Cancun is awesome!

This is Sunday, and we arrived last night around 11 pm from our ride home from the airport. Our flight was delayed for a couple of hours putting us home later than we were hoping for. All in all it was well worth it though.

My wife and I had never been to Cancun before, so we really didn't know what to expect. We flew down there last Wednesday, and was at our Hotel the Riu Cancun around 1pm. After a brief settling time, we went down to talk to one of the tour guides, and decided to go see the Mayan Ruins Chichen Itza. The ancient pyramids and in a nut shell, "It's well worth the trip"! We left our Hotel at 720am on a bus. Rode to a meeting place, where we changed buses to get on the one that drove us to Chichen Itza. It was about a 2 hour bus ride. We had a continental breakfast on the bus. Before getting to Chichen Itza, we stopped at a place where a big hole in the gound was. The tour guide said we could go swimming there if we wanted too, but my wife and I decided not too. Instead we opted for just taking pictures.

The Yucatan peninsula has no rivers or running water on the surface. Everything is underground. I guess when the Mayan found the big holes where the water was, it was like finding Gold. They stayed there, and built their cities. After the brief time there, we went on to a restaurant, for some lunch which was included in our package on the tour. The local Mayan descendants entertained us with some music and dance. I was able to get in few pictures while they were performing.

When we finally arrived at Chichen Itza, and after our brief tour with the guide which was very educational in learning how these ancient people lived, fought, sacrificed, and then their downfall. The pictures we took are just totally amazing! This trip did exceed our expectations.

The Hotel we stayed at the Riu Cancun I would recommend to anyone wanting to travel there sometime. The food is included in your package. So we went to the buffet everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All you can eat all the time can be rough on a person if your not careful! ;)

The swimming beach is magnificent, the sand if very soft, the air was nice, and the sound of the waves at night from our balcony was hypnotic to the sound. Making sleep very restful. The color of the ocean was turquoise blue.

Portrait of my Sister n Law

Another happy Friday night.

I just finished another portrait. This
time it's one of my sister in law, who lives in Germany. She is a very attractive lady, who makes for a good model to paint.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did painting it.

I really liked how this picture finished and thought I would post it. Hope you like it.

Feb 27th

I just finished another contest picture for Worth, but I will wait til the contest starts before I will post it. I want a fair playing ground! ;) and here it is! Lot's of fun making this one.

2nd Owl painting

My 2nd painting of a "Hoot Owl", at my wifes request.

"Spirit Horse"

"Spirit Horse"
Great emotion in making this painting.
It's pretty good to put something down that I actually learned from the late master.. Dr. Richard West, my art instructor..

Hand painted Portrait

Over the Christmas holidays I was able to get in a few good photo shoots, and came up with some pretty good photos. I was thinking about starting a thread in NAPP to show a step by step tutorial on how I painted this picture, but opted to post them here.

I will post the step by step process that shows each step in how I painted it. The end result I think turned out pretty good. Please write your comments and let me know what you think. Thanks Sid


The first one is the original that I painted from!

The second one is a rough sketch with some painting in the eyes.


You can see how I added to each step.

It took me about a week to complete this portrait. Since I do things the old fashioned way. See something and paint it! Hope you like it..

When Nations Gather!

I entered this in the photoshopuser award contest, in the artistic field.
"When Nations Gather!"

My first Mandala

My wife asked me if I would make her a Mandala. I had never heard of it let alone make her one. So I did a google search, and found out what it was. It looked a bit intimidating at first, but with my photoshop it and some time spent, I think the final result turned out good.

November 9th, 2007

Just finished another painting I did for my wife. She requested a painting of a Hoot Owl. I pondered the possibility of painting one just setting in a tree, but that seems to be the norm. So I found a great photo of one in flight and did my render to capture it on canvas. I certainly hope you like it. Thanks for looking

This is another contest picture I did, actually everything I did came out of the original picture. I think the results came out good!


















I think hands along with flowers, have to be the most difficult to draw and paint. Everything is gradient, color and shadow changes are a constant.





















This picture was a fun picture to do. It actually took me several days to do before I wound up with the end result. This is a "Out of Bounds" picture..


This is the group that met at the "House of Blues Restaurant" at Photoshop World, Mandalay Bay Casino, Las Vegas.
From Left to Right, yours truly, my wife, Ray, Dave from Houston, Dave Cross, daughter Stephanie, Corey Barker, RC seated and his wife standing behind him, Gerry and his wife, Scott, Matt Klozkowski, and Doug. We had a lot of fun that night.

A sample of my work. This picture took me a little over a month to complete.

I have been doing Native American Art since my high school days. I am an enrolled tribal member of the Ponca Nation here in Oklahoma. I am a member of the Eagle and Buffalo Clans. I took Native American Art at Haskell University in Lawrence, Ks. I had the privilege of learning from the late Dr. Dick West.

When I first saw the Red Rock mountains by Las Vegas, I was moved to paint them because of the color, light and shadows the mountains produced. I am always in awe of the power of God, and his grace, especially when it comes to big thunderhead clouds, and the power they hold. So when I captured the clouds I was moved to add them to this picture. The Eagle is one of my ancestors!

Thank You, Red Earth Arts




Alright, this picture took me a few days to complete, since I only painted the little old lady. I was searching the web for an Old Indian face to paint, and stumbled onto the precious little old lady that was standing in the background in this crowd. When I saw her she reminded me of my Grandma, standing there with her Grand daughter at a Powwow.

If you have a favorite picture of one of your ancestors, and would like to have it painted, just send me an email and we can arrange it.
Thank you for looking..




One day I started in photoshop and was messing around with some brushes that I had recently downloaded, and stumbled onto a pretty neat start to a cool design that I made, using some very vivid colors. I made this design for T-shirts, black ones mainly.




I was entered into a photoshop contest, and developed this picture using filters mainly.