Checking In

I know. I haven't shown you anything new in days - but I have been painting nonstop - all for a show opening on May 9th. It's a dual show with the talented and charming Fred Calleri held at the Howard/Mandville Gallery, in Kirkland, right outside of Seattle. I won't be able to travel the distance this time around, but 11 new paintings will - and you'll be able to see them on my website and the gallery's website in a couple of weeks. Here's a little teaser of one of the new paintings.

Meanwhile..... I'll be getting caught up on fresh work for the other patient galleries and certainly a few small pieces that will go on auction. Happy Easter, have a Good Friday and I'll see you back here in a few days.

"Summer VI"

4 x 4"
oil on masonite
sold

This is probably the end of my little beach paintings - at least for a while. I'm deep in the progress of painting for a dual show coming up in May and there comes a point where any distraction cuts into my time. Yikes. Meanwhile I'll stare at these little gems and dream of being barefoot and tan.


ps - Thank you all for the comments on the little movie I posted this morning. It's just something I wanted to do - keeping myself familiar with movie editing and putting images in a different context. Hope you enjoyed it.

Life Should Be a Beach

"Summer V"

4 x 4"
oil on masonite
sold

These little pieces are good for my lifelong quest to understand the color blue.

"Summer IV"

4 x 4"
oil on masonite
sold

Again with the beach. I'm trying to wish away winter.

"Summer III"

4 x 4"
oil on masonite
sold

Another small study I enjoyed painting in between the more detailed work.

"Summer II"

4 x 4"
oil on masonite
sold

A second in the series of small, summertime glimpses at the beach.

"Summer I"

4 x 4"
oil on masonite
sold

Working on larger paintings can be daunting sometimes - and frankly, I occasionally need to paint something less detailed, less challenging - something that will take an hour or so. It tends to rev me back up and I can resume what I'm doing with the larger pieces. I like to call them my 'in betweens'. So having summer and the beach on the brain, I started this summer series - small 4-inchers that transport me to another place, if only for a little while. Look for more to come.

"Aqua Broads"

12 x 9"
oil on masonite
sold

A few summers back, I stepped into the shaded Telfair Square, one of the small city parks in Savannah. It was around 90 degrees at lunchtime, actually the more comfortable time of the day - and people were spilling out of their offices while a rather large group of senior ladies, all dressed in aquas, had set up their lawn chairs to listen to a little jazz ensemble. When I came on the scene, the sidewalk was lined with them and passerbys, enjoy the 'In Crowd', one of my favorite tunes.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Casts of Characters"

17 x 7"
3 panels
oil on masonite
sold

This new painting - which is three separate panels - is one of my personal favorites. You may notice I'm enamored with shadows and how they follow us in the sunshine. This piece is included in my solo show now on exhibit at the Morris & Whiteside Galleries.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Soy Soak"

6 x 6"
oil on masonite
sold

Back to painting and feeling a bit rusty after a week away from the brushes - I warmed up with this little still-life of California sushi rolls, soaking in soy sauce. Also the current challenge for other artists on my Different Strokes From Different Folks blog.

"Level With Me"

12 x 12"
oil on masonite
sold

Several of my new paintings were inspired not only by the art in the National Gallery, but the space surrounding us as we walk the galleries. There's great attention to tones marrying well with the paintings - including the ceilings, walls and floors - which creates a natural flow and comfort to the visitor. Personally, I like that, opposed to extremely high ceilings and white walls. It's pleasing to my senses.

This new piece is a more open viewpoint - showing how we can feel so small among the large paintings - and how we naturally gravitate closer to the work that is more eye-level.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Slouchers"

8 x 12"
oil on masonite
sold

That girl's posture pretty much defines how I feel - generally pooped. The past week has been go - go - go, including a trip to Hilton Head Island, spending time with family and meeting a lot of very nice people who took the time to come to the opening of my show Friday night. Attendance was around 100 - including artists and longtime patrons of the Morris & Whiteside Galleries - coming to see my new work and the new location of the gallery, which is just fabulous. I think one of the nicest comments I got was from a gentleman involved in the catering - who remarked that my work was 'very natural'.

