Art Schedule

San Francisco Flyway Festival
Mare Island, CA
February 6-8, 2010
http://www.sfbayflywayfestival.com/artists.htm

Galt Winter Bird Festival
Galt, CA
January 30, 2010
http://galtbusiness.com/index.aspx?page=495

Western Section of the Wildlife Society Annual Conference
Visalia, CA
January 27-29, 2010
http://joomla.wildlife.org/Western/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=208&Itemid=276

Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival
Morro Bay, CA
January 15-17, 2010
www.morrobaybirdfestival.org

Central Valley Birding Symposium
Stockton, CA
November 20-22, 2009
http://cvbs.org/

Sandhill Crane Festival
Lodi, CA
November 6-8, 2009
http://www.cranefestival.com/

Monterey Bay Birding Festival
Monterey, CA
September 24-26, 2009
http://www.montereybaybirding.org/

Friday Art Hop
Library in Lodi, CA
September, 2009 (reception on September 4, 2009, 6-8:30PM)
http://www.lodi.gov/library/

White-tailed kites

"Day patrol", gouache 8"x11" (Original $200, no prints available)

Salmon paintings

"Kings of the West", watercolor 8"x10" (original $250, print $50)


"The dog pound", watercolor 8"x10" (original $250, print $50)

Canine paintings

"The clever one", gouache 15"x20", (original NFS, 11"x14" print $75).


"Arctic soul", gouache 15"x20" (original NFS, 11"x14" print $75)

Owls and raptors

"A Swainson summer", gouache 7"x10" ($150 original)


"Byron's hunter", 7"x10" gouache ($150 original)


"The night watchman", 6.5"x10.5" gouache ($200 original, $50 print)


"Autumn hunter", 7"x11"gouache ($170 original)


"Great horned owl", 7"x10" gouache ($170 original)


"The glance", 7"x9" watercolor ($150 original)


"Red-tailed hawk intermediate", 9"x12" gouache (SOLD)

Sandhill Cranes

"Isenberg twins", watercolor 7"x10" ($220 original, $50 print)


"The call of the cranes", gouache 7"x10" (SOLD, limited edition print soldout).

Horses

Horses are fun to sketch and to paint. The muscles and their almost human-like faces makes it really challenging. This painting is of a friend's Welsh pony. "Solar", gouache 10"x15" (SOLD).

Turkey vultures

Another one of my favorite local birds. Not quite local since they have quite a range in the US. They are beautiful to watch in flight. This one is called "Beauty queens", gouache on watercolor paper, 7.5"x9.5" (SOLD, $50 print).

"Dynamic duo", watercolor 7"x19" (SOLD)

"Blaze and Flower", watercolor 8"x10" (SOLD)

"Saying hello", watercolor 8"x10" (NFS)
This is a painting of my older daughter with Billy Bob.

"Grass dancer", watercolor 7"x10" ($300 original)
Painting from a local pow-wow held last month.

Notecards

Le musulman

Watercolor and gouache, 8"x11" (NFS)

Delta mallards

watercolor, 9"x16" (SOLD)

American cowboy

Gouache on watercolor paper, 8"x10" ($400 original, $50 print)

"Waiting her turn", watercolor 8"x12" (NFS)

insomniac paintings

There are several paintings that spring from drinking coffee late in the day. Usually, it is a facial expression that has been burned in my memory from the day. This is one of those paintings. This one's called "A good conversation", gouache and watercolor, 7.5"x10" ($400 original, $50 print).

The reader

Painting of a homeless man, always with a book, I used to see at the corner of a street a couple of blocks from my house. Have not seen him in a while. Gouache, 9"x12" (NFS, $50/print)

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta landscapes

"Levee road", watercolor 11"x20"


"East Bay", watercolor 7"x17"


"Diablo sunset", watercolor 7"x17"


"Delta farm", watercolor 7"x17"

Kankanaey woman

The older women of the Sagada region in Northern Philippines often wear beautiful beads and jewelries during ceremonies. There are a few that wear the snake skeleton around the head also. This is a painting of a woman in Kilong, my ancestral village. Watercolor, 8"x10" ($300 original).

