Hotel San Jose

8x8 oil on stretched cotton canvas
$100 unframed (email me if interested)SOLD
This is the second painting in my series of Austin landmarks. The Hotel San Jose built in 1939 is located on South Congress. It is an urban bungalow-style hotel. It is rumored this is where all the celebrities like to stay when in town.

Amy's Ice Cream

8x8 oil on stretched canvas
$100 unframed (email me if interested)SOLD
I am painting a series of Austin landmarks on 8x8 canvas that is 1 1/2" thick. I have decided they would look the best in a floater frame. I am going to get Jim to make me some frames as soon as I am through. So for I am thinking there will be 12. They could be left unframed as I painted the sides too. My daughter has lived in Austin for ten years. Over the years she has introduced me to a city full of art and culture. "Austinites" take pride in being different in their lifestyles. They have adopted a motto, "Keep Austin Weird" which refers partly to their eclectic lifestyles and also for a campaign that preserves and supports small independent businesses. This is what I wanted to represent in my paintings. Thanks Kristen!

Prickly Pear

6x8 oil on cotton canvas panel
$75 (email me if interested)

We have lots and lots of these in our yard. They begin blooming in June. The pads and the fruit of the cactus are edible. The fruit is ready after they blossom, in the late summer and early fall. Just be careful of the spines on both! The tiny ones on the fruit are really hard to remove. In a drought, ranchers have been known to burn off the spines so their cows could eat the cactus for the liquid inside. I made some note cards from this painting. I would like to paint a series of cacti paintings, especially one with the fruit because I like the contrast of the red fruit against the green pads.

Enchanted Rock

12x16 oil on stretched cotton canvas
$500 (email me if interested)

The Rock is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres. It is one of the largest batholiths (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) in the United States.
Tonkawa Indians believed ghost fires flickered at the top, and they heard weird creaking and groaning, which geologists now say resulted from the rock's heating by day and contracting in the cool night. A conquistador captured by the Tonkawa described how he escaped by losing himself in the rock area, giving rise to an Indian legend of a "pale man swallowed by a rock and reborn as one of their own." The Indians believed he wove enchantments on the area, but he explained that the rock wove the spells. "When I was swallowed by the rock, I joined the many spirits who enchant this place." Jim and I climbed to the top a couple of weekends ago. I took lots of pictures to paint.

Big Bend

Big Bend National Park, Texas
8x10 oil on cotton canvas panel
$250 (email me if interested)

Luna's Jacal

9x12 oil on cotton canvas panel
$200 (email me if interested)

Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas consists of over one million acres of mountains, deserts and rivers edge. It is full of wild and fascinating history. This small hut called a jacal built from rock, earth,and plant fiber was built by Gilbert Luna in the late 19th century. Gilbert Luna lived in this small house with his 38 children born by six different wives. He was a hard working farmer growing melons and beans. He died at the age of 108 in 1947. I really enjoyed painting the blue tint in the shadows of the hut. I assume the desert atmosphere and shade of the mountains give off a blue haze.