In Progress- Explosion de Color Tropical-24x18

the underpainting inspired this title

big "ugly" brush FUN!

 

cant you feel the sun already on this one! I'm really enjoying these big ones after years and years of 6x8 and 8x10's. me thinks me found me studio mojo.

 

this is an alley way off beloved Simonton St. Why is it beloved? it is a one way street with wide bike lane. your safest bet against being run over by drunk tourists on a moped for the first time. heard somewhere that key west is reigning champion for the most moped involved deaths/accidents in the states.

 

me on a bicycle 8 hours a day (with tons of plein air crap strapped all over) makes a really nice target for cars, mopeds and conch trains.

 

heres the food chain as far as transportation modes around the island. Conch train, the whale, the big kahuna, can do anything he wants since he's like 6 car lengths long. next SUV's and big trucks, cars, small cars, then motorcycles, mopeds, trikes (three wheeled bikes-very cool) then two wheel bikes, and at the bottom of the food chain, the pedestrian/tourist. but when theyre craning their neck left and right (looking at all there is to see that's different than their native des moines iowa) they'll step right off the curb without looking. bet they wouldn't do that in downtown des moines right? but I guess when you put on a bad Hawaiian shirt, and flip flops and have a map in your hand things are somehow different. tell it to the ER doc!

Monhegan Light-24x36-in progress

 here is the 24x36 painting ive got on the easel for the next several days. this is the most fun you can have with your clothes on! the underpainting. spreading around wild pure colors on a huge canvas with crazy big brushes! no fear stage. I mean if you don't like it you wipe it off and put something else down. you  can do that at any stage in the painting but this early on there's such a freedom to the painting process.

this is the lighthouse keepers house on top of monhegan island, one of the most magical places to paint anywhere on the east coast. this is being done from an 8x12 study I did one morning when the sun was just gorgeous on the side of the building and you could see for miles across the water.

 here's how loose I keep it at this stage, really no hard edges anywhere to be found. that's fun too!

another shot of the blurry edged, thick paint going on

 

be really careful with your palette knives, they are just like razor blades after a few months of use. I cut the back of one of my fingers today on my blade, while I was painting. zip and its laid open. luckily its like a paper cut, very thin. note to self: be more careful with something called a painting "knife"

Available-Near Millis Seafood-8x12

email me for price and availability

 

really like this format- 8x12. it shows a more panoramic view which I like a lot. was really interested in the play of light on the water and the blue shadows and water versus the warm sunlit side of the trees. and of course I was after the ever elusive sparkle on the water.

 

Workshop News

Friday starts my gig at Art of the Carolina's Expo. i'm teaching a class on the secrets of color mixing, how to paint with a knife, and sunday is the Cape Cod Underpainting class. let me know if you wanna sign up and i'll get you in touch with the sponsor, Sharon from Jerrys Artarama.

Figure Study 1/24-SOLD

9.5x9.5-$30

hooray! life drawing sessions have started back up and i've been looking forward to painting the figure for months. we have about 8 or 9 regulars who show up with everything from pastel, to gouache, to ink, charcoal, and today there was another oil painter besides me. these classes are fantastic for working on your chops drawing and quickly laying down color. they hold the pose for only 30 minutes so ya gotta be quick and decisive. figure studies really help my painting, whether its plein air or still life. they say if you can draw the figure, you can draw anything.

On Shore Dr.-6x8-SOLD

A little ditty from Shore Dr. 

Gotta love that cold and crisp winter light