Marsh

Little landscape, trying to capture the early colors of spring as we finally begin to warm up!

Half-Hour Portrait

Best compliment from an 8-year-old ever: "Well THAT was worth sitting for!"

Half-Hour Portrait

Huge eyes, tiny rosebud mouth, and a whole lotta hair.

Half-hour portrait

Not that I want to grow hair on my face (!), but I think it's pretty fascinating how some people can change their appearance drastically just by growing a beard. It's fun to imagine how different this guy would look without his.

Half-Hour Portrait

Sometimes beautiful people are more difficult to capture, but other times I know immediately that they're just going to be sheer joy to paint, and I find myself thanking whatever fate brought them my way. That was the case here--oh what a face!

Half-Hour Portrait

I feel like I've been painting an unusually high number of people with green eyes lately. It's the rarest eye color, and my favorite. 

Half-Hour Portrait

An incredible painter/friend/teacher (you know who you are) used to stress the importance of getting value right in a portrait. Over and over. It’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned. Interesting how the turquoise undertone in this one functions as a shadow in some places and reflected light in others.

Half-Hour Portrait

I've been trying to figure out why this portrait feels so familiar to me. I finally just realized that it reminds me of an old friend. 

Half-Hour Portrait

Yowza, look at those eyelashes.

Half-Hour Portrait

Love a girl who's sure of herself.

Jack

Jack Brennan, incredible runner, amazing coach, and one of my favorite people. He was my first half-hour portrait ever. (And then a second one a few years later, when he grew a beard.) He’s in a coma right now, but I know he’ll pull out of it. I can’t wait to hear his voice again.

Half-Hour Portrait

Man, I love painting faces. Finished this one about an hour ago.

Half-Hour Portrait

There are some people you can tell will always be cute.

Summer

Happy Earth Day!

Half-Hour Portrait

I love this one, and it makes me laugh. I think I pretty much nailed her expression.

Half-Hour Portrait

It's fun to realize, halfway through painting someone, that you share a Michigan connection!

Marsh No. 10

This one is still available! With or without the frame. (But I love the frame.)

View from Nick's Cabin

Such a sweet little end of the marsh. This painting will be for sale at the Croton Artisans Holiday Show this weekend!

Marsh No. 9

I never get sick of this view.

Marsh Study No. 2

Same view, different orientation, a little more detail. Off to the right, just out of the frame, is the site of the ongoing War With Beavers. (They want to plug up the culvert; we don't want them to--very complicated. I admit to a disloyal fondness for the opposing team.)
I can't stand the thought that if Michigan Potash gets its way, an enormous potash-mining operation may loom on the horizon of this pristine spot.