Mexico Series
If you ever see a new box of pastels, you can't help but be impressed with the beauty of those intense colors. Mexican subjects seem appropriate for bright colors, and I enjoy painting Mexican people and settings. I have drawn my subjects mainly from the old Colonial part of Mexico, in such cities as Guanajuato, San Miguel Allende, Morelia, and Zacatecas.
I have long been interested in the works of Diego Rivera and other South American artists. I also admire paintings by Native Americans, with their stylized human and animal forms, and the decorative painting and crafts from Mexico. From these influences I borrow the idea of solid areas of color, sometimes with surface decoration, outlined with other colors and with black.
Sierra Trails Series
California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, unlike other parts of the state, have four seasons, with snowy winters, flowery springs and summers, and brilliant red and gold autumns. The mountains and foothills are laced with beautiful hiking trails, and over the years I have become familiar with many of them. In this series of pastels, I have gradually departed from the flat, delineated style of my Mexican paintings, to employ more shading, softer edges and more subtle colors. (Occasionally the bolder Mexican style has broken through in spite of my intentions!)
Children's book illustrated by the Artist
Recently I illustrated a child's book, (written by our son,) entitled The Clockmaker of Mullen. In these illustrations I used colored pencils.
Mullen is a lovely, quaint, "Old World" village. You would think that the people who lived there would have been happy. But they were not. The people of Mullen were worried and sad. Even the kindly, old clockmaker, who had created an amazing town clock, could not help them. Until one night, when the clock didn't chime. . .