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.

"Pacific Heights"

3-5/8 x 12
oil on masonite
sold

The current challenge for my Different Strokes From Different Folks blog - a Victorian home in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. Architecture, buildings are not an easy subject to paint - frankly, it's much easier to draw. With a drawing, you tend to pay attention to lines and perspective - with a paintbrush you tend to feel the weight of a structure and it becomes more 3-dimensional. My experience, with painting this piece, started with a loose sketch, then I stared at the photo for a few minutes and put it away and painted. It was more enjoyable that way for me. The forms are slightly exaggerated and the colors were more intuitive in the end.