This is perhaps the first somehwat successful painting I've done entirely from imagination. I used some ideas from the copies I did of Hudson River paintings, because I love those wending rivers and distant mountains.

Far River

17 3/4"x14"

Oil on canvas

The painting below was done after a trip to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. This is as close as I can get to a "vista" at this time, in flat old Chicago. Though at first I didn't care for the painting because it's so "bright," I've lately come to like it - maybe because it's among the most successful of my pictures that aren't copies of someone else's work.

Botanical Gardens I

24"x20"

Oil on canvas

Hudson River Scene

This painting is my version of a Hudson River painting titled "Hyde Park, New York," by Johann Hermann Carmiencke, a German-born painter who spent the last 16 years of his life living and painting in New York.

My teacher suggested that I study by copying the "old masters," and for me that means the Husdon River School. I love their appreciation of the granduer of the American landscape. This painting appealed to me because of its grand vista, showing the Catskills in the distance.

"Hudson River Scene"

oil on canvas

24"x20"

After a painting by Johann Hermann Carmeincke

Dream Landscape II

Oil on Canvas

24"x19 3/4"

Work in Progress

The Dream Landscapes are a new direction for me - they grow out my little 5-minute oil sketches that are spontaneous - that come entirely from my imagination (my subconscious?) and are not based (as far as I know) on any real landscape that I've ever seen. They're the means by which I hope to touch some emotional center that has been so hard for me to reach. Sometimes I think they're about loneliness.

Dream Landscape I

oil on canvas

20"x16"

Recently I have been taking oil painting classes with Didier Nolet, a local landscape artist. I feel that I'm learning a great deal. In addition to technique, perhaps the most important thing I'm learning is how to see. I think that's the real difference between a professional and a beginner: the beginner still doesn't know what to focus in on. We so take for granted what our eyes see, and we don't know how to focus on the things that make a difference - the softness of a distant hillside, the coolness of the shaded lawn, the touch of pink in the reflected sky.

Technique is important, but it's only a part of the whole. I need to learn what to see.

Versailles II - Garden of Zeus
Oil on Canvas
18"x13 3/4"

At Camiso
Oil on Canvas

I removed this painting because I felt that it was "anecdotal." The figure made it look like a snapshot (which it was - I copied a vacation snapshot taken at Camiso when we were visiting Bandelier). I now look for more emotional content in what I paint. At some point, most, if not all of these paintings will be removed - as more mature ones take their place.

The Beach at Sherwin

(preliminary oil sketch on canvas)

Bandelier I

Oil on Canvas (work in progress)