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Last February we went to New Orleans during a cold snap. Although folks were not wandering around the French Quarter in freezing temperatures, tourists like us didn't have the luxury of waiting until it warmed up. So in this interpretation I used a little artistic license and added more people ...

One of a series of bicyclists, this painting is based on nothing more than my interpretation of three racers. There is very little detail.  Hopefully the feeling of cyclists racing has been successfully captured. Several members of my family are serious cyclists.   I am happy to paint a little abstractly. Those who enjoy activities, even on a hobby level,  can get very uptight about details and accuracy ...

This painting was one of a series of female musicians. Although I use reference material to position instruments and fingers and body language, inevitably I wind up "making it up." Jazz Quartet II was used on a wine label for Wilson Creek, a vineyard in Caifornia. . ...

Gathering of Sail This is the first version of the diptych. I have examined it for a long time knowing it just did not work for me. Too rigid, too many primary colors that were confusing. This is the revised version which I like so much better. I think is has better unity ...

This is an 11x14 canvas sketch of the Virginia Symphony. I have seen so many versions of classical musicians (including some of my own) that in the attempt to delineate the setting, the artist has frozen the musicians in time. Like taking a photo of a runner at a high ISO so that the movement is stopped. Accuracy is there, but the feeling of the event is not. When I feel I am successful, it ...

If I take the time to sketch out an idea using India ink and mutilated brushes I often solve my design and value problems with less angst than when I start with just an idea. Ink flows; it reacts differently to wet and dry canvas or paper. By using brushes that I either create by cutting old brushes with scissors and exacto blades  I feel more freedom than when I work with color. I am ...

Despite the fact that we have been going to Busch Gardens since it opened it never occurred to me to see the park as a subject for my art. Then through my daughter I became friends with the family that runs the fair that comes to Hampton every year. The  carnival at night was more like the ones we went to as children-rides on a smaller scale, hot dog stands, popcorn, lots of kiddie rides ...

Are You Kidding? was the painting that could have had "wings" (see Garden Angel)   The title suggests a bit of gossip being bantered by these two ladies.  Which leaves the viewer wondering (hopefully the viewer will even care to wonder) what they are saying- most certainly it involves a relationship- women they know? men?  someone in trouble?  What do you thing they're discussing? ...

Garden angel -  well angels are not really my thing.   But Scott London, from London Square Gallery, Norfolk, on one occasion suggested I incorporate wings into one of my paintings- not this one. The one he saw eventually became two women conversing with wine glasses in their hands. Hardly an angelic scene.  This one started as a lone figure but she was bored and boring so she wound up in a garden- the wings seemed ...

These carnival dancers are loosely based on dancers I saw a long time ago at the Winnipeg Canada Folk Festival's Caribbean pavilion. There they had long dresses with more yellow and were inside a school gym. Artistic license ...