6x6 Show Opening Night

It was another great showing at the 6x6 Show Randy Higbee Gallery this past weekend.

I was quite happy my painting "11th St. Rain" sold on the opening night.
The turnout was huge, a lot of people showed up and it was a very festive atmosphere.

I always enjoy meeting new people and especially seeing all my artist friends.
We usually end up going to a restaurant afterwards and have a good time talking art and getting caught up on what we all have been doing.
Among the group this year were artist Susan Hogan Girard and artist Wendy Wirth, both of whom had their work hanging in the show.

If I can get any pics from the show I'll post them here.

Night Rain at 6x6 Show

"18th St. Rain Nocturne"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2012

6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

My fourth painting accepted into the 6 Inch Squared Show at the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa California.
Another rain painting in the show here.

A simple enough idea, more challenging to paint than I thought.
Warm light on a cold night. Yellow green from the house, orange from the sodium street lights meant the two had to be interspersed in some places.
In reality the light is actually blueish white but made for a cold uninviting image. This is when artistic decisions must be made.
I initially had more yellow from the house light but the painting lacked depth so I added green as the light spread out from its source, even further under the shine of rainy conditions. I finished it off by adding some color accents of blue in the sky and red of the taillights.199

Another "18th St. Rain" here, a view slightly up the same street.
Click rain 'RAIN' LABEL to see others.

Pacific Harbor Line at 6x6 Show

"PHL 64"
oil on panel, 2012
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)


My third painting featured in the up-coming 6 Inch Squared show at the Randy Higbee Gallery. See two previous posts below for more.
You can also see and purchase them online here before the show opens on December 8th 2012.

Although many train artists might shy away from overlapping the train with objects I don't see it as a painting of a locomotive with stuff thrown around it as a second thought, but instead a painting in all its totality first, then one of a locomotive.

A sunny day with the marine layer hugging the ground and thin wispy clouds yielding soft undefined shadows.
I pushed the limits of this kind of light from the front to the back of the locomotive, highlighting the front then severely dropping the back into (soft) shadow.

That gave it some extra depth and enabled me to nearly bump the front of the locomotive up against the edge of the picture plane and break the compositional rule of 'avoiding tangents'. Using the bright sun and atmospheric effect for value control also puts the emphasis on the back end of the engine.

One final touch was throwing a reflected light on the far side of the back of the engine.198

Click on image to larger view

Industrial Landscape at 6x6 Show

"Industrial Landscape"
oil on panel, 2012

6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm) SOLD


The second of my four paintings accepted into the 6 Inch Squared show at Randy Higbee Gallery

Since most landscapes are composed of strong horizontals, square formats are a challenge.

So this is loaded with the verticals of poles and the angles of steam, tree line and road, to compositionally offset the horizontal band across the middle and make for a stronger stacked composition within the square format.

This is one of those views typical of industrial vista's in and around the harbor. I compressed the refinery into the middle ground, but allowed the foreground and background to breath.

The drifting steam coming from the refinery, the softer shadows, and perhaps the light too, all help to relieve the densely packed industrial forest of the middle ground.197

Click on image for larger view

Rain at 6x6 Show

"11th St. Rain"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2012
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)
Randy Higbee Gallery

Here is one of my four paintings accepted into the 6 Inch Squared show at Randy Higbee Gallery.

If you are like me you never tire of rain and weather images. I love shiny glistening streets under these conditions. The landscape under a canopy of clouds with the golden sun breaking through.
I've always thought of rainy days as slow days. Here I've painted the late afternoon with a lone figure returning home from work in no particular hurry.196

Click 'Rain' or 'Weather' LABELS to see others.

Note: I updated the image here with one that is more color correct.
Click on image for larger view

6 Inch Squared

I am happy to announce 4 of my 7 paintings entered into the 6 Inch Squared show at the Randy Higbee Gallery were accepted.

I'll start posting them soon.

