The 10:01-6x8-$75

$8 s/h
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Painted this looking into Raleigh off a bridge near the Govenor Morehead School. i was stopped in my tracks (pun intended LOL) by the contrast between the large dark tree in the foreground on the right and the hazy buildings in the distance. even the trees in the middle ground are muted and hazy and theyre very close. i think i captured the humid atmosphere on this one by keeping things more and more desaturated as they go further back in the landscape.

seems good to get out on the streets again and get out of that hospital room. Did three today.

Jamie's doing better and better and his appetite is coming back which is a good sign. he's also starting to itch which means the new skin is bonding. Praise God!

thanks to all that have kept in contact by emails and here on the blog. you were my lifeline to the outside world during our hospital vigil. appreciate all that support!

The Rialto (July PM)-8x10

$275 unframed, free shipping!
email me if you'd like it or click the "buy now" button

well i know y'all are tired of hearing about the stuff in previous blogs. guess what me too!

the wife let me go out today to try to make a dollar as we're both not working much this past 10 days. i made a big show about "going to work painting" but she's a smart cookie and knew what i was up to. she knew i dont sit around well unless i'm blogging. so she said "well if you have to work you have to work"
being out in the sun painting plein air is very tiring, both mentally and physically (the heat, some ants got mad at me today, tourists etc) but i dont consider it work. actually it was good to get out of the hospital onto the streets pushing paint around.

ive learned that i can go without food a little while (not long LOL), go without surfing/kiteboarding even longer but i MUST paint!

this is a very popular theater in the old Glenwood/5 Points area of Raleigh (about 30 min, from the burn center) and was famous for showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show back in the day. it's iconic old Raleigh and i knew it would look great in the afternoon sun today. and it did!

Mon. Update

well here it is a week from the accident. seems like more than that and seems like less than that. is that possible?
Jamie's resting much more comfortably and with less confusion than in the last few days, so thats a blessing.
thanks again to everybody in my blogworld for the prayers and support. i cant tell you what its meant to open up my emails and blog and see them.

thought about sketching some to pass the time but didnt, even tho' i'm bored to tears. i must absolutely hate to sketch. never have cared for it much. have always been amazed that so many painters would like to do it. its so linear and the tool is so foreign to what we do as painters. with painting you think large shapes of color and drawing a line has nothing to do with that. i wonder if its my preconceptions about it that make me not want to do it. many plein air artists draw sketches or thumbnails before starting. i never do. not to say that i should or shouldnt or that its right or wrong. i just dont. i'd rather paint small paintings.... if i dont like the composition i'll just paint another painting.
i do recommend that many of my workshop students sketch and sketch, but thats because many of them havent drawn much and it shows in their paintings. the objects arent rendered well or relationships are off. for instance the marsh shapes they draw might be too fat and dont look like they recede in space, or things are lopsided, too big, too small etc. so no matter how good their brushwork, how well they mix color or nail the values, the painting looks bad. but i also tell them if they dont like to sketch (like me) then paint everyday instead. painting IS drawing with paint!

Sun. Update

i wrote sunday update.had to think for a minute which day of the week it is. when you're in this hospital its like youre in a some weird time warp. if youve ever sat vigil like this, you know what i'm talking about.

Looks like about at least another week of being here waiting for the graft to "take" . the nurses say its still sliding around so he has to be almost completely immobilized so jamie wont slow the healing process. he wants to get up out of the bed every time he wakes up.

i'm dreaming of painting and have been studying things to compare values and the way light is hitting hospital paraphenalia as if i'm going to paint it. like doing the mental work of a painting without having the actual paint to push around (the enjoyable part of the process) its a way to do mental painting excercises for when i do re-start painting again. like a prisoner of war might do pushups in his cell to stay strong, in anticipation of his escape.

was looking yesterday how a wall in the nurses station had a very subtle and almost indetectable pink cast to it (even way up high near the ceiling) because of some red boxes holding surgical gloves. it was VERY subtle but there.

nature is the same way. there's a certain harmony becuase everything is bouncing light into (and onto) every thing else.

i saw an ad for a movie the other day and it was obvious they had photoshopped this great sky onto a landscape. they did it for impact but the light in the sky wasnt being reflected on anything on the landscape. the landscape was from a blueish sky and the sky was red and orange. it looked weird! maybe nobody else picked up on the disconnect.

an apple sitting on a blue sheet of paper and against a white wall will look completely different than an apple sitting on an orange sheet of paper against a green wall. if you cut a photo up and switched it to the other photo it would not look harmonious. you might not even be able to put your finger on it, but you'd know they didnt fit.

anyway..... i dont like to sketch much so i've been doing painting mental excercises to pass the time. wow.... blogging passes it too.

thanks again to everyone who's shown their support to my family with the emails,blog comments and phone calls. got one such email from a blogwatcher sending prayers from france. how cool is that.

knowing there's a real world spinning outside chapel hill nc is comforting and i will paint it with newfound appreciation when i do start setting up the old homemade paint setup again.

