SOLD-Flame-0127B-8x10- Key West Paintings

 

no i'm not dead! i checked this morning. very interesting week to be sure. getting ready for the upcoming show in key west opening on the 16th and was a little behind schedule so thats why i havent been posting as much.

 

i did this once before and did it again this week. i painted on a 18x24 for about three half days, and as i was putting my stuff in the truck, i stuck the painting on the roof to keep from smearing it. well.... proceeded to jump in and drive away. yes.... i gave the painting to the universe (read LOST) ouch. well i was teaching yesterday and one of my students said "i saw a guy carrying a board with wet paint on it like a waiter holds a tray of food over their shoulder. it looked like the one you showed us in class last week".

 

yep, that guy had some good kharma coming his way that day! nice to know its at least not down in a gutter somewhere covered in leaves and trash, right?

 

oh well, went back and did another (which i like better) so i'm caught back up somewhat and will be posting here a little more frequently.

SOLD-Blue Heaven at 11-0216B-8x6

 

imagine eating your dinner with roosters, chickens, and chicks running around at your feet. thats Blue Heaven. the birds are treated like cows are in india. they roam free and you better not run over one in the Conch Republic!

Looking Down Greene St.-0216B-8x10

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SOLD-Cayo Hueso Eatery 0207B- 6x8

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this place is right across from my gallery on greene st.

 

painting away on some bigger pieces for the upcoming show in march and started class monday. do i ever like that 12:30 afternoon time slot! great for folks like me that hate the early morning shift.

 

lets talk about shadows today. ive noticed that most people just paint them one color. if you look hard at them they are darker the closer they are to the object that is causing the shadow. as they move out into the open they start to get that cooler blue from the sky reflecting into them. theyre a lot of fun to paint if you look for the different "color bands" that are always present. keep it subtle and they'll look more realistic than if you just paint them one color (temperature) the whole length of the shadow. give it a try.

SOLD-Study for Sombra Tropical 0202B-6x8

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SOLD-Keys Driveway 0201B-6x8

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well it happens every year about this time. kinda feelin' some island fever setting in. if youve never experienced it, here's how it happens.

key west is an island about 15 or 16 blocks wide and about three miles long. its the dead of winter and tho' its warm here, thousands and thousands of folks have fled the frozen tundras of the north to come here to put on some shorts and turn that lily white skin as red as a lobster. not all mind you, but many will get drunk, dive off hotel balconies into the pool, walk blindly in front of traffic looking at a map,  drive scooters dangerously, and generally do alot of other things they'd never think of doing in poughkeepsie. throw in tons of regular folks ie. locals and snow birds( like me)  and things start getting a little crowded. you feel like its wall to wall people, and nerves start to jangle. then to make things even more  interesting let the powers that be tear up the main hiway into town causing gridlock and traffic jams island-wide for about two years, then open the bars from 9 am to past two a.m the next day. toss in a few thousand cruise ship visitors also getting drunk and wearing bra's on their head and you get the idea of why after about a month of riding around on a bicycle carrying your paint studio all over bone island  i'm goin' a little stir crazy. that means i'll be hitting the road for the middle keys soon. its slower up there and kinda like going to long island ny after a month of hanging out in new york city. a good way to unwind, get away from all the people, and catch my breath. hard to keep the painting vibe when you want to tell the nice man swerving his scooter dangerously close to your front bumper to sober up, open his eyes while he's driving, put his pants back on, stop texting AND looking for a t-shirt shack, and would he mind expeditiously getting on back to poughkeepsie.

painting downtown today kinda felt like running a marathon. you gotta love it to survive it