Paintings
Paintings
Don's thirst for exploration is expressed in his sketchbooks and journals. Some are location drawings and others are abstractions of imagery encountered.
Don's thirst for exploration is expressed in his sketchbooks and journals. Some are location drawings and others are abstractions of imagery encountered.
He uses them as a wellspring of inspiration for his artistic pursuits. With pen, pencil, and watercolors as his trusty companions, he translates some of the sketches onto canvas, where they are given new life as paintings. This initially requires refining the designs into a vector model with a developed color palette. With this vector version as a model, Don draws it onto canvas using a grid system. The paintings are done using acrylic paints on museum quality canvas.
All work is for sale. Please email Don if interested.
All work is for sale. Please email Don if interested.
Services:
Acrylic paintings for home or corporate
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
Acrylic on canvas, 20x24”
A view out into the heart of the city from the 20th floor, looking down toward the streets below and up at the highrises as the snowflakes float by.
$2,200
DROWNED WORLD
Acrylic on canvas, 24x30”
An exploration of texture and movement in this beautiful wetland area in Washington state.
$2,700
KYOTO TEMPLES
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
A collage of shapes from the fantastic imagery in Kyoto.
$3,300
IMPRESSIONS OF LISBON
Acrylic on canvas, 30x40”
Attempting to capture the color, smells, textures, and activity of Lisbon in a collage.
$3,300
HAPPINESS
Acrylic on canvas, 20x24"
“Make up your mind that you will be happy whether you are rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, happily married or unhappily married, young or old, smiling or crying. Don't wait for yourself, your family, or your surroundings to change before you can be happy within yourself. Make up your mind to be happy within yourself, right now, whatever you are, or wherever you are.” - Paramahansa Yogananda
$2,200
MassMoMA
Acrylic on canvas, 24x30"
A walkabout piece, collecting and assembling elements of the various installations.
$2,700
UNCHARTED WATERS
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
This image to me is suggestive of something moving in water, with a big sail. Possibly a pirate ship or an old Chinese junk.
$2,700
ENSEMBLE
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
Based on an original pen and ink drawing that explores interaction of shapes, negative space, flourishes and contrast. All aspects in the flow of music.
$3,300
PLAYA WALKABOUT
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
This image was drawn in a sketchbook while visiting Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Walking along the beach into town early one morning, I was not finding anything in particular I wanted to sketch. Instead, I “collected” pieces of things of interest by lightly drawing them in pencil as I walked – a piece of shell, a washed up palm frond, detail in a veranda. Later I worked it up into a more finished image. This approach does not always bear fruit, but it does allow me to explore visual elements along the way. It trains my mind to look at everything more carefully. I think of it as a sketching walkabout.
$3,300
SUTRA
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
Another walkabout drawing, assembled while visiting Phnom Kulen in the Khmer mountains, outside of Angkor, Cambodia. I loved seeing the tiny village there, the enormous golden Buddha reclining on top of a giant rock, the lingams carved into the stream bed representing in abstract form the Hindu deity Shiva, and always the shrines with their intense swirling incense.
$3,300
AVIGNON
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
Composed from sketches done while exploring Avignon, Arles, and Nice. It is a composite of various elements, and meant to capture a feeling of architectural movement and form.
$2,700
IMPRESSIONS OF COIMBRA
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
Created from two drawings I did while visiting the hilly college town of Coimbra, Portugal.
$2,700
URBAN CANOPY
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
Urban spaces utilizing imaginary mushroom trees.
$2,700
ROPPONGI 1
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
I filled a couple pages of loose, abstract shapes from visiting the modern Roppongi Square and surrounding areas of midtown Tokyo. Later I reworked them into two images, in an attempt to capture a sense of intensity of this amazing place.
$2,700
ROPPONGI 2
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
A continuation of Roppongi 1
$2,700
PORTRAIT OF HERMANN HESSE
Acrylic on canvas, 30x40”
Interpretation from a paperback book cover drawing I did in pen and ink.
$4,500
TRANCE FUSED
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
The curves and contrast in the painting create a sense of movement, suggesting that the colors and shapes are flowing or merging into one another. This interplay creates a bold dynamic and engaging visual experience.
$3,300
INSECT DANCE
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
Extracted from an original ink drawing titled “Insectious”.
$970
AN INDEPENDENT THINKER
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
We can never really know the complexities of another person, their motivations, secret desires, or unconscious impulses. This was taken from a larger drawing originally titled Walking the SUV.
$970
MIXED FEELINGS
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
An exploration of form and figure. In this case I am showing what mixed feelings might look like by revealing several views of the same person, as his internal alliances seem to shift.
$970
VITAL SIGNS
In this piece, the hand, being so prevalent in ancient rock art, forms a gateway to envisioning other spheres of activity, whether of elementals, nature spirits, or states of nonphysical reality beyond our senses.
