Barrel-Mania 2011!

Barrel mania 2011! This is an event put on by the Stoner Creek Arts group in Paris Kentucky. They asked local artist to paint a barrel for them and this is what I've been working on. I decided to put a painting on each side of the barrel, just to give them a little more. I had to keep the barrel on a dolly in my house and haul it around for the last few weeks while I worked on it. This is good, I should get some good exposure and even a TV spot next month. These are different versions of paintings I've have done in the past. The arch is Gray's arch from the Red River Gorge and the other side is my wife posing near the Anglin Falls in Rockcastle county. I hope everyone likes these and I'll announce more about the TV spot next week. Everyone take care and have fun!

Closer to being done

Here I am again. Not done, but I think you get the idea. Love the color pencil. At least this time I got to do a pic without a basket. Those are hard! Anyway, hope everyone enjoys this, should have it done real soon. Take care and have fun!

A Memory and Queen Ann's Lace

Here is the drawing and the first approach with Color Pencil. I will call this piece A Memory and Queen Ann's Lace. The scene for this was at Shaker Town near Harrodburg Kentucky. Pleasant Hill to be more correct. It's a great place and the model was a trooper. We had to walk around quite a bit while I tried to judge good places to model for the scene. In the last couple of pieces she was wearing a scarf on her head, but I wanted to do one without it so you could see more of her hair and face. She has a good hair and face! I also wanted to visit my old friend Color Pencil again on this one. It feels so natural for me, but when it's framed behind glass the reflection knocks down the image and the color. Even in reflection proof glass, which I've bought, you still see some reflection. I'm going to try it without the glass and see what happens next time I frame one of these. I might even explore some protective varishes. I seen those used once on watercolors in a gallery in Santa Fe. If anyone knows anything about this kind of stuff, please let me know. When this piece is done I'll post it. I have a pic of it done in a later stage, but I'll post it later with the new one. I wanted to show this in stages. Everyone take care and have fun!

Mewadow

Here it is, Meadow. This painting was harder than I thought it would be. In the original picture, the model's face is really dark because of the shadows, but when I painted her that way, she just looked like she had a dirty face. I had to lighten her up a bit but still try and capture the bright light coming in the back ground. I do like the earth colors of the basket way better. The basket actually had green and pink on it, but this looks better. I think I will go back and repaint the basket in the last picture. Now I'm going to work on a color pencil piece and I think you will really like it. Everyone take care and have fun!

Exhibit in Danville Ky

Hey everyone, sorry I've been gone for a bit. I had to travel some last week to take care of some family issues. Ok, me and my wife each had a cousin to pass away and we needed to attend the funerals. But anyway, I thought I'd share some pics from the gallery in Danville that is currently showing me, The Maple Tree Gallery. Go there, it's a nice place. Danville is also a real nice town, and I sold four paintings last Fall at a coffee shop (The Hub) across the street. The manager, Julie, was really great about letting me show here and I also like any woman named Julie because that's my little cat's name. There are some other painters here, one is David Farmer, and he's is a big name down around here. I think it took him like 12 years before he sold well enough to do it for a living. I've talked to him a few times, but not enough to ask for advise. I'm in my eighth year, but I do sell a lot better than I used to, so that's encouraging when I think about it. I should have another painting up this week. I took a pic, and then found a mistake, so I need to fix it. I'm also about to visit my first Artistic love....Color Pencil!