Postcards from Sullivan's Island

I recently decided to create a series of small, 6"x8" oil painting and call them "Postcards from Sullivan's Island". When I paint these small paintings they act like my thumbnail sketches only done in oil paint. While painting these paintings I can decide which paintings I would like to create a larger version of. It is always a challenge to paint small. I use bruches that are about 1/2 inch in width so I won't get too picky.

Hope you enjoy the journey to Sullivan's Island, SC.

These paintings are now at Sandpiper Gallery on Sullivan's Island, SC

Happy drawing & painting!

Inside the Skillet Restaurant

One of my favorite subjects... the skillet!

This image shows my studio setup. You can see the monitor to the right of me and I use that as my reference for the painting. I've come to prefer painting from the monitor as opposed to using a photograph or print out because the light is better in the photo on the monitor. I can also use Photoshop to "look" into shadows that would normally just go black in a photograph.

Should have the painting complete by next week to post. Check back to see it!

Happy drawing & painting!

Paint NC Plein-Air Invitational

Startown, NC

This painting was done in the back seat of my car. On the way to Germanton, NC I stopped at a little town just below Hickory, NC named Startown. This sweet little church was on Startown road. As I painted this I thought this would be a perfect place for an American Idol contestant to be from.

Germanton, NC

Once I arrived in Germanton, NC I found this great farm just accross the street from the home I stayed at for 3 nights. (More on my gracious hosts in another post.) The farm, Buffalo Creek Farm, was a fun place to paint and one of the owners, Robin, shared alot of interesting farm stuff I didn't know. I painted this on a foggy/rainy day. Luckily, I found a great shelter and painted the back of the barn/house. This farm had llamas, guinea fowl, goats, rabbits, turkeys, Great Pyrenees dogs. Some animals had special duties on th farm. The guinea fowl are said to be good for controlling the Lyme Disease-bearing deer tick. The Great Pyrenees dogs protect the livestock and are rarely out of sight or hearing of his flock. It is a calm animal that moves slowly to avoid disturbing the livestock and possesses a better than average sense of hearing, sight and smell. Llamas bonds with its herd of livestock, it takes over as a protector. Friday, I "forged" their Buffalo Creek to paint their restored log cabin and one of their llamas kept his eye on me as I crossed the pasture.

I used the second shed pictured here as shelter to paint the barn/house - see my easel next to the ladder.

Friday I forged this stream to paint in Buffalo Creeks back pasture.

This llama was keeping his eye on me.

This is were I painted on Friday. If you look closely you can see my easel setup to the right. They had two outhouses which I did use. Hint: overalls are not the attire to wear when using outhouses...

The Reception

Friday night Germanton Gallery held a reception for 30+ artist they invited to be a part of this paint-out. It was a fun evening and I meet some really nice artists from all over the country. One artist, whose work I admired, was Robert Brown from Charlotte, NC.

Next post I'll put up some of what I painted while in Germanton and tell you more about my adventures.

Happy drawing & painting!

Cecilia Beaux -"Man with a Cat"

Just returned from visiting Washington, DC. Two of the highlights of a very eventful trip were #1 I was able to see and spend time with a cousin I hadn't seen in over 40 years and #2 I stood right in front of my all time favorite painting by Cecilia Beaux at the Portrait Gallery.

Life is good!

We Live Here Now

The Hub-Bub artists, Arielle and Rachel are living downtown for 5 days in a store front on 100 E. Main Street. Their goal is to promote downtown and its small but growing art scene, and to highlight in a unique way what it would be like to live downtown. They are calling the project "We Live Here Now."

I dropped by today to sketch art in the making! Arielle and Rachel are two of four artist participating in the Artists-in-Residence program run by Hub-Bub. Hub-Bub has some great things happening.

Now that "I live here now" it is things like this that has me encourgaged that great things are happening in my old town.