"Yellow Flowers"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

I allowed myself to be a little bit looser on this one, and I think it turned out pretty well. Enjoy!

"Lady in Blue"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

Another magazine cover. What I like about this one is the background. In some of my pieces, the background tends to be an after thought, but here the pattern really seems to integrate with the figure.

"Purple Hat"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

I recently came across a bunch of 1940's magazine covers. They are so much more interesting and artistic than magazine covers today, which just seem to picture the same celebrities in the same poses, wearing the same clothes. I just love the beauty and class the women in these older covers seem to have.

"Lead"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

As promised, here is the other half of the painting from Friday. I like to think that the group of people in the background are the singing group coming on next. I wonder what the "N" on their sweaters stands for...

"Follow"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

This piece is one of two. If you know anything about swing dancing, or any kind of partner dancing, you will know what the other one is titled. Tune in for the second half on Monday.

"Spilled Milk"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

Someone said to me recently that these paintings of spills make them think about the mess they would have to clean up. For me, that is exactly the reason why I feel I should paint them. How often do we spill things, and we are so busy dashing for the towels to clean it up that we don't take the chance to appreciate the beauty that is in the mess. I am not saying that we need to stand around admiring things we have tipped over, but simply that beauty is all around us in some of the most unexpected places. Take a moment to admire it.

"To Go"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

This piece covers my other two favorite subjects- coffee and spills! I think this is a familiar sight for many of us- the top of a coffee to go cup. This piece is the first that I have done that is not from an actual still life or photograph. It was a combination of a photo of the lid of a cup, a little experimenting with making rings, and the memory of some of the other spills I have painted recently. It was a good experiment in creating a composition from several sources.

"Jitterbug"

10" x 14"
Oil on Masonite
$150

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

This piece was done from a still of an old swing film. It is larger than my typical daily paintings, but I still did it in one day, so it has a much looser, more impressionistic feel. I really love the people in the background who, up close are only a few strokes of black and white, but from a distance seem to have a lot of mass. This is one of my favorites so far.

"40's Glamour"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

Perhaps because of all the swing dancing I do, I have become obsessed with the 40's- the clothes, the music, and the style. This piece is just a first step into using this theme in more of my work. I would really like to push this idea much further, using color within the black and white, trying different styles of painting. But for now, here is a look at a glamorous 40's movie star.

"Dashed Hopes"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

Yes, I believe dashed hopes would be a spilled bottle of chocolate sauce. I feel I must explain that I did not make this spill. It was done for a video at work, but it was such an artistic spill that I, perpetually on the look for things to paint, couldn't help but photograph it!

"Brew for Two"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

I have been told that the piece "Morning Comfort" that I did two weeks ago was highly coveted, and there was much disappointment when it was sold. So, for those of you who missed that one, here is another coffee piece for you. Plus I know how excited Laurie gets when I take her suggestions! What could be better than a nice cup of coffee, except for sharing a cup with someone else?

"Tools of the Trade"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$80

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

This chest is my great-grandmother's box of glazes that she used to paint china. I love the carefully labeled drawers with all her colors neatly sorted and ready to use. She used these things to make her art, but to me it is a piece of art in itself.

"One Woman's Treasure 2"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

A number of weeks ago, I drew this same image from a fan that my great-grandmother had kept. At that time, I had also considered doing a painted version of it. The high popularity of that drawn image inspired me to go ahead and do a painted one. I don't know what it is about this woman that attracts people so much. For me, I think it is that she seems to have a level of class and sophistication that you don't see often these days. Plus, we don't wear such fun hats anymore!

Cazbah Paintings Available!

The pieces I did for the Cazbah Wine Festival are still available for purchase. They are $100 each, framed in a black metal frame with a white matte.

Cazbah Wine Festival

"Wine Rings"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
$100- Framed

"Crying Over Spilled Wine"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

These two pieces will be on display tonight as a part of the Cazbah Wine Festival. This event is a fund raiser for Greenville's Make a Wish Foundation, and features wine tastings, food, and wine themed art. The event happens tonight on Trade St. in downtown Greer. Come check it out!

"Cookie Monster"

6" x 6"
Pencil on Masonite

This guy is absolutely my favorite model! This is another one of my nephew, this time wearing a pair of Cookie Monster glasses. I never run out of fun things to draw or paint with this little guy around.

"Swing Motion"

14" x 18"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

This is another larger piece, which I finished this week. Aside from painting, one of the things that I love to do the most is to swing dance. In this piece, I hoped to capture some of the motion and excitement, and the "blur" of swing dancing. Once again, I painted this piece using palette knives to create a sense of motion in the paint strokes.

"In Among Blooms"

10" x 14"
Oil on Masonite
$150

To purchase, email me with the title in the subject line.

This is a larger piece that I started last week. I like the feeling that you are right in the middle of the bunch of flowers. I also like how the blooms seem to be moving off into the upper left corner. I painted this piece with a palette knife- not my usual technique when doing my daily paintings- but I feel like it adds to the sense of motion in the piece.

Art in the Market

An Excuse to Eat Chocolate #1
$100 (Framed)
For Sale through Upstate Visual Arts


An Excuse to Eat Chocolate #2
$100 (Framed)
For Sale through Upstate Visual Arts

Beginning today, you can see these two pieces on display as part of the "Art in the Market" Show at the Whole Foods on Woodruff Rd. here in Greenville. The show is put on by Upstate Visual Arts, and features food themed art from artists all over the upstate. These two pieces were a chance for me to keep eating chocolate until I found the perfect "models."

"Photographic Impressions"

6" x 6"
Oil on Masonite
SOLD

When I first started working on this piece, I intended it to be a very realistic and detailed rendering of this old camera. But, once I got going, I liked the idea of doing a more impressionistic rendering, as a contrast to the hard lines of the piece of equipment. This is one of my dad's old cameras.