Four Violins (16 x 20 watercolor on clayboard) $450
A violin painting about rhythm and shape.
This painting is on Aquaboard, and may be framed with or without glazing.
Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.
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November 3, 2013 9:53 am
November 1, 2013 12:04 pm
With Feeling (watercolor 16 x 23) $600
I don’t normally use the photographs of others as the basis for my paintings, but I saw a picture of this lovely young woman so wrapped up in her music and it moved me. I just had to paint her. Fortunately for me, the photographer August Miller was willing to let me use his amazing photo in return for a donation to a The Rape Recovery Center. That I was happy to do, and here is the painting.
Or purchase a fine art print.
October 28, 2013 10:48 am
Late Afternoon Florence (13 x 22 watercolor) Reserved
Florence is worth visiting just to walk the streets. The twisting turning little alleys are endlessly fascinating. The light pours through in dramatic shafts between the buildings spotlighting slivers of streets and buildings.
October 15, 2013 1:15 pm
A Spire of Saint Paul's (11 x 15 watercolor) $300
This is one of the twin clock tower spires of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. I love Saint Paul’s Cathedral though it is nothing like the Gothic Cathedrals I fell in love with on my first trip the England. Unlike England’s early cathedrals, Saint Paul’s was designed by a single man, Sir Christopher Wren and built over just thirty years. The result is a clean coherent building rather unlike the the quirky cathedrals I first admired.
Wren designed and saw built numerous churches in the vicinity to compliment and be complimented by the cathedral. But in the London Blitz practically the entire neighborhood was bombed and burned to the ground. The cathedral is now surrounded by modern offices. The Millennium Bridge now leads directly to it providing a very modern show case for Wren’s jewel.
Or purchase a fine art print.
October 11, 2013 6:21 pm
Changing in Milan (14 x 21 watercolor) Reserved
In our month long odyssey to Europe last year we had only one really long travel day, but it was a dozy. We left London in morning to take the train to Paris. We boarded the train without a hitch and ate lunch as we emerged from the channel tunnel in France. We walked the streets and had dinner in Paris. Then we boarded the night train Milan.
I’ve heard mixed reviews of the night train, but it did well for us. Our cabin mate was a gorgeous young Frenchmen who man managed to be both chivalrous and bashful at the same time. The cabin was spacious and the bunks comfortable. We agreed to an early bedtime and all fell asleep easily. Which is surprising because the trip was tinged with worry because Italy was scheduled for a railway strike, and we intended to go on from Milan to Rome.
So it was with some relief that we arrived in Milan in the wee hours to discover our connection to Rome was still on the board. Relief and time to enjoy the beauty of the modern railway station with the morning sun lighting up the tracks’ exit to the greater world.
September 20, 2013 9:37 am
Teddy and Friends (watercolor 17 x 20) commissioned
This is a commissioned piece for a local nurse practitioner who wanted a still life painting to appeal to little boys. The irony is that most of the toys belong to my girls. But, we did have to borrow the mitt and baseball from one of my daughter’s friends.
I painted it at the Oregon State Fair. Demonstrating watercolor while stopping answer questions about other paintings, prints, and cards is always a bit of a hat-trick for me. Detailed paintings require great concentration, and loose paintings are easily spoiled by stopping at the wrong moment. This painting is full of small shapes and distinct items, making it a perfect painting to do in public. Each object could be treated as a separate little painting and there was very little glazing that might be spoiled by stopping at the wrong moment. No the less, I did wait to do the final touches back in the studio.
Since then it’s been waiting in my studio for my client to come home from vacation. I delivered it to her this morning and she’s pleased. The studio looks a little empty, but I’m replacing it with other things.
The original was sold before I began, but fine art prints are available here.
August 4, 2013 2:57 pm
South Rim Color (16 x 20 watercolor) $600
I told my family that I was taking them to see lots of big pretty rocks and I did. We did both rims of the Grand Canyon, Bryce National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, Capital Reef National Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, and more, not to mention many Indian ruin sites.
We had a blast, But, for me, summer vacations are at least half about painting material. Here is the first of what I hope will be many paintings of the Southwest.
