Ride Down State St.-SOLD

Another quick study from my Charleston photos. might do some larger paintings from some of these, since the studies seem to be selling pretty well.
i remember doing a plein air painting down there near the old slave market area last year of a carriage going down the street. i painted a little until that one was too far away... i'd paint another area of the painting until another came down the road. then i'd paint some more carriage until he was gone. had to do that almost half a dozen times until the carriage and riders was done.

Red Car, Yellow Shirt-SOLD

Another Charleston scene. to keep these paintings interesting you have to edit alot of what you see, either in person or from (in this case) the photo.

i still have some "Painting North Carolina Plein Air" books available. its a wonderful, slick and well done book of plein air paintings from all over NC. yours truly has three paintings in it.

Signs, Signs 6"x6"

NFS

You better be a quick painter (on a good day) on a late winter afternoon. the sun is setting fast, and colors and shadows are changing by the minute. but this one caught me by surprise. i'm studying the values and temperatures of all the shapes..... i get a little down on the canvas, and BOOM! the sun goes behind a McMansion beach house and the whole scene goes into shadow. i have to do the rest strictly by memory. thats one of a thousand reasons why you should plein air paint some, if you want to get better quicker. you'll increase your painting concentration, editing powers, and memory!

to purchase- email me or click the "buy now" button below

I have brand new copies of my instructional DVD on painting plein air for sale here, and so far its getting rave reviews. this ones mostly done with a brush and knives, where my previous dvd was on painting with palette knives only. in this one i set up outside the skyscapers of raleigh (looking into town) and i discuss equipment, getting the scene down fast, and all the tips and tricks for knocking out a painting on the streets. you can email me and i'll send you one out for $24.99 and $8 s/h.

they're not even in the stores yet (or in the catalogue) and i'm tickled that theyre selling well.

also found out the other day that one of my mini lessons on palette knife painting on Jerrys Artarama Free Art Lessons is the fifth most watched art lesson on YouTube worldwide. thats too cool! makes the world a very small place! when's the money going to start rolling in? LOL

Shem Creek Shrimper-SOLD

A few shrimpers from a trip i took last year. this was done in Mt. Pleasant, SC (outside Charleston).

i blocked it in real quick on that trip and never finished it. had it hanging around the studio for almost a year and finally decided to finish it yesterday. what spurred me into action after a year? i guess because i was doing a painting (from one of my reference photos) from that very same trip. i'll probably post that one tomorrow.

i'm getting homesick for key west and charleston. i hope to go down again in march, like last year. cant wait to paint in surf baggies and flip flops again. especially since its so cold and gray here in coastal NC. the color is so intense in the keys being that its in the tropics. bet you carolina residents didnt know that Southport NC is technically the northern most part of the tropics. thats why bald head island has the tropical foliage and the light of the tropics. that's some trivia you can throw on your friends. Oh yeah! another piece of amazing trivia... jimmy hendrix is a one hit wonder. really! he only had ONE hit.

the moral of this story is never throw away a study or block -in. keep it.... you might finish it a year later and post it on your blog!

Outer Banks(Late Afternoon)-SOLD

Here's one i did on my workshop trip out to Nags Head. it was a little after lunch and it just has that wintery OBX look to it. very different from the summery ones i do when its 95 degrees and humid with just a hint of sea breeze to keep you from dying out there painting. bet 3 cars didnt pass me the whole time i painted this one. nobody but locals there now and they were huddled inside. i dont paint with gloves on so my hands were frozen after doing this one.

you gotta be tough to plein air paint!

Luscious Reflections- SOLD

another fruit and glass painting. trying to keep a light touch on the clear glass with water in it is quite the excercise in just painting the big shapes. makes doing the tangerine slices a breeze.

Orange Glow- SOLD

Another tangerine slice. how can you resist throwing a light behind the thing and watching it glow from within. the trick is getting it to look like its in shadow but still illuminated from the other side.

Afternoon Glow-SOLD

This one was done coming back from my Outer Banks workshop. there's this little town on the way called Columbia. its in what has been reported as the poorest county in North Carolina. i've passed thru it on hwy. 64 hundreds of times without even going a block off the main drag.

the other day i had the afternoon to paint, so i toured around town. its filled with slums and trash and sprinkled around....these beautiful turn of the century farm houses. this one was glowing in the winter afternoon sun. so i did its portrait. i have a feeling i'll be painting there quite a bit from now on!

Diet Mountain Dew-SOLD

Taking a small break from my series of glass and fruit.

loved the way the light hit the shiny aluminum can in this one and painted it on a black gessoed canvasboard. really enjoyed just slapping the light colored paint on the dark paint. it looked like a can right off the bat and then i squinted and laid in the other color notes i saw.

like how this one came out. unfussed over and accurate.

