they will be in other venues around the Bay Area. They decided to close with a celebration! Above is one artwork, which hangs over the main hall. It is made of human hair from around the world.

 Here is another artwork, painted on the wall. To see how big it is, notice the size of the stand holding the rope in front of it.

 This is a model of the present museum.

 On the backside of the above model, is a model of the new addition. Lots more space.

 They had things going on all day. One of the last activities was making tin foil hats. They put out tin foil, glue, scissors, pipe cleaners, etc., and invited people to design their own. Unfortunately, there were no mirrors, so I didn't know what mine looked looked like on my head, but I got lots of complements on it!

 The final performance of the day was a group called Soul Motion. My daughter, Shanna, is one of the dancers!

At first the dancers were mixed with the crowd; gradually they formed a circle in the center. At the end of the dance, they proceeded outside, with the museum staff asking everyone to follow and form a line around the building. About half of us were wearing tin foil hats! Some in the crowd started chanting for us to look up. Then, a drone flew over to take our picture! Quite a finale!

John Cosby Workshop

Yellow Truck - oil on canvas panel - 14 x 11"

Painting  is a process of continual learning. Each painting is a learning experience! And, in order to accelerate the process, I try to take a workshop with another artist every now and then. The painting above is one I painted during the John Cosby workshop in Lodi, CA. John is an excellent teacher, and there were some very advanced painters in the class, but he made all of us stretch ourselves!

John teaches a painting process that can be adapted to most painting styles. He starts by mixing four or five color puddles that represent the different values in the scene. Then, he mixes all the rest of the colors from those puddles. Also, he really stressed drawing and composition. I drew the truck in this scene by first drawing a box, which had the same proportions as the truck, then drawing the truck inside the box. And the composition is a three-point, with the three main elements being the truck, the palm tree, and the telephone pole. Can you see it? I really had to subdue the bush, which, in reality, was a bright, bright green! And I used shadows to balance the composition. Just making my own reality... Fun!