View from Lake Lansing North

Painting done from some photos I took while hiking the Lake Lansing North Park trails. The sun was super low and was casting one of the longest shadows I have ever seen. I just couldn't bear not rendering this amazing scene somewhat realistically.

Kentucky Portraits

In the spring of 2009, my two brothers and I took a road trip to Georgetown, KY. These portraits are from some of the photos taken on the trip. The first is a self-portrait, followed by my brother Neil (who is now in the Air Force) and his twin brother Dan (in college). Work (as usual) done in watercolor, inks, and gouache.

Back to Back Peninsula Posts

Traverse City sunset(?) over the Lelanau Peninsula. If you don't know you better ask somebody.

Deep, Deep Swamp

Here is a detail of a painting I was working on a couple weeks back. For those of you who might not know, the lower peninsula of Michigan is essentially concrete-covered boggy wetlands. This is one area that remains uncovered near my home. If you look close enough you can see the plentiful mosquitoes (okay they are just paint splatters, but we can pretend).

For all the gamers out there.

One of my old friends recently asked if I could paint him a picture for his AV room. After talking with him, I learned that he wanted something atmospheric and realistic (relatively, of course). That is not something I have done in a while, so we compromised and I was going to paint the subject he wanted (Metroid stuff) in the style I wanted (expressionist inks). But as I painted, I was having so much fun painting real light and atmosphere that I went all out. This is the result. I have to thank my college painting instructors for this one.

Note: Composition compiled from various internet reference images, of which I did not dream up.

Saginawesome 03 - Da Police

According to FBI statistics, Saginaw ranked as the number one most violent city in America from 2003 through September of 2008. Cities like this need tough SWAT units, like the one seen here planning their next move.

Saginawesome 02 - Downtown

Recently, 'bandit06' had this to say about Saginaw's downtown district:

"There is no downtown Saginaw. There is only an area and a few remaining buildings that used to be downtown Saginaw. It's been thirty or more years since there was a downtown Saginaw." (2/19/2010)

This is one of those buildings.

Saginawesome 01 - What's in a name?

The name Saginaw is believed to mean "where the Sauk were" in the Ojibwe (American Indian) language. So now applied to our new term, it is "Where the Sauk were awesome".

Saginawesome

I am beginning a mini-series taken from aspects of my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan. I know the imagery above isn't necessarily a groundbreaking spin on Saginaw, but when something as powerful as violent crime envelopes a city for so long it is hard to get away from it. I promise to include some more positive and/or funny subject matter as the series progresses.

REWORKED!

For those of you who used to subscribe to Neomu and happened to see the little Play-Doh piece I did for Neomu #7 back in 2003 and always wished that I had painted it instead.....this is for you!

Tribute Complete

Rememember: This is not the greatest painting in the world, this is just the tribute.

The Tribute

Finally, I have posted something unfinished. See if you can follow this story (it's kind of like that Tenacious D song):

This is a sketch of a tribute painting to the greatest painting I have ever worked on (which is M.I.A.). The original work was a large-scale collaboration created for S.P.P.'s Hidden Paradise show/dance event in Saginaw a few years ago. The title: "Two Celebrities Puking into each other's Mouths". It was a stark stroke of perfection...

I hope to work on this and complete it in between baby feeding sessions.

Long Drive Champion

Here is a portrait of a European long drive champion. He looks confident about his golf abilities, whoever he is. As always, click on the picture for INSANE DETAIL.

Animals Reclaim Detroit

Apparently, the word on the street is that no one lives in Detroit anymore. For the record, that is false. But I read an article online that explored the recent trend of animals and foliage retaking the worn-down city. This painting is loosely based on that article and was as part of a series for Motor Detroit Magazine, a new publication designed my my friend Mike Leser. Check out the website here.

Matt Anderson or someone else much more successful.

I'm not really sure where this one came from. I guess I was watching too many Tigers games back in the spring and they seeped into my subconscious. Make sure to click on the image for a large detail. Some of the color and texture change is pretty subtle.

Nonsense creatures are typically the best type of creatures.

This is one of two artworks I did for NeoMu 7 - a strange little publication - back in 2004. I don't have a digital version of the other one anymore but it was made of Playdough and later scanned in against the glass.

A Stray

This painting is a little different than what normally comes from me, but I am happy with how it turned out. I must have finished this sometime around May. Becky hates birds, so I had to hide this one from her. 

...catching up continued.

Here we have two paintings I worked on earlier in the spring. Both are based on fuzzy 8mm home video stills from 1982. The upper painting is of my father and the lower painting of my mother.

I have some catching up to do...

Well, it has been a year, so I figure I should go ahead and post some more art. It's not like I haven't been painting or anything. I will start with a painting that is years old, but I just recently finished it. (More to come in the next couple of days.)

Summer Art 08

Newest work - this time looking at houses in the state where I'm from.