Aral Sea Mermaid Doodles

I was recently reading about the Aral Sea, which is a lake lying in Asia between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It was once the fourth largest lake in the world, but due to a Soviet-era, large-scale irrigation project which diverted the two rivers that fed it to area farms, the lake has been slowly drying up, until today, 50 years later, it has largely disappeared, being about 10% of it's original size. 
This is an ecological disaster on an epic scale, and has left many fishing communities that used to be on the shore of the lake, literally high and dry. It is not unusual to see the hulks of rusting fishing boats, laying in what looks like desert, but was in fact, the floor of the lake.
Keeping with my recent mermaid themes, i did a couple of small, quick sketches of dying mermaids, sitting mournfully in the shade of these hulks. Perhaps I will turn them into larger, more detailed paintings at some future date.

Neptune & Salacia - Old Salt and Mermaid

A quick sketch comparing the mythological figures of the Roman god Neptune and his wife the goddess Salacia, with a more contemporary version of an old salt sea captain, and a mermaid.

Summer Camp

Trapped at home during the Covid19 pandemic, I find myself wishing for places and things that are not currently available, or perhaps never were. One of these things is spending the summer at a private camp on a freshwater lake, and skinny-dipping at night with a friend.

Another Killer Robot

I imagine the guy with the gun is attending some kind of pro-gun, pro-Trump, right-wing, fascist rally somewhere out in the woods, when there is a noise in the bush. Expecting to find spying libtards, or government stooges, this guy goes to investigate. He hears rustling close by in the bushes and draws his pistol. A killer robot arises from the bushes. Startled, the guy fires his handgun at the robot with no effect. The robot says "No guns" and vaporizes the gun, along with the guys hand. The robot identifies the assault rifle on the guy's back as a secondary threat, but since he can't do much with one hand, it is about to spare him and move on, until it notices the MAGA hat...

Love In the Time of Covid19

A pen-and-ink-and-watercolor sketch of a young couple I saw a few days ago, heading out of the building next door. They had the unmistakable look of two people on a date. Love conquers all I guess.

Isolation Doodle

Here is a sketch I did to pass the time while stuck at home weathering through the coronavirus pandemic. We've been watching a lot of science fiction, so I'm riffing on how it feels to be so isolated, like my wife and I are on some space mission to an alien planet. 

Native Woman

A quick, (45-minute) 4.5" x 7" acrylic study on paper done from a blurry photograph I took years ago of an exhibit at the Plymouth Plantation Mayflower II kiosk.

Le Chat Bleu

A small 4.75" x 8" acrylic study 0n paper. It's of my cat Pyewackett. A Russian Blue.

Edwardian Couple

Another quick sketch done in gouache on paper. An Edwardian-era couple frolicking in the surf.

Pirate Sketch

A small gouache painting of my friend Edward Syracusa, dressed in his pirate finery.