Lagoon at Waikoloa, Hawaii

Painting in Hawaii

I just returned from a week in Hawaii with my family. I love painting the ocean and the spectacular colors that come from the sea. I especially love the color in the water surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. When I'm painting the ocean I'm constantly studying the action of waves and the color effects of sunlight on water. It's fascinating to me to see the changes that take place and the challenge is to capture a moment.

Painting Saguaro National Park

This painting was done when my nephew Dan Perkins and I went out painting together during his visit at Christmas. We managed to get two paintings done during his visit. Here we were driving to go into the Saguaro National Park and before we got to the entrance we saw this magnificent view and parked the car on the side of the road and began to paint.

Portrait of Crane Day

The Southwest Landscape/Saguaros

The saguaro is such a unique and interesting cactus. I love the challenge they present to the painter. The color, proportions, and individual character of the Saguaro present the artist with many decisions as to how to best represent them in a painting. The shadows of the larger ones with their many arms are always changing with the moving sun, creating intense greens or deep purple silhouettes against the bright blue skies of Arizona.

Native American Portrait

This is a portrait done from life of a Native American who posed in my studio on several occasions. He dressed in full regalia and I completed this in a few sessions. Here it is in a beginning stage and the finished work.

Charcoal Portrait

This is a portrait of my son Charles. It is a preliminary charcoal study to a painting I am doing of him.