Door County co-op

This is an oil painting I did a long time ago. It's a 12 X 24" oil on canvas. The interesting thing about the whole thing is that it is now a part of Door County (Wisconsin) history. These buildings are no longer there. When you go to this site now the trees and buildings have been replaced by moorings for boats and on land and up the hill are a lot of condominium buildings. Like any resort area there's a lot more money to be made in condos than in an old grocery store and fish warehouse. This was in the town of Sister Bay. It's still a nice place; the park here has concerts often in the summer for all the tourists, fishing boats still take people out onto the Bay to fish in open water.You can go to a fish boil almost any evening in one of the Door County towns in the summer. Even after 30 years of mowing down some of the past, Door County is still a charming place to visit. There's even a plein air painting festival in July. While these buildings are gone, there are still some remarkable old buildings still standing and I intend to paint them.

Portrait / Kotah Moon

I met Kotah during a residency I did called the Fields Project about five years ago. I lived for about six days with a farm family as did the other artists. It was a good time and I would do that again. One of the other artists lived at the house across the way. He's about as tall as I am but outweighs me by 30 pounds and presents an imposing figure. When I got to know him, I found him to be friendly, generous and a kind and sensetive person. He changed his name for personal reasons. Kotah drives a converted ambulance which has the space and carrying ability that would serve a metal sculptor --- carries a lot of weight. While I was out plein air painting, Kotah was using a torch to cut designs in metal. When the weeklong art experience is done there's an art show on the following Sunday in a park in Oregon, Illinois. His work is quite beautiful -- metal sculpture and jewelry. Kotah, from Poland, Indiana, does a lot of outdoor art shows during the year -- traveling here and there in a scheduled pattern week by week. Me, you ask?????....I just don't like to do outdoor shows and especially mall shows. I used to do a few shows in malls when I first started painting, but then I heard people walking into the mall saying "Look there's an art show going on." They are there to buy shoes, clothes and snacks, not art. Whoops! almost forgot --- the details on the painting --- this is a portrait I did from a photo -- about 11" X 14", oil on linen.