Last of the new work

This piece was started at Playa but only finished last week. Up over a small rise across the Highway 31 from the Playa facilities was a couple of cargo containers and a field of various construction materials left over from their remodel a few years ago. I would go up there pretty regularly. It was a nice view and I found the semi-industrial feel of it, isolated amidst the vast landscape, oddly comforting.
I haven't quite decided on the title yet.

42" x 42"  oil on canvas

Northbound

This a "pre-playa-residency" painting that kind of prefigures what I did there. It's based on a snapshot I took while driving up to Seattle late last fall and painted sometime in January I think.

"Northbound"  oil on canvas  26"h x 51"w

The Brady House

"LA Story" (the Brady House)  oil on canvas  48"w x 36"h

This has been hanging from my rafters for a while. I don't even remember when exactly it was finished but it germinated after my trip to LA last summer in a fruitless effort to talk to galleries.

Hovel

This is not actually a hovel as you can probably tell but rather a root cellar on the property at Playa (where I had my 4 week residency). This is the first painting I did there. I wasn't quite ready to deal with all of the open space, so I surrounded the structure with my more familiar trees. While it was just a root cellar I thought it seemed sort of an inviting metaphor for my retreat. I wanted to isolate and bury myself in my work. I later learned an amusing anecdote. The original owner of the property built the root cellar and used it to cook the first meth in Oregon. Go figure.

"Hovel"  oil on canvas  34" x 50"