Afternoons Glow on House-6x8-$50

$8 s/h
to purchase instantly click the "buy now" button to pay with PayPal or credit card or be the first to email me with the title in the subject line

Ocracoke Reflections-12x9

if you like this one email me for the price

This is a cool building that sits on the backside of the harbor at Ocracoke. love the way the one side was lit up and orangey versus the cool dark red on the shadow side. and of course the fishing nets and an out of place red barrel (which was a nice accent to the green tree and grass.

Last Voyage-8x10

if you like this one drop me an email for the price

The last of six today... what!!!.... lets see a 12x16, 6x6, 9x12, 8x10, 6x8, and this 8x10. thats gotta be a record. the sun was great and not a cloud in the sky all day. work 8 to 7:30 yeah it can be done. then blog. get something to eat and check emails. oh yeah!

The cemetery is a place where the sailors of a ship that wrecked off ocracoke are laid to rest. they were british (reason for the british flag) and the coast guard here keep up the place in their honor. next to it is a cemetery for island residents as well. a very beautiful scene in the fading sun, late in the day. these will most likely go to Down Creek Gallery on Ocracoke.

Ocracoke Rental-5x6

$100 plus s/h

at Down Creek Gallery

I'm still on the island of Ocracoke, home for a while to the infamous pirate Blackbeard. He used to hide out here and strike out at ships robbing them blind. now they do it legally in the restaurants and motels. it's very expensive to stay here even in the off season. so i'm trying to paint four a day to keep the price per painting down. i'll use any excuse to paint alot wont i.

doing that many in a day makes you use your time wisely. i see paintings everywhere so i dont have far to travel to get one. thats one good thing.

i bet i havent gone a mile from where i started to do all these and one more.

SOLD

From the Pinnacle-8x10
to purchase contact me by email with the title in the subject line

I stood high on a hill of dirt to paint this view of the cove where the ferry comes in. this was done later in the afternoon and i like the color harmonies on this one.

Ocracoke Hiway-8x8

SOLD

One of the many roads that lead to the sound. i left the house out that was to the left of this one. this is what it looked like hundreds of years ago before folks inhabited the island. Love the early light on this one. pinks and subdued shades of lavender everywhere.

i think all these will be in Down Creek Gallery on Ocracoke soon.

Turquoise View- 8x10

SOLD

Saw this while scouting down dead-end roads that front the water. how cool is that view! i left the tiedown off it for artistic reasons but it had a strap attached to anchors sunk in the ground. the owner told me they kept it from floating away like it did the last time the area flooded. too funny!

Cedar Island Shores-SOLD

Here's a fast and loose one from Cedar Island, NC. i had a few days free when i got a commission done early so i decided to gypsy around the Outer Banks for a few days since they're calling for good weather all the way thru sunday. when i got to the ferry to get over to Ocracoke i had an hour wait, so i whipped out the paint box and tripod and banged this one out right around the beach a little from the dock.

i like the looseness of it because i was really painting intuitively, so worried about missing the ferry. i think when we have too long to work on a piece we overthink it to fill in the time allowed. kinda like..... how come when the road crew has four guys there's only one working and they get the same amount of work done as they would if they had one or two? but we have to pay for all four regardless dont we?well paintings the same. we sense that we have all this time to work on it (especially if you work in the studio) and we use all the time after its "really done" to add a bunch of detail that wasnt needed anyway, and just kills the spontaneity we loved about it before killing it. the definition of TOO much detail is- anything that isnt ABSOLUTELY needed to tell the story.

when people see my paintings alot of them comment on how i edit a scene into the basics needed and nothing more. well there's the secret. dont put anything into the painting that isnt absolutely necessary. as in -- if you didnt paint it, folks would have a hard time figuring out whats going on. like the shadow lines on a clapboard house. if you squint and dont see them when youre out there painting, why paint them in.... thats unnecessary detail. you dont need to paint in every window for people to know its a house, right? do away with that stuff and the painting will be fresh, and not overworked.

Yellow House on the White Oak-SOLD

Another little ditty from swansboro, a quaint little village by the sea. i've done this house twice now. once in the sun and once on an overcast day.

