The Olivetti Valentine typewriter – for the romantic.

My neighbour asked me if I’d be interested in painting the typewriter she used as a student in the 1960s. She had it hidden in her basement and just recalled it when she was looking at some other work of mine. When she showed it to me I was startled. I’m not sure she knew she had such a desirable collectable hidden in a box.

The painting is available at the George Billis Gallery in New York City. Click on the image for more details.

Valentine 18″ x 24″  /  Oil/Canvas

When I was an art history student, I studied early photography and the emergence of the “snapshot” and candid photography — made possible by the proliferation of Kodak box cameras and Brownies.

I was studying this just as digital point-and-shoot cameras started to show up for regular consumers to use. Long before camera phones, iPhones, Instagram, Flickr, Facebook. Long before we had to apply filters to give our photographs a sense of time and narrative. Photographs used to come to us days, weeks, months after we took them. And they already had a “patina” of sorts applied to them. Mega pixel count, image stabilisation and rapid, precise autofocus weren’t available. We weren’t reviewing and editing our images moments after we took them. We weren’t sharing them within minutes with huge networks friends colleagues. Instead they were placed in an album or shoebox and found decades later.

I like painting these old cameras. I find them in antique shops — they’re all over the place and easy to come by. Sometimes they still have film in them.

I like the idea that these cameras once captured all these moments and family history.

Four Vintage Cameras 16″ x 24″ / Oil/Canvas

Four Kodaks 20″ x 20″ / Oil/Canvas

Argus 24″ x 16″ / Oil/Canvas

I’ll be having my first exhibition in New York City at the George Billis Gallery (521 West 26th Street) from January 21 – February 15, 2014.

The show will have 13 paintings, and the reception is on Thursday, January 23, from 6-8pm.

I’ll share more of the images over the next few days.

Mint Rotary Telephone 18″ x 24″  /  Oil/Canvas  /  2013 Sold

Threes 18″ x 24″  /  Oil/Canvas  /  2013 Sold

On We Go 18″ x 18″  /  Oil/Canvas  /  2013 Sold

I have a painting in the Elliott Fouts Gallery‘s 15th Anniversary group exhibition — January 4 – February 6, 2014.

I have an exhibition coming up in September in Yountville, California. I’ve been working on it throughout the summer. Which is usually difficult, considering it’s summer. There’s a strong force pulling me out of the studio and in to the outdoors.

But I’m happy with the work I’ve been able to produce. Here’s a glimpse at some of the pieces I’ve been making.

The show catalog, featuring all twenty of the paintings at my current exhibition at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento is available. You can email the gallery (elliottfoutsgallery@gmail.com) if you’re interested in seeing it in person.

There’s a great feature article on the June 2013 issue of American Art Collector Magazine. Just around the corner now, only a few days for my fourth consecutive show at the Elliott Fouts Gallery. Check it out.

I’m still working away for my June show at the Elliott Fouts Gallery. Here are a few more images of what I’m working on. I’ll share color photos later in May, closer to when the paintings are hanging in the gallery. But I still have work to do before then. Happy spring!

I’ve been busy for the last several weeks working toward my next exhibition, at the Elliott Fouts Gallery, in June. Over the years I’ve documented my progress in the studio in black and white photography.

At one point in my life, I spent a tremendous amount of time in a traditional wet dark room, with an enlarger and rolls and rolls of black and white film. I love the aesthetic of a black and white image. I think they tell a story in a different way, unlike colour images.

I’m deep in the details of painting and love and appreciate every minute I get to do it. Over the coming weeks, you can expect more progress images.

If you’re viewing this on a computer browser, check out these images of B&W photos from the past few years.

A painting that I did a few years ago is being used for the cover of a new book published in the Netherlands. The book is an anthology of poetry from Anna Enquist.

A while back I also I had some images used by an Italian book publisher. It’s an honour having the images used. I just wish I was able to read the books as they’re never in English.

Also, it’s been a long while since I have published anything on this blog. I settled in for my long winter painting session. Soon I’ll share some progress images of what I’ve been up to.