What really makes me proud is the presentation of all the paintings together - after all, I paint each one, let it dry, varnish it, frame it and send it off. It's incredibly gratifying to see the finished work all together and lit up so beautifully. That's when I really feel like I've done what I set out to do. Please stop in the gallery during the month of March, if you're in the area.

This new painting is included in the collection - a couple of spent visitors beside Mary Cassatt's 'Little Girl in a Blue Armchair', in the National Gallery of Art.

Please click here for a larger view.

Happy Trails

I'm heading to the coast to join the party - the opening of my solo show and the opening reception for the Morris & Whiteside Gallerie's new location. If you're in the area, please come Friday night from 6-8. Here's a map for your convenience and here's where you can view my paintings without ever leaving your chair.

Happy Trails.

"Redneck Riviera"

12 x 7"
oil on masonite
sold

Right now, the thought of relaxing on the beach sounds pretty good. Of course, when I'm on a beach, I'm a non-stop camera bug - so interested in us, the people, and how we set up our spots, group together or prefer alone time. This new painting is a familiar site on a public beach - a family sprawled out, forming shapes of color and light. I just love it.

Please click here for a larger view. This painting is included in my current solo show, now on the walls of the Morris & Whiteside Galleries on Hilton Head Island. The reception is this Friday evening - so pack you bags and come to the beach.

"Gossip Girls"

10 x 9"
oil on masonite
sold

As with many, I painted the figures first - I do that so I'm sure the essence (of the people) is right, before I invest more time. And remember, I paint on black, so what stood out, as I had finished refining the details, was the form created from the women facing each other on the chairs - a V - or a W depending on how you look at it. So cool. And with that, I wanted minimal surroundings - to emphasis that accidental form. At the same time, I had Lawrence of Arabia on and there I was, dazzled by the desert scenes of the men on camels, with nothing around them but bright sand, a vague horizon line with a sliver of blue sky and the shadow beneath them. All I saw what the form. So taking a visual lesson from a brilliant, visual movie led me to the completion of this new painting 'Gossip Girls'.

This painting is included in my current solo exhibition at the Morris & Whiteside Galleries.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Luncheon Date"

16 x 8"
oil on masonite
sold

Crowds or lines of people dazzle my painting senses - but it takes ambition to start and finish such a scene. I take on each individual one by one, as if they were the sole figure, so it's a time-involved process - and I'm never really sure it's going to work out until the last few hours. The hard part is sticking with the process and not giving up. I'm a painter who likes to start a piece in the morning and end it that evening and move on to something else.

In most of the more-popular art museums, there's a star work of art, a draw, a spectacle - that will pull people in like a magnet - and Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party' is certainly one of them. We recognize the image from coffee table artbooks and perhaps a print that we have on our own wall - and to see the real thing is rewarding. As with most works of art.

Speaking of which, I hope you have the opportunity to stop in to the Morris & Whiteside Galleries in the next month, where I have 29 pieces on exhibit. I also have paintings hung at the 16 Patton Gallery in Asheville and the Howard/Mandville Gallery in Kirkland (Seattle) - and I would appreciate you taking the time to visit any of them if you're in the area.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Penny For Your Thoughts"

9 x 12"
oil on masonite
sold

When the National Portrait Gallery reopened, after seven years of renovation, I was thrilled to return. Truth is, I usually bypassed the presidential portraits for more contemporary work - but the new home made me take notice for the first time in years. When browsing the portraits, you will see art history married to political history - John Kennedy painted by Leroy Neiman, Nixon painted by Norman Rockwell, George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart - and Abraham Lincoln painted by George Healy - an iconic portrait included in my new painting 'Penny For Your Thoughts', now on exhibit at the Morris & Whiteside Galleries.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Mini Series"

