"Fade to Black 2" - 24" x 24" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow core door panel - $250.00

Here is another little 24 x 24 inch painting created for my mobile art business.  As often happens in art this piece involved a happy accident.  I was using an empty gesso bucket to create a black circle around the large "planetoid" (??) at the bottom left.  I had a sheet of wax paper with black paint on it and was moving the lip of the bucket around in the paint so I could transfer it.  When I was done I looked at the wax paper and really liked the effect that I saw so I duplicated it in the top half of the painting.  The result becomes the story behind the painting.

Who knows how long the earth has been here, some say 6,000 years and others 4.5 billion.  What we do know according to the Bible is that one day the earth will be destroyed by fire. 

 2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

This painting then is a before and after; the current earth below and the blackened cinder that it will become before crumbling away once again to the dust that formed it.

"Heavens Gate" - 24" x 24" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow core door panel - $250.00

Here we have a wet on wet painting, a technique I like to use to diffuse colors and achieve an organic effect.  It is hard to see the effect in the photo and I really had trouble with the white areas so know that they are not as bright in the actual painting...  Of all creation outer space is perhaps the most mysterious.  On earth we see the minutia of life, from a blade of grass to a lady bug and the mystery of life in general.  In space we see a vastness that is simply hard to comprehend and in those light years of time and space the mystery of God unfolds for me. 

"Isa 66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool:"   

How great is our God?  The Psalmist says it the best:

 "Ps 95:3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods."

Amen and amen...

"Tranquility 2" - 24" x 24" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow core door panel - $250.00

Initially this painting was a follow up for an earlier painting called "Tranquility" which was reminiscent of a peaceful Island paradise.  I leaned this painting against a wall upside down (as it appears now) and things really changed.  A young man walked by and asked me if it was a transformer jumping off the canvas.  Another person saw a sea turtle and so on... Little did I know that I had created an ink blot test of sorts but that is the wonder of abstract art; each mind see's something a little bit differently and I suppose it is not un-like laying in the park and watching clouds float by on a summer day.

Turtle or island paradise...  I hope you see something you like in this painting.  Perhaps it is the simplicity of it all or the cool relaxing colors and the good news is that you have four different ways you can rotate this little gem so you can always change your latitude...

"Cold Front" - 24" x 24" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow core door panel - $250.00 (SOLD)

"Cold Front" is another in my series of smaller works geared to sell on the street and out of my mobile art gallery.  Well actually it is more like a mobile painting storage unit that I unload where ever people congregate and then begin the process of shameless self promotion as I sell the populace on the concept of buying local AMERICAN art and not a bunch of cheap knock offs from China.  I mean have you looked on EBAY lately?  Sure you can buy a 24 x 36 abstract oil painting on canvas for 49.99 but when you get it, it may not look at all like the photo and additionally all you get is the canvas which then has to be stretched over a frame.  Most people cannot do that themselves and end up paying Hobby Lobby to do it for them.  This generally costs as much as the painting and if you want a gallery wrapped look then your painting goes from 24 x 36 to 21 x 33.  If you choose to save the entire painting then you are left with a piece of art with either a white border around the sides, or you could paint it black or frame it which costs even more money....

I know everyone cannot dish out $150 for a painting in these hard economic times (which actually are not that hard...) so I do accept offers when I sell my work on the street or when you call or email me from this site!  If you love a painting then work with the artist.  Trust me, we want you to have the painting and many of us will reduce the price to accommodate your budget.

Stepping down from my soap box...  This painting was inspired by some crazy weather patterns we had this spring.  One day it was 96 and the next day it was 68.  You could actually feel the air cooling down while the deck was still hot under your feet.  I thought to myself:  "What would that look like visually?" and here is where we ended up, letting warm and cool colors do all of the work!

"Nuclear Family" (SOLD) - 24" x 36" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow core door panel - $350.00

So...  Little did I know that the title of this painting would end up being controversial.  I saw a really old magazine from the 50's and it had this picture of a family ducking and covering in their white picket fence - leave it to beaver house with a mushroom cloud in the background; and then I painted this little piece and called it "Nuclear Family".  Next thing I know someone is telling me that it is not politically correct and all that...  Really?  I was just having some fun with a play on words.  (Hence the mushroom cloud)  Relax and enjoy the painting already, I promise there is not an ounce of hatred or judgment in it.  Scouts honor, no groups of people or animals were harmed in the painting of this painting... 

