These are me getting back to doing some paintings. I revert to the Everglades/Big Cypress theme. But there are always variations on that theme. The painting to above is postcard size.

This piece is a bit larger and on a smoother Arches paper I was unaccustomed to using. I will likely rework some of this...but it will be a little here and there. Not sure I feel like this is worth signing. Sometimes I forget to sign things I like even. The newer (ie from the past 18 years or so) paintings are all signed on the back. This is 12 x9 inches.

I also decided no one is ever getting an unframed painting from me again. Unframed small paintings get tossed in a drawer.

All of these look better in person...This one (above) REALLY does. I tend to use watercolor, watercolor pencil (or just pencil) and gouache on most paintings. But this may be the only one here where I do that. It and the small one above are the ones I like. This is 9 x 6 inches (Arches).

I am going to do several of these and paint or find appropriate frames. If I get enough and I have met my previously owed paintings ( I still have some waited for oils)...I may do a kickstarter. I have killed most of my brushes and the cheap pastels I bought suck.

This oil on wood piece is another inspired by Everglades photos taken over a number of years. Originally there were no trees in this particular painting. I actually really liked it as that.

But then I fell prey to that terrible thing--doubt. "I wonder if other people are going to like it....what are they going to think? Is it boring?  It is a little odd because I rarely do this. SO I added trees and I immediately hated them. It took awhile for me to get to the point where I kind of liked them and forgave myself for adding them. They are, essentially two copses of mahogany trees that were in a different photograph.

Obviously I am not trying to depict actual things in any case but being inspired by something that exists is the basic M.O. I suppose here we are just combining two such things.

I neglect this site....here is a new painting.  A gallery of new work will appear soon!

Wino is a collection of paintings on wooden wine boxes. It is open June 25 in Chicago at the Flatiron Building (1579 N Milwaukee Ave #220). The opening is from 2 to 9 p.m.  Wine will be served at 6 p.m.

The art is a mix of acrylics and oils and you can also see it online at constantlyconsumingculture.com too.

This is one example of recent paintings I am doing based (loosely..very loosely) on photos I took out in the Big Cypress last year. I meant to get started on these earlier but..well I didn't!

The paintings  include the ones shown here (which are 7x10 1/4 or thereabout on 140 lb Arches paper) and some larger ones I am working on. The larger ones are on Arches 300 lb paper and others on Arches 140 lb paper. I will have photos (and the exact dimensions) shortly. I will probably just add them here so check back to this URL.

Of the first three (Here and in the post below) one is accounted for but the other ones are for sale. All of these here are $50 (unframed). I will frame them but with all the stuff I need to do that for these? Plus shipping (I hate shipping) The price framed would be $150 (including shipping).

After laziness and delay I finally got around to doing some of the paintings I'd planned from my last foray out into the Big Cypress. I walked 3 or so miles out into the swamp on a wet trail. You don't see many creatures out there, small fish, little snakes. Although, on the way back in I nearly kicked a water moccasin sleeping along the trail (these trails are in a foot to a two feet of water). That would have been unfortunate for both me and the snake.

These paintings are SORT of of the numerous tiny orchid that grow right in the water. They are really small, realy delicate...and these, of course, do not really look much like them. I used the photos of those as a starting point then the rest came out of my head.

They are how those orchids SHOULD look. There are also similar yellow flowers (that I do not think are orchids)....also lots of cypress trees and bromeliads.

I didnt see any gators but I did hear the sound they make when they are warning someone off...that "shake the water off their back sort of grumble they do. I didn't want to find out if it was aimed at me so I left.

These paintings are called Big Cypress 1, 2 and 3 (in descending order).

So in preparation for working on some new paintings based upon photos I took this past winter in the Big Cypress I started doing some more swamp photos similar to the ones I did when I did my Everglades photos.

This first one (the photos above and immediately below) I thought was 7x 10..it is actually a bit larger and done on 300 lb paper. I was going to paint a single poisonwood tree in the foreground but for some reason I just liked this the way it is and couldn't bring myself to do anything else to it.

The two below are versions of paintings I have done before of the everglades. They are based on photos of walking in the mahogany/poisonwood trees. The top is very similar to others I've done...the bottom is a cross between the close in 'forest' of mahogany and the plain paintings. The bottom one has a sparkle to it. I didn't name any of these yet. Any suggestions?

One of the new larger sky paintings. This one is sparkly in person. It is one I like quite a bit. Not sure what else to say about it! It sort of needs a bigger page for it to show up....

Below this is another large one...(what I call large is like 20 something x like 18 something or so...). I am not fond of this one. I wanted to do a night sky but as you see it just turned into something of a mess. Below The Mess (my title for it) is a small 6x4 sky that I sort of like, except the watercolor spread thing is a bit too obvious for me.