Baudelia – portrait of my neighbor

People that are into cars are always seeing cars that they like, people who are into dogs are always running into fun dogs. Well, what I love are faces, and when I saw this woman for the first time, I knew I had to paint her. She speaks very little English, being a native of Mexico, so we never really talked, and each time I would get my courage up to ask if I could paint her, she was gone; having returned to Mexico for the year. This happened three years in a row. Finally this year it all came together. As I sat in her son’s kitchen, drawing her for the first time, I watched as she became more comfortable with me staring at her and sketching her face. Her daughter in law told me that they would have to make a lot of copies of the painting so that her many children could each have a copy. I gave her her portrait today and showing great pleasure, she said “Muy Bien!” “Gracias!”
Life is good.

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Made with Extra Love


Kent Peterson, one of my favorite people in the blogging world AND one of my favorite people in the bicycling world asked me to illustrate one of his stories. He said this particular story reminded him of Donald and me. I was astonished until I read it; and cried all the way through it. I loved the story and was happy to do the painting. You can read the story here and tell Kent that Mimi sent you. He likes to get comments as well.

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Brother crow announces brother wolf’s entrance into the clearing

Wolves are one of the most important predators in North America. Overzealous farmers almost wiped them out, but then it was discovered that wolves keep elk and deer populations healthy by weeding out the sick and the injured ones and their presence keeps the population of coyotes at bay as well. Wolves are wonderful animals, great mothers, and have great family structures, with the whole family taking care of the alpha pair’s cubs. I hope we humans can figure out a way to share our world with brother wolf, and other great animals, all of which are losing more ground every day.

This painting is for sale $100.00 contact me if you would like to buy it. It measures 7.5″ x 12″

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The night before the rest of her life

This painting is from an old photo of one of my high school classmates. She is holding her favorite cat, named Dog. It is the night before her wedding to the man she made her life with. She looks so dreamy and romantic, and just a little insecure. The perfect bride.

This painting is not for sale.

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Mimi’s Retirement party and Art Show

Most people that retire from Boeing get a placque, a cake, some cards, an autographed airplane photo, and a lot of well wishers, but my retirement party was a little different.
As a long time sketcher, I managed to cover the walls of the conference room with sketches I had done of my coworkers. If you were in a meeting with me, you were fair game. I wanted to share with my coworkers the results of all the meetings I had attended. So we turned the party into a little art show. Since I never drew myself at the meetings, I included a few of my self portraits.

It was a wonderful send off, and a great beginning to a new career.

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