Distortion- 6x6

$45 plus $8 s/h
to purchase- email me or click on the buy now button below

seem to be really into the glass and fruit stuff right now. trying to get glass to look clear in as few shapes and strokes as possible takes practice and more practice. you'll be seeing more of this till i can nail it and make it look easy LOL

please feel free to financially support my education. thats all any painting is.... practice for the next one!

Orange in Viridian Bowl-SOLD

had a lot of fun on this one. wanted to just squint and paint the color spots i saw. i do this in combination with the "cape cod school of art" underpainting method. i love that technique. you underpaint everything in the light and thats warmish with warm straight out of the tube color. shadows or coolish shapes get blues, purpleish cool colors straight out of the tube. then you go back and add whatever color you need to get it to the color you see.
i hope i got the glass to look right. love how the orange was a little distorted and that little slash that shows up in the bowls handle.

Wonderland- 6x6-SOLD

this was another demo from the workshop where i showed the class how to tweak a photo in photo editing software and then paint it quickly. they seemed to really like that since many were studio painters and like to paint from photos.

i only like to do that when its 30 degrees like its going to be tomorrow.

Amber Drinking Glass-7x5-SOLD

Check out one of my newest Jerrys Artarama online tutorials on how to desaturate color by clicking here! i think you'll like it....

today was the last day of a three day workshop. everyone was great and said they learned alot about painting. i saw a few "ahaaa, i get its!" and that makes the somewhat difficult job of teaching such a complicated and subjective craft, well worth it.

thanks "beach girls". i'll make sure the "mountain girls" know y'all didnt gripe once!

the one above was another demo on how to paint glass. that amber is tricky. way more than clear, thats for sure!

did an 8x10 after class when i saw a beautiful winter OBX (late afternoon) scene. i was going to go rest up after class, but i braved the low 40's degree weather and got it in before the sun slipped down below the water.

my hands were absolutely freezing. i may post it tomorrow.

Mini Mason Jar-SOLD

Day two teaching a workshop on the Outer Banks. this is a demo i did showing the class how to paint glass.

in a nutshell, you ignore the fact that it's glass. paint the edges of the glass and put the background color 'inside the glass' and whatever other shape, color spot you see. put the reflected lights on, a few highlites from the spotlight, and a nice dark color for a good value range. squint and paint ONLY what you see. again forget its glass and that its hard to paint LOL

Perfume Bottle-SOLD

i've got about three favorite things to paint lately. beds, interior rooms, and perfume bottles.

teaching a private three day workshop in Nags Head, NC first part of this week, but i'll try to keep posting everyday this week. i'm on a painting ROLL!

Teaching the Classics-SOLD

This subject matter and format reminds me of of a line of tiny ducks when they cross the road. i specifically let the last little head on the right lag behind. not only does it add tension to the composition, it has symbolic significance also.

if this was my school class at the museum, that straggler would be me. i've always hated to get lumped into a crowd. Nothing much has changed, even now, at the tender age of 50!

Lamp Light-SOLD

I'm stoked to announce that i've been juried into the Daily Painter Gallery, the internets premier daily painter gallery. DPG (as its known) is heavily marketed by Micah Condon, the sites creator. with over a million hits to the site a year, and ads in such magazines as American Art Collector, i'm tickled to be juried into the gallery. Micah said around 50 applied to get in, and the galleries artists juried in 19, saying they liked my paintings and the written content of my blog.

i'm honored to show and sell my work with some of the best daily painters in the country, and i'm looking forward to the increased exposure a million viewers a year, from all over the world, will give me.

might make me a dollar or two and i can have more weenies in my beenies LOL

Corner Pocket-SOLD

This used to be one of my favorite pastimes. its alot like painting. to get better you have to practice, practice, and practice some more. and if you take any time off it's like you have to learn it all over again. a good reason not to take time off from painting, or pool.

Small Town Industry-Sold

Here's a recent painting done in the small industrial section of a small town in NC. don't know for sure but i think they're for fuel.

Was cruising some blogs today and found something you need to read.
Steve Allrich was describing why it was so hard to make a living painting. you have to read the whole story.... its great. click here to see the story in his own words. its towards the bottom of his artists statement.

here's the gist of the story.

he's painting out on a farm when a farmer stops and asks him what he's doing. Steve shows him the painting and the farmer likes the thing. he asks the painter how much?

steve gives the guy a super low price because the farmer didnt hassle him. the farmer is shocked and says something like "you gotta be kidding! i can buy a pig for that!"

