14 1/2 x 27.    Oil on birch panel       2017

This painting was inspired by one of my favorite poems, Ithaka,  by C. P. Cavafy (1911).  My favorite line in the poem is -  

Many be the summer mornings

When with what pleasure, with what delight

You enter harbours never seen before... 

Private c0llection: Philadelphia PA

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore board.  2013

A plein air painting of the plank road that the power company built through Elo Michigan when they were updating the power lines with bigger poles.  These planks were 12x12 inch hardwood plank that were bolted together 4 at a time and laid down so the power company could get its massive machinery through the swampy woods.  An amazing endeavor.  Strange and fun to walk on for miles.  As you can see it undulated like a snake.

20x16  Oil on canvas board.  2017

This was originally a portrait painting of a live model, done a year earlier.

It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be so I reused the canvas for a new painting.  As often happens when painting over another painting much of the old painting shows through.  (Which often leads to wonderful effects.) Such was the case with this,  I noticed that the girls face was coming through the clouds, so I used it to good effect, I believe.  And thus, "The Lady of the Clouds."

8 x 10. Acrylic on Media board. June15, 2018

Finished painting for Anita. A wonderful lady who loaned us her place on Otsego Lake, Michigan for a fishing trip with 2 friends. Bill Gross and Carl Crook (also, Lucy, the fishing dog!). The 2nd picture is the actual site, the 3rd pic is the back of the painting, and the last pic is the back of the painting framed.

Private collection: Waterford, Michigan

4 x 6 Watercolor sketch. June 15, 2018

This is a watercolor sketch done before I did an 8 x 10 acrylic painting to present to Anita on the occasion of 50 years of owning this beautiful place on Otsego Lake in Michigan. The other 2 pics are the paintings completed right where I painted them.

Oil on panel birch panel,   9x12.  Prize winner at the SOAA show 2016.

Private collection:  Royal Oak, Michigan

This is a commissioned piece.    11x14?   2017

Private collection:  Suttons Bay, Michigan

11x14 ? 2015 ?    Oil on canvas panel.  Done originally in plein air at the Cranbrook Oriental Garden in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

The second picture is the original plain air painting, the third one is a photo of the actual site.  The first painting is how it ended up after I changed it in my home studio to make it a more exciting painting.

This is a frame I made specifically for 8x10 plein air vacation paintings.  The paintings are easily interchangeable because I made small toggles to hold them in.

 L to R, top to bottom:

Mesa AZ, Sarasota FL, Mesa AZ, Elo MI, Mesa AZ, Pelkie MI, Jerome AZ, Iron Mountain MI

All paintings:  acrylic on Strathmore media board. 

37 1/2  x 23 1/2. Wood frame for displaying 8x10 plein air paintings. 2015?

This is a wood frame I made from scratch.  It was a real trip putting this thing together so it was all squared up, and just as hard routering all the openings.  I wanted it to be easy to remove and replace the paintings so I made the toggle system on the back to easily accomplish that.  I also made the brass title holders under each painting.  I searched high and low for holders that I liked and couldn't find any that were perfect.  So I made my own from brass sheet stock from Ace Hardware.  (See the two photos below).

9x12  oil on canvas board  2013?

This painting was inspired by seeing a cornfield in Ohio on an overnight trip to Cedar Point way back in the 1970's.  I have never forgotten the view from our motel room, right on the edge of a cornfield, of zillions and zillions of fireflies.  This painting is from that memory.

9x12 oil on canvas board 2014 ?

This is the sister painting of Fireflies in the Cornfield.  As I was painting the Fireflies painting I turned it upside down (as artist are known to do) to check the composition and balance and harmony of the painting.  it looked great upside down!  And thus-- Nano Aliens in the Trees!

