A special request

You may remember this piece I posted a few months ago:

A gentleman came in to the studio recently and fell in love with the piece because it reminded him of when he and his wife went to the Drive-in. Only trouble was, there is no Drive-in in the painting. He asked if I would be willing to put in a few Drive-in details, which of course I was happy to do. The resulting product was this:

Can you see the difference?

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Bowling anyone?

The AAF Greenvile is having an event called the Tiki bowl, and they asked for local artists to decorate bowling pins to be auctioned off. I had so much fun doing the bust for Tatas on Trade that I decided a bowling pin would be fun. Sadly I kept putting it off for so long, that I didn't leave myself much time to paint it! Here is the almost finished product. True to my style, I went searching for vintage bowling images, and styled the piece after vintage bowling shirts. I have no idea what the other offerings to the auction will be, but I am pleased with mine.


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Ambition

10"x 10"
Oil on wood panel
Sides are 1" thick and painted yellow
$120

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

I have no idea who this woman is, but I love her proud, confident look, like she is looking ahead towards some goal she is determined to achieve. Although, that may just be my modern interpretation of a fairly classic image.

Despite the interment rain, it has been a really great day today. My kind and giving father made a bunch of little frames for me, so I now have a stack of little panels waiting to be painted. There has been a surprising number of people stopping in the studio today, considering it is a rainy Tuesday. And, I had the pleasure of meeting in person one of my patrons who I had only ever spoken to over email. Not bad for one day.

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Feeling Glamorous

12"x 12"
Oil on Wood panel
$220

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

My good kind mother gave me her camera to use as a replacement to my broken on, so here is one of the pieces I did at the end of last week. I am starting to like these earlier portraits, if only for the beautiful hair and clothes.

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Doing Without

I really like the painting I did today, but my camera finally gave out completely, not even giving me a blurry pink image to work with. I will have a replacement on Monday, but until then I will keep working away.

Her Downward Gaze

In the picture I based this one on, she is looking down at the most wide-eyed baby I have ever seen. It is a very sweet moment, but for me the beauty of this piece is the look on her face. And her flawless finger waves are pretty cool too. This piece is 4"x 4", oil on wood panel. The sides are 1" thick and painted blue. Soon to be available here.


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A Bit of Poise

The time period on this one is a little further back than I usually go, but it is such a beautiful portrait that I had to paint it. It is another one of my relatives, a great-grandmother I think. I am fascinated by her elaborate hairstyle and huge bow. I wonder what her day to day life was like. This is another one of my new "painting-minis," which will be listed in my Etsy store as soon as I can get some better pictures. It is 4"x 4", oil on wood panel. The sides are 1" thick and painted red.


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Sketching and Sunburn

I spent today lying on a sunny patch of grass, sketching, reading, doing business-type stuff, and most likely burning in the hot sun, but it was totally worth it. I don't draw that often, typically because I prefer the fluidity of paint, but sometimes it feels good to just sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper and create something with it. This piece is done on watercolor paper with colored pencil. Thanks to my friend Sara for lending me the photo from her family pics.


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Kisses Blown

4"x 4"
Oil on Wood panel
Sides are 1" thick and painted dark red

SOLD

Something a little cheeky for Thursday.



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On Being Uninspired

There are days when I would rather do just about anything than paint. And not in a typical, "man, I wish I didn't have to work today" kind of way, but rather in a "the thought of picking up a paintbrush brings me physical pain" kind of way.

I never know when these moments are going to hit. Take today for instance. The sun is shining, there is a nice breeze blowing through the park, it is an all around awesome day. My mood, although not singing-show tunes-in-the-street good, has also been much worse. But, today I find myself looking at the easel, at the several half finished paintings scattered around the studio, and at the half dozen freshly primed canvases begging for an image with a feeling of dread. It starts in my chest, and radiates out towards my fingers and toes.

Despite the title of this post, it is actually not so much about being uninspired. If I waited for inspiration to hit before I started working, I would create a couple of paintings a year, rather than a couple a week. No, there have been many days when, despite not being inspired to paint any specific image, I have sat down at the easel and gotten to work. I have pressed on through the doubts and blocks, sometimes ending up with crap, but other times ending up with something "inspiring." So, what is it that on some days stops even the will to press on, to, as my painting professor at Furman used to say, "shut up and paint?"

I have absolutely no idea.

Perhaps my brain needs a break from the weight of my obsession pressing on it. Maybe my body has some type of internal restart button for when the system gets overloaded. Or perhaps I need to give myself a break, take stock of the huge amount of work that I do on a typical day, and go out and enjoy the sunshine. Maybe it is a day to pay attention to the beauty around me, to count my blessings and start again tomorrow. Or, just maybe, in the immortal words of Olaf Sorensen, it is time to just "shut up and paint."

(totally unrelated note: The photo at the top of this post is my actual paint pallet. Several people recently had commented on it when in the studio, so I thought I would share.)

Two Views of Her Face (or why I hate technology)

Remember my miraculously fixed camera a couple of weeks ago? Well, apparently it was only a temporary fix, because once again my photos are coming out looking like this:

While it's an interesting effect, it's not really helpful when it comes to photographing art. If anyone knows a way to fix this problem, please let me know!


So, once again, I had to shoot my painting on my cell phone. I spent most of Saturday working on this piece, and I am officially in love with it. I have mentioned recently how much I like old photo booth photos, and this is one of my Grandmother from around 1938-1941. The original photo is tiny, but I wanted to paint it really large. I recycled an old canvas from college, back when I couldn't paint anything that was much smaller than wall sized. This one is about 2ft by 4ft. The challenge on the faces was to make them look like two views of the same woman, and not two different women wearing the same outfit. I still need to work on the clothes and background, but I am so happy with the faces that I had to go ahead and share, despite the technological setbacks.

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A Sneek Peek

I'm off to two artist receptions tonight, so here is a quick look at what I will be working on for much of the day tomorrow. If you are downtown, come check it out.




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