Steve says this is why its so hard to make a living painting.

AMEN brother! AMEN

Golden Afternoons-SOLD

This was one of those late afternoon paintings when everythings real golden. its one of my favorite times to paint.
you know youre going to paint better when everywhere you look you see something you want to get down!
as i've said in the past, this time of day is one of the hardest to paint because the sun is setting so quick and you really have to hurry.
seems like the quicker its done the better it comes out. another good reason to "get with the program" when youre out there plein air.

More Beach Houses-SOLD

This was an easy one.
i mean... i used to live four or five streets from here, so it's like i know this place intimately.

i'm really trying to stretch the colors just a bit on this one. not wacky, just tweaked up a little.

someone somewhere said, "if we want photographic, why not photograph it?" great advice. plus who doesnt like a warm violet instead of blueish-gray side of a beach house. Me for one!

More Pontification.....

i thought i'd talk a little more on the subject of painting today if thats ok
this is actually cut and pasted from a reply i made to a comment made by a good blogger friend BonnieLuria , a few posts back, and i thought it would make an interesting post as well,,, so here it is-------------

(snipped and pasted)
thanks so much Bonnie.
glad my "pontification" was for somebody other than me. i frequently preach to myself, God knows i need it!if nothing else my tombstone will read " mike's favorite expression when asked about his good or bad paintings was, ""it is what it is, and no more""

i dont care that much about the final product. its a byproduct of my real goal, the physical action of painting. the thought process involved, the eye-hand coordination action, the judgement sharpening, the time use and editing skills practice.these are the things that are important until we are "Old Masters"

trying to concentrate on turning out wonderful, sellable, masterpieces should be the last thing we should be thinking about. that kind of thinking only leads to performance anxiety or the opposite, thinking more highly of our work than it is worthy of.

making every piece so precious or being overly critical of it kills the creative process and desire. so paint some crappy subject as if it was a beautiful subject. paint every day no matter what it has to be, or how it looks when we're done. think of EVERY painting as a practice piece. i try to keep in my mind that i havent really been painting finished pieces. i want to think of everything i've done up till now as practice for when i really start painting finished pieces. Man... you wait. when i start doing "real" finished pieces sometime in the future, they are going to be AWESOME. LOL
until then i'll just keep practicing and if they sell, thats a byproduct too!
i hope this kind of thinking will make us all better painters one day.

then i can say i knew you when.....LOL.

Beach Road- Atlantic Beach

Beach Rd. Shapes- 8x10- oil on canvasboard

$275 framed, $235 unframed

contact me before it goes to Vision Gallery in Atlantic Beach

to purchase- be the first to contact me and say " i want it!"

Here's one i did the other day on Broadway St. (beach road) in Atlantic Beach.
this was a late afternoon paintinga and what i liked about this scene was the strip of sun coming between the beach houses. and of course i dream at night of finding backlit scenes to paint. these old beach houses just ooze coastal carolina scenery. you can smell the salt air and hear the waves crashing, cant you?

What Painting is Not

Delivery Door- 5x7- oil on canvasboard

Available- $45

to purchase- be the first to contact me saying " its a doorway, but hey, i still like it"

Todays painting was more for me than anything else. it was a warmish afternoon and i had to paint this cool delivery door in the sun. this one's about practice.
remember that if you paint, you have to keep the process at the forefront of all of the energy.
dont be seduced into thinking that the end product is why we paint. we are like every other profession. practice makes perfect.
ballplayers lift weights, musicians play scales and "noodle" (fooling around making music) and artists paint, paint, paint. the more you paint the better you know how to handle your brushes, you know what the paints going to do, you can identify the values better and quicker and the whole process becomes more efficient. the more efficient, the more you can concentrate on "nailing the scene". the less you have to think about the process, the more you can paint from the left side of the brain. its that illusive quality called intuitive painting that we all strive for.
so if you want to paint better tomorrow than you did today, go paint a doorway with some afternoon sun on it. yeah its not the eiffel tower or some beautiful scene worthy of a "great painting", its the warehouse door of some abandoned building. but it'll help you paint the cool stuff better.
it'll come from out of nowhere, it'll flow out, it'll fall off the brush. you'll love the thing you painted effortlessly, and others will too. all because you painted some delivery door on a sunny afternoon knowing no one will want it. Come on... lets face it. todays painting is not a great painting!
remember,,, painting's NOT about the end product, its about the process.
now, enough of my pontifficating. only doing it because ive got some time off, i did a crappy painting today, and its a holiday. LOL