Coming Soon !!! Belated Annual Valentine's Day Art Sale

These two paintings are in the CAC Douglas County Art Guild Show.    I discovered tonight that they have already sold!   Both of them.     I'll be taking two more to that show to replace tomorrow (4/27/16)    The exhibit is up until end of May at the Cultural Arts Center.


I also have a show going up 5/3/15 at the Dog River Library.   It will also be up during May 2016.   Drop by during library hours and take a look.

The end of May, I will be having an online Art Sale to correspond to the closing of both the shows.    Since I missed my 2nd Annual Valentine's Day Art Sale I will be posting 40 photos of current paintings and offering the framed originals online as a Belated Annual Valentine's Day Art Sale.    Keep your eyes out for that post.   I'll post on face book and on my blog here.  

Art Show - Dog River Library - May 2016

 Drop by and visit my Art Show during May 2016 at Dog River Library.    It will be mostly watercolor and photography.    I'll also have a few of my favorite pastels in the exhibit.    Check the library for posted hours.

Gold Mine Ruins - Villa Rica, GA

"Gold Mine Ruins" - 9x12 - Watercolor - April 2016

A quick watercolor on the back of another painting.   I pulled a reference photo of the Gold Mine Ruins in Villa Rica, GA.    I need to revisit this place and try some plein air painting.  

Upcoming DC Art Guild Show

Art Guild Exhibit - April 7 - May 20, 2016

Spring is here and so is the Douglas County Art Guild Exhibit!    I'll have two paintings in this show including the one above of the "Barn Yard" and "Selman Drive Pines".    The next two months will be busy for me, I will also have a solo show at Dog River Library in May 2016.    I've focused on photography and watercolor for this show.   Somethings different and all new works.    I'll post the complete exhibit in May.

Rocks!!! They are hard in more ways than one!

When I took the Natural Science Illustration class last month at the State Botanical Gardens, we were given a couple of rocks and asked to draw them.    Our instructor talked about how some instructors had their class draw nothing but a rock for weeks - saying "that if you can draw a rock you can draw anything.   I keep two rocks on my drawing table and from time to time I will attempt another drawing.    She was right.....rocks are very hard to draw.  

Experimenting

"Potter's Stream" - 6x6 - Watercolor - March 2016

Sometimes you don't feel particularly inspired but you know you need to put some paint on paper.   Last week I actually painted front and back and tossed lots of minis!   The first washes look good and then I manage to mess them up.    I've signed up for an open studio watercolor class in April.   Maybe I'll get some tips from people who have been painting with watercolor longer.   Anyway when I don't feel inspired I always go back and grab a reference photo of some of my favorite places.   This is the stream by Mark of the Potter.   Beautiful place in North Georgia.

A Long Walk - Editing Your Photo

"A Long Walk" - 6x6 - Watercolor - March 2016

Sometimes when you feel you've got nothing to paint from your reference photos, you just need to look with a different eye.     I like to write on the back of my reference photos every time I paint from one of them.    I'll put the date and the medium.   I had passed over this photo from my "hometown" group of photos many times.   It had a house on the right and several cars on the left side parked on the street and a concrete curb.   After I picked it up and started sketching in the scene, I was not sure how much I'd put in the painting.  I actually edited out a lot of the original photo.     Looking back the only thing I'd change now is to add a couple more of the rusty trees with light trunks in the back.   This is probably how this street looked years ago before the sprawl of development took over.   There are still spots that have trees and fields.     The funny thing about a place "everyone" loves is that after everyone moves there no one loves it any more.   Now this is a cluttered street.

Looking at a photo and editing out things is a great way to revisit an old reference photo.   Another way to look at them is to cut two pieces of paper to make a mat and keep moving them around different parts of the photo to find new compositions.   Sometimes you can find 3-4 paintings in one reference photo which are very different.