Marsh, Tanks, Power Plant

"Marsh, Tanks, Power Plant"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

Part of our modern urban landscapes, the mix of industry and adjacent natural areas. Not always good but hard to ignore. This view poses the dense, choked out man made structures against open natural areas. Encroaching sometimes, but always a fascinating juxtaposition.

This is similar in theme to my previous "HB Power Plant - Dusk". If we want to live in the scenic areas, like along the coast, we can't always choose what comes along with that, including the oil storage tanks since this is where the oil is found. At least until we figure out how to build lower profile supporting industry.

We can design and build homes to blend into the surrounding environment, we can restore natural habitats. So someday we'll build industry that is green(er), contained and less visible against these natural areas. It's all about a proper balance.159

Click on image for larger view

BNSF Slogging

"BNSF Flooded Road"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
6” x 8” (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Two of my favorite subjects, trains and rain.

A BNSF locomotive slogging through the rain near the top of the Cajon pass headed to the high desert in Southern California. Rounding the bend in a heavy rainstorm as shown by the flooded road in the foreground. An autumn scene with just a hint of orange trees showing through the fog.

The train, somewhat inconsequential within the composition and placed high in the picture plane, gives it a feeling of isolation and puts more emphasis on the landscape. But while that is true the lines of the landscape still all lead to the train.
With two thirds of the composition being foreground/middle ground this demanded the road have a strong design. The foreground and middle ground get divided by the rain water washing over the road. Each share similar angular shapes but vary enough in shape and size to keep them from becoming boring. It's really about avoiding design 'twins' and breaking up the larger mass into smaller supporting ones. That also allows for the recession of space, leading the eye through the weather to the locomotive.

For the engineer, this must be the most solitary part of their job, which is what this painting is about.
The design and the weather itself both serve as vehicles to that idea, instead of the primary subject. The smallness of the train against the larger landscape and the isolating nature of stormy weather.157


Click on images for larger view

Portrait of an Oil Plant

“Oil Plant # 9 (Broken Pipe)"
oil on panel, 2011
6” x 6” (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

This is the third of my paintings in the  6" Squared Exhibition and Sale at the Randy Higbee Gallery , Saturday December 3rd through Thursday December 22nd.
The opening was packed as usual with lots of little painted gems. The real joy of a show like this is the wide variety styles and artistic approaches among the 500 or so artworks, including some fabulous watercolors and pastels. Impossible to pick a favorite. In addition to the art, meeting the collectors and other artists is always a highlight of the evening.

When I have a visceral reaction to something I sometimes have to pause, really look and figure out what it is I’m seeing. It is not always obvious. I initially responded to this view of the storage tanks for its clean, neat and tidy nature. Not too cluttered, no scattered remnants of the broken plant other than the broken pipe, which was my own invention.
What I eventually saw in this view was an industrial version of an old face, wrinkles and all... a portrait of the oil plant ... solemn, dignified. It reminded me of a man with most of his years behind him, who had a well lived life, worked hard, but is still vital, still fastidious and loaded with silent stories.153


Click on image for larger view

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


Click on image for larger view

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

Click on image for larger view

6 Inch Squared Show

Here is the announcement for the square format show and sale at the Randy Higbee Gallery.
Artists from all over the country are participating with all the paintings done in the 6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm) format.
The opening night and artists reception is December 3rd.
The show will hang until the 22nd.

Urban River 1

"Santa Ana River #1"
oil on cradled panel, 2011
12" x 24" (30.48cm x 60.96cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE


Urban nature is a sort of oxymoron. It took years to come to terms with seeing our rivers encased in concrete banks as part of the natural world. I could never quite call them rivers.

But this is how we modify nature as it passes through our cities before being returned back to nature and into the ocean. There is a push and pull of man/nature going on. Concrete and manicured rock banks, then natural silt islands and vegetation growing in the middle. Nature briefly contained and on display. Ebb and flow.