"Quandary" - 24" x 30" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow core door panel - $225.00

SOLD!!  I was out on the street last Friday evening trying to sell some paintings and this monochromatic piece was among those works that I was displaying.  I must have had five or six people ask me "what does that say, are those letters?"  

Honestly, I was not being intentionally cryptic when I painted the white line.  It is just what happened after I picked up the squeeze bottle of white paint and started moving it over the painting.  Later I did notice however that it seemed to resemble some semblance of a word, maybe...  I also did not intend for the black and grey space to resemble an aardvark but it sort of does doesn't it?  Quite the "quandary" isn't it? 

"The Space Between Us" - 30" x 34" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $425.00 SOLD

There is a certain amount of repetition in the universe.   Spacial relationships are governed by unseen forces such as gravity and electromagnitism.  The earth rotates around the sun at a distance of about 93 million miles.  If the earth was moving faster its orbit would be even further out from the suns surface.  This painting however, is not about planetary objects, but speaks to the spaces between sub-atomic particles.  If a single hydrogen atom were enlarged to the size of the earth, with its nucleus of a single proton in the center of the earth; then the electron orbiting the nucleus would be located somewhere out in the earths atmosphere!  I have read that if all of the matter in the universe were compacted to the point to where there was no longer any free space between the individual particles; then the resulting object, if shaped into a cube and placed in the center of our sun, would reach out to where its sides would be located at the orbit of Mars.  This means that we are surrounded by and made up of, a LOT of empty space!  Did you know that a neutron star has been compressed so tightly by gravity that its core is a giant diamond?  Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.  Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky...

The Life Is In the Blood - 32" x 38" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $525.00

Blood cells, veins and cappilaries...  The "LIFE" is in the blood.  Blood cells carry oxygen to the body and ultimately CO2 and other wastes from the body.  Blood, if you really think about it, is simply a transport mechanism.  Without it we die for it carries in it what we need for life.  The Bible even makes a statement about our blood:  Le 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood:  This speaks of course to human life but when we take a look at this concept with spiritual eyes, it becomes pretty easy to see a parallel story line.  If we want to have "spiritual life" then we can also find that in the blood.  Not in our own blood however, but in the precious blood of Jesus!   His blood washes our sins away and replaces them with His own Righteousness.  Now that is a blood transfusion!

Stratospheric Anomoly - 24" x 31" x 1.5" - Arcylic on hollow door panel - $325.00 SOLD

There is not a lot to say about this painting other than it was an experiment with color juxtipostions and using a wet on wet technique to bring to mind cloud formations.  I also use a paint removal process to expose the red beneath the greens...  It ended up looking like a view of a weird purple lake from an airplane at about 30,000 feet!   I will say, that this piece is much richer looking in person that it looks in this photo.  I will keep experimenting...  You never know what might happen next.

Into the Shallows - 9 x 36 x 1.5 - Acrylic on Hollow Door Panel - $165

After fishing all day and catching almost nothing we headed back to the boat ramp about 10 pm...  There was a bright yellow spotlight hitting the water and as we pulled the boat up the ramp I went over to make one last effort before heading home.  As I approched the shore I started seeing dark shapes moving in the water and soon realized that they were walleye searching the shallows near the shoreline for shad.  I stayed there for almost two hours watching the fish; sometimes close enought to the shore that I could have scooped them out with a dip net!  (not allowed by law...) Some of them were nearly three feet long and they paid absolutely no attention to me at all.  I ended up catching only 2 (by accident I am sure) but getting to see them so close up was a real treat for this nature lover.  About a week later I started an automatic or expressive painting and this is what emerged.  As the painting was only 9 inches tall and fish shapes were emerging; I thought back to that night and the fish in shallow water...

Beneath the Thermocline - 34 x 36 x 1.5 - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $525

This last summer I started fishing again for the first time in about twelve years and I had a blast.  It all started with the white bass in the spring and I fished a lot in the rivers heading into nearby Stockton lake at that time.  In early Summer we would fish the lake and stay near the shoreline and around cover.  By mid June it started getting harder and harder to find the fish as they started going deeper in search of cooler water.  One day I was fishing near a bridge in a really great boat (not mine, i do not have a boat) with a state of the art fish finder. I noticed that for the first 20 feet or so of water, that there were barely any fish at all but below the 20 foot mark they were just thick.  I didn't catch many fish that day but it did inspired this painting so all ended well!

