YooHoo!-SOLD

Couldnt resist the tan chocolate milk color and i think putting that in contrast to the purple setting made for a nice color combo.

Blast From the Past

NFS

A painting from this summer of the wilmington riverfront. i like the way the buildings were backlit and the boats and awnings had sun on them. this little 6x8 sold before it was even dry, if i remember right. i better get back over there one morning and do a bigger one eh?

Tonite i had a fun time participating in a "Meet the Artist" reception at my gallery on Bald Head Island (Woods Gallery) with Jonathan Willis a very talented bird carver. we both did demonstration pieces for the crowd and had a fun auction of his carved bird and my painting.

a fun time was had by all! i love these soirees. its a chance to talk to past and (future, i hope) collectors and show them how a painting is created.

Thanksgiving Day Thoughts

Flowers and Chair- 10x8 oil on gessoboard

Available at Vision Gallery- Atlantic Beach NC

to purchase-give them a call

Thought i'd jump online and post this recent floral still life before i start cooking the turkey.

My favorite way to eat turkey is to cover it in mustard and cayenne spice and deepfry it. thats my recipe for buffalo wings too!

Todays a day to be thankful for what we all have and not think about the small things that want to ruin our stoke for life. i wish i could do this everyday, without effort, but its hard isnt it? thinking of things like, how will whats happening in todays world affect me in the months ahead, etc etc etc. When youre thankful for what you DO have at the moment its hard to think of the future (and its uncertainties) at the same time.

So think of what you have, and not what you dont. make yourself happy for at least that amount of time. plenty of time for worry tomorrow right? i'm very thankful for my family and the fact that i can paint for a living. Thank you Jesus!

Now, go have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the day off!

New 8x10

The Outsider- 8x10- oil on canvasboard

Available at Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro

Had fun with this verrrry difficult bowl. it has a weird amber hue to it and the scallops along the top are a real challenge. i feel like i did just ok with it all. when i get this bowl down,there wont be any glass that i wont be able to paint! Isnt that what challenging yourself is all about? i used to practice playing pool with a pool stick stuck in the pocket (to make it smaller) that way when i was playing for money the pocket seemed huge (without the stick in it)
same thing with this bowl. hope you like this one, if not the glass maybe the peppers.

i want to take this opportunity to thank alice and mary for helping me correct some photographing issues. y'all are the best.... thanks!

I Scream for Ice Cream-9x12- $45

Been working on a big commission painting and i'll post some step-by-step shots and text on the WIP (work in progress) so you can see how i go about it.

I will sell several paintings during my Holiday Sale to clear out the studio of sketches and studies that i do in preparation for larger paintings. the smaller pc's give me a good gauge of whether i want to pursue the idea larger and/or what i want to change if i do.

these will make excellent gifts at a good bargain for your art loving friends and family. all without breaking the bank. you may even see something you cant live without too.

this particular piece is acrylic and harkens back to the day when i painted in acrylic before switching to oils.

Day Off? Whats That?

Made a neat little still life setup today. took an expandable pole that goes from floor to ceiling and now i can mount the floodlight any height or angle i want. the tripod with the board mounted on it can be adjusted to any height also. so of course i had to try it out!

heres what i ended up with.

i was balancing this setup with my favorite blue vase and accidently broke it. i caught this red one before it hit the floor. now the red ones my favorite, LOL. im having a ball painting glass here lately. you'll be seeing lots of it coming up.

Red Glass and Orange- 4x4 oil on canvasboard

Available- $29 plus $5 shipping

Tag-- I'm It!

I've been tagged by Frank Gardner in a blogging game called "Tag" but first i thought i'd post one i did for City Art Gallery rush rush for the holiday show i'm in. its over in Greenville on Red Banks Rd. if you get a chance go in and look at some more pieces i just took over. some are priced as low as $125 framed in a nice gold plein air frame. Doin' my part to spur the economy!

so here it is...

Takin' a Break- 8x10 oil on gessoboard

SOLD

so onto the game of bloggin' tag--

Here are the rules:

1. Put a link in your posting to the person who tagged you.
2. List 7 unusual things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 other bloggers at the end of your post and comment on their blogs to let them know.


Seven quirky things about me: (couldnt think of anything interesting- it hurt my head LOL)

1. i despise going to weddings and funerals or anywhere else i have to "dress up". i even show up delivering work to fancy galleries in painted up clothes. i will put on a VERY casual shirt and jeans for VERY special occasions. 99% of the time i'm in baggies (surf shorts), tee shirt and flip flops.

2. i absolutely love two things in this world--- Red Bull and the Soprano's! Living large would be drinking Red Bull WHILE i'm watching the Soprano's. i have to watch the A&E network Soprano's because of all the bad language and other stuff so i cant order the boxed set. My question is why cant there be "cleaned up" movies, shows etc, if we can send men to the moon and space ships to mars?

