The Eternal Garden Shop http://tinyurl.com/cwbax Some of my artwork can be bought here.

Don't forget to photograph your art!

I just started this blog recently and loaded up some of my artwork.  My problem is that with all the paintings I've done over a span of 40 years or so, I've had the habit of not photographing them before they were gone, sold, or in cases witha couple of  my murals, they were eventually destroyed in a fire or painted over by new owners of buildings. In this way I must have let thousands of my original paintings slip through my fingers without getting their images for a portfolio. If I ever get the chance I may have to track some down and get hi-res photographs of them. If you are an artist and reading this, don't make the mistake I did. Always get  good photos of all your work, and share it with the world!

                                                          my 1983 conte drawing of John

My Raymar 6th Annual Fine Art Competition submission

                                                                 The All-Attractive Couple
This is my most popular painting. I have entered it in the Raymar 6th Annual Fine Art Competition for the month of October  http://raymarartcontest.com/

The Swing Pastime painting

                                                  "The Swing Pastime" acrylic painting -4 ft. X 5 ft.
I painted this in 2002 for a client. It took about 6 months to complete (on and off work).This is the first big figurative painting I've tried to do in acrylic. It has quite a different look than if it were done in oil.  I have sold about 700 or more of the 1000 signed and numbered limited edition prints.

Visitor from Above

                                                                 "Visitor from Above"

Surrealism to some people is elephants with butterfly wings flying to Venus, or dripping watches.

In other words, it's just nonsense with no real special message. You get out of it what your mind 

feeds into it, that's about it. When I painted this one for a client, he had a special message he

wanted to convey... An angel showing compassion for the creatures of the sea. The angel has come 

to visit and console the sea creatures as they suffer from human stupidity and carelessness, ie.

oil spills, chemical dumps, nuclear melt-down spills, plastic waste, and who knows what else!?

The UFO in the background symbolizes another visitor from above - they are here taking notes on 

how absolutely criminal and insane the ruling elite of planet Earth really are. They are just observers 

who also have compassion for earthlings, but they also know the destruction of this planet directly

effects the rest of the universe and their own planet. Anyway that's what my client wanted and he loved the result.

                                                                         Orca Straight
 I've done a series of wildlife paintings over the years. Many of my paintings were derived from actual photos I took while traveling around the B.C. Gulf islands.

                                                                   Eagle at Lion's Peaks
Back in the 90's I painted this from an eagle photo a friend gave me. Then I added in the background the Lion's Peaks mountains seen from Vancouver. I showed the painting to a friend the day it was finished. He showed it to his friend who showed it to a relative, who called me up and said he had to have the original, so I sold it to him. I'm still selling prints of it .

 My 62 ft. long mural in Brentwood mall Burnaby BC Canada. I taped off the wall, sprayed in the sky, the surface water and underwater sections, then stared painting the rest by hand.

                           Those electrical wires sticking out of the wall is where a big sign used to be. They were later cut off and plastered over. I love orcas, a mothers with her calf is just a natural beauty to behold!

  That motorized scaffold really helped me get the job done. I was zooming back and forth alongside the wall, zooming up and down the wall, and never had an accident!  The only downside was it cost $700 a month to rent!

                                                I had fun painting an orca doing a back flip.

                     Beginning stages , paper and tape is still up after lots of paint spraying / airbrushing.

 This is the left side of the mural where I later some dolphins, orcas and two cute otters floating together on the surface.

 I had some dolphins jumping in front of a boat, some seals, squid, schools of fish etc. This is the right side end of the mural, unfinished.

 I chose to work mostly after the mall closed so I could concentrate and get more done faster. Whenever I did work during open hours I'd end up talking to lots of people and answering questions. Two were building owners who hired me later to paint their walls.

 Two white areas on the base is where two large aquariums with fish would go and extend upwards to the water line of the painting. So some of my work would be seen through the glass of the aquariums.

                  Half-way point and lots of wall still  to cover, I stop for a 3 second smile break.

The entire painting took about 3 weeks. I completed it in the fall of 2008. The mall management were quite pleased. 

Mandalas and Yantras

                                                      Shanti Yantra of the Peaceful Mind

                                                                    Sri Ganesh Yantra

                                                            Sri Lakshmi Mandala Yantra
In the past I must have created hundreds of mandalas and yantras. Behind the geometry and speculations and religious connotations about yantras and mandalas lies a much deeper significance related to focusing our meditations and aligning our chakras with the Holy Spirit, the Paramatma, the Energetic Source of Life, the Goal of the Soul, Vaikuntha (where anxiety has no jurisdiction), OM Shanti (where total Peace and Wisdom prevails), and Goloka (the ultimate realm beyond birth, disease, old age and death, where you obtain an ever-youthful spiritual form made of sat-chit-ananda (eternity, bliss and knowledge). Yantras and mandalas are just a simple means to an end - which of course is eternal ...never-ending.

Tribute portrait

A sample of my psychedelic work under my REB brand.
This is a tribute to my dear deceased nephew Jared.