Gallery

“The Pot Head” Oil on Canvas

“Floating Heads” Work-in-progress

Oil Paintings

“The Pot Head” Is a 20″x16″ oil on canvas. It is the first completed in a series I have begun that features disconnected heads and mouths. The next in line is a much bigger 48″x36″ oil on canvas work-in-progress.

After years of watching digital painting mature, it suddenly occurred to me that If I didn’t embrace the medium, I might be missing the boat. This turned out to be a great decision as I very much enjoy it. I have many thoughts on digital art and the stigma that accompanies, its superiorities, and its shortcomings that I will write about soon. Here is a portrait of an elderly musician who is definitely not the guy who will not let you use his name. It is an oil on canvas and won a best of show award at my local county fair. The next image is a digital painting of Albert Einstein That also won a best of show award at the same local county fair.

“Portrait of an Elderly Musician” Oil on Canvas

“Portrait of Albert Einstein” Digital Painting

I have used digital art applications for many years for promotional graphics, commercial graphic design applications, and personal projects, but in early 2024 I discovered how accessible and usable digital display tablet had gotten over the past decade. The Albert Einstein portrait pictured above was my first project with a $200 Huion 13” tablet. I won an award with it, quickly secured a commission for another portrait, and have been dedicating a large portion of my creative efforts to digital projects ever since. The image of the sousaphone playing a double bass that is also playing the sousaphone is a small part of a much larger digital work that I finishing both on the computer and on canvas. What I really appreciate about digital painting is the versatility it allows with the lack of commitment required to boldly start a new idea. The convenience of instant full spectrum color, texture, and shape also promotes spontaneity along with vast visual exploration and creative bravery. Pictured below is some more of my digital portrait work.

In my experimentation, I have started implementing some really cool tricks to enhance my work. I photographed a few rusty objects and have discovered that when overlaid on the painted skin, it produces a more natural look and adds some random micro-blemishes. Although I appreciate the smooth skin look, I also like what the texture adds to the piece. I am now always on the lookout for new rusty objects and other textures to photograph. I also used one of my rust photos to produce the graphic for the background of this website. Here are some croppings of a couple of my rust photos and a “before and after” slider to show the effect on my RFK JR. portrait.

RFK JR Skin Texture

What is wrong with digital painting?

Digital painting, although superior and more versatile in many ways, cannot yet replace traditional oil painting completely and it falls flat, literally, in one very important aspect- DEPTH. Yes, we can digitally add textures and tiny shadow/ highlight details that give a convincing perception of depth and surface, but the stark differences between additive (digital) and subtractive (traditional) light is still an issue. We can convert additive light work to subtractive light work through printing and adversely convert traditional work to additive light medium through photography, but much is irretrievably lost in the process of either conversion, particularly the former. The unmatched “wow factor” of an oil painting hung on the wall of a properly lit room basically comes down to physics and how light, pigment, and the carrier for the pigment work together. The “glowing” effect you might have noticed viewing a well-executed traditional painting in a gallery comes from light reflecting off the surface of the canvas or panel and being diffused through layers of translucent medium all while being affected by suspended pigment matter which may be opaque, almost transparent, or anywhere in between. As your fixed gaze of the painting is altered by your inevitable slight motion, the direction of the light source in relation to the reflective surface is constantly altered. This provides an infinite amount of perceivable color and depth variations that the viewer will never see exactly the same way twice, giving it the life and personality that current available digital technology is incapable of. Here is an example of one of my oil paintings that does not translate into the digital medium.

The foreground and the background are both extremely saturated. Pushing the limits of saturation and perspective is one of my major interests. The reason it does not translate in a digital or printed medium is because the saturation is overwhelming, creating a much flatter perception than I intended. In person, the subject and foreground elements take on a visually robust dimensionality that is progressively lacking as the compositional perspective recedes, resulting in a much more visually compelling painting.

The technique I used to accomplish this was through the intentional placement in glazing and layering of many levels of specifically chosen paint opacities and hues into the foreground and using increasingly thin but highly saturated washes for the background. As your gaze on the painting is in slight motion, the mind perceives an amplified variation in the characteristics of the foreground.

This mimics the real-life effect of the color attributes of objects closer to the viewer changing more drastically when motion is applied than objects in the distance. My hope is that, one day, we will have access to layered printing and multi-tiered digital displays that can accomplish the same effect.

