4"x6" oil on raymar panel. This is the last of the beach paintings I did. That makes it sound as if I painted a lot of them when I really painted just the two—one looking north and one looking south. Don't have much to say about it... Well, here's something: I think the thin strip of ochre off in the distance is Pismo Beach. My guess is probably wrong, but there you go. • If you want to see what an artist hiding from the sun under towels due to lack of sunscreen does when he gets bored, look at the picture below. Yes, I am one of "those people" who stacks rocks (I think they're called cairns). What can I say? It's fun until one falls on somebody's canine that gets too close. Posted September 30, 2011 sold • private collection woodland hills, ca
10"x8" oil on canvas panel. It is not often that a painting makes a grown man scream, but this one did. To clarify, it was the way it was painted that made the man scream. First off, it is probably best not to stand behind me and watch me paint. There might come a time in the process when I scoop up a glob (a glob being anywhere between a quarter to half an inch in mass) of this color and that color and that color there and, yeah, maybe a blotch of that color over there and—unceremoniously and without mixing—scoop up the whole mess and plop it on the painting. I have my own reasons for doing this—none of them sound. The glopping and plopping made the gentleman freak out for a second and the scream came forth almost sending me flying into my painting. I think he actually thought of jumping forward to save me from myself, but after it went down and got all mooshed up, he calmed down and just needed a chair to sit on for a while. It's nice to know that I cause visual pain not only with my paintings, but with my process of painting as well. Posted September 28, 2011 sold • private collection west hollywood, ca
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. Okay, I am prepared for all of the complaints that are going to come in from the Avila Beacheans. It will run basically like this: "Where the heck is our pier?" Being the snot artist that I am, I will just reply, "Artistic license." Then run for cover. I omitted the ever-so-lovely structure for the sake of my painting—it would have looked like ant scrawl. (Never mind the fact that I also wiped the beach clean of people.) Anyway, I usually don't post on Mondays, but I am currently changing into my "framing-not-painting" frame of mind because the Beverly Hills show is coming up next month. That's right, they judged me back in. Once I start at the woodworking, my mind tends not to stray from it. It would actually be really dangerous if it did stray—it is always good policy to pay close attention to an 80 toothed blade spinning at high RPMs. Posted September 26, 2011 sold • private collection beverly hills, ca
10"x8" oil on canvas panel. A painting such as this teaches you things as an artist. What those things are, I have no idea, so I keep the paintings around hoping that I may learn from them in the future. • Here is a little extra for you. Check out Anneke van der Werff's blog. It is entitled "odeblog, weblog van anneke van der werff" and it is one of the coolest little personal collections of art in the blogosphere, and I am not just saying that because she has been gracious enough to include me in the eclectic mix. Hey, any assemblage that includes me with the likes of Egon Schiele and Giorgio Morandi is a wonderful collection in my book. Go take a look: www.odeweblog.blogspot.com Posted September 22, 2011
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. Now, if you were to see this illustrious structure in person, it would only serve to confirm my insanity. "Where the heck does Raymond get those colors from?" Or worse... "Does he actually see all those colors and what color is the sun in his world!?" All valid questions, for which I have no (sane) response. Posted September 20, 2011 sold • private collection houston, tx
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. Both the Spousal Unit and the Mother Unit didn't think I should paint this. Neither said anything, but... uhuhuhuhuh... man, could I feel it. Being the insensitive person that I am, I went ahead and painted the little derelict house with its cool collapsed porch and beautiful, beautiful flowers out front. Yes, the title is a joke. I do not think Edna even has a mayor. It is one of those quaint places where, after seeing the little green population sign, you wonder where the heck that population is. (It's a beautiful place, you should visit it. Just hang a right at Pismo Beach.)
10"x8" oil on canvas panel. Somebody (the "body" shall remain nameless) said this looked like me. Must the the long black hair and earrings. Posted September 14, 2011
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. These little cameras are great subject matter. So great, in fact, that I have started a small, stumbling campaign to acquire some more. When I started to look, I wanted only cameras with fronts dominated by gray/silver. Those gray areas offered a painting playground for me. So, when I started to acquire cameras that had black fronts, the Spousal Unit was a little stumped. "Why," she asked, "did you pronounce that you were only going after gray faced cameras and then go out and get some black faced ones?" My retort was, "Exactly! That is how it is in Raymond's World*. What's the fun in going after what is safe and familiar to me? The challenge is going after the thing that is out of my comfort zone." She just shook her head and walked away. I didn't get cookies that day.