Or purchase a fine art print.
July 16, 2013 9:50 am
Midnight Duet (watercolor 7 x 10) $75
Noon Trio (watercolor 7 x 10) $75
I painted it at my brother’s woodland house above Albuquerque, which he had kindly lent us for a couple of nights. I was working at the dining room table engrossed in the trumpet when a bump against the window caught my attention. That was as close as I’ve ever seen a live bear. He as only about six feet away peering curiously in. I wasn’t terrified, but I felt very, very alive and my brain when into hyper-drive. The windows on the bear’s side of the dining room were closed, but just on the other corner they wide open. So I stood up to close them, and the bear turned and lumbered away looking back over his shoulder just before disappearing into the forest. I closed the rest of the downstairs windows just for good measure.
I told my father and niece at breakfast at a local cafe and got a raft of neighborhood bear stories. The most amusing centered around a bear reaching in through a kitchen window to sample a birthday cake. But mostly the bears just want garbage and quickly learn which neighborhoods put out their garbage when. I think mine was mostly curious. “Look at the funny people.”
Prints of both paintings are available here.
July 13, 2013 12:38 pm
Pacific Rhythms (18 x 36 watercolor) private collection
I painted this seascape for the most marvelous client. Her request charmed me. She wanted a seascape with no figures or land masses, beach, or boats; just waves, sky, and clouds. The waves and clouds must be rhythmic to inspire jazz improvisation. The painting must be large enough to fill the space above her piano.
The project presented some challenges, most of them having to do with size. Standard watercolor sheets are only 24 x 30 inches. She wanted a painting that was 36 inches wide, so the paper had to be special ordered. I don’t have an easel large enough to accommodate a painting this size, so I used my studio table. When I taped the paper to my studio table, there was no room left for water and brushes. To see how the painting looked from five feet back, I had to stand on a chair.
The other challenge had to do with how to create a path through the painting for the eye. I decided on a sideways “u” beginning on the bottom left following the breakers in and return across the horizon and out through a break in the clouds.
I presented it to the client this morning and I’m happy to say she loved it. It’s at the framers now.
The original belongs to a lovely pianist, but prints are available here.
June 10, 2013 3:18 pm
Singing the Cello (10 x 13 watercolor) $350
The saxophone and the cello are, for me, the two instruments that don’t just play, they sing with all the tonal freedom and nuance of the human voice. I try to capture that freedom and nuance in this painting through color and abstraction.
Or purchase a fine art print.
June 6, 2013 5:20 pm
The Ultimate Alley View (12 x 19 watercolor) $450
A colorful back alley view of the Duomo, Florence, Italy.
Or purchase a fine art print.
May 2, 2013 2:10 pm
Candy Clarinet (14 x 20 watercolor) $450
A portrait of a friend’s clarinet. She can make it sound like candy too.
Or purchase a fine art print.
April 9, 2013 7:24 pm
Waiting Bike (13 x 19 watercolor) SOLD
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
March 25, 2013 5:12 pm
Monterosso Cafe (watercolor 16 x 22) $600
The Cinque Terre, or five lands do not have much in the way of tourist sites. They are the tourist site. The five coast hugging Italian villages feature brightly colored townhouses, residential streets made up of nothing more than a flight of stairs, beautiful coastal trails, and tight picturesque beaches. In July of last year they were also hot as blazes and ought to have been uncomfortable, but the narrow shady streets, and cool ocean made up for the heat. Oh, and there was gelato too, lots of handmade gelato.
We visited the four villages actually on the coast, and dipped our toes in the water at more the one beach. We also climbed innumerable stairs just for the fun of climbing and looking down. This painting is of Monterosso, the largest of the five, and the one with the widest flattest beaches. We stopped to sample the gelato at the cafe. We ate it while watching our girls play in the warm surf.
Or purchase a fine art print.
March 20, 2013 2:50 pm
Bridge of Sighs (13 x 19 watercolor) $600
This is Hertford Bridge, more commonly known as the The Bridge o Sighs, after the The Bridge of Sighs in Venice. It connects the two quads of Hertford College, in Oxford, England. It doesn’t really resemble Venice’s Bridge of Sighs, but it is beautiful, and quintessentially Oxford. We visited in the late afternoon when street was beautifully shadowed.