I do see the beauty in both, the smooth hard man made surfaces and the delicate organic forms of nature. They simultaneously compliment and contrast each other.140

Click on image for larger view

Burnscapes - Man vs Nature

"Burnscape #4 (Charred Pine Stand)"

"Burnscape #8 (Charred Cactus)"

"Burnscape #4 (Charred Pine Stand)"
watercolor on paper, 2011
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

"Burnscape #8 (Charred Cactus)"
watercolor, Pelikan india ink on paper, 2011
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)


Here are two recent watercolor/mixed media's from my Burnscape series. Both were at my solo show at the Randy Higbee Gallery. See previous posts.

Living in Southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn't for its destruction... but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the way Mother Nature intended.
It is how She manages her jurisdiction, by controlling dense undergrowth. We usually get in the way.
Man has traditionally prevented fires, the growth becoming so thick that when fire does occur it is devastating. Another topic on the Man vs Nature theme.

Top - #4 Trees are meant to survive fires where brush is low to the ground, the fire sweeping through too quickly (and frequently enough) to wipe them out. This pine stand didn't look like it would survive so to accentuate this I set its blackened silhouette against a background of unburned green.

Bottom - #8 As fire sweeps through dry brush, here... all that's left of a thicket, sometimes all that is left behind is high water content vegetation like cactus. What caught my attention was how the left side of the cactus clump seemed to have leaned away from the fire.137,138

Click on image for larger view

Matrix 2

"Power Plant Interior #2"
oil on panel, 2011
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

Here is another view of the power plant interior, the first here and a drawing here.
I could do dozens of these and not tire of it, even slightly different views. In fact I have a larger 24" x 30" in progress. I love the limited palette of muted ochre/yellow and sienna, with punctuations of earthy greens and reds.

One of the most fascinating buildings...several stories high...the interior nearly wide open... a matrix of pipes, valves, steel... deep and cavernous.

The light and colors seen here are faithful to the actual site...the walls and pipes painted in these ochres and creams, the floors a mixture of reds and greens, worn and distressed...deep earthy orange reflected light, then the translucent glass filters the outside light...a cool pale yellow.135

Click on image for larger view

Vincent Thomas Bridge #5 - Color study

"Vincent Thomas Bridge #5 - Color Study"
oil on panel, 2011
9" x 6" (22.86cm x 15.24cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Here is another version, in oil, of the watercolor / gouache study from an earlier post.

On this one I experimented with a different color and value scheme to cut back the amount of lime green that shows in full sunlight. Throwing a soft shadow across part of the bridge allowed for multiple greens, from the lime green it shows in bright light to its signature chrome green and into a deep bluer green. The roadway a chocolate brown, the foreground structure a warm olive green.
Doing that also changes the design of the value distibution. With the towers in light and shadow a stronger more dramatic composition is achieved.134

Problem Solving- "Vincent Thomas Bridge #4"

"Vincent Thomas Bridge #4 - Catalina Express"    SOLD
watercolor on illustration board, 2011
11.75" x 8" (29.845cm x 20.32cm)


Here is a fairly common view of bridges. But a good one because there is a great sense of height when seen from the ground from underneath.

This is the finished painting of one I posted (here) back in March as a work in progress. One intended for my October Show.
It was one of those that at the beginning I had a clear vision of what I was going to do and how it would look. A quick painting, in a method I had done many times. I like those, they are fun and satisfying.

Then about halfway through I realized (OH NO!) it isn't working... it was just sort of dying right in front of me. So much for fun and satisfaction. This one is going to battle me. Should I panic? No... not really my style.

Problem solve, no problem. Think fundamentals, that is where most trouble lies. It's not the flooring, the curtains, the sofa etc., no, no, no... its the foundation, the framing or the roof. No point moving forward till I figure it out or I'm in for some wasted time.
Most of the time I know what to do... that is to 'let it go' and keep painting, keep forging ahead. Not this time, I sat back and stared at it and for the life of me I had no idea where it was failing. Ok, it's only half way done I thought soooo... start checking... the drawing or perspective of it really isn't off, maybe a little, but thats not it, those kinds of minor corrections take place as I refine the painting, working to the end.