Sat. Update

yeehaaahhh! jamie's skin graft surgery was yesterday and tho' there was a lot of pain and dropping in and out of reality from the pain meds, i think the very worst is over and we can start looking forward to the healing.

i wanted to thank everybody in my blogosphere for the emails and sweet, uplifting comments on here. when things were tuff and i could getaway from the room and slip down to a waiting room, i'd plug in my computer and throw some thoughts together and give a post update. there were scores of wellwishing notes from people saying they had him (and us) in their prayers. it seems like such a small thing but when your world's falling in around you, those are lifelines to sustained hope. even if youre strong you still can "give out" but those are like cups of cold water along the route of the boston marathon. something to get you to the next checkpoint and the next, until youve run the whole race.

i couldnt have done it without y'all.

i promise i'll take a photo of that little coffee house painting i did the other afternoon, and post it as soon as i change my clothes, get a good meal and get near my upload cable.

i'm going to give it to jamie framed to keep. he loves my little paintings and saves many from the trash can when i throw them away. he's got em hanging up all around and i'll see 'em, and throw them away again. he gets em out of the trash AGAIN and hangs em back up. so Carolina Coffee House is going to be his.

Friday Update

As can sometimes happen at a huge truama center Jamie got bumped from the operating room Wed. and was rescheduled for today. annette (my wife) and i are hanging in there at bedside. Jamie seems to be doing well, still in that in-and-out drugged up state to control the pain. in a part of my head i know the meds are doing their job, but the logical part sees him thrash and moan (tho' less now than a few days ago) and i wonder just how much he still must be feeling.

Hopefully today they'll get him in surgery today and the healing can begin.

i did get out a little yesterday afternoon and painted a little coffee house on the campus of UNC called Carolina Coffee House, an iconic chapel hill haunt. it felt good just to forget everything thats going on right now. it wasnt the best thing i've ever painted but i frankly didnt care. i just wanted to keep from getting too rusty. i did feel a little rusty even after just a few days away from the brush. another good reason to paint everyday or every other at the very least.

they're coming to get him for surgery pretty soon so i gotta go

Wed. Update

i know that most people come over to my blog to escape reality for even just a moment. real life can be pretty overwhelming.

i'll be honest with you..... if you dont need anymore reality today, and just want to see pretty beach landscapes, boats etc. that make you forget it for a second..... this may not be the place for you (at least for the next several weeks). hey i'm sorry.
as frank gardner likes to say "life is getting in the way" for me now---BIGTIME

i have bits and pieces of time waiting for this or that surgery, or this or that doctor to come and talk to us about jamies prognosis, etc., so i'll try to make the upcoming blogs informative (a lot of people are praying for jamie and want to know how he's doing) and uplifting. heck.... reality sucks enough already. people dont want to come on here and get another dose. there are silver linings!

so here goes....

jamie is still in that "twilite state" a sort of drug induced off and on sleep because of the pain. surgery is scheduled for tonight sometime, to graft skin onto his chest to prevent infection. they said he was burned on 15% of his body with the hot grease.

first i want to thank my "internet family" and friends, collectors and gallery owners for the emails (and comments here) for their wellwishing and prayers. little did Al Gore know when he invented the internet LOL that blogs would spawn friends we've never seen to be such a powerful supportive network. most of them you wouldnt know if you walked by them in the mall.

here's the philosophic part as i see it.....

life can turn on a dime. what you once had can be gone in ten minutes. your whole life can be turned upside down by events totally out of your control. loved ones can be gone in the blink of an eye by their own hand or the ignorant act of a stranger. it can be maddening. it can strain your faith or it can strengthen it. it can break it or make it unbreakable.

