Amelia Island Shrimpboat

Untitled (Shrimpboat at Amelia Island Waterfront)
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas
 

This year's small painting for the gift exchange with the Wednesday Oil Painters group.

Abstractions

Slot Canyon Wall
15 x 21 Mixed Media on
300lb Fabriano paper 

Meanwhile back at the Ranch

This painting is from photo references I took while we were in San Antonio.  I was drawn to the colors of the old sign in front of the bare cottonwood trees behind the buildings as we drove down the street, so we had to pull  over and take a couple of pictures.  This painting is currently up in the nouveau show at the Island Art Association, art walk is Saturday from 5-7, it will be there for the next 2 months.

Ranch Motel

20 x 24 Oil on Canvas

 

See it in Stuart Florida

The painting below is currently showing in the 24th Annual All-Florida Juried Arts Show at the Martin County cultural arts center in Stuart Florida. 

Atmospheric Amelia Island

The Wednesday oil painters group that I belong to is the "featured Artist" for the month of September at the Island Art Association.  Since there are 11 of us and limited space for display, it was decided to work on paintings 11 x 14 or smaller with the theme of Island scenes.  I don't generally paint a lot of scenes of the island but decided to try some out.  I ordered a couple packs of linen panels to experiment with and have enjoyed painting this group of Fernandina scenes.  The photos that I took and worked from all seemed to have different light and atmospheric qualities that attracted me to the image.  One or two of these will be on the featured artist wall during the September artwalk (second Saturday 5-7pm) and the rest will be up with my work in the gallery for that artwalk. 

Atlantic Seafood
14 x 11 Oil on Linen Panel
2014

Storm Gathering on South Fletcher
14 x 11 Oil on Linen Panel
2014  SOLD

The Center of the Discontent
11 x 14 Oil on Linen Panel
2014

Docked in the August Haze
14 x 11 Oil on Linen Panel
2014  SOLD

Electric Sky over the Crab Trap
14 x 11 Oil on Linen Panel
2014

August Nouveau Art works

The local gallery/co-op where I exhibit has a juried show that changes every two months with a different theme for each show.  The one coming up at the beginning of August has the theme of Shakespeare Quotes.  I have done something for one of my favorite quotes " though this be madness, yet there is method in't"  from Hamlet.  As I was working on the piece, friends brought over some old frames they were getting rid of and one of them, a highly ornate and brassy gold affair seems to have become part of the piece.  I was working on the painting and working to tone down the frame with some black paint at the same time.  Somehow the frame has had quite an influence on the painting and so they have been joined (at least for now).  The work is alternately titled, Bright Lights, Big City.  It is mixed media (inks, watercolors, acrylics, pens, collage....) on 300lb Arches watercolor paper, mounted on board and sealed with UV filtering varnish.  I wanted to make the work accessible without glass and this method was one I came across while researching ways to show watercolor without framing behind glass.  Essentially the entire piece is an experiment and an improvisation.  Below are two images, one of the work itself without frame and one in the frame that became part of the work.   The Shakespeare quotes show opening is during the second Saturday in August at the Island Art Association.  Hope you can check it out if you are in the area as these photos don't pick up a lot of the detail and metallic bits in the work.

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't

(Bright Lights, Big City)  22 x 28

Mixed media on paper laid down on board 2014

More Newfoundland Coastline

Gray Dawn
Sibley's Cove Newfoundland
14 x 20 Watercolor and Gouache  2014

Blue Gorge

After working through a very realist painting in watercolor, I have loosened up with an oil from a study I did previously in mixed media.  I can't remember exactly where this canyon image came from, either travels in Utah or New Mexico but it is probably a composite from memory of a lot of the canyons and mountains we have visited.  The organic flow of the masses is also the way I remember many badlands areas in both states.

Blue Gorge 2014

Oil on Canvas

20 x 24

 

Commissioned by a Friend

This painting was commissioned by a friend for his wife's anniversary present.  He sent a photo on his I-phone to me and we went from there.  Ironically it is yet another bird of paradise painting.....

Teena's Gift

30 x 22 Watercolor   2014

 

More in the Birds of Paradise series

I continue to be amazed by the giant flowers on the white bird of paradise plants that are in my back yard and my neighbor's front yard.   This past winter has taken its toll on those plants and we had to cut them back to almost nothing.  Even though we are just outside their hardiness zone they are now putting out new leaves and coming back strong.  This painting is from a bloom last fall so ripe with life that the red sap oozed out from the flower. 

White Bird Singing in the Light
24 x 36 Oil on Canvas
2014

Trinity Bay Newfoundland

I finished this painting for the upcoming nouveau art show at our gallery themed
"monochromatic".  In reality the rocks on this coast of Trinity Bay in Newfoundland are quite colorful in their own way.  Using only the white, black, and a blue mixed from cerulean and burnt sienna I found I could get a fairly wide variety of shades in the painting.  I am usually all about the color in my work so this was a good exercise to kind of change up my process

Marine Layer, Trinity Bay Newfoundland

Watercolor 14 x 21

2014

 

 

Commissioned Work

Tangle 2

30 x 17 Watercolor

2014  SOLD

 

 



Plumeria

Plumeria   2014

16 x 12 Oil on Canvas

 

Parrot Tulips

 

 

Parrot Tulips    2014

30 x 22 Watercolor

(Commissioned work - Sold)



Art Session at the Noble School

My sister in law and her business partner have a school for middle and high school age students with special needs and she asked me to give an art class for the group.  I have never taught anything before so this was a both challenging and fun.  I put together an introduction to watercolors with the project below. 

 

To see the students work go to the Noble School Facebook page at:  https://www.facebook.com/TheNobleSchool

Crater Lake

Blue Shade, Crater Lake Oregon

20 x 16 Oil on Canvas

2014

Cannas at the Cummer

These cannas were some of the last flowers blooming at the Cummer gardens this fall.  They looked to me as if they were reaching up for the last of warm midday sun that day.

Reaching

36 x 20 Oil on Canvas

2014  SOLD

Summer Flowers for a cold January

Another watercolor of flowers seen last summer.  These petunias were hanging on the fence around Rita's deck in Sibley's Cove Newfoundland.  With the sun shining on them they looked like velvet glowing on the post.   I spent yesterday afternoon here on the island pulling out all the flowers and other plants that were zapped by a hard freeze last week.  The cheerful look of these petunias has got me thinking of all the new possibilities for the replanting this spring.

On the Fence

21 x 15 Watercolor on 140 lb Arches

2014