The color class i'm teaching Saturday is filling up so let me know if you're interested in coming. its from 10-4 in Morehead City. i'll teach a whole day on how to mix any color imaginable from a limited palette of red, blue, yellow and white. if you arent blown away by what you learn, i'll refund your money! i'm that convinced that it will revolutionize the way you mix and look at color from that day on. drop me an email to hold you a spot. its $75 and worth every penny. i'll also have a bunch of my daily paintings, dvds, and plein air painting book on hand for sale too. "Baby need a new pair a shoes" LOL

Capt.Phillips Shrimpers-SOLD

Went to Swansboro to paint today. the wind was blowing steady at about 20 knots so i found a windbreak in a dock, stayed low and painted this nice little arrangement of shapes and harmonious colors. my lightweight painting box attached to a tripod was just the ticket for a day like this. you have to minimize what the wind can blow over when youre painting. i'll do anything to keep painting no matter what the conditions

the harmony has to do with the blue having some orange in it, darkish green has blue in it and the greyish blue has green in it. all courtesy of nature! its really there if you look.

this one was 100% knife painting. keeps you thinking of the big shapes and you really CAN'T get a lot of detail in, even if you wanted to. its a piece of thin steel after all.

Turquoise Glimpse-8x10

if you like this one email me for the price

This ones done on Ocean Drive on Emerald Isle. the island in this section of beach sits lower than the road and you have this nice little elevated view where you catch the water in between the beach cottages. i love it! i'll be back doing some more thats for sure.

Up the Driveway-SOLD

just loved how this house looked at the edge of the field in the late afternoon sun. so iconic eastern north carolina. it needed a little something so i used my artistic license and added a little winding path to lead your eye up to it from the large green shape....er grassy field. did it work?

also super happy with the brush strokes. kinda chunky and squared off some. i've started using flats to get these brushstrokes instead of filberts which give you a more rounded stroke. i think i'll stick with em'. you can get really thin lines with them (tree limbs) and chunky square strokes like the ones at the edges of the foreground shadow. give em a try... i think you'll like em!

I'm a Star II-10x8

contact me if you like this painting and i'll give you the price

get this one for the "bikini Diva" in your life. she'll love it!

This ones done from the one a week ago. i like her stance and her white hat.

I meant to tell y'all about this on the post about the rainy street painting in Charleston a week ago, but i forgot to, so here it is.

i was out painting in charleston when it got really cloudy and drizzly. i was almost finished with the painting and decided to try to finish it up when it started really raining. i'm keeping the painting dryish but i'm soaked.

this little girl and her mother pass me under their umbrellas and i hear the little girl say " he sure picked a bad day to paint didnt he mommy!?"

Commission 4/15- NODP

22x28-nfs

**NODP is the code i use to keep Daily Painters Gallery from featuring this on our site**


Here's the finished painting i've been working on the last couple of days. i really like the way it came out.

The final stage of this was completed by tweaking the individual shapes from step 2 on the post below. i added lots of temperature variations in each shape, blurring and tightening edges, adding lots of nice accents, that make this piece pop.

Especially love the feeling of depth i got by making the grass and field shapes bigger and more saturated in color up close vs. smaller and cooler to show distance or depth as it goes back. this was way more successful on the final than on the original color sketch.

Carolina Fields-6x6-$100

$8 s/h

contact me if you want this one

Starting on a 22x28 commission today so i thought i'd chronicle the process.
here's the first stage. washes of burnt sienna to show the values of each shape. this gives a nice warm glow under all the paint that will go on top

the small painting below the big one is the color sketch i've got approved by the client and i'll use it to guide me in the painting of the bigger one.




Now i lay in thin paint approximating the final color of each shape. color is not as important to get right at this stage as getting the right value is.

i'll stop here and pick it back up tomorrow. that way it'll dry up just a touch so i can get good clean color when i lay it on over top of this block-in. this will go to a nice lady up near philly in pennsylvania.

Beach Pair-5x5 SOLD

Like the lighting effect on these two little girls playing. theyre lit from the back but very close to side lit. thats where that little sliver of light is on their legs and arms.

i'm working on keeping the shadows on their skin lively also, adding a bit more warmth than was actually there. it works.

i'd love some comments on- if you think these paintings of figures are working or not. that's what's cool about blogging..... the interaction and growth that can happen from honest critiqueing. so chime in,...especially if its bad! i need to know so i can get better! thanks

I'm a Star-9x7-SOLD

Cant get the figures out of my head. kinda like a few weeks ago. well..... go with the flow.

Luana, if youre reading this.... look at the warm darks on the skin!

click the painting to see the luscious brush work and thick paint

Get this one for the beach diva in your life. She'll love it! go on...hit that PayPal button, you know you want to!

