May 10, 2009, Oil, 30 x 48

From a photograph we took in Hawaii last winter. This needs some work. Right now it's single dimensional. The sky needs more light and the brush strokes have to be removed. There are too many bands of color and they are too separated, like the layers of a cake. I need to bring this together and give it depth. Sand close, sky and horizon far away. Let's see what I can make out of it.

May 10, 2009, Oil, 36 x 36

This is done from a photograph taken by a friend. I could not make it work. This is probably how far this one will go.

May 10, 2009, Oil, 36 x 36

This is a work in progress. The back half is probably done, but the front needs some detail work to make it interesting. Right now it's flat and boring. Some yellow mustard might just do the trick.

Aspens

2007, Oil, 48 x 24

I took a lot of photographs at Yellowstone. The colors of the aspens always fascinated me. However, I can't make them work in this painting. I can paint it, like it looks in real life, but it makes for a boring painting. Then I go into Aaron Brothers and look at the mass-produced landscapes on the walls, and all of them look simpler than my paintings, and better. Oh, the trials!

Sometime around 2004, Oil, 20 x 30

Thumbed through a book and found this motive. Could not make it work.

Sometime in 2004

This was painted over eventually. Gone forever.