landscape

Cabrillo Bridge Balboa Park 30″ x 40″ Oil on Canvas 8/2008

This painting, of an off ramp from Rt. 163 as it snakes its way through Balboa Park was done from life on site in the late morning light. The tower in the distance is the Musuem of Man. One of my favorite San Diego paintings thus far.

Behind the StarLight 30″ x 42″ Oil on Canvas 10/2008

Behind the StarLight is a larger painting that was started from life in Balbao Park in a spot that was behind the Star Light Outdoor Theater. I was moved by the play of light, gestures and abstract shapes of the scene as well as the funky topography and mood of the place. For several reasons I decided to finish the painting in the studio and wasn’t a plein air work.

Balboa park’s overwhelming number of picturesque scenes keep many San Diego painters busy however I am more attracted to off beat and the un-picturesque spots like this painting’s subject in the thinking that it more interesting to find new forms of beauty and wonder in the unexpected and mundane.

Under 15 30″ x 46″ Oil on Canvas 9/2008

When I was a teenager I used to spend a great deal of time on turnpike on-ramps hitch-hiking alone to where ever I could get to, Washington, Detroit, Philadelphia, sometimes with no particular destination – just to keep moving. Over the past year I keep returning to these images of highway overpasses and on-ramps in part for my nostalgic wanderlust as well as their often overlooked monumentality.