Subject Delta Didn't Deserve That

Over 20 years ago I provided this painting as cover art to David Drake's neo-roman novel 'Master of the Cauldron'. I was never fully happy with the image, the figures and narrative did not seem unified enough to offer it for sale or display beyond its use as the cover art. It remained in the studio, surfacing every few years to see if inspiration for a repaint/retouch had taken hold.

Last month fortune struck!

My artist friend Bryon Wackwitz was browsing through the studio and came upon the painting, one he had not seen before (I had never posted it on my website). Bryon immediately felt transfixed by it, but I mentioned it wasn't ready for sale or display, and proceed to talk about the problems with the work.

As I pointed out the issues to a fellow professional, the objective analysis and critical language I shifted into around the dialog immediately presented a resolution to resolving the issues I had within the work! I was elated!

Thank you Bryon for helping me embrace my artistic shortcomings!

20+ years late, I now present to you...

Medusa's Garden!

The Orchid’s Dream, 2026 , watercolor & gouache

✨ “Not forever on Earth, only a little while here…”

I finally finished this painting that I’ve been working on since 2020. The original watercolor thumbnail I did was done pre-2020, if you can believe it. Sometimes art takes its time, and sometimes it takes time because it’s sitting on my easel neglected while I work on higher priority work for years. I’m going to miss this strange thing looking over me while I work, but I think it deserves a frame and a wall… and perhaps a better view than my greasy, shrimp-mode goblinself working.

This piece was inspired by a dream I had, though the details are buried in some journal which I’ll have to dig up for the full write-up on my process creating this painting. Prints are in the works, I highly recommend my newsletter if that’s something you’re interested in.

Yes! The first picture of them on the pencil is of babies (a lot of zoos will take pictures of new baby bush vipers on a pencil for scale, they're so tiny!) and the adults will usually stay under about 2 feet long. And variable bush vipers especially come in so many colors!

Bush vipers are often green, but they can also be black, red, yellow, brown, grey, and even this purple-ish color.

This is now a bush viper appreciation post!