Sold!!!

So happy that this painting found a home with my childhood friend Brenda. We grew up together in Montana and have remained close ever since grade school.  Our life paths brought us both to California, but Montana remains a special place in our hearts forever. 

This painting reminds me of the warmth of the holidays - shared with love ones, filled with joy and laughter. 

Glacier Park plein air 2017

Some plein air paintings from Glacier National Park during 2017.  Having grown up here in this area of Montana has had a profound influence on my artistic inclinations.  I love painting these plein air landscapes, inspite of the cold, the wind, the thousands of tourists swarming around.  

I'm looking forward to creating some large scale paintings as my next body of artwork. based on my plein air studies and photos from Glacier Park.  

Glacier Park autumn 2017.
  I pulled over on the side of Going to the Sun Road and painted this scene. 

Another plein air near St. Marys outside of Glacier Park, autumn 2017. 

A plein air piece from summer 2017. 
The day started out beautiful and ended with rain pouring down and I grabbed everything and ran inside the lodge with all of the other tourists. 

Glacier Park Plein Air 2017

My back yard growing up in Montana

Where I grew up.

Today marks the day to go full circle in my art journey.  As a child growing up in Northwest Montana, my heart and soul were imprinted with the natural beauty that surrounded me.










I had always loved art and wanted to be an artist living in Montana and painting the beautiful world that surrounded me.









Life gets in the way, things change, paths take a different course.  I didn't become a full time artist until much later in life.  But my heart longed to return to the place where my art spirit was born.

Taking a lunch break with one of my best painting buds, Abigail VanCannon up in Glacier Park.

I began taking little painting trips back up to Montana over these past 5 years.



Last year I took my art buddy Abigail and we painted in Glacier Park.

Hockaday Museum of Art Plein Air show and Sale in Kalispell, Montana

This year, I applied to the Hockaday Museum of Art Plein Air 2017 event.  I was one of 30 artists chosen to participate in the event.  The big show and sale will be this coming Saturday. at the Hockaday Museum in Kalispell, Mt.  

This is full circle now in my art journey.  I return as a professional artist to the place where my art spirit was born.

Harbor Impressions

I used a plein air painting and photo reference to create a much looser style with a thicker application of paint.

For Sutter

Landscape painting
11x14
oil on board

Alameda Harbor

Original oil painting
11x14

Glacier Park Plein Air

Glacier Park Plein Air
8x10 plein air painting from summer 2016 Montana paint trip.
Looking forward to painting in Montana this summer 2017!

That Day

11 x 14 plein air with studio finish

I started this painting on a day in 2016 way out in Winters, CA when I got a very bad call from a good friend with some tragic news.  I threw my plein air gear in the truck and sped back to Sacramento to UCDavis hospital where I said my final good by to Terre Johnson, my landlord, my friend, my neighbor, my art patron.

I was never able to finish the painting until one day I happened to see it in the pile of unfinished artwork.  With the last brushstroke in place and finished to the point where I could live with it, I suddenly realized it had been a year to the date when I first started this piece, sped off to the hospital, and said good bye to one of the most important people in my art life.

It was "That Day" that changed the course of so many lives, including mine.

Glacier Park Plein Air 2

8 x 10
plein air painting of Glacier Park
from Montana paint trip 2016

Sold! St. Marys

St. Mary's Lake, Glacier Park Montana
studio piece created from photo images taken during last summer's Montana paint trip