Sonoran Desert Sunsets-Pastel on Paper

Here are a couple of smaller soft pastel paintings I accomplished this past winter. I love the desert sunsets! The originals are so much brighter than the digital camera can capture. More to come.

NEW! Launch of Zazzle Store-Gurupainter!

I've been busy working on a Zazzle store "Guru Painter" featuring some of my paintings on apparel, posters, cards, coffee mugs, and many other items. It's a lot of work, but fun at the same time. Check it out...I've got a long way to go but I've got a good start, primarily on the Hummingbird Collection. Enjoy!! More to come:)


Look for a personalized gift at Zazzle.

Leaf Footed Bug on Passion Flower-Pastel Painting

Here is another Project InSECT flashback. Pictured above is a finished image of "Napoleon" the leaf footed bug on a passion flower 2006. This extravagant insect is found in Brazil and is so called "leaf footed" due to the "bell bottom" style back legs. The finished pastel painting is 16" x 20" on Wallis Museum Paper. (The best pastel paper in the world by the way:) I normally do not paint flowers and such in the backgrounds of the insects, but have from time to time taken on the challenge of leaves and flower petals. 

Prairie Buffalo Sunrise Pastel

I do realize of course that I have been blogging everything but insect work lately, alas, I have been going through a lot of my archives and found many works that have never been publicized or shown to the general public. This is one of these works. A 16" x 20" soft pastel on Wallis paper, which was a study for a large oil painting commissioned for Farmers Insurance Midwest Regional Offices, Overland Park, Kansas in 2002. It was the last corporate commission completed prior to the birth of Project InSECT. So you see, the sunrise foreshadowed with buffalo in the foreground, had a much different meaning for what was to come in my life... huuuummmm:)

New Pastel-Cactus Wren

I just completed this little 8" x 10" pastel last evening! I shot photos of these loud cactus wrens in April and just loved the pics I got, thus I was inspired to paint the little stinkers. I mostly took this small piece on as a study for a larger full body pastel in the future sometime. Hope you like!