I've been told that my portraits are much better than my landscapes. How can I disagree when portraits are my passion. This landscape from the 1960's hung in my parents living room for over 25 years. I didn't have an easel big enough to support the large canvas so I put it on the floor, lay down next to it, and went to work. It took me 3 hours (interrupted by 3 active children) to cover that 3x4 foot canvas with the heavy texture of oil paint using a brush. The colors help to give the painting a three-dimensional look, but what fascinates me is the way the image magically gains character when converted to black and white. Click on the image to see it in black and white.

This canvas was painted in class when taking lessons from the local artist. I applied the heavy layers of paint using a palette knife. It surprised me to find how much easier it was to paint on a canvas that was sitting on as easel rather than one laying on the floor. This painting like most of the paintings I did in class were lost when the furniture store they were consigned to went bankrupt and, unfortunately, I do not have photos of them.

This canvas was also painted while taking lessons from the local artist, but done at home instead of in the classroom. I was still painting on the floor at home. Moonscape started what might be called a "red period" for me, just as the Cavern painting started a "blue period".

Texture was everything to me in these early years.

Another heavily textured canvas. I painted this to hang above my living room sofa. Then later sold it to a friend. The last I knew it was still hanging above her family room sofa.

This ia surely and unusual subject for a painting but I was fascinated by the transparency of the jellyfish in a National Geographic photo and wanted to try capturing that on canvas.