Gallery Fifteen:

Gallery Fifteen: 2012

To me, 2012 is outstanding for the things I didn't do. I won the Pleine Air Competition at Death Valley again, and for some inconceivable reason failed to take a record photo of it. I also worked for weeks on two large triptychs of Death Valley, and a large painting of the Lanfair Reservoir with its Samson windmill, and didn't finish any of them. With any luck they will be part of Gallery 16.

Click on thumbnails for full image

Phil in the Flag
acrylic on canvas
8 inches X 16 inches
MDHCA headquarters, Goffs
San Bernardino County, CA
2012

When Phil Motz, who has appeared before in my paintings— eg. "Giddyup", and "Might Even Have To Move Inside" — knocked at the door of my Airstream, and I saw how he was dressed, I said, "Wait right there." I got my camera. He said, "Are you gonna paint this?" When I said, "You bet I am," his only request was that the item on his hat be a clearly identifiable Reddy Kilowatt pin. Easy enough.

Maruba
acrylic on canvas
24 inches X 36 inches
Lanfair Valley
San Bernardino County, CA
2012

The first homesteaders migrated to Lanfair Valley in 1910. By 1917 there were 130 registered voters, constituting the town of Maruba. However they were largely dependant for water and supplies on the South Nevada Railroad. After the railroad spur to Lanfair Valley was abandoned in 1923, the homesteaders gradually left.

Two miles from Weedpatch
acrylic on canvas board
12 inches X 16 inches
Highway 223, west of Arvin
Kern County, CA
2012

This derelict cabin stands in a fallow field two miles from the migrant labor camp immortalized by Steinbeck in the Grapes of Wrath. Whether it dates from the thirties itself, I don't know, but I fancy that it does.

A Bird in the Palm
acrylic on canvas board
8 inches X 10 inches
Furnace Creek, Death Valley
Inyo County, CA
2012

Beside the Highway that divides Furnace Creek Ranch from Death Valley National Park's Sunset Campground is an RV dump station. Beside the dump station stands a row of California Fan Palms. There I photographed a little bird of unknown variety eating dates in the middle of November. My conviction as a painter has always been that, if large, spectacular wildlife is hard to come by, small, secretive wildlife will do.

Martha
acrylic on canvas
16 inches X 20 inches
2012

Although several people whose portraits I have painted have since died, Martha alone was gone before I painted her. She was the sister of a friend, and though I remember when she died, in life I never met her. My friend had a photograph, and he wanted a portrait.

The Old Drill Rig
acrylic on canvas
10 inches X 20 inches
Gold Point
Esmeralda County, NV
2012

Gold Point has been for me the source of much subject material. Broken-out headlamps give old, wrecked vehicles the most soulful, panic-stricken eyes. They become endowed with personality. They gaze back at the viewer.