I had a vacation from my job recently, which gave me a lot of time to work on this piece. I started the drawing at the beginning of the vacation and about 8 days later it was finished. The last time I worked that hard for that concentrated of a time was the Illustration Master Class. I'm very proud of this piece, and I'm glad it didn't take months to do, which would have been the case had I not had this vacation. It stayed fresh and I never questioned what I was doing with this piece. For me this piece is all about power and force. When painting bark, you really get a sense of how the tree has grown. How it's skin has broken from the force of it's insides, how the branches erupt out of the body. It gives me the feeling that trees have a very violent life in some respects. December Maple , 14" x 20", Oil on Paper on Masonite, 2011.
or, How I am Learning to Slay the Mighty Blue Whale