Fulani woman

A quick sketch/painting of my Fulani mom from Cameroon.

bass fishing

"Another bite", gouache 8"x11"
"Fish on!", gouache 10"x13" (SOLD)

folklorico

"Victory dancer", 8"x10" watercolor ($300 original). The dancer was actually surrounded by several other dancers but I was too lazy to include the others. The dances were held during Earth Day festival at Victory Park, Stockton.

Fish paintings

Threadfin shad (6"x4") and American shad (7"x4")

These are a couple of fish paintings for a book a friend is writing.

Bob and Sabby

The athlete

My first daughter was born with some complications. She was in intensive care the first week of her life. She came out very pale and very quiet. I spent my time in the ICU watching her chest go up and down and watching all these monitors around her. It was not a good start to fatherhood. That was eight years ago. She is now up to my shoulder, a smart girl, and very athletic. She was an extremely good gymnast and had a promising future in the sport but she decided that she wants no part in competitions. I was disappointed at first but I can not impose a sport on a child. She's a great swimmer now but I am sure she will give that up too. Somehow, however, it does not matter. It sure beats being at the ICU. NFS.

Yellow-billed magpies

My all time favorite bird.
"Yellow-billed magpie before flight" (SOLD)
"Yellow-billed magpie in flight" (SOLD)

Fascination with owls

"Burrowing owl" (SOLD), left and right....


"Great grey owl", "Spotted owl"

Bris

Most of the farmers I worked with in Gabon were old men. It seemed that because of their age, they were reliable and had great work ethics. I worked with only one young man who was like them. Bris was younger than me and was very quiet but he always got things done. This is a portrait of that quiet man. Painted from my journal sketch, gouache on watercolor paper, 6"x8".

The flowergirl

This is a painting of my daughter with my two sisters before my brother's wedding in San Antonio, TX. It was a beautiful wedding. 12"x12" gouache on aquarelle paper.

Some fish paintings

"Running sockeyes", 11"x11" gouache on watercolor paper (left, $300 original, no prints), "Tarpons!", 11"x11" gouache on watercolor paper (right, $300 original, $50 print)...


"China rockfish", 11"x14", "Roosterfish", 11"x14"....


"California scorpionfish", 11"x14", "Vermilion rockfish", 11"x14"....


"Starry flounder", gouache on watercolor paper 11"x14"


"Canary rockfish", gouache 11"x14" (original $150, no prints)


"Night swimming", gouache 12"x15"

Paintings from a POW-WOW

"Elder dancer", gouache 7"x10", "Red shawl dancer", gouache 8"x10"

Boy from Cameroon

Gouache on watercolor paper, 7"x10".

Untitled monk portrait

Gouache on watercolor paper, 7"x10"

Okba weaving a basket

On my last month in Gabon, the farmers I worked with gave me farewell gifts. Most were special things they owned like a mou-mou (traditional gown), a horned-bill skull, and even an elephant's tooth. Even though I had told them I wanted nothing but memories, they insisted that I take something tangible from Africa. Paul Okba, a farmer who drank malamba (palm wine) for breakfast, had started working on a basket about 6 months before I left. He was a farmer that worked hard when it was necessary but usually never listened to my advise. For example, on a site visit, we had found a perfect "walking distance" location to build a fish pond with a perfect source of water, a natural spring. I told him not to denude the vegetation around the spring to keep it from drying up. Of course, on my next visit, the spring was barely trickling. It had been stripped of vegetation because he wanted to build the fish pond on the spring source. Anyway, he was still a nice guy. He did finish the basket, however, a week before my departure. This painting is of Okba completing the base of my basket, gouache on watercolor paper, 8"x12".

