Thursday, May 23, 2013

RIP

NOTE added 7/17/13: Sanded down and painted over this one!
 
my newest from a few days of painting in atlantic nc. one of the last bastions of small fisherman docks around these days. the business has been so bad for so long that for the few left that continue the family business (after several generations) cant find places to put their boats with easy open water access. they are even being squeezed out of these old rickety type docks. its even dangerous to be on some of em painting. and dont back up and check your painting from a few feet away, without looking or you'll fall in a big hole in the dock and break something. i'd say a good hospital is over an hour away if you did. so i bring you these paintings at great danger to my well being LOL hope you like it!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Waterfront Shimmer- 0521B-22x28

worked some more on this one by lightening the sky and red building, putting some darks into the trees and making the dirt around the grassy areas less orangey-red. lightened the roofs and cooled down the pavement. funny how letting a painting sit five months before finishing it changes your perception. i knew when i kept looking at it before i left for florida for the winter that it needed something....just didnt know what. threw it up on the easel today and it was like...duh!  and i made the above changes without any capitulation. now i'm happy with it and its gallery bound.
 
note- you can search in the top left of  the blogpage and type in "waterfront shimmer" if you wanna see the old version.

Monday, May 13, 2013

$100-Soundside Demo-6x6


$100 plus $10 s/h
to purchase with PayPal or credit card click the "buy now" button below

 
i mistakenly told somebody recently who wanted this painting that it was sold. guess what i found it in a stack of paintings. my bad.
 
here it is! if you'd like it be the first one to hit the buy now button!
 
Workshop and Gallery News
  • i'll be teaching in atlanta this friday thru sunday at Binders Art Store. still some seats left
  • workshop in wilson nc end of the month
  • next week i'm starting a weekly class in wilmington at nelson fine art.its a six week class geared towards beginning painters.
  • have a show coming up at ArtSource in north hills mall, raleigh in july, with lotsa new work. will be posting alot of it on here as i get it done
  • contact me for details about anything you see above you might be interested in

Monday, May 6, 2013

Playing Around with Value Studies


well if youre from the midatlantic you know that today makes about the third week of drizzle, in and out clouds, and generally crappy plein air painting weather! so after getting depressed, muttering under my breath, cleaning brushes, and making a cool wet canvas carrier for the inside of my SUV, i painted. what did i paint? value studies of one of my fave painters colin page, from maine. i turned some of his images into black and white and then painted them. the two boats and truck are from his and i did one of my key west paintings (bottom right)to see if i could improve the value patterns.

i suggest doing this with one of your favorite painters to see how they form their value patterns. turn a painting you like into black and white on your computer and copy it. its the 21st version of standing in a museum and copying a painting from one of the old masters.

 i found from doing several of colins' that he mostly uses a very "connected" pattern. meaning that most of his large patterns are mid tones and they are pretty much connected into large masses. then there are the lights sprinkled around and maybe a few darks. he gets the variety from subtle color changes and not from lots of value changes in the masses. the rule of thumb is make something 2/3 either light, dark, or medium and split the other third between the other two unused values. learning from colins painting was good because it helps me understand why i like his painting style and to bring that very desirable quality to my work. it will do it to yours too, if you spend some of these rainy days playing with black and white paint and limiting the number of values you use. then when the sun comes out you'll be ready for color paintings with a very cohesive/graphic look to them. better than seeing another rainy day and crying in my coffee or cutting my ear off LOL

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Looking Down on Capt Charlies-12x16-0502B

email me for price and availability
 
this week i painted this colorful 12x16. its the second one this size i've done from a smaller study i did several years ago, when i was on a residency trip to bald head island. imagine getting a free place to stay and a golf cart to get around on, and all you have to do is paint all day long, wake up and do it all over again. just so they can say there's an artist on the island. what a gig!there is nothing else to do on this remote island resort, but paint beautiful scenes like this one all day. was over there almost a week. i think it takes at least that long to pick up  on the vibe of the place youre trying to capture. its great when people,who have been to the island before, say looking at my paintings take them back there!

Workshop News
want to take one of my workshops in Hot Lanta (atlanta) this may 17-19
check out this link for more info
http://pleinairartists.ning.com/events/loose-and-colorful-plein-air-loose-and-colorful-plein-air-with