4: Not so still life

A lovely summer day, and here I am, my head buried in the engine bay of an elderly Rolls, drawn by all the polished brass and aluminum. As with the finned manifold of a blown Alfa, or the bewildering complexity of a mighty Merlin, or here with the carb and air cleaner of a Rolls, the beauty of vintage machinery can be as alluring as the exterior. In the case of my little Citroen 2CV, not so much.

Oil on Canvas, 2008 22" X 28"

3: Reclining Nude

Aston Martin Odalisque is an Oil I completed late last year, a DB6 double overhead cam engine, that reminded me of a reclining nude, smooth, powerful, sensual desirability, lounging in one of the sexiest coupes ever built.

This was great fun and started me on a series of automotive detail paintings with the goal of a show here in Nashville, perhaps at Jeff Lane's superb museum.

Oil on canvas, 2007, 48" X 24"

2: Phil Irving

I just completed this painting of Phil Irving, legendary engineer for Phil Vincent's magnificent bikes. I took the reference photo in 1974 at the Wellsboro, PA Vin rally, where the organizers had brought Mr. Irving up from his native Australia. Crusty and brilliant, he was a treat to meet and listen to, and a rare opportunity for us to get the inside view on design decisions and his book, Tuning for Speed. 

Oil on Canvas, 2008, 24" X 36"

1: Learning the ropes

Sara is sitting next to her aged dad-in-law, introducing me to the "blogosphere". So here I go, into the shallow end of the web-pool, spammers circling hungrily. I am loading recent oil paintings onto Flickr, as a test of my newfound "skills". Here's the first addition.

This is the first in a series of automotive paintings, created in 2008, of  images I've collected over the course of my wanderings for the last 40 years. Oil on canvas, 2008 36" X 36".