SOLD-The Shining-8x8

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a large 8x8 for a 6x8 price! the other mornings outing in Swansboro, a quaint little down east village on the water. click Buy Now. this one wont last long

Blueman Group- 12x16

on gallery wrap canvas/ painted around the sides (no frame needed)

email me for price and availability

ive had this painting kicking around for a few years and always loved it. it had a nice composition and the perspective was drawn well. why was it not hanging in a down east cottage or hanging in a Raleigh home, reminding its owner of their beach house?

 let me tell you....the ones I don't love, I ruthlessly sand them down and regesso them for future paintings.no mercy with bad paintings. thing is I thought they were great two years ago LOL!

 

thought i'd put my two years of new experience painting to use and repaint parts of it. here's the original and then what I did this morning to improve it.

 1. repainted all the major shapes with more saturated (read bright/pretty) color. thought this was just a little too neutral. folks don't like neutral paintings. this was done outside and I tend to be more naturalistic (read neutral) out there. one of the pitfalls of painting and looking " into the sun". look how much better the farthest back house looks purplish/blue versus gray
2. worked on the cars in the bottom right corner. darker red in the shadow and warmer and lighter in the light. darkened the truck with the camper
3. brightened the lights on the bushes and darkened and cooled the shadows. this trick breaks the light out away from the shadow (read-gives more contrast)
4. gave the sky more temperature shifts and variety.
5. made the shadows on the white driveway bluer and darker.

wow! what a difference. always give your 'dead' inventory a careful once over before destroying them. they might just need some simple TLC to bring them back to life. put those years of experience since you painted it to good use. but don't think theyre all redeemable. they aren't. that's why we get paid the big bucks. yeah right. that's hysterical!

SOLD-Big House Little House-8x8

SOLD

this is the deal of the month! an 8x8 for a 6x8 price! they dont last long on here so hit Buy Now in a hurry.

 

everybody in my blogosphere thinks ive bugged out to key west early because of all the tropical subject matter here lately.nope not gone yet but definately keeps me warm on these cold dreary days.

i like that ive learned to make a shape warm and light but keep it in the shadow family. i know small thing to get excited about but what can i say!

 

if you'd like private lessons when i'm in key west jan-april drop me an email.

SOLD-Marooned on Radio Island-8x8

$\SOLD

Teaching News
i'll be teaching on Martha's Vineyard the third week of August. if youre over there and would like to have some instruction on painting loose and colorfully outdoors, drop me an email and i'll give you the info. the scenery doesnt get much better than the Cape Islands late august.

SOLD-Elgin Morning

8x8

a sunny lane painting trying to bump the coloring a bit. these scenes abound downtown. students have been saying it was hard for them to paint these scenes because youre so close to them, but i just put a couple of dots on the canvas marking the outer perimeter i want for the roof and bottom of the building, draw it in and then gauge every other shape size off of that. seems to work out most of the time. this color study is the bargain of the week! 8x8 for $75

Stock Island Boat in Morning Light -8x10

contact me for unframed price

went with my painting bud john (click here to go to his blog) to paint this one when we returned to stock island for a morning session. the blues and turqoise sky with the building in the background were irresistable and had to be attempted. 

SOLD-Stock Island Triad-$100

SOLD

this was a fun one making every grayed down shape a different temperature. used a big very worn down bright style brush to "chunk in" the shapes and left em alone. very hard to leave a stroke alone for some reason. hmmmm. 

A Corner in the Keys-SOLD

SOLD

8x8

ever have a painting that you love when you get it into the studio from out in the field, and then murder it working on it "just a little more"?

 thats what i did on this one. i was very fond of it till i played with it a little too long one evening from memory. when i was done, the more i looked at it the more i hated it. what went wrong? just a few hours before it was a keeper and now i want to scrape it all off and re-gesso the board.

i decided to let it dry, tape some clear plastic over half of it, and repainted the big shapes on the plastic. this time darker on the trees, and lighter and cleaner color on the boats in shadow, and darkening the reflections in the water. you see my hand there on the right? i'm pulling back (from left to right) the plastic. see the darker trees and shadows.  when i stood back, it made a huge difference in the painting.

 putting on the plastic and painting on it lets you try out things without trashing the painting underneath. if you dont like whats on the plastic, wipe it off and try something else. when you have something you like, duplicate that on the original painting.

what i was doing mucking around in the studio was lightening (and cooling) the trees and reflection without realizing it.inadvertantly lessening the contrast to 1/3 of the painting and changing the relationship between shapes in the area of contrast, color, and temperature is not what you want happening if you have any hope of a decent painting. 

easy explanation? stuff was out of whack! i'll post it when i've got everything fixed. if i dont kill it that is  :D

SOLD-Crystal Blue Persuasion-8x8

$OLD

just so you dont think all i do is paint and dont have any other kind of fun, i posted this pic of a fun night of playing ukelele at the reknowned green parrot bar in key west (almost as famous as sloppy joe's).they have a uke group that meets monthly for a jam session and you can get on stage and be a rock star (was tiny tim a rock star?) for a night. at least i can scratch "play a musical instrument in front of an audience" off my bucket list. its a really cool happening because about 30 people show up with every kind of uke imaginable and you take turns on stage.and even when youre not near a mic, youre out in the crowd playing, so its like surround sound uke music. the folks not playing are singing along, dancing, and its a real hoot. cant wait to do it again next month.