Whether you believe in God or not, all mankind (since we've been around) believe that there's a reason for things and a plan, even if its unknowable to us. the madmen of the world have always been the ones that thought things just happen willy nilly and you just have to take these things. Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Son of Sam, to name a few.

to me that would be like having a toothache and the dentist comes up and tells you he knows it hurts like the devil and just get used to it, it'll never go away. you'd want to blow your brains out after a while of that i'd think. in the case of the madmen above they were cowards and did it to other people instead.

but you can see it this way too- the bad times make you appreciate the good times better. without pain their is no bliss. without hate you cant accurately judge love. without danger to our loved ones we cant enjoy when theyre all safe and sound. you get my gist.
so if yours are safe today thank God (or whoever you credit when things go well) and go call em and tell em you love them. you or they could have many days to do this or not even the end of this day. you just dont know and i have to believe that even that small detail is for our own good.

ok... enough mushy stuff. remember i've got nothing to do but sit here with my thoughts and my broadband card and internet access. right now youre either glad i do or wishing al gore had never invented the internet! (you know he did right?!) LOL

Limited Posts

I wont be posting on the blog for the next several days. My stepson Jamie spilled a panful of burning grease on his chest, arms and hand during a grease fire at our house. He's been seriously burned and we had him transported to the UNC Hospital Burn Center in Chapel Hill. so my wife and i are sitting with him off and on, for at least two weeks, while he's up here. He'll have surgery tomorrow to graft skin from his thighs to the third degree burn on his chest and possibly to his hands. we're greatful to God that Jamie didnt burn up in the house, where he fell asleep cooking fries and the grease caught on fire. he woke up and tried to grab the pan and get it outside. he tripped and fell and the hot grease spilled all over his chest, arms and hands. some people put the fire out before it got past the kitchen. We have to live in a motel for at least a week the insurance adjuster said.

we're also greatful to only be hours from this regional burn center. the guy that was involved in the Ocracoke fireworks explosion on the 4th of July is here for his severe burns. three other workers for the firework company died. this is a top notch burn center and people come from all over the mid-atlantic for severe burns.
If youre a prayer, we could use 'em. He's in so much pain and is in for long road of recovery.

so as you can see i'll be taking care of other things, but i'll get back to posting as soon as we get past this.

Boogie Boarders-9"x12"-$75

$8 s/h

to purchase this painting click the "buy now" button below to pay with PayPal or credit card

Clearing out the Studio Sale- '07 and '08 Work

These are larger works for the same price as my much smaller ones!

A knife painting of some kids boogie boarding from last summer. this one retailed for $300 framed last year. i'll sell it unframed for $75 unframed, so it can find a new home, and give me more room to move around in my studio.

High Atop the White Oak-8x8

Email me if you'd like to purchase this one

The name of this one ought to be High Atop the White Oak 2 because i repainted over the below painting. Me and about ten other people hated the tree on it and i didnt like the coolish light so i gessoed over it and repainted this one using the 6x8 study that sold a few days ago as the inspiration. i love this one way better than the previous one. sometimes you just paint a dog out there no matter how hard you try not to. thats just the way it is. the true test is if i smile when i look at it. i do on this one.

Salt Marsh-6x8-$75

$8 s/h

to purchase click the "buy now" button to pay with PayPal or credit card or email me with the subject

Cottage on the Water- 8x10

email me if you'd like it before it goes to a gallery

High Atop the White Oak-8x8

available at Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro

Temps here in eastern NC are in the mid 90's with crushing humidity so you have to paint in the morning and in the afternoon. the two above are great examples of the difference in the light. look how blue/lavender the morning one looks compared to the afternoon beach cottage with its yellows and orange flavor. it has to do with the way the sun goes thru different atmosphere in the evening and causes the light to have more red light waves in it (thus the oranges, yellows)

The mid-day is glaring white light and the sun is straight overhead, no shadows. without shadows there's nothing to show off the light.

Looking Out on the White Oak-SOLD

Slice of the Intercoastal- 8x8

email me if you like this one

Had a very productive day today. got three in the wetbox (a box i made to carry wetpaintings without them touching each other and smearing)

It was nice to paint close to home today. i'd just about forgotten how much i like painting where i live, too.

Granny Smith-6x8-$50

$8 s/h

to purchase click the "buy now" button below to pay with PayPal or credit card or be the first to email me with the title in the subject line

Want to thank all the folks who came to the reception at Vision Gallery Saturday night for the opening of my show. we had a great time and it was fun to see all the work i've done that sat around the studio, in this room and that, hanging as a collection together on the walls in one room finished. sold quite a few there and at the Coral Bay Club show.

i'll try to get back on schedule blog-wise now that both shows are hanging. have some commissions to do in the next couple of weeks. a couple of beach houses, a boat, a jar of Dukes mayonnaise, and a few personal lessons. not long after that i'll be going to Cape Cod. cant wait to see some new landscape and the boat styles are different up there too.

