April in Arlington

Had a great day at the April in Arlington festival. It was moved to Sunday because of the bad weather we had here in the mid-south on Friday night into Sat. There was a great turnout and my wife and I both sold several paintings. I painted a picture of the old general store (now antique shop) called S.Y. Wilson and sold it in the first few minutes after setting up the booth to the mayor of Arlington Russel Wiseman. He and his wife are really nice folks! This is a picture I snapped with my cell phone. My wife sold several of her paintings that she does with stucco on canvas and acrylic. She is well known in Arlington since she has her work in several of the shops there. Arlington is such a great place to live and we are really enjoying it there. I love the old red rocking chairs out in front of the store.   SOLD

Portrait of Megan

16x20 pencil charcoal on Arches paper: Portrait of my oldest daughter Megan. She loves wolves and always wears the necklace seen in the picture. All of my daughters are so talented and beautiful!

Portrait of Jenna

16x20 pastel: Here's a portrait of Jenna another one of my daughters. Have done several of this same picture in pastel and oil. I have all three pencil portraits hanging in my office at work.

Portrait of Abby

16x2o pencil, charcoal: Tried out a nice paper from Arches that I really liked. Had not done any serious portrait work in pencil before ( not that I've done any serious work) but had fun doing this one.

Peaceful Place!

16x20 Oil on canvas. This was a picture in an old art instruction book I had and liked the colors so I gave it a shot. I liked the cool shadows and water feature in the picture.

Logan Pass Glacier National Park Montana

Oil 8x10 on panel. Got to visit my wife's sister and brother-in-law just outside Glacier National Park in Montana last summer. Did a quick study of the view just out back from the Logan Pass visitors center. Would like to do a larger studio version sometime.

Mitzy

8x10 charcoal. This is our newest dog named Mitzy. What a terror! Did a quick pencil sketch of her while it was cold and she had on her new sweater. She is like one of those tasmanian devils! Our other dog is named Katy and she is much more calm. I don't know how she puts up with this one! I'll eventually get around to doing Katy's portrait.

Portrait of my Mom

18x24 pastel on sanded board: Did this portrait of my mom last year for her Christmas present. Came out very nice but she didn't like that I left a few wrinkles! Almost a disaster as when she opened the wrapping the picture as smeared with dark pastel dust from her hair. The long ride to her house had vibrated the pastel dust over her face. Luckily was able to fix and all was fine. This was the first time I had worked with sanded board and found that I could not erase the same way I did on canson paper.

Sedona

Found a photograph in a book we purchased in Sedona a few years ago and thought it would be fun to paint. We really love Sedona and would like to go back some day. I'd love to take my paints and do some plein air pictures there. We stayed in the Junipine Resort in Oak Creek Canyon and had a great time.

Large landscape for my fireplace

My wife encouraged me to paint a large colorful oil to go over our fireplace in the new house. I have not done a large painting in a long time but this one was a real joy to paint. My sister-in-law liked it so much that she got one for Christmas this year (bottom). This is a reproduction of a painting I saw in a book by Bob Rohm. I have been using a three color palette lately and it really keeps my colors clean. This scene reminds me of several trips that my family has taken out west.

Backyard plein air

I've struggled to capture the scene that I look out over from my back porch. The light changes so quick during the day, especially if there are a lot of clouds moving thru. I've just tried a few quick paintings of the field and the light playing on the grass and trees. Hope to get some more of these done this spring. This painting was done last summer.

Post office in Pastel

Also did the same old post office in pastel just to try out a new medium. Have used pastels to do portrait work in the past and love how you can get such bright color and much less mess to clean up after. It's harder to get the clean lines that you can with an oil brush but it gives a much more painterly effect. Again I just made up the background in that I don't know where the building was originally located. I'll post if I find out!

Historic Post Office in Arlington Tn

Just finished an oil painting of the old historic Post Office located in the square in Arlington Tn. Have lived here about a year and drive by the old building everyday. I love to paint and used to paint old barns and cotton fields when I was younger. This building just begged to be painted. Took some snapshots with the camera and improvised the background as I imagined what it must have looked like many years ago before it was moved to the square. Arlington is a great little town and reminds me of where I grew up as a kid.