"Chesapeake Bay Sunset" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 12")

click here to buy

The sun is setting in the Chesapeake Bay. Tundra swans are flying over the dock pilings. It is an altogether peaceful scene.

"Harbor in Late Afternoon Light" (oil on stretched canvas; 18" x 24")

click here to buy

I started showing my art on ugallery.com, the online gallery founded in 2006 and based in San Francisco.  It's a new era in my art career with larger, better paintings, as the gallery curates the artwork submitted by the artists.  I have already got four of my paintings turned down.  I'd better work harder!

"Harbor in Late Afternoon Light" is an old painting that I spiffed up with dots.  The late afternoon sun was striking Noyo Harbor, a small, working harbor in northern California at a perfect angle, making everything glow.  How do you like it?

"After Independence Day" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 16") sold

sold

The day after the Independence Day in 2002, I visited a marina along the Potomac River and saw the scene.  The contrast between the brilliant sun-lit boats and those in the shadow made an indelible impression.  Full of enthusiasm, I painted a full-sheet watercolor painting, also titled "After Independence Day."

The painting won the Potomac Valley Watercolorists Award (something like the second-place award) in the prestigious American Landscape Show at the Art League Gallery in August 2002!  It was before the age of the digital camera; I wasn't much of a photographer either.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to get the painting photographed properly in slides before the show.

When the painting got sold on the last day of the show, I didn't know whether I should be happy or sad.  Dang!  All I have left of the entire exhilarating experience is a snapshot.  I took a picture of the picture to prove that I didn't make up the story!

"After Independence Day" (watercolor, 22" x 30"; sold)

I cropped the scene for the new, much smaller, oil painting.  Unlike the original watercolor version, for which I did a lot of careful pencil drawing, the new version was done with a minimal pre-drawing.  The background is barely suggested in the watercolor painting; in the new painting the background is treated more boldly.  The result is that the sun-lit boats are highlighted between the darker values of the background landscape and the foreground boats.  So, which painting do you prefer?

"Zen Moment at Crissy Field" (oil on linen; 8" x 16") sold

sold

You don't need me to tell you what the bridge is.  The view is from Crissy Field, which my family visited three years ago.  Do you know it used to be an old airfield?  After it became a park, indigenous flowers were planted and a tidal marsh that runs to the San Francisco Bay was restored.

That day a silver-haired gentleman was practicing Tai-Chi as his faithful dog was watching.  Then something strange happened.  My daughter, then nine years old, sat down on a piling; instead of staring at the man out of curiosity, she looked out at the Golden Gate Bridge for a very long time.  Fog was lifting, a large ship went by, and birds flew over.  It was a mesmerizing scene.  Three beings existed in perfect harmony with respect and contentment.  A true Zen moment.