"THREE" - Acrylic and mixed media on wood panel - 12" x 20" x 1.75" - SOLD

This is one of the very few "collage" pieces that I have ever made.  The work itself is not extraordinary to me but the concept is.  It was about 20 years ago when I was reading my Bible as a new Christian, that I discovered Gen 1:26 for the first time.  In this verse God speaks and says a very profound thing.  He says:  "Let US make man in OUR own image, after OUR likeness..." 

I was simply blown away by this passage, I had never thought of God in the plural sense before. Soon, after much conversation and study, I came to realize that God was speaking of the three parts of the Godhead; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This led to the realization that I was also a three part being, having a body, a soul and a spirit. Further investigation led me to an almost unbelievable conclusion; ALL of Gods creation is immersed and contained in the number three!!  Here is a list of examples for you to think about:

 

Time = past, present and future. (1-2-3...)

 

Space = is measured in height, width and depth.

 

Matter =  solid, liquid gas

 

Creation = animal, vegetable and mineral

 

Reality = space, matter and time

 

Electricity = positive, negative and neutral

 

Atoms = protons, neutrons and electrons

 

Colors = All colors are mixed from the three primary colors RED, YELLOW and BLUE

 

I could go on and on...  Blood is made up of red cells, white cells and platelets.  Even electromagnetic energy is considered to have three variables which are frequency, wave length and energy.  You yourself, where ever you are, have descended from the THREE children of Noah; Shem, Ham and Japheth...  Why is this concept so important?  It is perhaps one of the greatest, if not the greatest argument to establish intelligent design (GOD) over evolution (NO GOD).

"Tranquility" - 24" x 24" x 1.5" - Acrylic on door panel - $225.00 SOLD

This little gem is hanging in the second floor gallery at Springfield Brewing Company down on Market and Walnut in Springfield, MO.  This is perhaps the most simplistic painting I have ever created but my wife just loves it.  Perhaps there really is something to the old adage "less is more."  At least three people have commented that it reminds them of islands.  I of course was thinking "nebula" but...  who am I to tell anyone what to see in art even if it is my own.  The eye sees what the eye sees and the heart wants what the heart wants.  My heart seeks peace, calmness and a certain tranquility.  There is another old saying and it goes like this:   "No God, no peace - Know God, know peace....."

Think about it....

"Dark Matter" - 24" x 24" x 1.5" - Acrylic on door panel - $225.00 SOLD

This is a small piece from a series of paintings in which I am experimenting with a wet on wet technique.  There is something very organic about the ways colors blend into each other and I am very drawn to these effects.  In this painting I imagine cluster after cluster of galaxies filling the universe with only the blackness of space between them.  Apparently, to scientists,  this so called "empty space" is not empty at all but is made up of a combination of dark matter and dark energy.  They say that over the life of the universe that 75% of dark matter has converted to dark energy and that this "stuff" (that cannot be seen or proven to exist) is now causing the universe to expand faster.  To me this is yet another example of how God works.  You cannot see him and yet His effects can be measured in our lives.  We cannot feel his Spirit physically yet we experience the effects of His love and grace every single day!  If science can have faith in an invisible source of matter and energy that causes an effect over the entire universe, then why is it so strange for me to have faith in God?

"R2BA" - 32" x 38" x 1.5" - Acrylic on door panel - $625.00 (SOLD!)

Yes I know that this painting might be a little controversial (which is why it sold so quickly, note to self...) but hopefully a few kind words can ease any strife.  The title R2BA stands for right to bear arms...  This is my "second amendment painting" and third in my series on social commentary.  Yes I am a supporter of the second amendment but I am not a criminal, nor am I a hate monger.  I will not live in fear...  God does not want me to live in fear as is stated in this verse:

 2Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

In order to not live in fear we must be prepared, we must be empowered, we must have wisdom and most of all we must live in the love of God.  I honestly despise war, however I know that freedom comes with a price.  I hate the idea of doing violence to anyone, however I would if I had to protect myself or my family.  Please God, protect me from the evil in this world so that I never have to raise my hand against another; and thank you Lord for giving me courage and strength in the event that I must.  Amen

"Cradle of Creation" - 30" x 34" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $425 SOLD

One of the greatest things about the universe is that almost all matter, aside from hydrogen and helium, was formed in the heart of a star.  Carbon, iron, gold...  All formed under great pressure, with great heat and over a very long period of time.  When the star dies it undergoes an event called a super nova and it explodes with great energy.  This explosion (as I understand it...) scatters this mixture of elements out into space where it forms a giant cloud of gas and dust.  Eventually these gases and dust particles come together and a new solar system is born.  Every atom in our body was once contained within a star.  That is just an incredible thought to me and to understand this is to understand how everything is connected.  Our sun is the source of all energy upon the earth and it sustains us.  I cannot help but think of how all that I am and all that I have has come from God.  He is the creator of all things, even the stars that created the elements.  He creates, He sustains, He loves, He provides for all of my needs.  What a tremedous Blessing that is!!

 Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

"Jacobs Ladder" - 38" x 24" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $425

 

Before you start thinking about this painting as a piece of space art you should read on.  Yes I am a big space fan this is true, but years ago I worked in the nuclear industry and was a chemist on a nuclear submarine.  Needless to say I had to know something about the sub-atomic world and all of its protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, neutrinos and the associated math and physics that ties it all together.  Did you know that science cannot explain what holds the nucleus of an atom together.  Oh they have a name for it alright, they call it the strong nuclear force, but the truth is that they have no idea what that force is or how it works.  When I was in Nuclear Power School my instructor simply called it the God force.  I never thought much about it until about 10 years later when I was reading my Bible one day.  I was in the first chapter of Colossians and here is what I read:

 

 Col 1:16 For by him (Jesus) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

 

I paused and sat there looking at the word consist.  I finally admitted to myself that I didn't understand what it meant in that context and went to the dictionary.  Here is what the dictionary said:

 

1. To stand together; to be in a fixed or permanent state, as a body composed of parts in union or connection. Hence, to be; to exist; to subsist; to be supported and maintained.

 

I was stunned for in my mind here was the answer to one of the greatest scientific conundrums in history.  The creative and sustaining force of Jesus Christ holds the atoms together!  The scientific community simply refuses to see this because it would mean that God has to exist and that would be a real problem for them.  This verse served to increase my faith and I hope that if you are reading this it will increase your faith as well.

 

"Melody of Creation" - 36" x 65" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $925.00 SOLD

This larger painting needs to be viewed up close and in good lighting!  The texture and colors merge to create some very intricate and detailed surfaces that cannot readily be seen in this photograph.  Hmm...  that reminds me that sometimes we need to take a closer look at the people in our lives so we can truly understand them instead of cramming them into the mold of who we think they are...  just saying...   Anyway, this painting is yet another piece inspired by shows such as "The Universe", "How the Universe Works" or "Through the Wormhole".  I really enjoy watching and listening as scientists try to explain the creation of the Universe without God.  I mean really...   First there was nothing, then there was a bang and something appeared and over 13.7 billion years this nothing expanded to form our current universe and this all happened by accident!  That is one incredible accident!  Then all of this STUFF started to coalesce into suns and solar systems and galaxies all by the work of gravity/accretion.  The more of these shows that I watch (and I watch a lot of them thanks to the wonders of DVR...) the more I see that gravity is the god of most Cosmologists.  For me it is much easier to simply believe that God said it and it was...  I guess it simply comes down to whether we choose to believe in the Bible as the word of God or choose to believe in accidental fate.  That is the beauty of free will, we can believe what ever we want.  Either way, this universe of ours is a very beautiful and awe inspiring place and I am very happy to be a speck of dust on a tiny planet somewhere in the Milky Way.

"Beneath the Drought" - 24" x 20" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $250.00

Here in the mid-west (as in much of the US) we experienced a terrible drought last year.  There were days that I felt as though I could actually hear the ground and trees groaning for a drink of cool, refreshing water.  I remember walking out into the yard with our dogs and feeling the grass crunching under my feet!  The rain teased us a few times with just a sprinkle, but then one day the rains came in earnest and I believe it was renewing not only to the earth but to our spirits as well.  I stood outside for a while soaking up the big drops and thanking God for the rain.  In those moments I became inspired and rushed inside to start this painting.  I remembered that even as the rain waters the earth; we are also watered and refreshed by God through the renewing power of His Holy Spirit!

"Day One - Ashes to Ashes" - 24' x 40" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $425.00 (SOLD)

Here is my version of the post apocalyptic world we were all afraid of during the cold war.  That is if you are as old as me and were alive back then!  This heavily textured painting is rather bleak and barren but I suppose that is what one would expect to find the day after the bombs fell.  Those days were very fearful to many and it is troubling to hear that some countries are starting to threaten the use WMD's again.  Mankind never seems to tire of finding new ways of killing and new reasons to start wars.  Jesus warned us that it would be this way...  Mt 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  One day he will return in power and glory and then we will finally achieve the "world peace" so many people have been wishing for.  A special thanks to my new collector who purchased this painting from a show at the Springfield, MO Creamery Arts Center.