Sticks And Dried Mud

The painter Neil Welliver gives me permission to paint beaver lodges.  I was calling them houses.  I shied away from it at first, but it's just a bunch of sticks and dried mud with an interesting shape that contrasts with and echoes its environment.  9x12 oil on panel.

Looking into the Woods

Looking into the woods from a field or a road has always fascinated me, or rather trying to make a painting of what one sees when looking into the woods. Maybe that's why I am always attracted to the paintings of Neil Welliver. It's not easy coming up with something as interesting visually as what one sees. Welliver came up with his solution, a beautiful patterning that is landscape and flat abstraction at the same time.

This is only a sketch, with more to come, of looking into the woods. Sooner of later I will get what I think I am after. 8x10 pastel over acrylic on watercolor paper.