Irish Pub on Ebay

i painted this little irish pub in downtown goldsboro this past spring.
these little paintings on EBay are a great way to start collecting original paintings for about the cost of a print. they cheer up and add color to any intimate spot like a mantle, nook, or shelf. or you can frame them and hang in groups.

The Flying Shamrock- 6x8 - oil on canvas board
SOLD

Progress on RBC Centura

Finally! time to post some pics.
three down two to go. here's number two and three.
dont think it was as hot as everybody said it would be. at least it didnt feel like it was. some little pakistani dude hassled me about being on the Fast Fare property painting the hayes barton pharmacy in five points. i mean if i was panhandling or something i could see somebody saying something, but painting. c'mon. he was the mgr. or something. jeez give a hard working plein air painter a break, it's nearly a hundred degrees out here! then he runs inside to the a/c leaving me to sweat my *^^&(*) off making a buck.

Tomorrow night is the opening of my City Art Show in Greenville. i'll be doing a demo during the reception so come and check it out. both James Kerr and Kevin LePrince will be there to but come support the NC homeboy....me!

Afternoon in Five Points- 24x30-oil on stretched canvas

NFS- SOLD commission

Grand Entrance- 24x30- oil on stretched canvas

NFS- SOLD commission

This bloody schedule

i'm sorry that i havent been posting alot of images lately.

with this RBC Centura Bank commission and all the traveling to bald head island i havent been able to shoot pics and upload at night. maybe if it rains one day...no! what am i saying....that might make me miss my deadline for the bank. one of the five 24x30's is done, three are blocked in and i'm going to hopefully finish two of the urban raleigh plein airs tomorrow. they say it'll be close to a hundred and five with the heat index tomorrow.
oh well as my good friend is fond of telling me,
"plein air painting aint for sissies!"

Upcoming Show this Thursday

Here's your invitation to my upcoming show at City Art Gallery with James Kerr (Florida) and Kevin LePrince (Charleston) !

click here to go to the online gallery and see a little preview of the show
http://city-art-gallery.com/feature.htm


I'll be doing a live demo and hope to complete the painting before the reception is over. if i drink enough Red Bull i can do it LOL!
It's this Thursday

City Art Gallery
511 Red Banks Rd.
Greenville NC 27858
252.353.7000
www.City-Art-Gallery.com

New Workshop Date added in November

because a lot of people were telling me they wished i'd have some weekend workshops (they couldnt get off work), i added one in Nov.

it'll be Sat. Nov. 1 and Sun. Nov. 2nd in Morehead City from 9am- 4pm
cost will be $160 for both days and $100 for one day.
you must send a deposit for half no less than seven days before the class to hold the space.
you can email me for a suggested materials list or more info.
hope you'll sign up!

Two on EBay tonite

Riverfront Twin Towers-8x6-oil on canvas board

SOLD

these were done plein air in wilmington, nc a few weeks ago when it was so rainy. loved the way the street gets real shiny and everything takes on a lavender hue.

Reflective Cafe- 8x6-oil on canvas board

SOLD

WIP- The Miss Charlotte

no i'm not dead. just felt like it once or twice this long, long week in near 100 temps.
went to paint on bald head island for two days, but i made the drive daily and back home. its an hour drive down then 1/2 an hour ferry trip. then you have to ride golf carts at 10 mph all over the island, then ferry, one hour drive again. so needless to say those 9 am- 1o pm days didnt leave me time to blog.

then i got some great news. RBC Centura Bank commissioned me to paint five 24x30's for their new bank complex in downtown raleigh, nc.
thing is, ive got 10 days to complete the project for their gala event. so i'm under the gun to have that done on time and make them awesome. we're talking fortune 5oo company material here. i dont want any junk in that place with my name on it.
wow. i'm honored to have my stuff in such a high profile collection.
now i keep telling myself:
"Youre not going to pass out from the heat, keep working sissy" and "this all may be a dream but enjoy it none the less"
they want two coastal pieces and three local raleigh scenes from me. i've decided to do all five with painting knives

heres the first one

WIP- The Miss Charlotte- 24x30

today all i did was block in the big shapes and try to get some complementary color and nice color harmonies going. tomorrow i'll return and really throw the thick, luscious paint at it with lots of the impasto medium mixed in so its really textural in places. i've got the boring hard part out of the way and will return to cedar point tomorrow to have the fun! what a life! now i have to go hydrate so i dont get heat stroke finishing this outside tomorrow.

