Atlantic Afternoon- painting as it was in progress.

watercolor sketch

This painting was so big, I did a detailed drawing on the linen as a guide to keep me on track. 

Yardstick for scale.

Also note the day passing behind the painting. Entire block in done in around 7 hours. Big brushes, lots of paint... Then weeks of tweaking!

Here are some progress pics I took while doing one of the large paintings earlier this Spring. From sketch to block-in.

Hospital Commissions

Around March and April, I had a project painting 2 pieces to go in a hospital somewhere in NC. Each painting was 48x75" Certainly the largest paintings to date for me. Here are the final pics. I look to show the progression of one in a future post.

Atlantic Afternoon 48x75"

oil on linen

South River Sun 48x75"

oil on linen

I'm Back!... Carteret Contemporary Art Show June 15- July 4

First off- Show at Carteret Contemporary Art, Morehead City, NC from June 15- July 4 2013. I'm showing with the incredible Kevin Aita. Opening from 6-8pm tomorrow night. I have around 15 peices in there, mostly studio work from the winter and early spring.

 Painting has been my second job after keeping a wonderful son during the day. Thank goodness for my wife and in laws for helping out an incredible amount with the kids to allow me more time to work. I am back in the studio almost full time again, thanks to Nanna and Boppy, through the Summer. I'll be on the Beaufort Home Tour route again this year, the last weekend in June. Here are some of the paintings that will be in the show starting tomorrow.

This is one 18 x24" I started with Mike Rooney one windy day in the spring "Down East". The wind beat us for an hour and a half, till we packed it in. I hadn't been able to get out in more than a month, and the rust definitely showed. But I soldiered on for more hours on this one in the studio, hoping to retain the seed planted while out. Hope to post the before and after to show difference sometime.

Portsmouth Homestead 11x14"

Portsmouth Post Office 9x12"

Core Banks CARcass 24x36"

Shed with a view, Portsmouth 18x24"

Turns out there is quite a small collection of paintings I did from a trip out to Portsmouth Island last Spring with my friend and captain/navigator/guide Joey Smith. This collection of paintings are quite a bit more textural than what I had traditionally been doing, due to the process I had to adopt, and the fact I consciously wanted to show the physicality of the paint. I have only been able to paint in small chunks of time which would mean continuous drying and reworking of layers, sometimes putting a painting away for weeks before getting back to it. I also dropped all earths colors, and went with the standard warm/cool primary palette. It has been a fun exercise and am interested to see what the reception to these will be. 

Merry Christmas

No posts lately, due to more pressing matters such as keeping my new little boy full time. Here's hoping all have a Merry Christmas. Will get something up soon, but lately have been doing some commissions and starting lots of work. Finishing, however, is more of a challenge right now. Maybe the new year will offer more time for working. But here are some pics of my annual Christmas windows at Smith's Red & White store in Dorches, NC, well known for their pork products. Each window is 4.5 x 6 feet. This is our 15th year doing them. They'll be scraped off in 4 days... Go get some sausage links, old fashioned candy, and check em out! 

Beaufort Sister Cities Beaujolais Nouveau paintings

Here were the watercolors I showed at the Beaujolais Nouveau party held on Nov. 16th. A wonderful event to raise money for the Beaufort Sister Cities. So happy to have been a part of it, thanks all! These are all in the 9x12" format.

Back in Raleigh- Now at Adam Cave Fine Art

 Here are a few paintings that are now up in Raleigh at my new gallery, Adam Cave Fine Art, on 115 1/2 East Hargett St, in downtown Raleigh. Adam is a great art enthusiast as well as a good friend, and I am happy to be working with him to bring my work back into the Raleigh art scene. Go check him out!

Some French work

It's been a while since I have had the time to post anything, so figured I'd start with a few pieces from our trip to the central southern area of France. We stayed in the Midi-Pyrenees region in a village called Beaufort Haute-Garonne, one of the Beaufort Sister Cities Association in France. I won a mural competition in Beaufort NC back in May and was awarded a trip to a host city in France, as well as a host family. Emmanuel, Brigitte, and Leo were fantastic hosts and have become great friends. Lots of wine, cheese, and canard (duck, a specialty to the region) was had, and tours of several villages and cities near Beaufort. We spent another 5 days in the beautiful city of Toulouse after leaving Beaufort, soaking in the 4th largest city in France. It's called the rose city due to the color of the brick and tiles used in the region. They glow a dusty pink color in the sun light, tinting the entire view with a warm atmosphere. The city sits on the Garonne River, offering wonderful water views of the oldest parts of the city. Here are a few watercolors and oils I've managed to photograph so far.

 An oil version of a barn next to the house in which we were staying.

And the watercolor version.

The same barn and a couple others from a different vantage point.

Old timbered house in Auch

View between Beaufort and St. Lys

Carcassonne, one of the last walled cities in France. Entrance.

Watercolor of the Pont Neuf in Toulouse on the Garonne.

More to come...