COMMERCIAL DIGITAL ART AND DESIGN

As an artist steeped in the skills of digital graphic design and who has made a career honing the craft of visual expression, I have found myself to be well positioned to help other creators articulate their thoughts. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a concise visual portrayal of an abstract idea can be worth billions. The process involves identifying and communicating with the target viewer while accurately interpreting the original creator’s not-yet tangible vision. It is an incredibly synergistic sort of collaboration that connects the creator with a consumer while providing the artist a fulfilling expressive outlet.

Alll {sic} Caps

MURALS

Personally, muralism is one of the most rewarding forms of visual expression, particularly public murals. I got involved in painting murals in 2020 after the COVID pandemic turned my small gallery and teaching studio, The Art Hole, upside-down. I had previously been pretty involved in street painting with chalk and had realized the immense power of public art. I was amazed how much people enjoyed the finish street painting and even more amazed at how intrigued most people are at watching the process of its creation. However, it was always a little frustrating, if not slightly romantic, that it was so temporary. Wall murals can last for decades though. Creating monumental work that can be seen from public roads is a great feeling. Knowing that thousands of people will be able to take it in while walking by and perhaps millions will get a short glance while driving by is very fulfilling for me. A few of the murals I painted were commissioned by the Conlee-Snyder Mural Committee in Palatka, Florida. They are a non-profit volunteer organization that finds funding, and facilitates placement for murals in the town’s historic downtown district. The murals they commission all focus on significant and historical events and aspects of Palatka, telling the story of the town through a giant colorful “picture book” that adorns the sides of the buildings throughout the district. It is a really cool project that not only provides opportunity for artists, but adds greatly to the culture and aesthetic of the town.

The first mural I painted for this is called “The Mug Race”. The Mug Race is a sailboat race that starts in Palatka, Florida and ends in Jacksonville, Florida. It is on the Saint Johns River, which is one of the few rivers that flow north and is a wide and majestic river full of largemouth bass, shrimp, alligators, manatee, and sometimes even dolphins. The mural depicts the start of the race in Palatka and the perspective of my composition is from that of one of the sailors in the race. The buildings, bridge, and riverbank in the background is a portrayal of how Palatka appears from a boat in the river and are fairly accurate in their size and perspective. It includes the steeple of Palatka’s Saint Monica Catholic Church which is about three or four blocks from the riverfront and the clock tower of the First Presbyterian Church that is directly on the riverfront. In the image, which is about 18 feet tall, a young sailor is forcefully pulling in the front jib sail to harness the wind as the race just begins at the foot of the bridge. The rope and the sail extend outside of the main composition to help create a convincing illusion of depth when seen large and in-person.

The next mural I painted for Conlee-Snyder Mural Committee is “The Putnam House Hotel”. This was a famous hotel that existed on the actual site of the mural from the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s. It took up an entire city block and was the largest hotel in Florida at the time it was built. Many famous figures and dignitaries visited The Putnam House, including President Teddy Roosevelt. At the time, Palatka was a bustling tourist town and commerce center. Visitors enjoyed the sub-tropical climate, exclusive resorts on the river, hunting, and juicy Florida oranges.

The mural composition shows a sharp angled view of the hotel and some of the activity you might expect to see on the streets at the turn of the century. A mule pulling a street car shares a water fountain with a horse pulling a fruit cart. The fountain was an artesian well located in the intersection of two of the main thoroughfares in Downtown Palatka. The fountain still exists today, but has been relocated out of the street and onto the courthouse lawn. As an upper-class lady with a parasol boards the streetcar, her young daughter directly engages the viewer. I placed her standing outside of the frame of the main composition to help connect the image to the real world, bridging the dimensions. A younger girl looks at her out of one of the hotel windows, wishing she was outside in the sunshine to socialize. I was able to verify through an old town business directory archive that the watch shop across the street is an accurate portrayal and the building even still exists- now a restaurant named Velchoff’s Corner. The street car conductor’s eye is caught by the silhouette of a shapely woman in an apartment above the watch maker who is checking out the fruit wagon driver while the fruit wagon driver’s eye is captured by the pretty lady boarding the streetcar. A house cat in the window is eyeballing a golden retriever in the back of the fruit wagon while the dog is curious about the mule pulling the street car. This “map of gazes” crisscrosses the entire composition and offers a socially interacting human element to the scene. I painted many hidden objects throughout the mural as well, including a mythical creature, hidden faces, and two different deadly poisonous creatures that are native to this part of Florida.

Here are a few more of the murals I have painted. Some are public and some are private. Click or tap on the images to enlarge.