New Work, 2020

Goat with Ruff . 24x24" . Oil/Linen Can

Being a portrait artist, among other genres, it's impossible to NOT paint the faces of goats.  They are uniquely and naturally suited for portraiture because of their eyes and facial expressions. This beautiful, noble gal required an Elizabethan ruff of sorts and she got one with pearls!  Her presence is powerfully felt due to the 24x24" size - she makes one smile immediately. 

She sold before completed to someone I've known for a very long time - a blonde, bubbly child in the neighborhood where I raised my daughter in Orlando.  Although we've all been gone from that place for quite a while (decades!) roots grew deep and were established in those wonderful "growing up" years.  I couldn't be happier or more honored to know this will be in her home.

After the Rain . 24x30" . Oil/Linen Canvas

After the Rain combines a lot of my loves and memories. My dad's passion was a Black Angus farm he established whilst being an oil jobber in his "real" life's work. If he had lived long enough, I think he would have built a home on the property as it was about 30 miles outside of our town in the countryside. We had a farm manager's home and another one he occasionally used, but I imagine he would have picked out the perfect site for a grander place. He had a love of black fences and that was his signature - you knew you had reached "Boone" property when the fences were painted black!  I used a bit of Florida landscape for this painting since I lived there for about thirty years, and most of all, I was intent on painting the light at twilight. It has always been my favorite time of day. Horses and not cows? They are entirely more interesting to paint from a distance!

Late Fall at the Lake . 10x8" . Oil/Linen Canvas

I am a hopeless romantic and this made up scene couldn't be more romantic (in my view).  Mist amongst the trees and mountains always brings out my Scots/English heritage and imagination in full force. One of the delights of being a painter is the ability to transform your daydreams into a visual reality to remember and reflect upon.  

There's the hope that this year will light my imagination like never before - at times one feels on the cusp of something, and I can't deny that these new weeks into 2020 are beginning to be most inspiring.  I wish the same for you. . .