Shwemawdaw figures, Bago, Burma

A view of some of the sculptural figures at the Shwemawdaw pagoda, built by the brothers, Mahasala and Kullasala, who returned from India with two hairs from Gautama Buddha, upon which a small stupa was constructed to enshrine the hairs.  The pagoda has expanded with more relics and buildings and has been rocked by several earthquakes since 982.

watercolors in Burma

While I try to find that portion of time to finish and scan the sketches and views of Fort Rossia, I decided to look back for some inspiration to my series of watercolors of scenes in Burma from the late 90's, during several of my sojourns from Bangkok to the mysteries over the western Thai border...

freshly painted house and water tower in mendocino...

water tower structures in mendocino, california...

Cape Mendocino was discovered by a Spanish explorer in the year 1542 , 300 years later the first permanent non-Spanish settlers settled in the Big River area.

When the town of Mendocino was settled and developed, two and three storied water towers were built and tied to windmills for power to store and provide  sources of fresh water. They operated on a gravity system. Many of the old water towers remain, with a wonderful sense of strength and power on the landscape surrounded by the Pacific Ocean...

after orisom...

Mission San Jose was founded on June 11, 1797 by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen on a site which was part of a natural highway by way of the Livermore Valley to the San Joaquin Valley. It is the fourteenth of the 21 Spanish Missions in Alta California. The site chosen for the only mission on the east side of San Francisco Bay had been inhabited for countless generations by the Ohlone Indians. Their village at this site was known as Orisom...or Oroysom...

adding color to the courtyard

The view of the courtyard of the Mission Santa Barbara takes on a new look and atmosphere with the addition of color..."The hard part is how to plan a picture so as to give to others what has happened to you. To render in paint an experience, to suggest the sense of light and color, of air and space. Maxfield Parrish "

Mission Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara Mission was founded in 1786, and the main church building completed in 1820. The 1925 earthquake destroyed the mission buildings and the complex was rebuilt and finally restored in 1953...