10x4 approx.   pencil on paper. 2014

A study in my sketchbook for the girl on the left in the painting "An Evening At The Museum."

9 x 11 Pencil in sketchbook April 2019

This was drawn on a visit to Nashville TN to spend a few days with our son Jeff and his wife Claire. This is a very quick sketch of our Daughter-In-Law, Claire Frisbie, done in a sketch book that was in the commons area of the Bode Hotel in Nashville TN. The orange design in the middle of the page was already in the book. There weren’t any more blank pages so people were drawing over other artwork! Bode is a really unique place, it seems to be combination of a B&B and a Hotel. They had a sketchbook and games , and even a guitar to play in the lounge. The sketchbook was mainly filled with kid’s drawings. I only had about 2 minutes to draw this.

Also at the Bode, every single room had a guitar in it for the guests! It IS Nashville after all. I’ve been playing 4 string guitars lately, tuned to ukulele tuning, GCEA. So I had to figure out some way to tune 6 strings so it wouldn’t sound so dissonant. So I tuned the top 2 bass strings of the guitar to G and C. Thus creating a new tuning of GCGCEA. The extra GC acted like drones, similar to a Dulcimer. It sounded great! Though the next person to pick up that guitar is gonna wonder, What the Hell?! If they try playing it though, they might go HMMMM!

8 x 10 Pencil, and colored pencil in Moleskin sketchbook April 23, 2019

This is a sketch I did of my wife while we were sitting on the pool patio of the Mariott Town Suites in Fort Walton Beach Florida. It was a great trip, we drove down from Detroit to Nashville TN to spend a few days with our son Jeff and his wife Claire in Nashville. After they flew back to Philly we drove straight South to spend a couple days in FWB.

9 x 9 pencil drawing in my large sketchbook Nov. 2018

I made a painting from this sketch. I love the drawing but not so much the painting ( see Paintings of People) The painting will be changed sooner or later.

Approx. 6 x 8. Guestbook page. June 9, 2018, colored pencil and ink.

Bill Gross, Carl Crook, Lucy the Fishing Dog, and I came up to Anita’s place on Otsego Lake, in northern Michigan, for a 5 day fishing trip. She’s owned this wonderful spot for 50 years exactly. Over all those years Anita has been very generous in letting people use it for vacations and relaxing. She is much loved and appreciated. This is our entry in her guest book. See also the “Landscapes”, and the “People” sections of my website for more paintings from this trip.

Pencil on paper.   approx 9x12 inches.

This is one of the original sketches for the painting "Sisters:  The Conversation." 

Approx. 10x10. pencil on paper.    2018

Sketch for a new painting -- not finished yet.

4 x 6 Watercolor. June 16, 2018

This is a very quick sketch done of my good friend Bill Gross (we’ve known each other since grade school!). We were fishing for days on Otsego Lake, with our good friend Carl Crook, and none of us caught a single fish anywhere on the lake. The night before we left Bill put out a bobber and worms and caught 8 fish in about 20 minutes! We couldn’t believe it! The 2nd pic is a photo I took just before I painted the watercolor. See the “Landscapes” section of my website for 2 more paintings I did of Otsego Lake. And the “Drawings” section for our guestbook page for our entry there.

Thumbnail sketch, about 3 inches by 2 inches.  2017

From my sketchbook, April 2015

Pencil, colored pencil, yellow highliter

Approx. 7x5.   Colored pencil, pen and ink, yellow highlighter on paper. 2015

A sketch done of the lobby lagoon at the Maui Westin in Hawaii. With real flamingos and a black swan!

From my sketchbook, April 2015

Pencil, ink, colored pencil, yellow highlighter

8x8. Pencil on paper.   2017

First idea sketch for the large painting "The Artist In Blue." (27x27)

Both sketches approx. 5x5 inches. pencil and colored pencil.   2015

These are the first sketches for the color and form diptych paintings "Homage to Degas".

This is a sketch I put in the guest book of a wonderful lady, Anita, who allowed some friends and I to use her cottage for a fishing trip, up north, Michigan. 2015.  Ink, pencil, colored pencil, yellow highlighter. Approx. 8x6.

Approx.  10x8  Pencil on paper.    1990  

Sketch of my lovely niece and Goddaughter, Krissy.  Presented to her as a gift.

