A B-1B Lancer — like this one –flew over my block on Monday. The noise was incredible, weird and thrilling. Ajax did his thunder bark, hackles up, jumping and barking at the ceiling. I looked out the front window and there it was big and banking and low over the end of my block. It […]

For reasons I’m not even certain of myself, I’m reading Douglas Hofstadter’s new book I am a Strange Loop. I read about it in Wired and just had to have it, even though it is very unusual for me to have to have a book like that. I mean, I even pre-ordered it at […]

Val takes in the first of our grape harvest. Click play to see him pick some grapes. If you cannot see the slideshow above, or wish to see a larger version of this slide show, click here.

arrives in Long Beach, CA.

… of color work on Val at Work.

Today’s progress on Val at Work.

… its flowers are hidden and tiny pollinators leave through a private gate. Read about it here.
On the lunch menu in Eden. My lunch today: Figs, yogurt, toasted walnuts, honey. They were eating it in the Jordan Valley 11,000 years ago.

It’s been a back-to-painting-basics summer. I haven’t been able to paint full-time for a while and I just couldn’t seem to get myself started again on a regular painting schedule. So this spring, I bought a couple of strong beginners’ books and just started all over.
Part of this exercise was going back to some […]

Today … laying in the lightest lights …

And the darkest darks.

Now a little drying time.

A day’s work on a portait of Val. (15 X 30″)

Declare your disbelief! Stand up for Reason — and cool typography — with nifty House of Reason merch! Get yours now.

Inspired by this morning’s missionaries: A door sign to decrease those unwanted Evangelical intrusions! Click here to download the .pdf file and print your own. (Made with love by Cohens.)

Click “more” to see a picture of my sign on my door.  

God knows this isn’t what I thought I’d be doing with this painting, but after a long time studying the problem (See The painting I want, below) I realized that the mid-ground of the painting had grown too light — had lost all traces of its orange underpainting. The lightness of the area was pushing […]

Frustrated with Box 150, I started looking closely at it — through the macro lens. Here are 13 landscapes it contains. If you cannot see the slideshow above, or to see a larger version of this slide show, click here.

Here’s the thing, this painting has some things about it — deep deep down in its DNA — that I just don’t like; things that can only be changed by starting a new painting with a slightly different blocking and underpainting. These things seem to assert themselves a little more each painting session and I […]

Val makes his fig pizza. Turn on captions for some recipe tips. Click arrows to move through pictures. If you cannot see the slideshow above, or to see a larger version of the show click here.
Michelle! thank you for the slideshow inspiration.

Lick yourself a swamp cooler and hunker down. Mid 90s in LBC today and Ajax has the only AC in the house.

• The National Hurricane Center
• Times-Picayune Storm Watch
• WWL-TV
CNN reports temperature of Gulf waters today: 86°

Reworking shadows to add vibrancy will be a two session process.

Soon … Box 150.