SOLD...to Cape Coral, FL

Painted Desert, 12x12" pastel

I'm pleased to announce that these two pastels are going to a private collector in Cape Coral, Florida.

Painted Desert, shown above, was taken from a road trip on the way to the Grand Canyon a few years ago, in a terrain that is actually referred to as the "painted desert". You can see why...the dappled turquoise sky shines like a jewel and the ground is blanketed in stripes of pink, purple, yellow, coral and lime green. Jumping out of the car frequently, I took tons of photos and painted this one at a later date. It's one of my favorite memories as nature was really showing off that day!

If you want to see some of the photos I took from that road trip, refer to my blog, here.

Ring 'Round the Rosey, 12x12" pastel

Ring 'Round the Rosey was awarded Second Place in Landscape at the Austin Pastel Society 2011 Member Show. It was quite an honor for me since so many terrific artists entered paintings in that category. The reference for this piece was originally shot on my iPhone during rush-hour traffic off of North Mopac Expressway where I have spent the last 20 years here in Austin...quite literally just off the highway! Of course I manipulated the colors in Photoshop, since we don't regularly have quite this amount of pink in the skies...unless it's out by Lake Travis where I have seen some skies like this.

As a side note, I also used this reference in a "paint around" with 4 other artists. I started and finished the piece while the other 4 took turns painting on this one, and each others. The finished piece was auctioned off for a worthy cause. To see how the other painting turned out, see my blog, here.

Individualism and Rose Colored Glasses

Ring 'Round the Rosy, 12x12" pastel

Sometimes you just have to put the rose colored glasses on to see life differently...otherwise you just keep going round and round the same old scenes without noticing the beauty right in front of you!

"Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known." --Oscar Wilde

A friend asked when referencing this quotation:
"...true? or intense individual connection to Spirit?" I ask, is there a difference?! I think it's just a mode of seeing....

Creativity is basic to all human beings...not as a divinely bestowed gift to a select few, but individually expressed, as uniquely as we all are different, throughout us all. Some are creative in the studio, others on Wall Street and others in the kitchen. Wherever you express yourself, it is uniquely your view of the divine Spirit or the Universe as you see it and are connected to it.