Returning Home
Bogalusa became one big game of pine tree pick-up-sticks in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I took this reference photo on a foggy morning after returning home from our evacuation vacation. The photo didn't really show much of the destruction - unless you knew what our street looked like before the storm - but the eerie mix of fog and peach colored sky was the main reason I took the photo, and the reason I wanted to capture the scene on canvas. Although the actual painting is a bit darker and the sky a bit richer in color.
Returning Home, 30x40" $800
Something Unsure
For the most part, my paintings are generally based on real life - well, to be more accurate, real life by way of a reference photo usually - but every now and then I'll dabble in completely abstract painting. This painting was inspired from a song I wrote and my brother Matt put to music. It was a bit of an abstract song in it's own right and listening to it the other day, I just felt the urge to paint this painting. Needing something more than just dripping paint, I wrote the lyrics with a china marker, then, not happy with the look of the lyrics, I partially obscured it with paint, leaving legible only the words, "something unsure." Thus the name of the piece.
Something Unsure 30x48" $1,200
Interested in the lyrics? Thought so. Here they are:
"all the time in the world"everyday a new day - beginning and ending
and we wash away the dust from our sad shoes
give thanks for our lives and hope for good weather
but all of our lives we're running in circles
we're walking on eggshells, and borrowing hours
we're taking turns, we're stepping on shoulders
we're dangerous and angry and guilty and sadly
fortunate son, you've got big shoes to carry you
as you try to get by, try to get an alibieveryday a new day - it's calling our names out loud
say we don't need this, but there's something missing
and you say, "we've got all of the time in the world,"
but hot on our heels, the creatures are closing insomething unique - something creative
something unsure - beginning to believe again
Coffee Anyone?
Coffee & Beignets 24x36" $450
Coffee with Grocery List 25½x36" $400
Coffee with Spoon 20x20" $350
Do Your Ears Hang Low
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, 24x30" $400
more portraits
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 14x11" 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 40x30" 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.
Fishing Lures #1, #2, #3, #4
Just a few fishing lures. These were fun - I'll have to do more. All are six inches square and available for $40 a piece.
Painting Lures
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!
box turtle
Box Turtle, 30x40", $800This 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 30x40" - $800
boy jumping
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 20x16" - $300
Domesticated Feline
Domesticated Feline 24x24" - $400
This painting came together very quickly for me, and I like the muted colors and the serene look of the cat. Once again, the reference photo was very important in getting the details right. Looks good in person.
Lonely Milkshake
Lonely Milkshake 18x24", $350
This painting actually came from a detail of another painting - I had the photo of the painting magnified on my computer and I noticed how nice the composition was. It's different, but with the subdued color palette and the simplicity, I really like how it turned out. I took this picture before adding my signature . . . and I might add a straw to the milkshake.
Enjoying the Match, Final
Enjoying the Match 18x24", $350
Here is the finished painting (I had posted the almost-finished version here but wasn't quite happy with it). The main thing I changed is that I removed completely the odd blue-man on the left side - the main thing that bothered me was simply that it appeared as though he were wearing the horse and rider as an over-sized hat. I tried moving the figure down and forward but could not quite make it work, so I made him invisible (as seen here). This allowed me to add a clearer version of the fourth chair on the left.
I also clarified the figure in red and added little touches of color here and there, amounting to a great deal of fiddling with the painting until I finally realized it wasn't making the thing better. Oh, yeah, I also added the polo ball (I don't know if it has any other name?)
An interesting observation I made while painting this one: I often see a painting similar to this, depicting slightly awkward, slightly stiff [and certainly stylized] characters and think, "that's cool." However when faced with a similarly rendered figure in my own paintings, I tend to think, "that's not cool." And I usually commence to "fixing it", making it more naturalistic, more realistic. Just an observation, and I suppose it depends on what the artist is going for in the end. Me? I'm happy with anything that works, anything I like - I just have to remember what i like.
Enjoying the Match
Enjoying the Match, 18x24", $350
I might do a little more touch up work on this one, not sure. I like the color palette of this painting - there's just something different about it. Might have more to do with the proportions of the different colors, and I'm not sure if it comes off as interesting in the photo or not..
Saints of God Paintings
Just wanted to post a photo showing the "Saints of God" paintings all together, to give you a better idea of their sizes.
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