6 x 8"
oil on masonite
sold

Following up with another smaller, painterly piece - also included in my current show - a woman viewing the 'Migration Series' by Jacob Lawrence, in the Phillips Collection.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Amazing Grace"

6 x 8"
oil on masonite
sold

As I worked on the paintings for my solo show - I decided to include a few smaller pieces that demonstrate a more-painterly side of me. I will describe them as more of a glimpse of a figure, where the edges tend to be soft, the details are lessened - with the emphasis being on the color and the light. This painting is one of those smaller, more intimate pieces now on exhibit at the Morris & Whiteside Galleries - a patron of the Phillips Collection viewing one of Degas' beautiful, graceful ballet scenes.

Please click here for a larger view.

"Wiggery"

5 x 10"
oil on masonite
sold

My current challenge on my Different Strokes From Different Strokes blog - an array of mannequin heads and women's wigs for sale in a storefront window. Now it's either because I'm working out my frustrations from the recent internet interruption or my hand just took over and did what it wanted to do - but this was pure fun. I started on a blinding, bright-red background which peeks through in parts, which I like. For an offbeat subject, it seemed right.

"In Like a Lion"

6 x 8"
oil on masonite
sold

I didn't believe those weathermen - I admit. It hasn't snowed on my street in ...... maybe 6 years. I wish for it all winter long - every winter. What a sight. What a sound.

This had to be done. Today. My first painting of snow from the street where I live. And... I'm hurrying up to get out of my little studio in case a tree branch does fall. One never knows.

Back To Planet Earth

As I understand it, sometime on the 19th of February, an AT&T worker pulled the plug on my internet access while he was making other changes and forgot to plug it back. It took me 8 days of going through the bureaucracy of tech support, while suffering with three communication giants pointing the finger at each other to take responsibility for my problem. Thanks to a man named Jay, I'm back on planet earth and catching up - including the debut of the paintings now on exhibit at the Morris & Whiteside Galleries, starting with 'Sunshine Boys', one of my personal favorites.

10 x 10"
oil on masonite
sold

These two young men were sculpting roses from palmetto leaves - I spotted them on Market Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

Please click here for a larger view.

All of the paintings can now be viewed here - please know you are invited to the opening reception held on Friday, March 13th from 6-8. I will be attending and it would be my pleasure to meet you. A map of the gallery can be found here - which is the Morris & Whiteside Gallery's new location - and I am thrilled to be their first show in the new space.

One more thing...... I made a little movie of the show pieces which can be viewed here. I hope you enjoy the paintings and the video.

"Smooth Sailing"

6 x 6"
oil on masonite
sold

Hello to all who check back on a regular basis - the last couple of weeks have been full steam ahead with finishing up the work for my show in March - including varnishing and framing. I'm happy to report I'll be delivering all the paintings this weekend to the new location of the Morris & Whiteside Galleries - I'm excited to see it. The paintings will be posted on my website and the gallery's next week - in addition, I've created a movie of the show pieces that will be posted on YouTube. I'll be sure to let you know when all that is up and on the web.

I had a little bit of wet paint left on my palette and felt it was time for a moment of Zen. And I have to say I thought I had painted everything on the planet, but I have never painted a boat. This was from a trip I took back in November, to Charleston - a view from the water's edge next to Battery Park, as evening was setting.

"Billows"

5 x 10"
oil on masonite
sold

In the midst of working on the show pieces - I stopped and painted this smoke stack. My moment of Zen. I traveled to Asheville last week, a quick trip to drop off new paintings at the 16 Patton Gallery - always a pleasant ride. About 10 miles south of the city, this stunning, strong smoke stack appears above the tree line and it always compels a wow out of my mouth. This billowing, colorful, stormy tower of smoke just floors me every time. And today I had to paint it.