For these four limited editions, I’ve chosen to have an initial limited release of 10 days. From November 21st at 8:00 am PST to December 1st at 11:59 PST. It will be live here.
I'm grounded by stones. Running them through my hands, appreciating the texture manifested by time and the elements creates peace and balance in otherwise tumultuous times. Over the past few years, I've developed a unique style and approach to creating stone paintings. My stone watercolors attempt to re-create that feeling of peace and weathering in simple, yet precarious arrangements and stacks. I’ve sold well over 100 originals that hang in homes and collections in over a dozen countries around the world.
WHY STONES?
After graduating art school in 1994, I pursued a demanding career as a designer and creative director. My schedule was unpredictable, and my family was also a high priority for me. So, most of my life, fine art was a “spare time” activity for me, and had spurts of intense productivity during different periods of my life. Often periods of struggle.
Between 2016 and 2022 I had my own design company, and to keep myself sane, I began slowly shifting focus to my art practice, drawing and sketching regularly, and by mid 2022, I was painting daily, and primarily in watercolor. Watercolor required little space. I could literally paint at my desk between meetings, and/or to refresh my mind when I hit a roadblock creatively. Painting stones was something cathartic that helped me think about ways to balance my life. Work, art, family, and play time. Over a couple years, I explored a range of approaches with my stones, sometimes incorporating trees, and objects like chairs, ladders, and tire swings that framed the stones on a much larger scale. These were not pebbles in the river, they were massive granite boulders 3, 4, 5 or more stories high. I sold all of my originals (too cheaply I might add), and did numerous commissions. My reels garnered praise and became commonplace on watercolor feature accounts on Instagram. My account grew into the tens of thousands of followers, pushing 100k (Now just under 200k).
As my watercolor expertise grew, so did the ability to create realistic stone textures with simple colors, primarily mars black. My stone arrangements became simpler, more elegant, until late 2024 and early 2025 when they reached a point of near perfection in my mind. Monochrome black, clean white backgrounds, precarious, unique, yet believable arrangements based on real physics. My goal was for my stacks to teeter on the edge of impossibility, but have them believable enough that the viewer believed them. Very similar to the masters of real-world stone stacking.
As my art practice evolved, my studio space went from the few inches of desk in front of my computer, to a secondary desk in my office, to a space in my garage, now to the buildout of a full garage bay with heat and AC. My paintings have gotten larger, and from stone watercolors to abstract acrylics and experimentation with oil and other mediums. But my love for painting stones, and for the paintings themselves has not waned. This is why I’ve created four new limited editions, based on four of my favorite stone paintings from my Stones ‘24 collection. All originals are sold (again, far too cheaply :) so I thought it would make sense to offer high quality prints available to those who started following me for my stone paintings. Especially the ones that have followed my progress over time even though what they started following for is scant on my account.
WHAT IS A PRINT?
I come from an art school background with an unofficial minor in painting and printmaking. Fine art printmaking like lithography, intaglio, etching, screen printing, etc. is the grail when it comes to print editions. With the advent of digital printing, the word “Print” has come to mean something less clear. Digital prints are legitimate prints as long as there is transparency and honesty about the process and the product. The digital files for my prints come from high resolution scans of the original artwork that I color correct and “clean up”, adjusting anything I wish I could have adjusted in the original, but due to the permanence of the watercolor medium, was not possible. I embrace these things in an original, because they are evidence of human hands. But in a print, I choose to simplify and polish the work one level further, without losing the wonderful human attributes that I believe artwork should possess. The things that differentiate it, and us, from the machines.
THE PRINTING PROCESS
For the printing itself, I use my local fine art printer here in Bend, Oregon. I share my final digital files with my printer who makes a proof. We make adjustments until we are both happy, then printing the edition begins. Some would call these Giclee prints, but in the interest of transparency, Giclee is a fancy word for inkjet print. But these are not your home office ink jet prints. These are created on the finest quality fine art printers available. Each impression is printed on high-quality, smooth-textured, matte 140 lb / 330 gsm weight hot pressed archival fine art paper. Each print is inspected by me, and signed and numbered by my hand. The paper and Ultrachrome inks are chosen to give the most textural and accurate feel to the resulting editions.