But not before a I surf my brains out for the next thirty days. yehhhhhaahhhh.

Tree Reflection-6x6-$50

$8 shipping
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Finally had time enough for a daily painting :)

The SouthEnd-12x24

SOLD

Busy today framing and then the winds supposed to come up and i'll spend a well deserved summer afternoon kiteboarding.

in "The SouthEnd" i added a sailboat and more human activity and like it alot better.
what do you think. does it make you want to be there? good.... i did my job!

Even More Pigment on Canvas-nodp

Stacked Up Cloudbank-8x8

Sound Sparkles-8x10

Sailing School-6x16

SOLD

Low Tide at the Pier-8x10

SOLD

Birds Eye View 2- 12x12

SOLD



Here in the south, we call it "in the short rows". it's from farming i think. it means....almost finished, or in the "homestretch". tomorrow i'll frame all these up, get em in inventory, set prices, and deliver friday morning. its been a wild ride. the weather cooperated and i think i have some work i can be proud of. we'll see starting saturday when the people start showing up for the solo show's reception and during the months sales while its hanging. nothing like having it all hanging out there and being all vulnerable. the way i deal with that is just move on to the next project and paintings so i dont dwell on it and get all crazy. Living the artist's life is an exciting tightrope walk. wouldnt have it any other way.



was working on a painting the other day and a guy came up and starting talking to me about my painting. just as he was leaving he says "i'm a woodworker! its just like what youre doing"

i was like what, huh? ..... yeah right...was thinking myself just the other day how similar they are....LOL

Three New Paintings-nodp

*nodp- code for dailypainters gallery not to upload

Beaufort Anchorage-6x16

SOLD

From Beaufort Inn Docks- 8x10

Gone to the Birds (El's Drive In) - 8x10
SOLD

If you'd like to purchase any of these let me know.

Bend in the Road-SOLD

SOLD- This ones going to Hawaii. just gotta love the internet!

This one is from Fathers Day afternoon. the light was beautiful today and i sketched this one out in about an hour and a half. while i was there two dogs from the nearby property made friends and layed down in the shade of the horse trailer i was huddled next to. when youre out there painting around the countryside you dont know if the dogs want to have you pet them or they want to bite you. just yesterday i was on a dock and this golden lab came up with its owner. they are usually family dogs and very laid back but this one wanted to bite me. you would think the semi-wild ones in this field would want to bite me and not the lab. never assume when youre out there with your paintbox.

i like the purples i put in the far trees. just the right spark of color with all that green. but i tried very hard to make every green shape different somehow from all the others. this is the key to colorful and realistic painting. out in nature no two differing objects have the same color. never. so by changing each objects color if only slightly you reproduce nature and keep the painting interesting.

Tending Bar- SOLD

*nodp- code for daily painters gallery not to upload

Tending Bar-8x8

Another one for the Vision Gallery show coming up next weekend. Wanted to have a few of my interiors that i usually do in the wintertime, when its too cold to paint outside. it came out of nowhere and had the itch to do one this afternoon. painted the whole painting with a 1/2" brush to keep it real loose. the bow tie and shadow for his eyes had to be made with just the very corner of it (with a very steady hand)

also had a very productive plein air trip this morning to morehead city, where i got two 8x10's done for the show also.

New Paintings for Next Weeks Shows, etc. -nodp

New River Skiff-9x12

Intercoastal Beaches-8x8

High and Dry-8x8


Broad Creek Sailboat-8x10




Beaufort By the Sea-6x16
SOLD

Smoky Glass and Daisy-5x5-$50

$8 s/h
to purchase click the "buy now" button below to pay with PayPal or credit card or email me

This daisy was hard to paint. the spotlight was causing it to shrink from the heat. everytime i looked it and its shadow was changing. made it loose and the glass was a blast to paint.

Workin' the New River-8x10

This will be in the Coral Bay Show that City Art Gallery is having next weekend at the country club in the Atlantic Beach area. i usually do well with boat paintings there every year thus all the boat/water scenes. not to mention i love painting them. the compound angles and colors are mesmerizing and who doesnt love water?
This was one of those silvery hot overcast days. i think i captured the light "key" with all the cooler colors. i'm working on seeing the beauty of these kind of days and painting it. hope i was successful on this one. what do you think?