"Who's There?"  or  "Winter, Midnight on the Old Cemetery Road"

Oil on canvas panel  9x12   2014

A favorite painting of mine.  The source was the Royal Oak Cemetery in R.O. Michigan.  This cemetery has the coolest cemetery stones you've ever seen.  There are soldiers buried here from the Revolutionary War through every war America has ever fought.  Wonderful old pine trees here too.  An extremely beautiful place.

12x9  Oil on Raymar board. 2013

This was painted in plein air at Cranbrook August 8, 2013

11x14.   Oil on birch panel.   2013?

Painted in the Tonalist style which was popular in the U.S. from about 1880 to 1905.  A very beautiful style of painting.  An excellent book on the subject is. The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism.

Private collection:  Bloomfield Hills MI

8x10.  Oil on birch panel.   2014?

This is another Tonalist painting inspired by driving south on Adams Road in Troy Mi on a spring day, I believe.  I looked left while driving and saw this incredible sky that appeared to be a storm brewing.  As soon as I got the chance I made a painting of what I remembered

9x12.  Oil on Raymar panel.     2012

Painted in plein air at Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills MI.  This is my second painting I ever painted in plein air.

16x20. Oil on canvas panel.     2015?

8x10.  Oil on canvas panel.     2013

This is a plein air painting I did in my backyard looking toward my house and the attached garage.  I built the picket fence and added the Rose of Sharon bushes near the corner of the garage, to give it a country feel.

Private collection;   Whereabouts unknown.   (Catherine where are you now?)

16x20.  Oil on canvas board.  2015.   Frame made by Ron Maki

This is loosely based on a photo I took in Battery Park in 2015.  My wife and I were waiting for my son,  and I started thinking how this park must have looked a 100 years ago.

Private collection:   Royal Oak  Michigan

12x16   Oil on canvas.   2013.   Frame made by Ron Maki

This is the corner of my garage in Troy MI.  I love these Rose of Sharon bushes next to the white picket fence I made years ago.  The bushes came as sprouts from a friend's backyard in Berkley Mi.  They have a combination of white and purple-pink blossoms.  

9x12. Oil on birch panel. July 20, 2013

This is the original 5 Churches plein air sketch done in Calumet MI  that became 2 different larger paintings.  

25 x 10 1/2.   Oil on pine plank.     2015. Frame built by Ron Maki

This is version 2 of the Five Churches that I originally painted in plein air in Calumet MI, an old mining town in the U.P. of Michigan.  It's said that at one time the copper mines were so busy that this small town had 200 bars and 100 churches.  These five churches were packed together like sardines.   I've always believed that the real church is in your own soul. See the menu item “My Artist Signature” for more about that.

37x15 (not counting the frame).   Oil on birch panel  2015

Frame made by Ron Maki

The last version of the Five Churches paintings.   Five churches - a stone's throw -  one hidden -  within your soul.

8 3/4 x 10 7/8.    Oil on birch panel.    2015

A small painting from my imagination.

8x10. Oil on canvas panel.    2015

From a photo I took on the beach near the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, where we stayed in April 2015.   A quick painting, probably less than a half hour to paint.

8x6.   Oil on canvas board.    2014

These super small landscapes are fun to do -- you can't mess them up!

6x8.  Oil on canvas board.   2015

Another small landscape - with a green glaze over it.

14x11.   Oil on canvas board.    2016

6x8.  Oil on Raymar board.    2012

Done in plein air in my backyard on a hot sunny day in July 2012.

8x10. Another Tonalist painting

6x8. oil on canvas panel.      2014

This is a very small Tonalist painting.   Like all Tonalist paintings the idea was to capture a mood or emotion.  I believe this one works very well.  It is one of a pair that I show together, the other being "In the Thicket."

6x8.  Oil on canvas board.    2014

The matching painting to  "The High Wind."

12x12.  Oil on canvas panel.     2013

A simple painting from my imagination.  It was painted over another painting and that's why it has so much texture to it, but it works!

14x11 (?).   Oil on canvas panel.   2014 (?).  Frame made by Ron Maki

9x12.  Oil on Raymar board.    2013

This was painted in plein air on August 8, 2013 from 10 am to  noon.