Mariachi in a Thai wedding

A good friend of mine, who took care of me (and saved my life!) when I had malaria in Gabon, had a wedding in Dallas a couple of years ago. It was a colorful Thai and Vietnamese ceremony with her sisters wearing long silk-like gowns. The men were wearing tuxedos, however. A mariachi band played lively music for their wedding. It was purely American. This painting is of an old mariachi guitar player from the wedding. I tried capturing the man's intensity and concentration. Gouache on watercolor paper, 9"x12".

These paintings were recently shown at the Central Valley Birders Symposium. Sharp-shinned hawk, Lewis's woodpecker...


White-breasted nuthatch, Lewis's woodpecker again...


Swainson's hawk (SOLD), Red-tailed hawk (SOLD)...


Rose-breasted grosbeak (SOLD), another Rose-breasted...


Turkey vulture (SOLD), Red-headed woodpecker (SOLD)...


Common loon (SOLD), another common loon (SOLD)....


Atlantic puffin (SOLD)....


Spotted towhee, Black-and-white warbler.

new paintings shown at the Sandhill Crane Festival

These paintings were shown at this past weekend's Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival. Western tanager (SOLD), Northern saw-whet owl (donated), Short-eared owl...


American kestrel, White ibis of Sanibel (SOLD)....


Sandhill crane preening, Snow goose, another Sandhill crane preening....


Cooper's hawk (SOLD), and the non-native Chestnut-fronted macaw.

"The Filipino nun" NFS

Obame

This is a portrait of Obame, one of the hardest working fish farmers I worked with in Gabon. He barely spoke French and my Fang sucked so I had a little difficulty communicating with him. But it did not matter. NFS.

"Woman from Sagada"
gouache 6"x7" NFS.

"Papa Yebe" (SOLD)

More paintings of Cameroon

"Man from N'goundere", "My sister Awa"
The family I lived with in Cameroon was fairly wealthy. My father was a big man with 3 wives. I had 17 brothers and one sister, Awa. There were 4 houses in the enclosed compound where the wives and their children stayed. It was quite the communal living.

A good man from Cameroon

I spent a couple of months learning French in Cameroon. I lived with a Fulani tribe in N'goundere, a Muslim town. This painting is of a friend from my short stay there. Gouache on cold-pressed 8"x8" watercolor paper.

More paintings of Gabon

"A dance for Chef Bruno"
gouache 8''x12''
This was from a sketch I made after a very late night celebration for the village chief. As always, this went on until sunrise.

"Mama from Mintoum", gouache 5''x8'' (SOLD).
This is Gaston Akamayong's (one of my really old farmer) wife, a really head-strong woman who, at 60, still carries a load of wood for cooking. This was based on a quick sketch I made of her one morning.


"Baka children", gouache 5''x7''
Painting from a long pirogue ride up the Ivindo River near Makokou. Bakas were the pygmy tribe that I stayed with for a few days.

A few Gabon paintings before Survivor destroys the country

"Gabonese nun", gouache 5"x6" (SOLD)
Gabon is a beautiful country with beautiful people. There are mud houses and people do go to the forest ("en brousse") for meat but they do wear western clothes and they do live in houses just like us. The TV show "Survivor" is an embarrassment to Gabon's culture. They show nothing of the country's beauty and the diverse people. They show stereotype of what we think Africa is. They kept showing film strips of gorillas and other mammals when the fact is, you have to go really far inside the forest to see them. It took me several months before I encountered a gorilla in the forest. And I needed a pygmy guide to see my first forest elephant. Ah well, what do you expect from Hollywood? Anyway, this painting is based on a sketch I made of a Catholic nun from Libreville. I just sold this painting to a kind woman from Orange County and when I was talking about the painting, my eyes started watering. I have a harder time letting go of paintings of people. But, I am glad they often go to good homes.


