April 2026

I needed an idea for a painting for my next open studio class. I was hiking along while Maureen and Judy rode Zim and Mumu, and saw a bunch of poppies on the side of the trail and took a couple of photos. Previous paintings of poppies were a bit unsatisfying, and I wanted them to really pop out from the background, so I used a lot of darker green. It's kind of messy, but at least the colors stand out pretty well.

March 2026

I had been thinking of doing another painting of Zim, and one day he was standing outside of the barn and he turned his head just right to catch the sunlight on his face and I snapped a photo. It's kind of an odd pose, but I like it. I worked on the painting over a couple of open studio days at the senior center and I think I caught his look pretty well.

One of my favorite photos from the John Muir Trail was one of Garnet Lake with Mt. Ritter and Banner Peak in the background. I had painted the scene a few years ago, but was not satisfied with it. This time I painted it quite quickly in one session of my open studio class and I like it much better than my first try. One thing that I aim for is getting washes dark enough the first time rather than doing many layers. It makes a fresher looking painting. On this one I didn't do it 100%, but did pretty well.

February 2026

Near the end of our 1995 trip to the UK and Ireland we ended up in Bath. It was a rough day, after being stuck in a very hot train for hours, walking for miles trying to find a place to stay for the night, and finally settling for an old hotel next to the train station that was quite noisy. Then the next day we found a better place to stay and began enjoying this beautiful little city. In this view, the river Avon flows through the center of town.

 

We have lived on Kelly Street for nearly 40 years now. Down at the bottom of the hill, Kelly ends at the intersection with B Street and Center Street. Whenever we come home we always pass this funky little collection of shops on the corner. I've always thought that it made an interesting scene and one day, while waiting at the stop light, I took a photo with my phone, and used it to make this painting. Val's restaurant, which is just out of the frame on the left, is famous all over the area, and some day may inspire another  painting, but this time I focused on the bar on the corner, Curly's Place.

January 2026

Maureen suggested that I do a painting based on photos from our 1997 trip to the east coast. I looked through them and didn't find any that were very inspiring, but I did find one of the beach at Ocean City, Maryland, that had some potential. I remember being amazed at the whole scene when we were there. Huge crowds of people everywhere and the long boardwalk filled with with tacky little souvenir shops. It was like the beach at Santa Cruz taken to the extreme. Maureen's childhood friend, who we were with, said it was like a little United Nations with all the diversity, but as you can see it was nearly all white.

 I picked another scene from my 2001 hike of the John Muir Trail with my friend, Gerald. This is our campsite at lower Palisade Lake after a hard day of climbing the Golden Staircase with heavily loaded packs after being resupplied by Aaron and Alicia the previous day.

I happened across a photo from our trip to Mammoth last September that I thought I could use for a painting. I remember having that in mind at the time that I took it. As we often do, we went for a walk at Hot Creek and found this high desert scene on the canyon slopes.