View from my Window, 24×30″ $400
I painted this painting several years ago but was never totally satisfied with it. I recently got it back from the Animal Health Clinic in Covington and let it hang on our living room wall for a few days, when suddenly it hit me why I was so unsatisfied with it - the background was all wrong. It was a loose patchwork of colors - lime green, orange, blue - perhaps not quite as offensively loud as that collection of colors might suggest, but it was certainly enough to sour my view of it.
So this is the same basic painting with a background redux, resulting in a much more muted, much more mellow painting. And it does something that the busy, color-filled background failed to do: it underscores the emotional undercurrent of the painting, supporting the somber-sad stare of this pup and not detracting from it. Proving the adage, less is more. By the way, the reference photo for this painting was a two inch black and white photo from a newspaper I found.
Do Your Ears Hang Low, 24×30″ $400
I’ve been painting a bit lately - getting ready for the Madisonville Art Market next month - and here are a couple of portraits I’ve recently completed. The first is of my niece Della and it’s on a 14×11″ canvas. This one was basically a practice painting, trying out a quick technique where most of the painting was accomplished with a relatively large brush, followed by last minute perfecting with a smaller detail brush. Worked out well.
The second is a large 40×30″ family portrait of my wife, son and myself. This was painted from a photo 
taken around a year ago. It was fun to do [meaning it didn't take very long to finish], and I’m reasonably happy with the finished product.
The next art show for me is September 13th, where I’ll have a booth for the first time at the Madisonville art market. I’m doing my best to get more smaller paintings completed before then. Pictured below is my little setup in front of my computer [where I can consume all my usual podcasts while I paint]. I figured I’d paint a handful of fishing lure paintings to sell on the riverfront in Madisonville. See you there!
This little guy is trapped in my backyard - has been for six or seven years now. He shows up about once a year (like a reptilian comet) when the Summer’s heat gets to be too much for him. I think I must have missed his previous appearance because this year he seemed to be much larger than last time I saw him.
Anyway, I took a few photos with my new digital camera, and they turned out so well, I just had to paint it.
Box Turtle 30×40″ - $800
As promised, here is a new painting fresh off the easel (technically an easel was not used in the creation of this painting). I painted this from a photo of our son, Mason, leaping from a footstool to a sofa, the type of activity at which he’s likely to excel. Most of my energy in painting this piece was spent in the area of the head, leaving the rest of the body as well as the background in a loose, simplified state. Click the image for a larger view and please leave a comment. Thanks!
Boy Jumping 20×16″ - $300
Once again, I’ve redesigned the website. I think it’s alright . . . haven’t double-checked it with Internet Explorer, but it’s working with Firefox (let me know if something doesn’t work for you).
I’ve had this idea for a while of making my main website the blog, instead of just a static landing page. Anyway, it simplifies things for me.
It’s been a while since my last post (a full month), but, sadly, not much has happened since then. The weather has been typical Louisiana summer fare: hot and humid with the occasional thunderstorm. So I made the decision to skip the June and August Northshore Art Markets (the August one is this Saturday). I plan on returning to the Art Market in October, unless something changes (then by definition . . .), and I’m also considering the Madisonville art market in September.
Skipping these venues has left something of a vacancy in the commissions I normally take on - at least I think that’s what is to blame - and, as such, I’ve found it difficult to get back into my normal painting rhythm. [side thought: why is it that when business is going slow for me, everyone feels the need to ask me, "so, how's the painting going?"!?!]
In the meantime, I have gotten some painting done and have made it up to the Ponchatoula Furniture Gallery to change out some paintings. I spent some time there making some changes to a commissioned landscape. It was fun painting somewhere different and painting in “public”, and there was talk about me and artist Bill Hemmerling doing a painting demonstration sometime in the future [I'll let you know if that happens].
Well, that’s all I can come up with right now. Back to the easel for me. Let me know what you think of the new look, and if you have any suggestions. Thanks.
