Animals
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"Jack Rabbit"
Pen & India Ink
Airbrushed Background
1998 - 7" x 10"
personal collection

At this point in my development with pen & ink, I was quite excited with the results achieved with short contour strokes and stippling. I found a photograph that would engage both techniques to which I added an air-brushed background and then long foreground grasses with seed-heads as negative space. The latter also afforded me the opportunity to gain some experience in accurately terminating the pen strokes at the boundaries of the (negative space) foreground objects.

"My Name is Scar"
Graphite
2007 - 37" x 27"

personal collection
This is a portrait of a most endearing cat. Her name was "Scar" because, as a young cat, she was in a fight that gave her a scar under her left eye and she lost much of her left ear. Her stature seems to say "I take crap from no one - feline or otherwise!" For me the challenge was to contrast her furry texture against the rough texture of the wooden door, the peeling paint on the wall, and the gravel ground. This is also the largest drawing I've done.
"The First Buds of Spring"
Graphite
2007 - 25" x 19"

Early spring, when the trees begin to put forth buds, the squirrels begin to feed on the tender growth. But it was the challenge of the tangled mass of tree branches that attracted me to this subject. The fact that the two squirrels were "buddies" gives the title a dual meaning.
"An Armful"
Graphite
1992 - 14" x 18"
Lydia & Brandon Gray collection

 

"Goshawk"
Pen & India Ink
1997 14 x 17
Paulet Payne collection

Airbrushed background, the feather texture and its shadow, and the stippled eye and beak were the point for this study. The sharp contrast between the goshawk and the background was not planned but seemed to work out alright.

"Bald Eagle"
Pen & India Ink
1998 13 x 15
 Marty and Terry Maytas collection

I wanted to mix three techniques for this picture: solid black above, below, in the eyes and in the nostrils, then contour lines for the feathers and shadows, and finally, stippling for the eyes and beak.

"Hocus Pocus"
Pen & India Ink
1997 10 x 7
personal  collection

After achieving a measure of control with pen & ink, I wanted to take the challenge of accurately depicting animal fur. I had been keeping a photograph, taken by Barbara, of our dog Hocus Pocus and had been planning to use it as a basis for a drawing. It turned out to be the perfect choice for pen & ink.

"Maggie"
Pen & India Ink
2000 14 x 17
JoAnn Henry collection

This was a commissioned piece and an absolute pleasure to create. I had been wanting to pen a complex grassy background and found it with this piece. This was a unique challenge because the grass, leaves, and foxtails are, essentially, negative spaces.

"Pals"
Pen & India Ink
2002 12 x 18
private collection
whereabouts unknown

 
"Adrift"
Pastel
2002 - 36 x 24
personal collection

 

 

"At the End of the Day"
Colored Pencil
on Black Illustration Board
2006 - 14 x 19
 personal collection

I wanted to render a believable image of the bright sparkling water in the early evening. With the sun to the upper right, the brightness of the watery field diminishes toward the lower left. The trees and the grassy foreground frame the piece and the alert mother and her babies defines the end of the day.
"Suspended"
Colored Pencil
on Black Illustration Board
2006 - 14 x 19
personal collection

The vertical reflections of the background trees in the calm water contrasted with the horizontally moving waves of the wind disturbed water was quite intriguing for me. The vertical shafts of green reflect the grassy slopes beyond and the horizontal waves reflect the pale blue sky and the pink clouds of evening.  And the ducks all seem to be suspended in bliss.
"So Forth in Sunlight"
Colored Pencil
on Black Illustration Board
2007 - 13 x 18
personal collection

The only thing I can say about this piece is that it was an absolute joy to execute. So Forth was a really cool cat. The picture says everything else.
*** New Work ***
"So Forth"
Colored Pencil
on Black Illustration Board
2008 - 13 x 18
personal collection

 

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