My wife, Laura Cooper, and I have been developing our garden in the Mt. Washington/Glassell Park area of Los Angeles since the early 1990s. The various plants, and the things that live amongst them, have been an ongoing influence. In these paintings and drawings, the forms and growth patterns of sometimes larger than life vegetation are combined with the smaller, perhaps unnoticed, dramas that go on beneath those layers of growth. Portraits of insects made large. Masters of their domain in the manner of period paintings of landed gentry.

Desert to Jungle / 2001 / oil and wax on canvas / 46” x 34”

Garden Party / 2000 / oil and wax on canvas / 22” x 30”

Butterfly / 2004 / graphite and acrylic on paper / 11” x 8”

Bee / 2004 / graphite and acrylic on paper / 11” x 8”

Dragonfly / 2004 / graphite and acrylic on paper / 11” x 8”

Grasshopper / 2004 / graphite and acrylic on paper / 11” x 8”

Robber Fly / 2004 / graphite and acrylic on paper / 11” x 8”

Beetle / 2004 / graphite and acrylic on paper / 11” x 8”

Garden