Or purchase a fine art print.
March 5, 2013 2:21 pm
Pilgrims and the Gate (watercolor 15 x 20) Reserved for WSO Fall Transparent Show
I am the March featured artist at Art in the Valley, Corvallis, Oregon. The show will be of my Europe paintings. Reception March 9th, from four to six.
March 2, 2013 8:48 am
Gothic Specter (11 x 15 watercolor) $200
The Gothic archways surrounding the quads in churches and colleges have always intrigued me. This one happens to be at Christchurch, in Oxford, but it could be one of hundreds in Britain. The ribbed ceilings and the slanting light from the quad are always both beautiful and romantic.
In this painting I exaggerated the contrast poured the colors.
February 25, 2013 10:31 am
The Colossus (12 x 15 watercolor) $400
This building needs no introduction. If there is a ruin that everyone recognizes, it is Roman Colosseum. Even in ruins, it is an impressive building. It dominates the horizon, larger even than you expect to be.
Or purchase a fine art print.
February 24, 2013 8:22 am
Clock Cafe (12 x 16 watercolor) $400
The d’Orsay Musee in Paris, was once a railway station. The original exterior clocks now serve as windows on the upper floor. I painted one of them a few months ago. That clock is opposite the gift shop and attracts as many tourists as the paintings. The other clock serves as the window in the museum cafe giving the cafe a charm all it’s own. Here it is.
I poured this painting is a similar manner to the first clock painting.
Or purchase a fine art print.
February 23, 2013 4:34 pm
Shining Out of the Rain (12 x 15 watercolor) $400
Westmister Abby, The Parliament Building, and the new super Farris wheel the London Eye, dominate the Westminster end of London. The buildings are gritty with smog, and yet the marble still shines in the sun. Here are two of the shining towers of the Abby.
Or purchase a fine art print.
February 17, 2013 12:48 pm
Rue Galande (watercolor 19 x 13) $500
Another painting taken from our trip to Europe last summer. This charming little street is close to Nortre Dame, but at least a little off the beaten path. Like many of the streets in the area, it curves charmingly.
I poured this painting in much the same manner as July in Florence. The process is much like batik and leads to clear color passages that make buildings glow.
July in Florence (13 x 23 watercolor) $600
Or purchase a fine art print.
February 6, 2013 1:06 pm
And Suddenly the Duomo (15 x23 watercolor) Reserved
Old town Florence streets are shaded lanes so narrow they almost feel like tunnels running at irregular angles to each other. The view at the end of the tunnel is often as not another narrow lane cutting the street off at not quite a right angle. But here there the streets open into plazas with startling sunny views of churches, cathedrals, bridges, train stations and castles. Walking from our apartment, the Duomo complex burst upon us in much the same way–the light at the end of the tunnel.
Another poured watercolor painting, a process much like batik.
This painting is reserved for a show but you may purchase a fine art print.
January 30, 2013 5:20 pm
Paris Giant (watercolor 18 x 24) SOLD
When we travel, we Armitages climb things. In Paris we climbed Nortre Dame and the Arch d’ Triumph. But we took the elevator at the Eiffel Tower. We had tickets for the evening we arrived at ten thirty. We choose the evening and only the second platform out of necessity because two of the four elevators had been out of commission all summer. It turned out to be a delightful choice. It was our only nighttime view from above, and such a view it was. The Seine with city lights is a sight to see.
The Eiffel Tower itself is a spectacular view at night and we were there when the lights came on. The colors of the lights have changed over the years. When we visited they were predominately gold. The sky was black despite the early rain. The wet lawn and paths leading to the tower added to the effect. Walking to the tower across the park was a plus too. The vista leading up to the tower is grand and seemingly endless.
I took the photo for this painting on our way back through the wet to the metro. We didn’t mind standing in the wet to look one last time at Paris’ four legged giant.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
November 6, 2012 10:51 pm
