The Wave When I was first
asked to do horses in 1980 for an album cover for Bob
Seger, My response was "I don't do horses" Well I gave it a
shot anyway and when I heard that
people were buying the
album just to frame the cover,
I changed my mind about
painting horses. Of course I did this with a little
surreal Jim Warren twist, blending the
horses into one of my great
loves, the ocean waves. The Wave was
painted in 1992.
Riders on the Storm
Music had a big influence on me in the beginning of my career as an artist in the late 60s. Not surprisingly some of my
paintings were inspired by, or at least titled after some of that music. I named this
painting after the Door's
"Riders on the Storm" a moody
song which inspired this
moody painting.
Wild Spirit
They only come out at night
The idea for this painting came to me after observing that
there are strange and unusual people that you see out late at night, that you just
would not see during the day
hours. If fantasy creatures did exist, I'm sure they too would only come
out at night!
Against the wind
Wild watersAs a child I
often watched the rolling
waves of the ocean crash
upon the rocks and shore. I was intrigued by the
shapes that appeared within
the water, seemingly forming
whatever my young
imaginative mind could dream up.
Hence, the birth of Wild Waters,
my most published
painting. Wild Waters has been
published on calendars,
greeting cards, posters, limited edition prints
etc.
Night Moves It has been over 25
years since Bob Seger and the art
director of Capitol Records "convinced me" that I "Could" paint horses. It has
been one of my more re-occurring
and popular themes in my paintings
since that time. This latest painting "Night Moves"
which I named after Seger's hit song
from the 80s, is the moonlit version of my most popular painting "Wild
Waters" , which was inspired by Seger and the horses I
painted for the cover of his album
"Against the Wind" I am happy to hear
Bob Seger has a new album and is
touring again.
Out of the Blue
As a teen I questioned everything, including God. In a discussion
once with my Dad, who is
not particularly religious, he said to me
something to the effect of
"Do you think all this beauty in the world
just happened out of the
blue?" That was certainly something for me to ponder for years to
come.
Trees of Life
I thought it was
intriguing how all of
life depends on other life to
survive. I guess that's partly
where the phrase
"Circle of Life" comes from.
Spirit In the
Night
Splash
Spirit of Play As I grew up I learned the horrible truth; that life is not all play and no work. But as I grew up more, I learned as
well that work, as well as play can and should be done in the Spirit of
Play; meaning ANYTHING can be
fun if YOU make it so. The child in this
painting was a candid shot I took of an
unknown little girl running on the beach. It was about 5 years later when I came up with this idea that fit
her so perfectly.
Alaskan illusion.
I have alsways liked to hide things in my
paintings, exept this time I have the reflections showing what exactly I was
hiding just so no one misses a horse ot two.
AvalancheWith
Christmas coming soon I
thought it time to
paint a little freezing
snow. My eight year
old daughter
came up to it when it
was finished and
said "Oh look! The
horses start turning into snow and then start
turning into rocks up
there". That reassured me that it
was indeed finished
After the Storm This painting is a variation of my classic painting
"Avalanche" While some artist
can paint a similar theme over and over, such as horses, oceans scenes, flowers etc, I find that I get very bored if I
paint something similar within 3
years. The challenge for me
is to continue thinking up new
themes, a challenge I feel
kept me as ambitious today as when I began painting 35 years
ago.
Rollin' Like Thunder
It is not only sights that make up the beauty of nature, it is the sounds as well.
The beautiful, yet dramatic and often violent
sounds of such natural
occurrences as the crashing ocean waves,
crackling thunder storms and snow avalanches seem
to come alive, like a thundering herd of galloping
horses.
The horses in the snow
I have always enjoyed those pictures as a
child where you find the hidden images within the landscape.
I showed this to my 15 year old
daughter Drew to see what she
thought. At first she said it is
horses and then she looked and
some of the horses became mountains and
the horses disappeared. That's how I
determine that the painting is
completed.
Peace on Earth Horses are the most
beautiful and peaceful species on the planet I
believe. Besides having great beauty and grace,
they don't squabble over such issues as economics,
religion or the color of their skin as we humans
often do. In fact, it occurred to me that if horses were the only
species on earth, there truly would be peace on
earth, except then we humans would not be
there to experience it. I guess we will just have
learn to follow their examples.
.
Out of the mistOne thing I have always done with my paintings is try to make them come to life as if to be a
part of the real world.
Horses in the Wild
Because at times I hide things in my paintings, people
are always looking at shapes
within my paintings thinking there is something
there ...usually unintentionally on
my part. Here I have intentionally
hidden some horses without
saying how many, just to see if
people can find them all, or find more that I even
intended.
Running Free On Sept 11th, 2001 I was on the
little Hawaiian Island called Kauai after just completing a show tour of the islands. Although we were
on one of the most beautiful islands in the world, things looked pretty grim after hearing the news
from New York. The feelings most felt was that this is the end of freedom as we have known it. On March 11th, the 6th month
anniversary of this event, it occurred to me just how strong & resilient people can be when they truly believe in something; in this
case freedom which for us in America is symbolized by the American Flag. I have been
painting the theme of freedom ( personal freedom,
religious/spiritual freedom etc.) ever since I became an artist in
high school. For some reason this theme has usually been
symbolized by me by running horses. This is the story of this painting which was started on
March 11th, 2002.