Chocolate Chip Cookies 8 x 10

I was planning to visit my niece, who is in the hospital for an extended period of time undergoing chemotherapy treatments, so I baked a batch of chocolate cookies to take with me Saturday morning. Katie and Sammy enjoy playing video games together. It was a rainy day so Katie and I didn't mind spending it locked up in the isolation of "immune-suppression" with Sammy. Sammy's white blood cells are non-existent, thanks to the chemo treatments and she can't leave her 10' x 14' room in the Children's Treatment Center at St. Vincent's Medical Center until they rise to an acceptable level. This could take weeks. Thankfully, this is her last treatment if the leukemia goes into remission and she will be thrilled to have her life back after six months of extended hospital stays. A bright and engaging five-year old who has honed her coloring skills to an amazing degree, thanks to her enforced captivity, Sammy is very excited to be starting kindergarten in the fall. I took a plate full of cookies with me and left some at home. They were almost gone Monday so I painted this quickly and then gave the remaining cookies to my daughter when she promised to drink the milk. It was a bit warm after sitting on the porch for an hour while I turned them into an oil painting.

Sophie 16" x 20" in oil

I was experimenting with a new program- Web Album Generator. It seems to work great and really simplified the production of this demonstration I was putting together for my students.
This is Sophie and this is a link to the entire demonstration with notes on how I painted it.

Ginger's Son, TJ

I painted Ginger's son from two photos she emailed to me. One was a blurry shot of TJ in his football uniform and another was a picture of him with his girlfriend. Neither one showed TJ in his helmet and Ginger wanted a painting of him in uniform to give him for his graduation. They won their region and came within one game of winning state, so the young man was understandably proud of his achievements. Still have to add some stripes to the helmet but I am just about done. 16 x 20 oil on canvas

Dorian from our Portrait group

Dorian is a magician. He works at Nick and Jimmy's in Michigan and also performs at parties. He didn't pull a quarter out of my ear or anything but I did ask him if being a magician was a full time job for him and whether he did children's parties to make ends meet. "Of course", he replied. "I'm a full time artist." Wow- so we all do what we have to because as artists we love what we are doing and sometimes that requires sacrifice. I never really thought of a magician as an 'artist' per se, but I guess anyone who works to improve their craft and is dependent on others liking their product or service well enough to pay for it could be considered an artist. Anyway- this is Dorian after two 4 hour sessions. The lighting was awful and quite ghoulish so I just gave up.

No. 7 in the Indian Series

In keeping with the style of the others, this oil is 11" x 14" oil on canvas. It depicts a Cayuse youth of perhaps 16 or 17 years of age. My favorite of them all! So far.

Commissioned Horse and Rider Completed

22" x 28" oil on canvas. This painting required much more time and effort than I usually put into a painting but I truly love the result. It is very colorful and has that "Southwest" feel to it.

Pear Paintings

I am enjoying the opportunity to paint outside on my screened in porch before it gets too hot. Very soon the weather in Northwest Ohio will become hot and humid and I'll need to leave early in the morning to do plein air studies before it gets too hot. I want to enjoy these great spring temperatures as long as I can. Pears are good practice because their colors vary so much. I bought the urn to give to my mother-in-law for Mother's Day so I had to paint it quickly.

Work in Progress

A commission painted from old black and white photographs and a bit of imagination. 22" x 28" oil on canvas. The painting is not actually this blue- my camera is having a problem with the chroma-brightness of the blue.

A variation on the other baseball painting

...and a tribute to the Bluffton baseball team, which was decimated by a tragic accident in March of this year. Bluffton University is a great school, and is located just a few hours south of my home in Ohio.