5x8.  Pencil and yellow highlighter on paper.    2012

Another sketchbook page - our cat, who has many names - Sugar , Bob, Little Bob, Bump, Hobo and her Viking name - Hobo Longclaw.  She loves lying in the sun on a winter's day.

11x14.  Pencil on Bristol Board.     1988

This drawing was in the  art calendar edition of the 1988 "Postal Life" magazine.  It was a contest open to all U.S. Postal workers at the time. I don't think it is still published today.  My drawing was used for the month of July.   It is based on an old family photo of my Mom and her first cousins.  I believe my Mom is the middle girl on the hood.

8x10.  Blue pencil in sketchbook.    2012

A vacation sketch while lounging on the patio of our rented condo,  at 7 a.m. drinking coffee and catching some sun beams.  Mesa Arizona.   Sun coming up over the Superstition Mountains in the background.

Life doesn't get much better!

14x24.  Pencil on Bristol Board.   1989

This was drawn as a gift for our very good friends, Dave and Helene Hiner.  They own the property across the road from my Grandparents farm.  It is a true joy to see them every summer.

14x24.   Pencil on Bristol board.    1991

This was drawn as a gift for my sister and her husband -  Janet and Gerald Novak.  It is a pleasure to visit them every summer, it's so quiet and peaceful, and the air is so clear up there in the U.P. of Michigan.

11x14.  Pencil on Bristol board.    1988

Drawn as a gift for my wife's first cousin and her husband - Bev and Steve Richer.  On our annual trip in the summer all around the U.P. we are blessed to have such great friends and relatives along the way.  Bev and Steve have always been a joy to visit every summer.  This house was special because it was right on the water of Green Bay, just a mile or so from the Michigan border in Wisconsin.   They live in Green Bay now.

11x14.   Pencil on Bristol board.   1987

This was a commission for my wife's cousins to present to their parents. A beautiful house in Honor Michigan on Platte Lake.  A great place to canoe!

14x18.   Pencil on Bristol board.    2001

Done as a commission for the retiring principal of Webster School in Hazel Park.  I believe that this is the last drawing of this type that I ever did.

Private collection:   Whereabouts unknown.

14x20.    Pencil on Bristol board.    1989

Done as a commission for my wife's sister and her husband of their house on Lehigh in Troy Michigan

Pencil on Bristol board.      1993

Presented as a gift to my wife's sister and husband. This is a drawing of their first house in Clawson Michigan depicted about 1981.

12x14.  Pencil on Bristol board.  1993

This is a drawing of the first house of my wife's brother and his wife. It was presented as a gift to them in 1993.

18x26?   Pencil on Bristol board.    1993

Done as a commission for the Hamilton family.

18x26.     Pencil on Bristol board.    1988

Done as a commission for the Firemans Fund Mortgage Corporation in Farmington Hills Michigan.

18x26.   Pencil on Bristol board.     1989

Done as a commission for neighbors and friends of the Priest family to present to them as they moved out of state.

Private collection:  Whereabouts unknown

8x10.  Pencil on Bristol board.    1994

Presented to my wonderful Mother-In-Law Marie as a Christmas gift in 1994.  Her four adult children are on the porch,  Sue, Kaye, Sandy and George III.

5x3.  Block print on card stock.  Post card size.   1978

In the late 1970's I had a small printing company using antique Letterpress machines that I restored and an old Offset machine.  I used them to print these hand carved cartoons that I created on linoleum blocks.  I had 40 or 50 different blocks with different cartoons and images on them and sold them as postcards and framed prints for a year or two.  It was too much work!

5x3.  Blockprint on card stock.   1978

Another one of my cartoon postcards.

5x3.  Blockprint on card stock.   1978

5x3 card stock

5x3.   Blockprint on card stock.  1978

5x3 card stock

13x19  Oil Stick on Canson paper.    1998. Version #1

This came from my imagination, or should I say my "remembering?"  It always seemed to me that when I was a little baby I had thoughts that were profound but I can't remember the content, context or source.  I wish I could remember them...the closest I could come was this image.  I always felt that when we are born as humans we slowly start to forget something extremely important.  See the comments on the painting "Curiosity Their Heir" for more on my thoughts about that.

Private collection:  Ann Arbor, Michigan

There is a version #2,   14x14 ?   2002  Somewhere in my possession. 

13x19.  Oil Stick on Canson paper.    1998

Another abstract painting from the late 1990's.  I did a whole series of ten, or so, of these type of abstracts out of my imagination.

