Coffee & Beignets 24×36″ $450

Coffee with Grocery List 25½x36″ $400

Coffee with Spoon 20×20″ $350

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.

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.

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

This one is a study of the tree line I see from my studio window - I toyed with the idea of adding some kind of center of interest in the foreground, but I couldn’t make a decision so: here is where it remained.

Domesticated Feline 24×24″ - $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.