"Old Bwiti drummer" 5"x7" gouache
Children in Gabon, especially boys, start tapping on anything rhythmically with sticks. I once saw a 6 year old boy, about the age of my oldest daughter, making rhythmic tapping on a tin wall using a couple of short twigs. Drumming is just in their DNA. This painting is of an old man, about 65 years old, during a Bwiti evening. This was from a sketch I made after another all night eboga-induced ceremony.

Gabon

"Lafille dancing" gouache, 6"x8"
This was my farmer's illegitimate daughter dancing during one the many Bwiti ceremony I took part in. I had several sketches of people dancing in my journals. This is just one painting from the journals.


"Muslim man at Owendo", 5"x8" gouache
I watched this man pray on the sidewalk for half an hour while I sat in a train waiting for the conductor. It was an easy sketch to make since the man barely moved other than to move from bead to bead every few seconds.

"Girl from the Pow wow"
gouache 9"x12" (SOLD, $50 print)
This girl was striking. She was surrounded by several other dancers but she stood out from the crowd. I was able to erase the background noise and just focus on her in this painting. Based on a sketch.

Tidings of magpies

Gouache on watercolor paper, 12"x16" (SOLD, prints available $50/print). This painting was used for the Central Valley Birding Symposium held this November. The birds are based on photographs I took of magpies from Oak Grove Regional Park in north Stockton. This painting was bought by a gentleman from Corpus Christi, Texas.

Some up coming art fairs where I will be with some of my work:

39th Annual Columbia Fine Art Show
Columbia, CA
Sept. 21, 9-5pm (Sun)
www.columbiacalifornia.com

15th Annual Big Valley Arts and Culture Festival
Merced, CA
October 4, 2008, 10-4pm (Sat)
www.artsmerced.org/news_events/index.html

Sandhill Crane Festival
Lodi, CA
Nov. 8-9, 2008, 10-4pm (Sat-Sun)
www.cranefestival.com

12th Annual Central Valley Birding Symposium
Stockton, CA
Nov. 22 – 23, 2008 (Sat-Sun)
www.cvbs.org

2009 Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival
Morro Bay, CA
Jan. 17-19, 2009 (Sat-Mon)
http://www.morrobaybirdfestival.org/

13th Annual San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival
Mare Island, CA
February 7-8, 2009 (Sat-Sun)
http://www.sfbayflywayfestival.com/

13th Annual San Diego Bird Festival
(tentative)
Mission Bay in San Diego, CA
March 5-8, 2009 (Thurs-Sun)
http://www.sandiegoaudubon.org/birdfest.htm

And more birds

Sandhill cranes (SOLD), Tundra swan (SOLD)...




Great egret (breeding), Black oystercatcher (SOLD), Bonaparte's gull (breeding, SOLD), Bonaparte's gull-non-breeding (SOLD 11/22/09)...


Bonaparte's gull flying, Caspian tern flying (SOLD)...there is a Caspian tern that has been visiting the South Delta where I work. I took several photos of it as it dove to catch bluegills. Simply amazing. I've only seen Bonapartes during winter time.


Tufted titmouse (SOLD, not found in West), Bonaparte's gull...


Northern harrier (female)...this is a female that keeps hunting by the field next to my lab.

A few California fishes

Pacific lamprey (SOLD), Lingcod (SOLD)...


Chinook salmon, Delta smelt (SOLD)....


Delta smelt and Longfin smelt (prints available), Pacific lamprey...


Kokanee (non-native), Steelhead...


Delta smelt, California scorpionfish

Zen birds

Franklin's gull, Greater yellowlegs...


Laughing gulls, Black-necked stilts sleeping...


Cattle egret, American oystercatcher, Anna's hummingbird (SOLD)...


Crested auklet (SOLD), Forster's tern...



Barn owl (SOLD), Yellow-bellied sapsucker...


Sandhill crane (SOLD), Common loon (SOLD)...


Lewis' woodpecker (SOLD), White-tailed kite, Black-crowned night heron (donated)....


Sanhill crane (SOLD), Barn swallow...


Yellow-billed magpie (SOLD), Western grebe, Western gull...


