Kris and Kate

Sometimes things "are what they are" and "it is what it is." Here, you get to see the work in progress...three years later. I paint what I feel but then I have to live with it. This one will change like so many others. I love the shirt I painted. It is hard to tell here but it was put on thick, very quickly, and blended perfectly. I love it. I also enjoyed painting my brother and deconstructing his features. Even the background was fun. What I am not yet satisfied with is Kate. I have not yet done her justice. She is a beautiful woman. In fact, the perfect woman for my brother. There will be changes here, but I thought you might enjoy to participate in the process I go through. Either I will find perfection or this canvas will never leave me...in tact.

Love of my life

The love of my life...I knew this moment would not last. Rarity, yes. It will not come again.

Calm before the storm

These two are the craziest people I know. Talk about passion...they are the personification of it...like a terrible storm, they can blow through and inspire awe, beauty and devastation. The moment I have captured, as any of those who know them, is the calm before the storm. All my love...

Irises my way

Forgery?!? Not quite. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This painting by the great master Vincent Van Gogh had caught my eye even more so than his sunflowers or his countryside paintings of the Southern France. While my hopes to own the original are slim to none, I can have his image hanging in my home with my personal interpretation and twist.

Three wise men

Of all the modern art I have loved and hated, this personifies it to me. The colors remind me of institutional avant garde pieces that oppressed the subconscious back of my mind. How I settled on this I don't know. I almost threw it out (as I did with five other canvases), but this one kept calling me back. It partly reminds me of the sails of boats in California harbors and also of three evergreens in the backyard of my Illinois property. Something of the three wise men also called to me. The rest I cannot explain.

Pavlik vs. Taylor

The 70's and 80's loved Leroy Neiman. Who now carries the torch? I loved these fights! I have loved the fights since my uncle introduced me to Ali in my youth. The sweet science meets true heart. There are fewer and fewer of us who love the "pugilist specialist" as Lennox Lewis  (another great champion) has called himself. I love the ring over any octagon and I will take heart over science any day of the week. Go Kelly!

An homage to...

An homage to the great sports artist Leroy Neiman and also to a great friend of an intense and unstoppable nature. I painted this several times on the same canvas. The final result was completed very late one weekend evening when not a soul stirred but my mind and my brush. Even the pallet was foregone as I painted straight from the tube as inspiration took over. It is one of those paintings that sits in the back of your mind for weeks on end asking to be laid down. Then one evening as the house was asleep but I couldn't...the canvas called and the result was this.