I’m illustrating a series of children’s books and the first letter on each page will be a unique piece of artwork in and of itself. Here are some examples.

Below is a project that I did for Stamp Services at the Postal Headquarters in Washington DC. In honor of Jamestown, I was asked to colorize some very old stamps. The border was left as is, but I colorized the image inside. The row of three stamps are the ones I worked on. They were not stamps that would be for sale. The pyramid stamp was the one that would be sold. The artist that did the triangle stamp did a great job and I’m honored that my colorized stamps were displayed with his beautiful stamp.

The envelope below was another project I was asked to do in cooperation with a stamp artist. Mark designed a sheet of stamps commemorating the Civil War. I had been commissioned to do a painting of the first bloodshed of the Civil War. It happened when a train with new soldiers arrived at President Street train station in Baltimore, Maryland. The soldiers on the train were members of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania state militia regiments on their way to the national capital at Washington. They’d been called up for federal service. Only four soldiers, all officers, had uniforms. The train with its new soldiers was to be taken, car by car, to the station at Camden Yards. Each car would be pulled by horses. According to Wikipedia, the train was attacked by antiwar “Copperhead” Democrats (the largest party in Maryland) and other Confederate sympathizers at the President Street Station, on Pratt Street. The attack is known as the Baltimore Riot of 1861.

The fighting started there at President Street Station , spread to Howard Street and ended at Camden Street Station. The riot produced the first deaths of Union volunteers in the American Civil war. Five union soldiers were killed and thirty-six wounded. Twelve civilians were killed and unknown hundreds were wounded.

President Street Station, a building in ruins, was completed restored in 1997. I worked on the painting of the riot for two years, going to numerous reenactments to photograph soldiers in mock-combat. The final painting was put onto the envelopes for the opening celebration. A special cancellation stamp was created by stamp services. Mark’s Civil War stamps were put on the envelopes. On a rainy evening that April, the new museum was opened. Mark and myself were present to autograph envelopes for guests. It was an amazing experience. I think I said at the moment that I was so giddy, I said, “If I died tonight, I’d die happy!” It was such an honor to be there and a part of a great celebration.

As I said, the riot ended at Camden Street Station. At another time, I was commissioned to do a painting of the first baseball game played at the newly opened Camden Yards baseball station. The man who hired me flew in a helicopter above the first game and photographed the event. Afterwards, I was allowed to pick which photograph I wanted to work from. This, then, is the product of that event.

The following painting is very special to me. The woman in the painting is a woman from the village I lived in while in Germany in the 1980’s. She and another woman were working in a potato field. I did paintings (watercolor) of both women. I’ve been unable to find a photo of the second woman. The one below was my favorite of the two. Just the painting of it was an amazing experience.

In 2014 I began a brand new line of art. Using pen and ink and some zen-tangle techniques, I morphed it into works like those shown below. Each work, full of patterns, also contain bits and pieces of story.

Below is a larger image of the Blue Crab, so you can see the details of the story elements.

The next painting, a watercolor, is called Mending the Sails. A man named William Gates is the captain of a tall ship harbored at historic St. Mary’s City in southern Maryland. He and his crew dress in the garb of a historic time and portray history for visitors to teach about tall ships and sailing. I came across William at a demonstration where he was showing how a sail was mended once upon a time. Hence the name. This then is William doing just that…mending a sail. This painting took me two years. I used no black and no white. The white you see is the white of the paper, so I had to be extremely careful not to get any paint where I wanted white. This was the reason the painting took me two years. As I neared its completion and only had to paint those area in and around the white, I had to be very careful. Sometimes I would only get five minutes of work done before I would be exhausted.

There are many other examples of my work. Below, left to right, Brooke, done with pencil, Archie, done on my iPad using Procreate, a Guinea Fowl feather from my Guineas, and an illustration for a children’s book, done with colored pencil.

Oh, my, I almost forgot Einstein. This was my Golden Retriever. The piece was done with colored pencil. His image is only four inches tall. This piece took me about eight hours.

Finally, I’ll close with my favorite painting, a watercolor, called “The Gift”. This woman was from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. I came across her photograph in a book at the library. It was called People of the Sun. I wrote to the author/photographer and he gave me permission to use any of his work I wanted. He closed the letter with “Keep Your Powder Dry”, a photography term from the days when a flash was from a line of powder that was ignited to create momentary light for the taking of a photo.

I apologize for the watermark over her image. This is my favorite painting and the watermark protects the image from being hijacked.

I have painted many many works of art of various subjects and from places I traveled. Many were never photographed before they were sold. But I have enjoyed sharing the work shown here with you. Thank you for taking time to have a look-see.