"Island Fresh Ruby Red"

8" X 8"oil on masonite

Seriously. Sometimes some of your silliest paintings are also your most successful, and this is one of my own personal favorites. It's about a couple of different things; but mainly it's about the difference in value between wattle and feather. The difference, when setting up your palette, between being deliberate and being all willy-nilly. I prefer being deliberate to being willy-nilly for the most part with paintings, but then again, let's not forget that there is certainly a time to be willy-nilly. In fact, I'm feeling a little willy-nilly right now, to be quite honest. And maybe the trick is to be kindof majorly deliberate for the most part, but with a nice juicy splash of the willies from time to time, in painting as well as in everything.

A Sincere Thanks to All Who Showed Up.

The Oceanside Gallery Opening Evening Reception at 7PM at the Oceanside Gallery turned out real great. A sincere thanks to everyone who was able to make it and support both Tony Kirby and myself. I got to meet some really smart/kindof intimidating local artists and also got to chit-chat with the Bellevue crew who came out to represent big-time, and you know; I'll tell you this right now: If you ever have to move to a town and you're new or whatever, and you put yourself out there and decide, "Hey, yeah, I think I'll show some of my paintings." And then opening night rolls around and you're kind of worried that nobody's going to show up- Know one thing: The Bellevue Clinic is down to represent itself at your function, guaranteed. A bunch of scintillating, good-looking, quality human beings. And I love them.

And so, speaking of quality human beings: Dr. K. Keller, (pictured at left, in burgundy, holding a jacket or something. Not the older dude in olive with the wineglass.) is the type of guy who, when his comrade is at a charity auction, and his comrade's painting is being auctioned, and there are no real takers, and the comrade is becoming more and more mortified by the moment, Dr. K. Keller is the type of guy who will raise his arm and cry, "$300 over here!" And basically get the bidding going again so the comrade/artist ends up getting a decent price for his painting after all, instead of having to slink out of the auction not only not having donated sufficiently to a worthy cause, but also feeling like a roomful of people think your painting sucks. So this one's for you, Dr. K. Keller: You are the true definition of a modern valorous gentleman and I, for one, just want to pick you up and give you a hug.