Ten After Noon Finished

Ten After Noon- 22x24- oil on canvas

here's the finished painting and i took it straight off the rooftop down to new elements gallery
i used a ton of thick luscious paint on this one with tons of striations in all the huge slabs of paint. you can see that i lightened up the sky alot and now the sky, bridge, and water relate better. thats all painting is....making all the big shapes relate to each other in a convincing way.

heres the painting when it was about 70% finished. you can see that i stay in the middle values for much of the painting and then in the last 25% i accentuate the differences starting to go darker, lighter and more saturated. thats when its really fun!

From a Rooftop

heres a WIP (work in progress)
i guess because these large rooftop paintings i do are so complicated they take me two sessions to complete. it has everything from clouds, water, buildings, foliage, small windows, a bridge and tugboats. WOW. only object missing is a person and a kitchen sink.
anyway this is what i got done on the first go out. what i'm doing is getting the light and shadow pattern and the final colors complement underpainted and then tomorrow i'll come back with the real colors on top thick with my palette knives. i did this one different than yesterday. yesterday i painted the whole painting with knives. today i underpainted with a large brush and i'll scoop on thick paint with knives tomorrow.
notice how the water is orange to start with. the funny thing is when i'm done putting the blue/purple/gray water on top you may not see any of the orange and then sometimes i leave bits of it showing for interest since that shape is a large one. one thing i see that i'll want to change tomorrow is lighten the top part of the sky. it looks kinda blue and dark to me compared to what you see in the real thing. the rest is too hard to tell yet. you'll see what i end up with when i post the final painting and hopefully it'll be a decent painting. too hard to predict at this time. what a weird feeling to be so close to a good painting and yet so close to a total crash and burn event. welcome to my world of painting for a living!

WIP- underpainting a rooftop painting. i think its 22x24?

A few from Swansboro

the clouds rolled back today long enough to do this larger (for me) painting. i used medium to large palette knives and pure clean color. its funny, when i use knives i see where the thinner (especially dirty thinner) can dirty up the colors i'm trying to achieve. smaller paintings stay cleaner i think without this problem just because the amounts of paint and thinner are smaller. its just an idea.

Marsh Morning (Late July)- 18x24- oil on canvas board

heres one from the side yard of my gallery in swansboro. if you havent visited tidewaters new location on main st. youre missing a wonderful experience. he moved into a century old house and spent alot of time inside and out making it the coolest gallery ever. if this is his backyard imagine what the inside looks like! check out rays place the next time youre in swansboro. and tell him you heard about it on this blog and of course buy one of these paintings LOL

Rays Backyard- 10x8 -oil on canvas board
SOLD

Quick Post ...another later

just a quick blog post before i go out painting this morning (its partly cloudy and the sun keeps playing peek-a-boo so i got on the net for research hoping itll clear up)

heres a very informative article on plein air painting techniques, tips i found that you painter types may enjoy if youre thinking of getting out of your studios a day or two. even plein air painters will get a new idea or two. click here to get there

the winner of Lavender Afternoon-6x8 was anne from emerald isle. congrats anne.
you can bid on its sibling..... Lavender Afternoon II on Ebay (go to the post below for the link there)

Lavender Afternoon II goes on Ebay

SOLD

Lavender Afternoon II-6x8 on canvas board

Took the day off-sorta

heres what you do when you keep looking at something you've painted and it drives you crazy. if you scroll down you see that i lightened and grayed all the skyscraper shapes to set them further in the distance and make the tree come forward . then i put the bottom of the tree in shadow to add a little variety. then i grayed down just a tad the clump of trees to the left to make them go back into the middle ground. still not one of my best efforts but better than it was. probably would be better if there were some cars going down the highway into the skyline. who knows? this one may not be finished after all!

the high bid for Lavender Afternoon (see a few posts down to see the painting) is $32 as of 8:20 on Sunday night. auction is over tomorrow morning so bid a few bucks more and win it!

Coming Into the City- 9x12

A few from Saturday July 26

High bid for Lavender Afternoon is now $32 from Anne in emerald isle. to see the painting and read more about how to outbid her go a few posts down.
email me with a bid higher than $32 and it could be yours.

auction is over this monday morning at 8 am



here's a few i did and dropped off at Vision Gallery in atlantic beach today. the clouds were magnificent this morning and i'm really enjoying painting them now that i feel more confident doing them.



i did a bunch of cloud studies in paint but ive mostly been just studying them by looking. how can we paint what we dont understand? by noticing their form first and then their colors you get a sense of the thing. like getting to know who your girlfriend/wife/husband/boyfriend is. when you first met them you had to study everything about them. then the nuances make themselves known. but that cant be rushed can it? it takes time with the person, seeing them in different situations, finding out their preferences etc. all this shows you who the person is. then you can accurately and confidently describe that person.