*Raymond's World: A dark, egocentric (male) place where others should not venture. Posted September 13, 2011 sold • private collection orange, ca
10"x8" oil on canvas panel. I have a bunch of paintings lounging about that I need to photograph and torture you with. Amongst the queue are a bunch of these portraits. The real need is to document the pieces before they go off to do war in the Beverly Hills show, but torturing your visual sensibilities seems like a better excuse. Anyway, here is the lovely Stacey for your perusal and, hopefully, enjoyment. I went a little gray on the skin tones here—don't know why—maybe Lucian Freud's ghost was hovering about or I was just in the mood. Well, gray for me anyway. Considering that my skin tones usually make peoples' retinas explode, I would say that the above is a little gray for me. Posted September 8, 2011 sold • private collection west hollywood, ca
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. I present to you Bill's Place, a local watering hole in the wonderfully bustling Arroyo Grande Village (The Village of Arroyo Grande—whatever). Spawn Number One kept looking over my shoulder to see if I would make the words "Bills Place" and the little shamrocks printed on the front of the awning legible. Considering that the letters would be the size of pin heads— actually smaller than pinheads—I did not strive for that level of accuracy. Posted September 7, 2011 sold • private collection burbank, ca
Comments: My friends David and Carol Marine just lost their house and studio to the fires down in Texas. (Click on this LINK to read about it.) A fund has been formed to help tide them over during this trying time. I would like to donate about $200 to this fund. Ah, there is the rub for me: I need to earn the $200 to donate the $200. To get my grubby little hands on the money, I have placed four of my small daily paintings up for eBay auction. To insure the procurement of the funds, I have slashed the prices of the paintings to $50 each (plus shipping and our wonderful California Sales Tax). The four paintings are pictured above and their corresponding links to their auctions are listed below. All proceeds from the sales shall go to David and Carol. May sound like an odd way to help, but this is the way I roll. So, please peruse the paintings above and if one or all catch your fancy, please place a bid(s). Remember, my shipping department (Mrs. L) is always happy to group paintings together to save on shipping. Thanks for your help and your continued support of my art. Posted September ,6 2011
6"x4" oil on raymar panel. This wonderful gentleman is a good friend with a strong association to my family. As a matter of fact, I believe he may be the only non-family member, that I know of, who has known all four of us Raymonds. That's right, there are four of us on the books; two passed and two living. (We punish long and hard in our clan.) Anyway, Mr. K has a great look—I could do a whole show's worth of paintings of just him and I just might. Yes, that was a threat (he would love me using him as a threat and then be upset when I tell you he is one of the nicest people I know). This little portrait was actually painted a while ago and I just got around to showing it to you. It contains a bunch of little experiments (hues and temperatures) and I need it for future reference. Posted September 2, 2011
sold • private collection burbank, ca
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. You may recognize this radio from a previous larger painting I did of it. (I know, I know, a 16x20 is not that large, but lately it has become large to me. So there.) Well, I thought I would do a small painting of this red radio before returning it to the eagerly awaiting hands of my sibling. Sometimes, when I request to borrow an object to paint it, people think that I am actually going to "paint it," like with pink paint or something. These are the same people that when they ask what I do and I reply that I am a painter, they immediately ask me for a quote to paint their kitchen. Anyway, this is a good time to talk about the evils of radio grilles. When confronted with grilles on a radio, I may sometimes delve or descend into the world of insidiously isolated abstraction. Isolating a section of a piece like that, of course, risks the whole painting going bleck (bleck is an artistic term derived from the Teutonic "blechunziekrapper" which, bizarrely enough, is related to the word "plotz." Such as, "I went to see Jackie Mason's show and I laughed so hard I plotzed.") The best counter to this isolation is to dance about the painting, not focusing too much on any one area, lest it becomes isolated or worse, precious. So, in the end, when I paint these radios with their nefarious grilles, I tend to move about the painting. As an aside, I am also looking for old radios that to do not have grilles so that I will not, in the future, type such a long and obnoxious commentary. • The above commentary was actually typed a few days ago and wasn't posted because I have been happily painting and forgetting to post. Anyway, after reviewing it, I have come to the conclusion that it is totally inane and should be ignored—the commentary, not the painting. Posted September 1, 2011
sold • private collection sykesville, md