Yellow-rumped warbler (SOLD), Barred owl (SOLD)...


Lewis' woodpecker, American oystercatcher, Pileated woodpecker (SOLD)...


Snowy egret (SOLD), Surf scoter (SOLD)...


Downy woodpecker (SOLD), Redbreasted sapsucker, Northern flicker (SOLD)...


Frigatebird (SOLD), Great cormorant (SOLD)...


Brown pelican (donated), Bufflehead (SOLD), Burrowing owl (SOLD)...


California quail (SOLD), Common tern (SOLD)

home

This was a painting adapted from Kuya Leo's trip to the Philippines. This painting is titled "Guitarang Pilipino", 18"x14" gouache on watercolor paper.

affluence

I've always painted people who are not rich. And so when a friend asked me to paint a portrait of a member of a really wealthy family from my hometown, I had my hesitation. It did not help that they developed a lot of agricultural and wild lands for their cookie cutter homes and strip malls. In the end, I did the portrait and the painting came out authentic. As expected, however, the family wanted it "touched up" since it was "too loud". So I said, whatever. I fixed the damn thing which I never do for anyone. I left the revised painting with their security guards at the gate hoping that that was it. But their assistants called again 2 times after that. I never called them back. They probably wanted me to put more blush in her cheek. Anyway, even though I take photos of all my paintings, I refuse to show that one. So, instead, here is a painting of 3 working class old men. It is called "The Storyteller", gouache painted on 18"x14" watercolor paper. It won best of show and first place in a couple of shows last year. It's up in a mantle in some wealthy family's house now.

pacific seabirds

The Pacific Seabird Group meeting was held in Washington last month. A friend of mine brought my paintings and some merchandise for me. One of the paintings sold was this painting I had done of a lesser yellowlegs. This was actually derived from a photograph that another friend of mine, Marlin Greene, let me use. Actually, he is a really good photographer. Some of his works are up at www.oneearthimages.com . My photographs are no where close to his stuff. That's why I paint the birds instead.

Yellow-billed magpie

One of my favorite birds. Found only in the Valley. (SOLD)

www.magpiemonitor.org

Birds

Birds are souls with wings. This painting is titled "The Delta keeper" (SOLD), watercolor and gouache on 16"x20" paper. I am glad to see this painting displayed at a friend's home.

Chum

A gentleman from Maine bought this painting during a show in San Francisco.

Ella

Ella is my 2nd daughter. She's 4 now. This painting is called "First smile for Papa", colored pencil on 20"x24" vellum paper.

daughters

"Maya's flowers", 9"x12" watercolor painting on Aquarelle paper. My daughters are free models. No matter how much my girls drive me crazy sometimes, they still end up making me smile in the end.

Souk

I saw a lot of old men in Morocco wearing these gowns; I forgot what they are called. I love this painting but my wife thinks it looks like death coming. I titled this "Return from the souk", gouache on 11"x14" Aquarelle paper.

Morocco

My sister lived in Morocco for a couple of years. I visited her for a few weeks on my way back to California from Gabon. She lived in a town called Azrou, a pretty laid back town. This painting is called "Two women from Maroc", 9"x12" watercolor on paper.

Mama Africa

More than 2 years in Gabon has given me a ton of painting ideas. The mamas (an endearing term for older women) were always the happiest people, no matter how tough their lives are compared to the men. I think I miss them the most. This painting is called "Back from the field", gouache on 18"x24" Aquarelle watercolor paper.

Kankaney

This painting is called "The calming voice", gouache painting on 18"x24" aquarelle watercolor paper. This painting depicts 2 women from Kilong, a mountain village near Sagada in Northern Philippines, where my family is from.

I paint

This a visual blog. I post recent paintings to family and a few friends. Most of the paintings are of people I've met over the years. Several are from my journal sketches. "Wa ka ve?" means "Where are you going?" in Fang, a Bantu dialect. It is the phrase that one often hears from folks in northern Gabon when crossing paths.