But sometimes paintings just happen. Ajax on the Kitchen Floor (24 X 48 inches).

Think you have a tough job? Join the military. Here is my new desktop, made from a photo of a jet engine at the March Reserve Air Force Base, Airfest 2088. The Airfest is a type-o-rama of warnings and designations. This one seemed like just what I needed during the last days of the CaliforniaAuthors […]

The newly re-designed CaliforniaAuthors.com is up and running. I always say — in terms of design and building — there are no small websites, but this one really doesn’t qualify as small; in fact, it’s big, with its 70+ author essays and excerpts, its many pages of directory-style resources, and its more than 1800 […]

Damnit! It turns out that I can’t do a major website relaunch and keep my whole house out of whack with my do-it-yourself realist painting workshop. Too much chaos! Website work wants order! Okay, break down the still life, resked the whole thing after the launch and visit of M&M next weekend.
On the M&M visit […]

It’s crunch time on the californiaauthors.com redesign. [sketch] Thanks to Val, the shiny new site is already living and breathing on the test server and I am filling it up with the copious content CaliforniaAuthors has built in six years of operation. Val made the blog-port from Graymatter to WordPress look like a piece of […]

I’ve seen lots of paintings in the last few weeks: three juried group shows and an exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art. It’s been good; it sent me off on my current realist exercise and it’s been sort of encouraging. I feel a happy understanding of the language of paint. It is good […]

Sigh. Spent the whole morning resetting my still life. That’s right. The still life lesson of the day: still lifes must be absolutely still. It seems that over the week since I set up the still life the first time, things have moved around just enough to make my original drawing seem off. Now, this […]

I spent the afternoon mixing medium into color — sitting on the back porch, listening to Miles Davis and thinking, “this is the best goddamned job I’ve ever had.”

Wow, things are suddenly so busy here — only time to bang out a roundup.
Doing: With Val’s hot, under-the-hood stylings, I’m redesigning a new and streamlined CaliforniaAuthors [sketch], with a simultaneous rework of thenightnote [sketch]. Also: I’m still on board with Claudio, helping him with the lightning-fast launch of his dream practice. While he works […]

Another still day with the still life. A good day. No full-blown vertigo spells, a little general dizziness. Thanks for all the love! Now some drying time for the little painting.

Thanks to all for the good wishes. My vertigo gets less and less every day. Today I set up a little still life with the honey pot and stayed still all day. I didn’t have any of the bad vertigo spells, just a little general disequilibrium. I’m done for the day, but I’ll put some […]

Californiaauthors.com is celebrating the paperback release of Ed Humes’ Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion and the Battle for America’s Soul with a cool giveaway. We’re having a drawing! And, two lucky winners will get an autographed copy of Ed’s book. Visit CaliforniaAuthors to learn more. And get on over there, because the drawing is Friday. […]

Finally getting there, just a few more sessions to go. I took Ilana’s great suggestion for an Iron Oxide glaze. Thanks! Now some drying time before the next round.

Okay, dragging my ass home from Fluklahoma — as slow as the Greyhound local, stopping at every little bumfuck town from here to Wellville. I got a euro-postcard from M&M. Yeah, got to keep in touch. So here’s a little news from the road back to Normal (wherever the hell that is).
Listening to: Amy Winehouse. […]

Had to do a little something or go loco from flu-based cabin fever.

Deadlines, budgets, style conflicts, all kinds of little and big things, can lay a pretty rigid track for creative thought. We use a direct approach and our well-vetted set of strategies to get it done and move on to the next thing. We are especially apt to take our first idea and go with it […]

… and madass mountain biking coach Andrew Lucas has been keeping an eye on The Night Note from Denver. This weekend he e-mailed to wish me Happy Festivus and was generous enough to tip me to his very cool Photoshop “woodcut” technique. (He’d seen the sketches I’d done for Mike’s solar co.) He writes: […]

Friend and californiaauthors.com co-publisher, Donna Wares has a new book coming out in May: Great Escapes: Southern California. The book also features images by Night Note friend and renowned photographer Rick Rickman and a first person story on fighter-pilot fun by Val Cohen!
Today, the book’s cover went up at Amazon. Wee! Let the pre-orders […]

So I was working for my last client on earth today when this fell out of an old notebook. Fresh as ever.