Duck duck at Laguna Art-A-Fair

"Duck Duck 1"
oil on panel, 2016
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

Here is a new work for Laguna Art-A-Fair.
The worlds largest rubber duck and her duckling when it visited the Los Angeles Port in 2014.

If you know my work you might wonder, a rubber duck? Well yeah, if it's 61 feet tall, weighs 11 tons and sits in the Los Angeles Harbor. It's a no-brainer! And it's a nice complement to what may be The Worlds Largest Pumpkin, "Smilin' Jack", which I also painted.
Fun industrial.
Suitable for all ages.
I-N-D-U-S-T-R-I-A-L !
Have a newborn? Duck Duck is perfect for the new nursery!
Have a 5 year old? Smilin' Jack is it!

At that size She had a certain presence.  I wanted to have a little fun here so I painted in the yellow halo and kept the paint application crystal clear with high chroma and saturated color to give it that presence for the paintings diminutive 5"x7" size.451

Vincent Thomas Bridge #3

"Vincent Thomas Bridge #3"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
7" x 5" (17.78cm x 12.7cm)

Here is an early painting from my Vincent Thomas Bridge series that I never posted.
It is an unusual view that is not immediately recognizable as a bridge but that for me is part of its appeal.

Bridges carry a certain civic pride much like state and country pride. Their primary function may be utilitarian but for locals they are a source of pride.

This view from the catwalk underneath the roadway shows the scaffolding being erected around the tower base. Painting the bridge is a job that's never finished. It’s a 6 month process to wrap the tower from the ground up in scaffolding and then plastic sheeting to contain the work. Then the painting can begin.230

Industrial Purgatory

“Old Dredge”
oil on panel, 2011
6” x 6” (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

Here is second of my 3 paintings in the  6" Squared Exhibition and Sale at the Randy Higbee Gallery tonight, Saturday December 3rd, and hangs through December 22nd.

An old relic, left in the cold shallow waters, listing to the right, about to face another winter storm, half heartedly covered by the yellow tarp.

Hung up by the dock and unable to sail it’s stuck between two worlds in a state of purgatory. It’s no longer needed but not pulled ashore. It can’t sink anymore but is contained by jetties in the protected harbor so no storm will be able to put it out of its misery by dragging it to the bottom where at least marine life would have it as a home, an artificial reef.

Too outdated for work but neither is it salvaged to be put back into service in some new form. It is forgotten in plain sight.152


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Herculean Muscle

“47 Bridge (Three Tanks)”    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
6” x 6” (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

Here is one of my 3 paintings that is in the  6" Squared Exhibition and Sale at the Randy Higbee Gallery this Saturday December 3rd.

The 47 Bridge, its design born more out of its practical need than aesthetics. The middle spans raise up to allow boats and ships to pass in the channel underneath, the reason for its boxy towers. The two near towers for auto and truck traffic, the two far ones for the railroad.

But its very utilitarian design gives it a herculean look, one of muscle. It is not a design to be admired for its grace or beauty. There are no sweeping curves of suspension cables or steel arches, no ornamentation. It belongs to no school of design other than its industrial purpose. So it stands disproportionately tall for the channel it crosses.

An obvious approach to support it’s brawniness would be a worms eye view but that would say nothing of its relative place in the bigger picture of the harbor mechanisms.
The high vantage point I’ve done here doesn’t minimize its stature but instead allows it to dwarf the surrounding area, both the background and the foreground tanks sitting low in the composition.151

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Harbor Line - Bridge Shadow

"Pacific Harbor Line 20 (Bridge Shadow)"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

The Pacific Harbor Line, the workhorse of the LA  Harbor. This newer one is part of the low emission line of locomotives for the move towards a greener port. Black and shiny as tar with striking graphics, they don't blend in, they stand out. Not graceful looking, they look like they mean business. The back end diagonals point down, the front point up to distinguish front from rear when seen head on. Its side panel graphics angling forward. So a nod of beautiful work to the designers of these burly beasts of burden.

My Pacific Harbor Line series. This one, the #20, is a remote control locomotive and is often parked here near the base of the Vincent Thomas Bridge.
Here it sits in the afternoon at the shadow of the Vincent Thomas Bridge as the marine layer begins to settle in over the port.136

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Harbor Colors

"Sunken Dock, Cranes (w/Bird)"   SOLD

oil on panel, 2010

6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

I was lamenting awhile back that mother nature was holding back spring in favor of an extended winter. Now she still has spring or at least spring like weather on the table. Our 4th of July was only warm, not hot, with a rather cool evening. We have not seen any real hot, blistering summer days and nights yet. So, with that, here is another spring painting.

The harbor, looking east, a bank of rain clouds. This is a common site in Los Angeles this time of year (early spring). The weather will move off shore and along the mountains, leaving the LA basin to the sun, a sort of hole with no weather, much like the eye of a hurricane. This does lead to some dramatic backdrops and here it provided a deep cool gray for the brightly lit red cranes.

These are the colors of the harbor. The equipment... whites, reds, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, some bright, some pale. Docks and piers... earthy siennas, oxidized gray browns, dark wet chocolate browns. The organic... green waters, ochre dirt, various shades of gray and tan in jetties and rocks.

This is another palette I like. Saturated color, but deep, still weighty, with bright accents. A good mix of artificial and natural earthy color. Man made and nature together.

Bright days don't necessarily have to be depicted in high key (lighter) values. If done right, middle and even low key values will represent a bright day.

The only light values here lie in a thin horizontal strip at the base of the cranes... sunlit whites, blues and yellow. The color saturation too, aids in depicting a sunny day and distant atmospheric conditions... wet air.65

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