girl in mirror, 28x28” oil on xtra-fine portrait linen, as she looked at 2:24PM today
at work today
12:20 PM: today i made a variation of my 11/19/25 oil, which was inspired by a photo of a red haired girl seen from above, walking, reflected in a mirror.
BELOW: on the left: 11/19/25 oil, and on the right: today’s girl in mirror
guys walkin’ 28x28” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my cloudy, rainy painting day
3PM: i woke up kinda achy after an interrupted sleep. but being in the studio brought me back to life, and i started, & perhaps completed, a new 28x28” oil on portrait linen, titled guys walkin.
once again, it’s inspired by some photos i shot god knows how many years ago, when we were traveling constantly for work and i would take every opportunity to find a good vantage point for shooting photos from above, mostly of people waking along.
now, why would anyone want such a painting in their home?? good question. probably because they can move beyond subject matter and simpley enjoy the movement, the painterly qualities, the white spaces, the energy.
this one has more lively colors than the two previous ones in this new series. at the same time, as i gaze at it pinned to my painting wall adjacent to the previous two, it’s singing a similar song: the poetry of everyday life, i guess you could say.
10/29/14 denver mall, 16x16” oil on portrait linen
11:29 AM: this is one of the paintings i discovered during my slow, step by step studio re-org & cleanup. it’s dated 10/29/14, 16x16”, oil on portrait linen. during this period i was creating a series of paintings with these dimensions, based upon photos i had shot from above in a denver shopping mall.
the walking figure on the lower right was not in the original photo i shot at the mall. he’s a favorite of mine, and has appeared in some of my more recent work.
in looking now at this painting, i realize that, in a way, i’m coming full circle, both compositionally and coloristically in my current work.
11/19/25 oil, 28x28” oil on portrait linen a sshe looked at the end of my painting day
i made another 28x28” oil today, inspired by yet another female figure viewed from above and reflected in a mirror. this one may be resolved, and i’ll know better in the morning. i’m liking this new diredction witha single figure dominating the composition.
tomorrow, by the way, we’re expecting snow, which is predicted to begin in the early morning hours and continue into the night. lets hope we get a substantial amount, as we’re 2-3” below precip normal for this time of year. more is predicted sunday & monday.
11/16/25 oil, 28x28” oil on portrait linen
11:38 AM: yesterday’s’ version of 11/16/25 oil wasn’t working me, so i scrubbed whatever remained wet and then went over it with a warm grey. i introduced the figure of a woman viewed from above, with a blue bag over her shoulder, walking while looking at her phone.
this solution integrates my love of figures viewed from above with my love of painterly solutions and the mystery of an underlying composition peeking through. the fact that she’s walking on pavement is subtly indicated by the few vertical and horizontal marks scraped into the grey with a palette knife.
1:35 PM: i whited/pinked over what i did yesterday on day 1 of 11/16/25 oil. that almost always gives me a suggestive surface, with traces of the underlying composition and colors.
this one departs from the goldfish motifs and stronger colors that dominate the 6 previous 28x28” oils i’ve been making over the past month or so. one of my goals was to simplify, create more white space, make the main characters less defined, more sketchy. i think i’ve met those goals and as i gaze at it tacked to my studio wall, it’s more evocative. i’ve reached the end of my creative energy for the day, so we’ll see how it evolves tomorrow, or whether perhaps i’ll leave it as is and move on.
1:57 PM: i have 4 more of the 28x28” pieces of extra fine portrait linen that i cut from the 84” x 5 yard roll last week. i strated work on one of them a little while ago, using photos i printed out this morning of views of people from above as inspiration. i’ll continue tomorrow morning, and possibly start another on so that i don’t get stuck on this one.
11/16/25 oil 28×28” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of day one
six recent 28x28” recent paintings in oil on portrait linen
2:28 PM: today i stretched the final two of my six 28x28” recent oils\, which now hang together, as you can see in the photo, on my east studio wall.
they all contain images of goldfish, and all but the one on the lower right contain images of mikela, either watering our plants or simply sitting and working on her educational product in the recliner chair in my studio.
study of an 18,000 year old cave painting, 21×24” oil on portrait linen i made a few days ago
1:03 PM: a few days ago i made a quick study in oil on portrait linen of an 18,000 year old cave painting, which shows once again that time is irrelevant when it comes to art; great marks are great marks.
11/9/25 mt in the studio 28x28”, following some tweaks to the blacks on the right
11:40 AM: i scratched into the blacks on the right because they were too dominant when i glanced at the painting, so now i think it looks resolved.
detail of the scratches in the black
11/9/25 mt in the studio, 28x28” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day
3:29 PM: following the changes i made earlier in the day, i launched back in, simplified what i had done and made what i feel are some very good compositional moves.
the black on the right pops just enough; the figure works way better with the striped shirt and the goldfish gain with the bottom of their bowl at right angles. like, how could a fish bowl have right angles?? well, it’s not a fish bowl, it’s a painting!
lets see how i feel about it in the morning…