It's too premature to really judge the color, or more specific... color relationships. If everything else is working; design, values etc, then color is usually secondary.
The point of view? nooo... god forbid otherwise the whole thing gets scrapped. Bad choices you can't fix.

The composition? ... uh... maybe... shoot, that would mean significant changes.
Forget texture or detail or surface... technique, these are usually more superficial, usually not the make or break of an image, more along the line of the refinements/corrections, at least the way I work.

I don't always know where things went wrong, right away, but I know WHAT TO DO.
That is to STOP looking at it. Put it away, turn it around, don't think about it, work on something else. Come back later for a fresh look.

So thats what I did. I came back to it, (more than once I might add), with a fresh eye...then it hit me! like a ton of bricks! It's lifeless! Stupid thing! Duh! I remember thinking  " ...it's dying right in front of me" the opposite of life, how did I miss the connection?
OK! Now what? Give it some life.

Sometimes, fundamentals or not, if I have an image that starts slipping away it unconsciously affects my enthusiasm and I start to lose interest which shows in the painting. The sooner I identify that the better. Then surprisingly few changes need to made.

• Start by introducing the warmer tones in the sky, it's far too cold in color temperature. 
• Too much residual green from my initial lay in, the early washes, substitute blues in place of greens.
• Break up the silhouette and soften edges. I was going for a strong graphic pattern from the start but now that I see it, it's too rigid, even for a bridge.
• Extend the foreground a bit, it's too slight to visually support the bridge

Whew! It wasn't that far off... looks like I won... HA, HA, HA,   it did not defeat me this time.133

Click on image for larger view

Vincent Thomas Bridge #8 Containment 1

"Vincent Thomas Bridge #8 (Containment 1)"
oil on panel, 2011
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

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 identity.

This painting also overlaps into my containment series, a series on modern construction techniques. These days everything gets wrapped in heavy plastic or tarps to contain the work, a sort of cocoon, keeping dust from contaminating the environment.

Twenty or thirty years ago it was not done and open construction was more prevalent. Modern green thinking has changed our approach to not only recycling but how we do  everything. This painting shows the painting of the underside in progress.

A broad view of the containment area shows all of the working tools and materials needed to paint the bridge.

A platform is hung underneath then everything is wrapped in plastic; wall, floors & suspension hooks. Nothing allowed to escape into the environment.133

*Update:
See the "Vincent Thomas Bridge #11 (Containment #2)" here.

Click on image for larger view

"Vincent Thomas Bridge #13"

"Vincent Thomas Bridge #13"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
7" x 5" (17.78cm x 12.7cm)

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 identity.

A bright day and back lit, a close-up of one of the towers partially unwrapped, the painting recently completed. A small pulley is used to haul up tools and materials from a platform below that extends out from under the bridge roadway.132

Click on image for larger view

One Man Show Opening - Randy Higbee Gallery

Me and Jennifer Teter-Mitchell
just before the show opened

Artist Wendy Wirth and Me

The opening night of my One Man Show at the Randy Higbee Gallery looked fabulous.
The highly professional presentation is the norm for the Gallery but is never as easy as it appears. It is achieved through lots of hard work by the entire staff there; from the framing to the hanging, the advertising and right down to the little finishing touches. All done with smiles and enthusiasm.

Here are some iPhone pics of the opening night. I'll post more pics soon. Here's a link to more art in the show, which will hang until October 15th.

Here at Avid Art, before it even becomes a show, there is the same hard work happening behind the scenes.
Jennifer Teter-Mitchell, who handles all the marketing and graphic design at Avid Art, deliveries, ephemeral material and far too many little but equally important tasks was tireless.
And Susan Laumen, who handles all the accounting, inventory, and archiving documentation, typing and the same... multitudes of minor details, was also tireless right up to the end.

None of us can do it alone, it requires a concentrated effort by too many people to mention individually.
So I thank every person in helping to make the show a success.