10″ x 10″ Acrylic impasto on canvas paper, linealist style. 2015. Pigment applied using palette knife only. Attempting techniques learned in Maria Lyle’s Illustration Techniques class last year at ACC. Referencing a work photo I took last autumn in my yard, when we had an unusually heavy butterfly migration through here lasting several weeks.
6″x10″ Prismacolor and Verithin colored pencils on Strathmore Bristol Vellum. My daughter-in-law Cecilia with her pet cat Lady Inquisitor Le Mew. Drawn from a photo to practice blending and contrast. Harder and more permanent Verithin pencils establish the basic drawing and dark color baseline. Softer and brighter Prismacolor pencils enhance color composition and blending. The scan image did not capture the paintings colors accurately, so color levels have been adjusted to better present the picture’s character.
Acrylic on canvas, 2011, 16″ x 20″, framed. Depicts colors, textures, forms and themes used over 3,000 years ago by artists of Pecos Valley rock shelters. The palette is limited to natural pigments available to prehistoric rock painting: carbon black, red ochre, yellow ochre and shell white, in addition to colors employed for rendering the rock face. Interpreted from photograph by John Hafner, 2001, by permission.
These prehistoric pictographs were probably created over 3,000 years ago by the people then living in the area. The area is being studied extensively. A number of books, photographs and web sites are available for further understanding. The archaeological sites are protected and preserved by several cooperating organizations including the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the Rock Art Foundation, and the Archaeological Institute of America SHUMLA School. You can access some of these awesome pictographs much more easily and conveniently than John ever did by visiting the Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site west of Comstock, Texas.
24″ x 18″, Acrylic on canvas, framed. Textural elements define positive foreground spaces. Neutral yet visually active color defines negative space.
Interpreted from a photograph by Jamie T. Hill of Goodwood Plantation, Louisiana, used by permission. Design transferred freehand.
“Le Chat du Cici”
8″x8″ Prismacolor and Verithin colored pencils on Strathmore Bristol Vellum. Another picture of Cici’s cat, working from a photo to practice blending, contrast, chroma and value. This drawing was done as a study prior to the last picture posted of Cici’s cat.
A picture of my daughter-in-law Cici’s cat, working from a photo to practice blending and contrast. 8″x8″ Prismacolor and Verithin colored pencils on Strathmore Bristol Vellum.
18″ x 24″, Acrylic on canvas, framed. Color Study No. 7, 2009, an original painting by Michael Alvin Hill. Repeated elements and symmetries unified by perspective intensifies depth and sense of purposeful strength.
Interpreted from personal photograph, taken 8/24 1989 with permission of Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. Ansel Adams first photographed this architectural masterpiece in 1941, from a slightly different perspective. The church was undergoing some renovations at the time I took my own photo. I omitted the scaffolding from this rendering.
An excellent article on the Acoma Pueblo is written by David Zax in the May 2008 issue of Smithsonian Magazine entitled “Ancient Citadel.”
“Upright Prairie Coneflowers” 8″x8″ Prismacolor and Verithin colored pencils on Strathmore Bristol vellum.
“… let it be remembered that this really the aim of all art; to give us some comfort by helping us to comprehend, to mentally master what we can never get the best of physically.” – Jeffrey Feinman, “The Mysterious World of Agatha Christie” (biography)
“The creative life is a constant striving against one’s inherent and often insurmountable limitations. “
– Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
