DATE: 11/03/2008 11:07:32 / MOOD: other

I just uploaded two new drawings.  One is a pen & ink of an armored humvee in front of the Embassy, while the other is a typical guard post here in the International Zone.  All my work these days is observational - I'm trying to get my impressions down on paper while I can.  After I return home, I'll start recombining these things into paintings with a story.

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DATE: 10/08/2008 12:50:20 / MOOD: other

I just posted a portrait of a Navy chief petty officer.  I completed the portrait back in July, but haven't gotten around to posting it until now.  The portrait is 24"x18", so the face is a bit bigger than life size.  Let me know what you think.

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DATE: 10/01/2008 13:28:42 / MOOD: other

It's been a LONG time since I've been here.  As I noted in my last post back in August, I've taken a job with the State Department at the US Embassy in Baghdad.  The hours are pretty long - 12 hours/day, every day - and I've been keeping my nose to the grindstone, trying to get up to speed.  I've finally been able to get out my sketchbook, though, and start making some doodles, just loosening up again.  I'm thinking that I'll be able to do some more drawings of life in the International Zone pretty soon, and will post some of them here.  Don't expect a whole bunch, but certainly there will be a few.  And if you're curious as to what life here is like, take a look at my blog, storypaintings.blogspot.com.  

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DATE: 08/10/2008 21:35:29 / MOOD: other

Yes, that's right.  I'm going to Baghdad.  I'll be there for the next year, working for the State Department as a program manager.  I'm really excited about this opportunity.  Lots of people think I'm nuts even for thinking of it as an "opportunity", and maybe I am.  But I'll be doing something important for Iraq and our country and not just bitching about it, which is what I've been doing in paint for the past four years.  This job actually came about because of my art.  I was working on war-related themes.  I was trying to arrange a combat artist stint with one of the services and getting nowhere.  So I started looking into other possibilities, which led to this.  So while in Iraq, I will still be doing artwork, just not nearly as much of it.  And I'll keep posting it here.  When I come home next year, I should have a lot of ideas and experiences to draw on.  Meanwhile, you can keep track of what I'm doing at my blog, storypaintings.blogspot.com.  

 

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DATE: 07/30/2008 20:39:42 / MOOD: other

I just posted two drawings from last week's life drawing session.  These were done with just a regular mechanical pencil.  Normally I use charcoal, but my recent courtroom artist sessions have left me temporarily unable to draw with anything but a mechanical pencil!

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DATE: 07/17/2008 17:31:08 / MOOD: other

I just posted two drawings from a recent life drawing session.  For the past couple of weeks I've been working on a portrait of a young Navy man.  Will post it here when it's done.

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DATE: 06/21/2008 09:08:30 / MOOD: other

I just posted two paintings done in 2003.  Both Olympia and Carol are of my mother.  They were part of a series called "Old Times" that focused on aging.  My mother was a wonderful woman: very outgoing, active, social, full of fun, smart, independent, and strong.  She was smoker, though, and contracted throat cancer.  After battling it for several years, it finally took her life in 1991.  I handled it very poorly at the time.  In 2003, while working on the "Old Times" series, I created these two paintings and revisited my emotions.  The process was a catharsis of sorts - I worked through a lot of unfinished business.  And I think Mom would be proud of the paintings.

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DATE: 06/09/2008 21:26:25 / MOOD: other

I just posted a couple of drawings.  Haven't been around at all this past month due to all sorts of other things getting in the way: travel, courtroom art duties, getting ready for our semi-annual Studio Stroll that's coming up this next weekend, and just plain being lazy.  You know how it goes.  I keep hoping that once we get past the Stroll that I'll be able to get back to drawing and painting again.  Then again, I keep hoping the Easter Bunny will visit!

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DATE: 05/18/2008 17:05:42 / MOOD: other

I just uploaded two more courtroom drawings.  These were done for our local TV station's news coverage of the trial of a former sheriff.  I did the pencil drawings on hot-pressed watercolor paper in the courtroom, then laid on the watercolor washes back at the news truck.  The trial finished up last week (he was convicted on all counts) and I'm still trying to catch up on everything that got put on "hold"!

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