3. i dont wear a watch and one of my pet peeves is making plans. plans for later in the week box you in and keep you from painting when and where you want to because you have to "Be Somewhere" at a certain time or place. it drives people around me crazy. it all started when i wouldnt make plans because there might be some surf or some wind ( i kiteboard, surf and stand-up paddle surf) then when i started painting fulltime it sounded better if i blamed it on that.. LOL

4. my studio is a two bedroom trailer at the beach. it just happens to have a bed, microwave, TV in it. The WHOLE trailer is the studio. the kitchen table is a still life area because its near a great window, my easel, homemade taboret, and dozens of drying paintings (and ones in different stages of completion) take up the whole living room. the walls of my living room/studio are filled with my fledgling art collection, pcs ive been collecting over the years (some-daily paintings of friends i met blogging), one bedroom holds more painting storage and frames and the other bedroom holds packing materials for shipping paintings. OH yeah and somewhere for me to sleep.

5. i love painting plein air and would do it out there 100% of the time if i could. its exciting out there, and painting in the studio is kinda boring to me. but when its cold or rainy i have to.

6. i absolutely love the marketing part of the painting business. i like meeting new people and love when i have an exhibition opening for my stuff! i used to street preach long long time ago and i guess thats where i got over my fear of speaking in public. kinda of ham in fact.

7. besides art i like to collect carved beach birds. love the primitive style from the old days where they used to be used as decoys and they used nails for the beak. the hunters kept shooting the beaks off the carved ones. thus the introduction of nails which lasted longer. i have some really intricately carved ones and a few 'slick' ones but i mostly like em raw and primitive looking.

my seven "tagee's" are

1. Jeff Mahorney- very cool guy, great painter and loves sarbach, and mcpherson, also a homie from NC. own one of his little gems

2.Robin Cheers- texan and i'm proud to say i own one of her little gems too

3.John Harrell- check out his rainy street scenes. gonna get one of those!

4.Cathleen Rehfeld- just found her. nice and loose!

5.Ray Logan- another of my newfound faves. cool brushstroke and color sense

6.Eric Merrill- love his stylistic landscapes

7.Aaron Lifferth- love his glass and fruit and ceramic stuff

go check out these talented folks. theyre working hard posting everyday (or almost everyday) and are an asset to this blogosphere we live in!

well now that youre sufficiently sleepy from all this ( it wasnt my idea--blame Frank) go take a nap! Todays sunday and that sounds like a great idea.
see y'all tomorrow with more bloggin foolishness!

Plein Air Painting Book Now Available

I am so excited! the book about painting North Carolina plein air style is finally here! i got my copy in the mail today from kim (the author) and i'm so proud to have been asked to be in this book, along with NC's best plein air artists from Murphysboro to Manteo.


The book has 28 other artists in it with three works each so its chock full of beautifully reproduced paintings of everything from beach cottages to mountain streams. it truly does capture the whole state as us artists see it and all works were created plein air.
Some of the other artists include well known plein air painters including: Cathy Martin, Rick McClure, Dan Nelson, Dee Beard Dean, Lori Putnam, L. Diane Johnson, Nicole Kennedy, Kim Maselli, Kevin Beck, Brenda Behr, Judy Crane, John and Dodi Groesser, Patricia Pittman, and more. i'm very humbled to have been included with this who's who of plein air painters we all know and love.

In the book each artist writes about their painting process and how they pick subject matter, how they lay out their palette, how they got started painting outdoors, and more, so its a good read whether your a seasoned painter or just a collector who wants to know more about the process of painting a painting. i cant wait to start reading my copy to see how these folks go about the business of creating a work of art. you will not be dissapointed!

a few of mine

another of my pages. wish the photos were better. the reproductions are incredibly accurate and are exactly like the paintings i did.

the book is available on Amazon.com right now, and will be in Barnes and Noble, quite a few other big national bookstores, and also the Our State and NC Public Television Store in a few weeks.

if you'd like to order one from me for the same price-- $29.99 i'll ship it to you for $8. if you want i'll write a note on the inside cover and sign it special for you,,,,, just to get you to buy it from me instead of them! that and four dollars will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks LOL

at least buying it from me will help support a starving artist and not some mega rich national retail outfit. help do your part to support the little man!

just contact me at 919-920-9718 or email if youre interested in getting one for yourself, or for a Christmas present for an art lover on your list.

thanks y'all!

Cold Outside Today

Unique Perspective- 8x6 oil on canvasboard

SOLD

it was brutally cold outside today and we had snow showers yesterday. very odd for NC at this time of year so i stayed inside and painted both days.

i think this is a camellia i plucked off a tree today and painted it in a cool (tiny) vase. hope you like it as much as i liked being in the warmth!

A Bunch for Sale!

The Bail Out--SOLD

Sketching in the Sun-- SOLD

Flowers in a Chair --SOLD

Glass Jar--SOLD

Above Key Lime Pie Shop (Key West)-SOLD

Lake Reflections--SOLD

Front St. Spire-SOLD

In a Pinch (Deux) --SOLD

Bocadeah--SOLD

Sorry for not posting in a while.... busy painting. some of these are brand new, some i'm posting again. a few of these were from Key West last spring.

finally all the key west paintings are sold so maybe i will go back this winter. i love going to that tropical place when its 3o degrees here!

