"Pixel"

14 x 11"

oil on panel

Pixel is the name of the little dog, an extremely well behaved pet. So well in fact he has been on stage in plays, doing exactly what was expected every night!

I usually don't shoot photos as the work progresses, but I always enjoy being able to look back after the work is finished and see how it began. By then the early sketches seem so alive and fresh. Perhaps that's because they are so quickly gone, and I have been looking at the later stages so long by the time the painting is finished.

Maybe I will stop early in the process, frame the panel and call it "finished" so I can enjoy the loose beginning for a while. Two of the early phase of this painting are below.

PleinAir magazine is back!

Many of us were disappointed when this magazine went out of print. It seems enough of us sent letters asking the publisher to bring it back. My "Back By Popular Demand" copy arrived yesterday and it is truly beautiful. What a joy to have it in print once again!

I even found a photo of my friend, Ned Mueller, receiving the 2010 Grand Prize Timothy Bills Memorial Award at a recent Plein Air Event, page 84. Click here to see some of Ned's work.

Visual Arts Society of Texas Annual National Exhibition

A Kiss

8 x 12, oil on panel

A Kiss is one of 63 paintings chosen by Benito Huerta, exhibition juror, to be included in the

Visual Arts Society of Texas 43rd Annual National Visual Arts Exhibition. The exhibition opens April 28, 2011.