Another forest scene

Still enjoying my memories (and reference paintings and photos) of the amazing light in the woods on our mountain trips.  We are planning another trip soon to see the fall colors.  Can't wait!

The previous two forest paintings I've posted have both sold already.  Yay!

Great CenterFest Show

Ferdinand was a hit at CenterFest (and he was adopted as well!).  Here he is with an adorable admiring fan:

I told Michael I was going to do "a bull" painting for Durham.  Well, I kinda went bull-crazy!  They are so much fun to paint.  This is Ferdinand...  I started out with this nice large canvas (40" x 70") and did some studies thinking I'd do a nice strong classical bull... here's one of the studies:

Well, obviously, Ferdinand had other ideas and charged onto the canvas of his own accord... you can see on the right side of the canvas that I collaged in some cut-outs of some drawings that Picasso did of bulls and put them out in the pasture - they were an inspiration for Ferdinand.

Then, after I was mostly done painting him I sent a picture to my mom.  She, of course, remembered the children's Story of Ferdinand  and song of Ferdinand which I had totally forgotten... that's when I decided on the name... I am so glad that folks appreciated him.  Even had a couple people disappointed that he had sold.

Preparing for CenterFest

Heading to Durham next week-end to do the CenterFest show.  I've been playing around with some small bull paintings and also one big one.  Its been fun... I decided to do a series of the little (16 x 20) paintings, and have experimented with different color combinations.  After finishing up the sixth one today I decided to make a print of them combined...

Alexandria Show

I've been busy finishing up work for the Alexandria (VA) Festival of the Arts this week-end.  When I have time I like to get a painting done related to the area I'm visiting.  I found a really cool old map in the Library of Congress website and printed that out as a background.  Its of the Alexandria region during the Civil War.  Then I did a little research on that time period in Alexandria and learned about the Edmonson Sisters.  Quite a fascinating story (read about it here)... So I decided to honor them by painting their portraits over the map... I kinda like how it came out.

Another forest painting

We have been so intrigued by the light in the Pisgah National Forest in the NC mountains.  Now that I'm back home in the studio I decided to work up another painting from my studies.  Here is one in progress - the soft light at the end of the day... its multimedia with layers of transparent tissue and thick palette knife acrylics.  Its 30" x 40."

Dreamer... work in progress

Finally back in studio with some momentum...  Here's a work in progress.  It's 3 x 5 feet.  I've been experimenting with some fluid bronze paint which provides some very interesting effects.  Still getting the hang of it.  My canvas is in front of the big South window though so my photo is showing a glare off of the metallic paint!  Zowie.  I'll post a better shot later, but wanted to go ahead and share this.  I've also snapped a detail of the paint...

NC mountains again

... it had been our hope to spend the entire dog-days month of August in the North Carolina mountains, but other projects got in the way.  We did manage to stay there for almost a week, and enjoyed the cool misty woods.  Now back home and back into the studio.  I started a couple paintings out there, now hope to finish them up.  Here's a shot of Michael on one of our hikes.