Hello all, yesterday I was an art vendor in the Canyon Arts Festival in Gold Canyon Arizona. It was an excellent show in it’s 13th year. My friend and super cowboy musician Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneers were the entertainment headliners. My girlfriend, Dale Gorny, had her three nieces, Kerrie Zeman, Becky O’Hearn and Erin Wilcox, and her 1st grand-niece, six month old Alice O’Hearn visiting from chilly Chicago. Erin actually just recently moved here and now lives in Scottsdale, and her sisters may have to come to the realization that she might not be moving back.

 I sold some artwork and fully enjoyed the balmy Arizona winter day. The girls all went for a hike in the beautiful Superstition Mountains and got to see some 1500 year old ancient petroglyphs from the Hohokam Indians. They hiked the Hieroglyph Trail out of Gold Canyon AZ to get to the site. I have hiked there several times and it is an area I find a lot of artistic inspiration from. It must be something about the connection to the ancient artists that carved their art on the walls of the canyon that I find appealling. The trail is called Heiroglyph Trail even though what you eventually get to are technically petroglyphs. Some of the early Arizona settlers had must have been in the desert sun to long and got confused that they might be in Egypt. Anyway it is a great hike and a good area to plein-air paint in. The next art show I am in is the Lost Dutchman Days Rodeo February 27, 28 and March 1st. I will be displaying a lot of my cowboy and western themed art. And I cannot forget to mention this: “GO CARDINALS, WIN THE SUPERBOWL!” I have been waitning 20 years to be able to say those words.

I have attached two versions of Becky and her husband, Jamie O’Hearn’s wedding portrait of several years ago. Click the small box at the top of the large image to see a small version of the painting. The big version shows off my stunning brushwork and brilliant color composition. Enjoy!