This is my latest finished commission. Finished in Los Angeles, June, 2006.

It's a 6 sided hexagon canvas. 12" per 'hex', 24" across, so 24" x 24". Acrylic & gouache, mostly acrylic based gouache. I'm not sure if that's considered true gouache or not. A very good product put out by 'HOLBEIN' from Japan.

This collector has many of my prints, drawings and paintings. He loves the sea and the life in it, as do I. He asked me to create a complex sea-scape teaming with life. He also asked me to turn down the violence because he has babies and small children that will grow up with the painting.

I did not object to this. Honestly, I did not feel that this was a violent world. Often, my fish and sea life paintings are not about violence. Usually, I feel more violent and angry when doing human subjects. Which, obviously to me, makes sense. Nature doles out violent death as a way to live. Only humans make an absurd and perverse art form of it.

When I said "yes", did I 'cop-out' ? I wonder a little about that ... I don't think so. I see the ocean and its life as soothing and beautiful. Besides, I do lots of my own paintings that can be as violent as they want to be. I seem to be becoming less violent in my words, actions, and my work as I get older. And you know what? That actually upsets me. I guess my bad temperament was part of my youth. And as bad spirited as that part of me was, it was part of the youthful me, which is now gone forever. I'll have to adapt.

If you would like to see a small website where I have placed pictures of the painting while it developed, please click here: [link]

This painting was begun, as you will see if you go to the little website, with only blobs of paint let run amuck on a wet canvas. The animals formed from these random shapes. I do not always approach a painting that way. It was taking a chance because I have deadlines attached to my custom jobs. It helped me develop confidence to take that chance and succeed with a pretty good painting.

Here's a link to some 'SUPER-BIG' pictures of this painting if you really want to get into it: [link]