13x19.   Oil Stick on Canson paper.    1998

I like this painting.  Mostly from my imagination, but partially influenced by Australian Aborigine rock art.  Most people don't realize it but these people had an incredibly amazingly profound cosmology and worldview.

If interested see the books :  "Voices of the First Day" by Lawlor, "Mutant Message Down Under" by Morgan, or "The Songlines" by Chatwin.

5x8  colored pencil and pen and ink  on paper.     2013

This is a page from my traveling sketchbook of the view out of our hotel room in Brooklyn NY, at the Sheraton on Duffield St.   The 11th floor.

2 inch and 3 inch sketch.    Pencil on paper.   2015

These are the first idea sketches for the 16x20 painting "Battery Park NYC."

Approx.  9x7.  Blue pencil on paper.  2015

Part of the original idea sketch for the big painting "Curiousity Their Heir."

Approx. 12x10.  Pencil on paper.   2012

A page from my sketchbook.  Cats are easy to draw -- they don't move!

11x10. Pencil on paper.   2012

Another sketchbook page, sitting outside on a beautiful day in July.

8x5.   Colored pencil and yellow highlighter on paper.    2014

A sketch I did at New Buffalo (Michigan).  I was on my way back from the  Chicago Art Institute.  Spent the night in New Buffalo and caught this sunset!

Approx. 9x13.  pencil and blue pencil on paper.    2015

The idea sketch for the large painting (25x40) "Harmony in Color and Form #4."   The poster on the right wall in this sketch is by Jules Cheret in 1888 'The Lover of Dancers."  The other dancers were inspired by Degas, one of my favorite artists.

10x8.  Colored pencil on paper.   2012

A vacation sketch from Houghton and Hancock in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The Copper Country.

8x5.  Colored pencil and yellow highlighter on paper.  2013

We rented a condo in Mesa Arizona at this golf course and this was our view.  We don't even golf.  And from watching hundreds of "golfers" going through here----most of them don't either!!!!

7x7.   My original sketch for "Crows in the Wheat Field."  The painting from this sketch came out quite different.

11 x 8 1/2.     Printed card stock.   2012

I've made Christmas cards of various types over the years, everything from linoleum block prints, to drawings, photos of paintings I made, photos of our family, etc., always something as unique as I could make it.   In 2012 I decided to do a cartoon, which I drew out on my 14x11 sketchbook and then had it printed and reduced in size to 11x8 at Kinko's.  This one for 2012 made it out to our list, but the cartoons for 2014 (except for a few) and 2015 did not.  Too much poly-ticks my wife said.  (Don't tell her they are in here!).  Anyway we pretty much stopped sending cards out anyway, except to a few close friends that we don't get a chance to see much.

Poly-ticks has gotten so wacko that I believe you have to laugh at the insanity to stay sane yourself, but I still get a kick from these cards!  So here they are.  

8x10.  Colored pencil in sketchbook.     2012

The Superstition Mountains near Mesa Arizona.

5x3 inch sketch.  Pencil and colored pencil in sketchbook.  2015

This is the original sketch for the painting "The West Coast of Maui."

I have no photo of the painting.

The painting is in a private collection:  Walker Michigan?

4x3 1/2inch sketch.   2015. Colored pencil, ink marker and yellow highlighter in sketchbook.

This is a sketch from a photo I took of hula dancers at one of the resorts just north of the Whalers Village on the West Coast of Maui.  The painting from this sketch is in a private collection in Honolulu Hawaii.

I've always wanted to be a cartoonist, it was something I worked at most of my life, off and on. I loved the old time stuff like Krazy Kat and Little Nemo and Smokey Stover that I first saw in books about old time cartoons.  I also loved Calvin and Hobbes along with every one else on the planet!  My first drawings as a little kid were cartoons.  I've got notebooks filled with ideas.  A lot of them  never got to a more or less finished state -- but a lot did. I tried to get them syndicated, but that is one of the hardest goals I could have imagined.  I got positive feedback but never any breakthrough. C'est la vie!

These are some of the "Heppyhead and Bummer" series.

A few more cartoons that I still get a kick from!  I used to draw cartoons everywhere at points in my life.  I even had a series on the walls of the stalls in the men's bathrooms at work for awhile.  A few other guys joined in and we had 3 or 4 different cartoon series going on for a few months.  Even the bosses got a kick out of it.  Hey... if it's in you, it's gotta come out!