Portrait of Hector

"Hector" was the first student portrait I finished for "The Many of Faces of Andover" project I am doing for Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. It is an oil, 24" x 30". Hector is from the Dominican Republic, and he intended to become an Engineer. He was introduced to fencing at Andover and loved it! He chose to model for me in that outfit. It was also important to Hector to have both the American and the Dominican flags represented in his portrait. www.andover.edu

Portrait of Yendi

This is the second portrait I've done for Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. My daughter attended PA for three years of high school. It's an amazing, academically rigorous college prep boarding school. I can't say enough good things about it. www.andover.edu

For this project, I took pictures of twelve different students, and plan to do paintings of the same. I intend to focus on the diversity of the students, and their special interests as well. Every student there has a unique and interesting life story. They are kids from all over the world. One of the PA focuses is to enroll "youth from every quarter", and they truly do. This portrait is of a girl named Yendi. It is an oil, 24" x 30". Yendi is from NYC, and is now in college, hoping to become a Doctor. She found dance at Andover, and loved it.

Christmas week in Montana...

Christmas is past us. We had a great day. I hope you did as well. I do have to say that I am really tired of the WEATHER here! I have spent much of the last few weeks dealing with it. Today I tried to get to town (our own ranch road / trail is 2 miles long and not maintained.) I made it half way out before really burying the truck in a deep snow drift. I spent 2 1/2 hours shoveling to get out. The wind at times was blowing so hard that it blew snow back in the tracks as fast as I could shovel. I thought I was dressed well. I wasn't. I cannot tell you how important survival gear can be at times during a Montana winter! I was cold and wet and had to keep getting back in the truck to warm up. There was no way I could have walked home without becoming hypothermic. But - I did it - I shoveled out about 25' on either side of the truck and finally backed out of there. We'll be snowed in for a few days, that's for sure. At least I'm not trying to go anywhere! These pictures were taken yesterday, the day after Christmas at our place. It was truly beautiful - until the wind started blowing, as it always does here on the east side of the Divide!

"Little Bird"

To continue the parasol story, I did this painting by request after the Russell Show last year. The gallery wanted a painting like "Little Star". I would not do another of the same, but did do this one of the same little girl. This painting is much larger, 48" x 48" and is for sale through Montana Trails Gallery in Bozeman, MT. This is not a terribly accurate image of the painting. The painting is better! www.montanatrails.com

"Little Star"

To digress, I think I should show you my first "parasol painting". It is called "Little Star" and is an oil, 24" x 24". I did this painting last year after having been to Crow Fair in SE Montana. This little girl was in the opening parade. I found her beautiful, and loved the mixing of the Native American and Chinese cultures. If one cares about being historically accurate, the Indians during the Reservation Period could well have traded for something like this Chinese parasol at that time.

This painting was chosen to be in the C.M. Russell Art Auction 2008, and it won the Russell Museum CEO Award given to one auction participant! The buyer of this painting has loaned it back to the museum. It is now hanging there in a show called "Native Americans in Art" that will be up through January of 2009. I have to say that when I saw this painting on the wall recently, it is still one of my personal favorites. This painting is Sold. www.cmrussell.org

"Shade is Shade..."

I finished this painting recently. It's called "Shade is Shade. Don't Matter Where You Find It." It is an oil, 24" x 24". I really enjoyed combining the images of the ladies' feminine parasol, and the gruff, macho cowboy.

If you've spent any time at all on a ranch, you'll know that ranch people are by necessity innovators and opportunists. Duct tape and baling twine can fix almost anything. All sorts of 'parts" can be adapted to serve some completely different purpose. In this case on a hot summer day, the ladies' parasol was quite the find. I had fun creating this very manly guy who obviously wasn't at all embarrassed about using whatever he could to make his day a little more bearable!

"Just One Last Touch"

In an effort to keep up with the latest technology, I'm creating this blogspot (instead of wrapping Christmas presents) or dealing with the weather outside - currently 20 below with a 20-40 below windchill factor! I'm getting a little tired of suiting up in my entire polar gear ensemble to go feed my horses, or deal with who knows what that's frozen and not working in the COLD.

To begin, I thought I might include my painting that was selected to be in the 2009 C.M. Russell Art Auction. The painting is titled "Just One Last Touch", and is an oil, 24" x 28"of artist Tom Gilleon "touching up" his painting while it hung in a Russell Museum show last year. While I did stretch the truth here, I had fun doing so, as this is the only way I could get away with painting a Gilleon tipi! www.cmrauction.com