LIMITED RELEASE
For these four limited editions, I’ve chosen to have an initial limited release of one week. From November 21st at 8:00 am PST to December 1st at 11:59 PST. I will offer all prints purchased during this limited release at $95 each. I have some prints made of each image for promotional purposes (like this blog and my instagram posts), but once the release is over, I will pause the printing of new prints. At a later time, I may choose to do a re-release at a higher price, or offer the total edition at a higher price. In total, there will never be more than 100 prints made in each edition. At that point, the printing file will be archived and no more prints will be made. So, each edition is a limited edition of 100 as you’ll see in the hand numbering at the bottom of each print. If you get in on this limited release you have the opportunity to purchase a lower numbered print, at a lower price.
I DON’T DO MANY PRINTS
For the time it takes to create, print, promote, photograph, pack and ship small prints like this, I make very little money. My hope is that followers and collectors who may have missed out on my original stones, or that don’t have the budget for an original will have access to my work through these prints. If you are interested in my stone paintings, now is the time to collect something authentic, limited, and of high quality. I may do other types of stone prints in the future, but they will be highly infrequent. I’ve gone to a lot of work to make these available, so it’s my hope you’ll collect them and the editions will sell out. If not immediately, over a relatively short period of time.
TIMING AND PRICING
I’ve chosen to release these prints prior to the holidays for a few reasons. 1. These make great gifts for art and stone lovers alike. They are simple, elegant and have a broad appeal. 2. It just happened that they were ready now :) The window for ordering your prints is between Friday November 21st at 8:00 am and December 1st at 11:59 pm.
I debated a higher price for these, and a lower price. The Price for each will be $95 unframed. At this price, I can pay for my printing and packing materials, and if I sell a reasonable number of prints, I can pay myself a reasonable wage for the work creating the digital files, and for all of the time and effort to manage the whole process from start to shipping.
FRAMING
Each print is ready to frame, backed with acid free foam board and with a certificate of authenticity attached. The outer/paper dimensions of each print are 9 x 12 inches. There is a 1 1/2 inch white border around the image top and sides, with a weighted 2 1/4 inch border at the bottom. Custom framing is encouraged, but these will look elegant in a simple off-the-shelf 9 x 12 inch frame without a mat. Frames pictured (not included) are the RL523 - Dark Smokey Grey DEHA 34 Wood Veneer on Metal, from American Frame, with UV non glare picture framing acrylic. The inks are made to show no fading at 100 years of life, so UV is not necessary, but for a few extra dollars, I do it for my own work. And non-glare or museum glass is worth the price.
I’ve had great luck with American Frame and the frames pictured are a great option if you have some basic hand skills and can assemble them yourself. I currently do not offer framing for my prints as it’s too time consuming to be able to offer you a reasonable price, and to be worth my time.
SHIPPING
All prints will be shipped backed with foam board, and packed in a sturdy chip board envelope. Orders will be shipped within 7 to 10 business days via USPS and will be in your hands for the holidays. For international shipping, I use USPS, UPS abd DHL depending upon what is the most efficient, economical and reliable. My site doesn’t always calculate shipping accurately to international destinations. If it undercalculates, I will cover the cost. If it charges you more than what I end up paying, I will credit you for the difference if it is beyond a couple US dollars. For international taxes, I designate everything as original artwork, which technically is not supposed to generate taxes or tariffs. But, I’ve heard different things from different collectors, even in the same country. I do everything I can to minimize cost on your end, but taxes and tariffs on your end are mostly out of my control. I appreciate your understanding on this.
STAY IN TOUCH
Please reach out to me with any questions in email or on Instagram, or leave comments or questions below. If you’re not signed up for my newsletter, please do. I don’t send many emails, but the ones I do are about releases, new artwork, and potential early access to drops and discounts on artwork. Once in a while I may let you know that I’ve written a blog post like this one.