Getting Fatter by the Day

Tortilla Chips- 4x6 oil on canvasboard

click here to bid on EBay- starting bid is $29.99

Love popping out these little junk food paintings. get to eat em when they're done.

As they peacefully lay there, i think they are enjoying their celebrity while i paint them. but they get nervous as i near the end and put the last strokes of light paints on, knowing they'll be eaten any moment!

talk about your "15 minutes of fame" cliche Andy Warhol coined.

can you tell i'm spending too much time giving human qualities to inanimate objects? I'm not crazy REALLY! LOL

Stop!-- You're Killing Me!

Marsh Abode- 6x6 oil on canvasboard

SOLD

Painting doesnt need to be a long and drawn out process. you can block in, as i did on this one, in less than 20 minutes and with a little more time tweaking of the shapes, make them closer to reality, until youre satisfied with it. i tend to not fuss over the canvas and that keeps it very abbreviated. this is starting to be the hallmark of my smaller painting style. for better or worse.
the more i work on them the less passionate they look so i stop a little BEFORE i think i'm finished. try it a time or two and see if you dont like doing it this way too!

Moon Rise

Country Moon Rising- 6x6 oil on canvasboard

SOLD

Saw the moon rising over this little slice of eastern nc landscape and had to jump out and paint it. in this fall season, the sun sets faster than in the summer. so where i used to have an hour and a half to two hours in the summer to paint a late afternoon scene, now its less than an hour. the upside is that the light is better and the air is crisp and doesnt have all the atmosphere of summer. things in the distance appear closer than they do in the summer. the light seems more orange in the light and blue in the shadows.
i love painting at this time of year. come to think of it.... i just love to paint!

Saturday Fun

Tortilla Chips- 4x6 oil on canvasboard

$49

to purchase email me before it goes to auction on EBay in a few days

Painting can be an obsession. wow i was going to take the day off and almost got all the way thru the day without painting, and at the last minute had to do a little something.

i guess when your job is your way to have fun, what could be better?

This is one is from my junk food series. so far all the others have sold so i look forward to painting (and eating) more junk food!

I still have a few of my $12 instructional DVD's on how to paint a painting using palette knives. it wont play on a dvd player that will burn another dvd, but most players dont, so its all good. contact me by email if you'd like one.

Also scheduled two one day workshop dates in January. i'll be teaching the whole day in raleigh and one in morehead city on color. we'll talk about how to mix, how to lighten without adding white (chalk dust) and how to darken colors without adding black or earth colors.

contact me if you're interested in reserving a spot in either class.

Two of Three Done Today

Rod-O-Rama - 8x10

$275 framed

available at Art Source Gallery in Raleigh

4 O'Clock at Rialto Theater- 8x10

SOLD

at Art Source Gallery in Raleigh

WOW 8x10 is a huge canvas after working for the last several weeks on my 6x6 and 6x8's.
i saw this old rod and loved the name of the shop. kept rattleing it around in my head while i was painting and kept thinking how it sounded like the buzzword of the week--Obama. i know... i'm losing it!
in this one i loved the old car seat sitting behind the hot rod in front of the showroom window.

the next one was the Rialto Theater in the Five Points area of Raleigh. best known for the frequent showings it has of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. never seen it.

sold 20 of these little blog paintings in one whack today to a customer crazy about the little still lifes, landscapes and quirky stuff i paint and post on here. gotta go back on here and mark em all sold. yeeehaaaa!

A Taste of Eastern NC

House of Faith- 6x6 oil on canvasboard

SOLD

Planning on doing a series of iconic eastern north carolina scenes. sorta like "postcards from NC"
here's the first, a neat little church on the corner of a small down east town. loved the white and orange front of the church in contrast to the cool bluebird blue sky.
my favorite part is the handrail and its shadow on the front of the building. how can i fall in love with about 1/4 inch of a painting? i dont know how, but i do.

Outdoor Stilllife

Amber Glass- 8x10- palette knifed oil on canvasboard

Sold

i took this amber bowl i bought at a thriftstore outside in the sunlite and tried to capture the shimmering yellow reflections. wish you could see all the subtle, pure color mixes.
nothing beats painting outside, nothing!
it sold very quickly so i bought three more glass bowls and i'm looking forward to setting them in the sun and painting them too.

MHC Weekend Workshop Over

too tired to upload anything tonite, but wanted to update.
the weekend workshop was a full house with 9 eager painters learning how to quickly and simply block-in a painting outside. we learned about color temperature and how important it is in painting landscapes. we all had a ball and most got where they could paint the scene in 2 hours or less.

today i was hired by a school to teach art classes my techniques and the kids were stoked to find out that they could paint the most difficult subjects in 5 values. the teacher wants me back in a month or so to do another one day workshop with the kids. on top of that the teachers at the school bought 7 of my daily paintings i took and laid out on the table for the kids to look at. this is a great job!