Oil Paintings

The Bullfighter, is the first painting in a series of five. All done in the inpasto manner in which the paint is laid on thickly so the texture stands out in relief. They were all painted with the palette knife back in the sixties when it seemed that everyone was into decorating with the Mediterranean theme. We are currently trying to locate the other four painting so prints can be made.

The two Clown paintings came as a request from a girl who had cancer and was told she didn't have much time left.

While on vacation she photographed two paintings of clowns that she felt were crying for her. Knowing her problem I did my best, to paint her two sad clowns.

This painting is a touch of Spring. In the winter, I can hardly wait until Spring arrives to see the grass turn green and the flowers break the ground. But, best of all, is watching the butterflies, and dragonflies that visit my pond and garden.

Years ago I was very fortunate to meet Emerson Burkhart. A popular Columbus, Ohio Artist. I was the display artist for The Fashion of Columbus and was picked to setup an Art Show for Mr. Burkhart.

While setting up, I noticed that one of the wires holding a painting was lose, so I proceeded to tighten it with a screwdriver and as luck would have it, the screwdriver slipped off and went right through the painting, my heart stopped and I thought I would be fired on the spot. I turned the painting around to see the price on it and again my heart stopped when I saw that the painting cost over $1700 dollars.

I was raised to be honest so expecting the worse I reported it to Mr. Burkhart and to my surprise he said, "things like that happen, and I know you were only trying to help". Needless to say I was relieved, he replaced the painting with another and the show went on. We talked a lot after that and had lunch together a couple times and I feel we became friends.

Over the next couple years he gave me great advice on oil painting and selling my art. He has since passed away, so this painting is in his honor.

While working as a display artist in retail, I won first place in an international display competition on men's rain hats. I used raindrop cutouts to represent water in my display.

At the time a co-worker had a bitter breakup with her boyfriend and started wearing sunglasses all the time to hide her red and swollen eyes. I sketched a face on one of the scrap cutouts, which in turn inspired me to paint a sad picture of a crying girl wearing sunglasses in the shape of a teardrop. Black pepper was mixed in the paint to give a texture. All this became Pepper Tears.

After visiting my daughter Kim and her husband Mike, who live in beautiful Hawaii I could not resist painting scenes of that wonderful place. I was spellbound by the size of the waves and spent over an hour trying to get up on a surfboard, before a surfer finally told me what I was doing wrong. When I did get up the wave carried me all the way to shore. I was so tired by then; I gave up and didn't go back out. The waves are so beautiful, I decided to paint them instead of trying to ride them.

In this painting, I tried to invoke curiosity with a little romantic sense of feeling that on this evening, you are there at that place with your lover being serenaded. As the palms sway lightly with the warm tropical breeze.

This is another painting inspired from one of the Deputies I worked with in Common Pleas Court. I started back to painting in Oils before I retired in 2000 and when I sold some of my paintings, the Deputies started to find photos they had that they thought would make a good painting. The deal was that if I did a painting of their photo, I would give them one of the 11x14 prints.

While working on this painting and thinking I was about done, my Mother-in-Law (Jean Marsh) who is an artist also and has won many awards, asked why I didn't open the blinds at the window? So needless to say the last work on this painting was opening the blind. It did however create nice depth to the painting.

This painting was a commission from a divorced father living in Florida. He was not able to see his children very often. He had taken each of them to the beach, but didn't have any photos of them together with him. He ask me to put them together in a painting that would depict their day at the beach, walking in the surf, playing in the sand, and feeding the seagulls.

When I did the painting, I tried to capture the fathers feeling at the time. I imagined the sun and breeze in my face, the sound of the waves, and the screeching of the seagulls. But most important, that of a proud father securing the children's trust, knowing they are safe holding daddies hand.

(Prints are available, contact artist)