same with getting to know what you are painting.... you must be intimate with things to truly describe them either in words, or in pigment.

if you want to paint boats, study boats, dont paint them at first. go over every inch of them with your eyes and your minds eye. dont paint them till you know the way the bow turns back toward the water as it nears the front and how it cools and lightens when in the shadow because its reflecting the water either in shadow or in light and that shape will either be warm or cool. and that one side is usually warm and the other side cool.
little nuances like this are what separate people who paint boats and people who know boats from tons of observation (and happen to paint them) . another good argument for painting from life.

they havent invented a camera that can take a picture of the above bow phenomena. only your peepers can differentiate to that degree and see that subtlety. enought jabbering...heres todays offerings from morehead city and radio island. hope you like em!

View from Morehead Waterfront-12x16 SOLD

Snug Harbor- 8x10

High bid on Lavender Afternoon (see two posts down for image) is now $20 from Alchemyfields (state unknown)
are you going to let them steal it? bid a little more and win this sweet little marsh scene done on the coastal waterway of north carolina.
these little gems look good framed in wide frames and hung, or setting around on the mantle, shelf , or a table.
they are original paintings for the price of some ink on a piece of paper that was printed a million times. its one of a kind and a great affordable way to start your art collection.
so bid!

$1.00 Auction Update

high bid on Lavender Afternoon (see yesterdays post for image)
is now $10.00 from missy m. (i think she lives in cary, chapel hill, somewhere up there LOL)


email me at rooneystudios@hotmail.com or leave me a comment with your bid amount below.



high bidder on Monday morning at 8 am wins, even if that high bid is only $11.
shipping is $9 in u.s. and $15 to canada and overseas.



heres todays painting, also from the outing a few days ago near swansboro

Lavender Afternoon II- 6x8 -oil on canvas board

Dollar Auction Starts Today- Ends Monday

here's the link for my upcoming three man show at City Art in Greenville. Click HERE It has the pieces i'll be exhibiting for the month of august. click the boat when you get there and it'll take you to my page. thanks for looking!

now...

we've had fun in the past with the $1.00 Painting Auction so lets do it again!
i started the bidding at $1 on this one, and missy m. from the raleigh area has bid $10, and now the high bid is $20 from Alchemy Fields (State unknown)
the auction ends monday morning and i'll keep you up daily on the highest bid so you can beat it.
the highest bidder this coming monday at 8 a.m. wins this original oil painting from coastal north carolina.
shipping is only $9 in the u.s. and $15 to canada and europe
so what are you waiting for? bid!

Lavender Afternoon- 6x8- oil on canvas board

SOLD

this is on the white oak near swansboro and the storms were coming in on a late afternoon painting session with friends. it poured down minutes after finishing this up. you'll love all the magenta peeking out everywhere!
you could win this for less than the cost of a dinner at McDonalds. who knows?
let the games begin!

Scribble Scrabble

no paintings to post today.
i gave private painting lessons all day, and man am i glad.
one was in the shade in the early hours and the other was inside a beach cottage in the air condition during the hottest part of the day. it was over 100 degrees today i hear.

if you'd like to have a private lesson this week and live in the atlantic beach/emerald isle/ morehead city area, give me a call and we'll make that happen. my number is 919-920-9718.
they are extremely affordable and you get one-on-one personal instruction.
this offer is only for this week while i'm up that way working.

one of the kids in the second lesson asked another kid if they were going to " scribble scrabble" with her. this was her description of our painting activity. thought that was hilarious! i guess i'm a scribble scrabbler, huh?
thanks sally, had a ball at the painting party!

Another yet

this ones from my trip inland last week. i really liked the sky in this one. mixed up several light violets and several light ochres and it helped tie the sky and field together nicely. i love to paint at this time of day, when this one was done, around 5 pm.

its the "golden hour" when the sun is low in the sky, the light is very golden/orange and shadows are long.

Carolina Fields- 8x10- going to the Art Source show in September

if you like it, email me for pricing info

Hodge Podge

todays post is a hodge podge of images, two from raleigh for the Art Source show in September. the other one is a commission of a beach cottage in atlantic beach.
i'm experimenting some with underpainting more of my paintings with orange in the sky and very light shapes and magenta in the darker light shapes and lighter shadow shapes, and red-violet in the dark shadow shapes. i know this all sounds confusing but you painters know this is important stuff. LOL
point is i'm liking what i'm painting again, after a period of unhappiness. i kept it to myself (smile)

5 Points at 2:42- 9x12- Art Source in Raleigh
Coming into the City- 9x12- Art Source
The Underwood Cottage- 12x16- SOLD- commission