I will be having an exhibit of my urban collages at Judson Studios in South Pasadena during the month of July. The show will feature 45 sketches and paintings of Los Angeles and Pasadena. Like looking at a vintage art board paste-up or the collection of notes and sketches on an artist’s work table, this work celebrates the process of urban sketching and documentation. Study sketches, compositional explorations, field observations and watercolor paintings are all assembled into a single composition and mounted onto a cradled hardboard panel. The art describes the exciting urban landscapes, icon ..read more

I spent much of my early life in Colorado. I now live in Pasadena but still make annual trips there to see my family. I love it there. It is a pristine environment and has changed little since I lived there. I am currently working on a series of Colorado landscapes, trying to capture the rich colors and dramatic skies that occur in the summer. I am working on a Fabriano 12” x 18” watercolor block with 140# cold press paper. Holbein is my paint of choice because of their bright colors ..read more

I took a sketch trip to Death Valley late last year. It was beautiful and the perfect time of year for exploring. I used a sketchbook that I made by taking a stack of 8” x 10” Fluid watercolor sheets and wire binding them between two sheets of cardboard. I did all of the sketches on location with a Sanford Uniball Micro pen and painted them later in my studio using Holbein artist watercolor. In addition to the Uniball pen, I used a Pentel Sign Pen to accentuate some of the more dominant lines. The latter is water soluble so it bleeds when painted over with water, creating some interesting effe ..read more

My latest book will be out in April of this year. It is entitled Expressive Painting and is being published by Quarto/Walter Foster. It will be available at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Swain’s Art Store in Glendale, Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster and many other retailers. It is available for preorder now on Amazon. The book discusses materials for both plain air and studio work, sketching, drawing, color, and composition. There are six step by step painting demonstrations at the end. Here are a few sample images ..read more

I was in San Diego a few years ago and had the opportunity to do some sketching. I brought a Canson 11” x 14” Montval watercolor sketchbook and decided to explore some panoramic views. Unlike my usual guerilla speed technique for grabbing as many images as I can before moving on, these sketches took a lot of time to develop. I sketched them on location and painted them later in my hotel room, a local restaurant and my studio. It is difficult to work in the field with the book open so I worked on half of the scene at any one time. I did this by locating the wire seam within the scene, marking s ..read more

There are many opportunities to practice sketching. My sketchbook travels everywhere with me so it is always ready to go. Sitting in an airport waiting for a plane is the perfect time to get some work done. Airport subjects are both stationary and in motion so you can get some good speed sketching practice as well as some quiet reflective drawing. I work fast because before you know it, the parked plane starts up and backs out. These are some scenes done during a recent business trip I made to Houston. I always try to find a window seat in the waiting room, as well as on the plane. While I oc ..read more

Here is another series of sketches done during a quick train ride up to Santa Barbara the day after Christmas. To me there are some advantages to sketching the subject in the heat of the moment, and painting it later in the studio: 1. There is no pressure to get it all done at the time. Making a quick sketch of a passing scene, or of waiting out on a cold platform for a train is good practice. Sometimes the more time I have to sit and paint, the more time I have to overwork the sketch or put too much in. 2. Having a simplified armature of a scene to paint allows me to explore color, value and ..read more

I few days later I took the Pacific Surfliner down to San Diego for the day. I arrived at Union Station early and headed up to the platform in time to make a few sketches of the train. A train station is an excellent venue to practice perspective. I did a quick sketch of the scene outside the window right before departure, and another train car view. I made a few graphic notes of the ARTIC train station during a three minute stop and practiced a few 30 second speed sketches from the train as we approached San Diego. After lunch I walked along the harbor area, sketching Anthony’s Fish Grotto (a ..read more

I like to take workshops as well as teach them, and back in December I had the privilege of taking a one-day workshop with Dale Laitinen at the Brea Art Gallery. Here are a few images from that day. I used an 11” x 14" Canson Montval watercolor sketchbook for all my work, following along with the instructor while he painted and making notes. After doing two versions of his subject, I prepared some thumbnail studies of one of my own photos of Yosemite Valley before doing a final painting ..read more

Here are some recent sketches made during a trip on the train to San Luis Obispo last month. The ride was five hours each way, which provided ample time to sketch scenes of passing scenery and the view on board. I used a 6” x 9” Aquabee sketchbook, which is fairly lightweight and easy to carry in my bag. I sketched everything with a Sanford Uniball Micro pen, enhancing some lines with a Pentel Sign pen for accents. I added color later, either in our hotel room, or back in the studio, referring to my iPhone photos as needed. Many times the digital images lacked the impact of my memory, so I inc ..read more