New Works at Helikon for Hometown Heroes!

Informal Chat. 

Mixed media (watercolor, India ink, acrylic inks, UV protectant varnish) on watercolor paper mounted on birch.

This 8" x 10" painting is one of five pieces that I'll have in the exhibition, Hometown Heroes at Helikon Gallery  

The opening is this Saturday, July 28th from 6-10 pm!

Informal Chat was inspired by all of the magical faery-folk in tales and legends. I've always loved little guys, lanterns, owls, and the natural world, so this piece was a blast to create :]

Here are three more of the ready-to-hang works available at the show or through Helikon's site. These are wood cut-outs (mixed media works on watercolor paper mounted to hardboard). I used watercolor, India ink, acrylic inks, and acrylic gouache. The finished works are then cut out on a scroll saw and coated with UV protectant varnish.

Two of these cut-outs (the rooster and mouse; approx. 9" x 15") were inspired by folk tales, while the froggy-fellow (approx. 5" x 10") was inspired by the footman in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Hope you'll join me and all the other dynamic Colorado artists for Hometown Heroes--plus amazing new figurative works by Ryan Morse Underneath in the Annex Gallery!

If you can't attend, or would like more information, just click on this link:

Hometown Heroes

And all works (and more!) are available online through

Shop Helikon Gallery

Please support artists and the arts--it's more important than ever.

As always--Thank you!

Happy Holidays with the Little Guys

A Little Guy by W. Heath Robinson.

The musician above is from an old sheet music illustration. In it, he's following a lovely, dancing wood sprite. Within the illustration, he's only about 1/2" tall--but what personality and expression!

There are few things I like better than the elf-like, faery-like, Hobbit-like people of legend who are full of character and life.  Include in that the Little Guys, my own label for all the goofy humans drawn over the centuries by artist/illustrators. You can find them everywhere, sometimes greatly caricatured, sometimes with gently exaggerated features, always packed with vitality and infused with some mystery. Hunting for and collecting new Little Guys is a favorite pastime of mine--here are a few of the best.

The Wild Man. A.B. Frost. 

Arthur Burdett Frost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._B._Frost) illustrated many books full of regular humans, and he's probably best known for his pictures of Brer Rabbit. But his versions of little guys are pretty matchless. The sinister Wild Man above is an illustration from the Lewis Carroll poem, Poeta Fit Non Nascitur (which, according to google translate, means: "The Poet is Not Born"). I love his face and that broken symbol of  bad luck sticking out of his hat.

Snow, Real Snow. Honore Daumier.

Probably my favorite lithograph--or image--of all time. Maybe. It is perfection though, not only in the stance and wonder-filled expression of the fellow, but in the absolutely spot-on light and atmosphere of an early, snow-filled morning.  Am I crazy, or is this not the peerless evocation of a universal feeling? Perfect verisimilitude!

And if you do think I'm looney, please just accept this picture as my 

Happy Holiday Peace-Wish 

(via the genius of Daumier) 

for you.

Thanks, as always, for reading!