Home & Neighborhood
Backyard with Woman Reading
oil/canvas
20" x "16
$400.00
oil/canvas
20" x "16
$400.00
Again the backyard theme, this time with a woman on the patio. The woman is shaded by a covered walkway. The painting uses the background of a pink wall crossing the bright yellow-green lawn; the neighbor's house with its red tile roof and angled skylights. Here again objects at different depths are locked into a single plane by the sharing of values.
Bins and Ladder
oil/canvas
24" x 18"
$400.00
oil/canvas
24" x 18"
$400.00
My South Wall. A straight-forward view of the clutter of bins, saw-horses, and containers lining the south wall of the backyard. The gray-green tone of the painting is enlivened by the orange vase in the center of the composition. Above the receding stone wall we see the neighbor's plantings, shrubs, and tree branches.
Untitled
oil/canvas
22" x 16"
$400.00
oil/canvas
22" x 16"
$400.00
Black slope behind our house with trees, shadows, and a figure, and the neighbor's house above the slope. My idea was to show the lively interaction of sunlight and shadow in a two level scene where the color of the house almost matches the sunlit portion of the garden. The figure partly shaded by the wall helps to balance the right side of the painting.
Backyard with Worker #2 - Raking the Backyard
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
A similar goal is achieved in this painting which has the same objects along with the addition of a figure raking the back lawn. Objects at different depths are connected by shared visual values. They also repeat the arc shape seen at the far edge of the the table and at the mid point of the palm tree. The figure with rake provides a resolution to the ambiguity.
My Backyard Facing North
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00
A brick path from the patio leads to a concrete platform that a previous owner built for his RV. A white retaining wall separates a neighboring house from a grove of trees while the top of a palm tree shows above the patio to the upper left. The painting seeks to record the complexity to a point just short of chaos.
Backyard with Umbrella and Lawn Chair #2
oil/canvas
14" x 11"
$400.00
oil/canvas
14" x 11"
$400.00
The aim here is to both simplify and enliven the narrative by creating a visual puzzle. Color is organized by value progression, light to dark and cool to warm. Traditional space is denied. For example, the shape of the umbrella overlays the triangle of lawn and squeezes out the space, the top of the chair flies into the horizontal line of the wall behind it. This abbreviates the narrative much as Cubism does.
View of the Backyard #2
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00
This second painting uses the same setting, the time with a blue planter, an umbrella and its round table, along with the same orange planter. The higher viewpoint squeezes the space for the white fence and the buildings behind it. This provides a more open view of the yard.
View of Backyard #1
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00
This view of a backyard in Southern California typifies upper middle class life in Fullerton. A compressed space encapsulates key features: a green lawn surround by a fence,; a larger planter with a shadow of plant cast on it; then comes a blue-green bin. In the middle ground, a white fence catches shadows thrown from trees planted on the slope to the right; the neighbor's house with its many angled roof looks over the fence into the backyard. I have explored this view as a background for several paintings.
Backyard with Woman Reading #2
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
Again the backyard theme, this time with a woman on the patio. The woman is sunning herself in her lawn chair. The painting uses the background of a pink wall crossing the bright yellow-green lawn; the neighbor's house with its red tile roof and angled skylights. Here again objects at different depths are locked into a single plane by the sharing of values.
View Down Tiffany Place
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
The challenge here was to unite the foreground and background with a radically sharp perspective. The retreating shadows and the powerful diagonal direction of the sidewalk, curb, and pavement were stabilized by the horizontal band of houses and trees at the upper one quarter of the painting.
Backyard Gardening - Backyard with Worker
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00
Included is a table with umbrella and two chairs, and a couple of house plants. The pink area represents tiles that mark the patio portion of the yard. One of the aims of this painting was to show depth through the super-positioning of various objects right down to the ugly plant that rises diagonally across the painting. I originally intended to give the worker an important place in the composition but he didn't fit it in until I cropped him at the right edge of the canvas.
Backyard with Lawn Chair #1
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
oil/canvas
20" x 16"
$400.00
Repeats the same objects as Backyard with Worker: a shallow space, a patio, a lawn chair, umbrellas, low plastered wall. These objects, while located at different depths, are visually connected in the painting by sharing the same values; for example the foreground shadow on the pink patio continues onto the low plastered wall, and both shadows are touched by the dark shape of the lawn chair. This produces an intriguing visual puzzle.
Orange Tree # 2
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00
oil/canvas
16" x 20"
$400.00
This is one of several views I painted of the southern portion of our backyard where the pink tiles meet the white concrete. Challenges here were 1) controlling the depth of the scene with perspective and 2) using light and shadow to create a balanced pattern.
View of Backyard at Dusk
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00
oil/canvas
14" x 18"
$400.00
The fourth painting views the backyard from a different angle and adds a central tree and a hanging flower pot. A low retaining wall to the left holds the slope above in its place. At right angles to the slope is a high wall that separates our yard from our neighbors yard. Fading light luminates the tree, the hanging planter, and the retaining wall.
The Yard En Plain Air 2002
oil/canvas
17" X 23"
$400.00
oil/canvas
17" X 23"
$400.00
North view of our house showing the contrast of the nearly blank wall and its surrounding green foliage. In the center of the painting are two areas of pink: the roof of the house across the street and the tiles of an incomplete backyard patio.
Framed in a light colored wood.
Framed in a light colored wood.