Girl with a Hat-9x9-$45

$8 s/h
to purchase click the "buy now" button below to pay instantly with PayPal or credit card or be the first to email me with the title in the subject line

This one's another warmup that took around 30 minutes and its kind of a gesture drawing in color. just trying to get the drawing right and capture her pose and hit a few values and temperatures with color. really fast and loose. great exercise.... i'd love to do em for a few hours straight. limit the time to 20 minutes, do about 20 and see what i get. some would suck bad, alot of them would be just ok and there would be two or three at the most that were dynamite. exactly like my plein air paintings LOL

Seated Girl with Hat-9x9-$45

$8 s/h
to purchase click the "buy now" button to pay instantly with PayPal or credit card or be the first to email me with the title in the subject line

A 45 minute figure study done in Luana's studio in raleigh this afternoon. it was really fun and the only thing that could have been better is if we really were outside in the sun.

this was the first one. just trying to warm up and figure out what underpainting colors will work. like the pose in this 30 minute study. i'll add the light flesh color to her face where it went kinda gray on me. hey it was only 30 minutes... there's bound to be some tweaks needed right? LOL

Yellow Blankets-6x6-SOLD

More beach girls.

the photo i used for this was taken last year. you have to sneak photos like these. the people think your stalking them or something! so you have to make them think your taking a picture of something behind them or wait till they both look away.

i think my figurative class with Luana helped on the girls bodies. when you feel confident of the drawing you can focus on painting them more boldly.

i like this one. especially the color on the girl lying down. there's some really subtle temperature shifts on the painting that the photo's unforntunately not showing.

Southern Shores-6x5

Doing some beach girls, hoping that the warm weather will hurry up and get here for good.

Waterside Parking II-SOLD

Steeples and Palms- 10x8- SOLD

Low Country Side Yard- 10x8- email for availability

Here are a few painted plein air in Charleston and Beaufort. i usually look at them on my "drying/viewing couch" directly across from my "sitting" couch. that way if something really irks me about a shape, color whatever, i can fix it before calling it done. the trick is not to nitpick them do death. they lose their sponaneity when you do. it has to be a glaring problem for me to mess with them after leaving the field.

The Dean Dome-8x10-contact me if you like it

UNC Tarheels- 2009 NCAA Champions- they beat Michigan good 89-72!

The Chapel at St. Mary's- 8x10- contact me if you like it

Luconi Winner Workshop

No paintings to post today but i wanted to write about the workshop i'm taking this weekend with Luana Luconi Winner winnerstudios.com - check out her awesome figurative and portrait work. she has won international awards for her stuff and she's an NC treasure. she trained in chicago, new york, and italy and does some mindblowing stuff. so cool to have that kind of talent so close (raleigh)
i found out she was teaching at Jerrys Artarama on the same day i was doing a half day demo. so i signed up for the two day workshop on the figure drawing/painting class she was teaching.

i'm out of my element for sure, but i dont mind. learning is always happening outside "the box" or comfort zone. i know my students are experiencing it when i take a studio painter into windy, buggy, noisy, and oftentimes uncomfortable conditions, outside plein air painting. i know they are like fish out of water but i tell them thats how they'll learn to do it..... by doing it, even tho' theyre not in their cushy studios with the temp just right, some mellow jazz playing, a bathroom steps away. i dont want to get graphic and go into what i do when i'm downtown painting and no businesses will let you use their facilities halfway thru a painting. these are the things you have to have planned out when you know that youre going to be painting outside every minute of every sunny day. so i understand when they dont want to leave the studio and theyre trusty photos. they dont want to feel "out of sorts."

this is how i feel this weekend. she has us drawing with vine and compressed charcoal and chalk on paper. i havent done that in 30 years since i was a student at Virginia Commonwealth taking freshman figure drawing classes. i want to use a brush. i want to use paint and color, i want to use a medium i'm used to, i want to be outside, not cooped up inside when its sunny and 70 outside. well.... for me to learn what i need to learn i need to do what i'm told. i trust her. and when its all said and done, my figure painting will be better for it.

i think this is what learning is all about. trusting the process enough to let go of whats comfortable and not always doing what you know (or think you know). as i said... learning is always done outside of that "comfort zone".

hopefully my paintings of people from here on, will make it all worthwhile. and thanks Luana for being gentle :D

Dark Reflection-SOLD

Had a great turnout at City Art show tonite at the Spring Fling show. thanks everybody for coming and hanging out! we had a ball and i sold some paintings.

here's one from Georgetown SC. neatest wooden boat painted dark blue. i'm a sucker for wooden boats. i love em. what am a saying... ive never met a boat i didnt like LOL

Dukes Mayonnaise-SOLD

6x6

Just finished this commission of a good ole southern fave Duke's mayonnaise. The collector is giving it as a gift for her kids that live out west where they dont have Duke's.

I like how i teamed up the yellow in the cap with a purple-magenta tabletop. sets up a nice vibration. just that sizzle it needs.

St. John AME-8x10- contact me if you like this one

Miss Nicole-8x10-SOLD

Cru's Cafe-8x10-SOLD

if you like any of these give me an email. theyre brand new from my trips to charleston, beaufort and georgetown SC.