$970
MISTER SOMEBODY
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
I sometimes draw portraits based on photos I find on places like Instagram. The idea is to capture some quality of the subject while taking it into new areas, which are often influenced by the books I was reading at the time. This person seemed to have a certainty about him, and while I didn’t know who it was, I felt he was certainly someone important!
$970
BANGKOK TEMPLES
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
Another walkabout drawing I composed in Bangkok. I loved adding snippets of the amazing detailing and patterning I saw everywhere here, including the awe-inspiring great golden buddhas and official temples. Scents of spicy shrimp soups, clove cigarettes. In spite of the flooding from recent rains, I sat at a little floating coffee house to make sketches of Wat Arun and other temples across the Chao Phraya River. It was a challenge to keep the sketchbook and moleskin watercolor books dry.
SOLD
CEREMONY
Acrylic on canvas, 24x30”
It might be a shaman wearing a bird mask, or a dancer consumed by spirit. One can never tell!
$2,700
WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?
Acrylic on canvas, 24x30”
Based on a wild pen and ink drawing, the idea is of a person completely caught up in their own emotional world. They are so focused on structuring their response that they lost their grasp of the original question.
$2,700
INVOKING THE SPIRIT
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
I’ve spent many years developing my skills and understanding of West African, Afro-Caribbean, and Brazilian drumming. From this I am very aware of the trance-inducing aspect of prolonged polyrhythms. The actual drumming sets the context for spirit to enter. In this case, the dancer is wearing a mask carved in Burkina Faso.
$970
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
With self-inquiry we can understand - and better control - those things that influence and guide our lives.
$970
THOUGHTFORMS
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
The idea is that thoughts are things, and take on a life of their own. The more one ponders a thought, the stronger it become. We should watch our thoughts!
$970
THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
The interaction of all the shapes reminds me of the “ten thousand things” as mentioned in the book Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.
$3,300
A SUPERPHYSICAL REALITY
Acrylic on canvas, 24x30”
Based on a pen and ink drawing of shamanism
$2,700
TROPICAL MACHINE DREAMS
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
An integration of machine-inspired imagery with jungle leaves. Perhaps a primitive bio-machine?
$3,300
MIXED MESSAGE
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
Conflicting views are part of what makes us human, as we are all a work in progress toward deeper understand of life and purpose.
$2,700
SEEKING THE SUN
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
An imaginary scene from villages in the south of France.
$2,700
UNEXPECTED GUESTS
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
While we have so many ways to communicate with people these days, it now seems inappropriate to simply arrive unannounced at someone’s house.
$970
VEILED
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
While veiled typically means something alluded to, it can also mean a protection from something perhaps we are not ready for.
$970
THE HAND
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
Extracted from a larger ink drawing. A hand on a head with watchful eyes. There are patterns that we try to read, yet find it difficult to come to any conclusion without further clues.
$970
TAPAS EYES
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
Developed from an original ink sketch done at a tapas cafe in San Sebastian, Spain.
$2,700
OBSCURED BY FORM
Acrylic on canvas, 12x12”
A necessary challenge of the spiritual self is to gain control of our physical nature.
$970
CONCURRENCE
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
What is foreground and what is background? What is hidden, what is revealed? All forms are inherently unstable.
$2,700
LA CONNER
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
Painted from an ink drawing that I composed along the canal at La Conner.
$3,300
BEACH FIRE
Acrylic on canvas, 36x36”
An abstracted view of the wood, coals, and sticks being consumed in a fire, in this case on a beach at Lake Quinault.
$3,700
STILL LIFE WITH PEPPERS
Acrylic on canvas, 36x24”
A collage of imagery from the MET in NYC and fresh peppers in the farmers market, Seattle.
$3,200
THE PERSISTENCE OF RAIN
Acrylic on canvas, 40x30”
A contemplative study of patterns found in the temperate rain forest, from my window on a rainy day.
$3,900
SHAMAN'S DANCE
Acrylic on canvas, 30x24”
Mysticism seems to be a common theme for me, and this painting definitely explores the internal, otherworldly quality of etheric or non-physical realm.
$3,000
CHANCE ENCOUNTERS
Acrylic on canvas, 18x24”
I had a poem created on the spot by a typist at the local farmers market. It reads:
Sounds of crowds, of guitar chords and cymbals brushed and shining; Keep this day on record, pinned tight to the series of new noises made; The streets we walk polish down our shoes, the bright laughter of strangers startles; sets our minds to thought. No telling where the hours take us; how some chance encounter shapes the days still yet to come.
- Poem Store
SOLD
EVENTUALLY
Acrylic on canvas, 16x20”
The idea comes from passages in the book Masked Gods by Frank Waters.
$2,300
