The banner photo: "The Audience," and the above photo is titled, "Foursome Out for a Stroll." 

Boonville, Missouri Art Show that Ava and I sponsored, 1990

I hold an art show in Ava's hometown. We want to build an art business. This is what our lawyer called our "Dog and pony show" to procure investors. I want to put on the best art show in the town's history, and I bring in the best artists in many fields from two states, Illinois and Missouri. We rented the building, run radio ads, and run ads in the newspaper. Two are top notch painters of the brush, and one who lived in my home in Columbia mentored me when I visited his studio. He is selling his paintings directly to museums. He paints one thing; historical sea battles. When I walk into his studio he had a huge painting on the easel, and on that canvas he is painting the battle of New Orleans, in the war of 1812, with countless warships in the heat of battle, the ships are teaming with sailors; I am totally awestruck with the mere intensity of it all. He tells me, "Do one thing well and do it long enough to become the best." Well, that's not me; I like to do many subjects, but I heard him. I returned to his studio to show him one of my paintings. It is an elk crossing a highway at a pass across the Rockies, north of Denver, Colorado. He said, "I know exactly were this is, I grew up in that area, let me help you with colors, he said, "We artists guard our secrets well, use the Munsell Wheel, it is a five color art scheme much like what camera's use." Alas, an artist who knows how to mix colors and is willing to share the skill with others.

Sixteen years later, in 2006, I met the Dean Emeritus of the University of Missouri's school of Art. It was a weekend and he was sponsoring the weekend nude modeling art sessions. I attended several of them. I asked him after a class about the Munsell Wheel, and he said, let me show you a color wheel that shouldn't work but does, the Degas Color Wheel. Fifteen minutes later, he had changed my art forever. Two men, one just mentioned his wheel by name, and the other, one of the best colorists in the world, and I'm a new artist. A total of forty-five minutes spanning sixteen years, 1990 to 2006 and my art is changed. I'm one hell of a fast learner when it comes to painting. Imagine what I could've done with a degree in Art.

A painting for a couple in Beth's church near Hannibal Missouri, of their first home, this painting is oil.

The painting of the "Nathaniel Bowditch Clipper," 2006.

"Jessie Auditorium, Five Browns in Concert." Tools used are palette knife and brush, acrylics, and gesso on canvas.

"The Fins, Arches National Park." I painted this in 2002 with a torn right rotator cuff. the Doctor thought it would be excellent physical therapy.

"Sunbathers Reading"

A local Civil War battle scene is taken from a reenactment of the battle of Painter's Creek, Macon County, Missouri. One person was killed in an all day skirmish who died when he fell off his horse in the creek. I used the background of the Battle of Gettysburg for this oil painting, and it resides in my hometown's historical society, permanently. 

"The Grand Tetons with Ron and Rosie Powell."