Mostly cloudy 80 degrees.

12x12. Oil on canvas panel.     2014

A nice little Tonalist painting from my imagination.

14x11.  Oil on canvas panel.   2014

A nice Tonalist painting.

8x10.  Oil on Strathmore media board.  2015

This was a plein air done on the beach.  Later I changed it somewhat in the studio.

8x6. Oil on birch panel. 2012

My first plein air painting ever.  It's a unique experience to paint outdoors for the first time.  But you will never be able to capture the true colors, true light and true feeling of a place if you don't paint in plein air.

The location is one corner of the Booth House at Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills Michigan.  Cranbrook is a wonderful historical location as well as being important, then and now, as a place known for the creativity and amazing design.  It's the Booth family estate where the Saarinen family lived and taught for many years. The Saarinens were extremely influential in modern design in America and were originally from Finland. (Google the Saarinen family and the Booth family, both are an amazing story).

8x10.  Acrylic on Strathmore board.     2014?

A plein air done in Mesa AZ.

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore board.    2013

Another plein air done on vacation

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore board. 2014?

A plein air done by sitting on the other side of the road, in the shade.  Trying to ignore the cars speeding by just 10 feet away.

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore board.   2014

A plein air done on a beautiful August morning in Pelkie in the U.P. of Michigan.

8x10.  Acrylic on Strathmore media board.   2013

A plein air done in the amazing ghost town of Jerome Arizona.  If you ever get the chance go there, do it, and have lunch at the haunted Grand Hotel!

8x10.  Acrylic on Strathmore media board.  2014

This from a plein air done at Pine Mountain Resort in Iron Mountain Michigan.  This is a view from our second floor room balcony.  Clean air and super quiet.  My sister Janet is the financial officer there.  What a gorgeous part of the country to live in!

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore media board   2013

A plein air painted on August 28th, about 9a.m.  Slightly foggy, 65 degrees.

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore media board.  August 2013

A plein air painted while sitting in the park in Houghton MI.  Across the Portage Canal is Hancock Michigan and the old copper smelter from 140 years ago.   The whole Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's U.P. is the most amazing place.  It's surrounded by Lake Superior and the air and the water are the purest you'll ever find in you life.

8x10  Acrylic on Strathmore media board.  2017

Plein air painting of the Pine Mountain ski lift.  Iron Mountain Michigan. Painted from the balcony of room 302.

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore media board.   2017

Plein air -- painted on the dock at Tee Lake, near Lewiston Michigan, June 14.  I was on a fishing trip here with four friends -- always a good time!

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore media board.   2014

This is the old copper mining shaft on the top of Quincy Hill in Hancock Michigan.  Painted from across the Portage Canal in Houghton Michigan. It was a cloudy overcast day, about 8:30 a.m., on August 13th.

8x10. Acrylic on birch panel.  2013

Painted in plein air through the window of my van.  Drizzly, rainy, foggy day in July about 10 a.m.

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore media board.   2017

Plein air done on August 29, windy and cool.  The seagull kept walking around me about 3 to 4 feet away.  I guess he wanted to be in the painting -- twice!  I spent the night there in New Buffalo and the next day went to see the Gauguin exhibit "Artist As Alchemist," at the Art Institute of Chicago.  What an amazing artist and person.  Gauguin spent the last few years of his life not only painting in Tahiti, but he was a sculptor, wood block artist, carver, and made ceramics.  He had to make a lot of his own materials to work with.  He truly was a magical alchemist.

8x10. Acrylic on Strathmore media board.  2014

This is painted in plein air on the pool deck at Serenata Condos in Sarasota Florida.  Friends were kind enough to let us use this condo at the end of March 2014.  What a wonderful place to relax.  Sarasota also has amazing things to see and do.  My favorite was the Ringling Art Museum and the Ringling estate house.