A Redo

I painted this earlier as a very small painting. I always wanted to do a larger and more detailed version of it. I lost the original drawing, so I redid the drawing for this piece. I've been on a Color Pencil trip lately so now I'm breaking out the pant once again. It's a lot easier and cheaper to frame.

Garden of Rocks

Took me a while to get a decent photo, but here it is. I've titled it Garden of Rocks. It's a small Color Pencil piece. I think I'm getting ready to dive back into paint. I guess I had to get a little Color Pencil out of my system.

Smokey Mountian Stream

I took a photograph of the finished version of the work below, but the picture didn't look so I will try again tomorrow, and post a throw back picture tonight.  did this Color Pencil work of Malissa about two years ago and it was bought by someone who is now a friend. This was one of those pieces that seemed finished as soon as I started it, like it was meant to be. It's funny how somethings almost create themselves. 

New work

I switched at the last minute. Instead of working on the picture of Malissa, I worked on a picture of Brianna surrounded by rocks. I did it because I've done some of the Malissa by the steam pictures lately, but I haven't done many of nothing but rocks. I just thought i'd do something a little different for now. Also, I think I will make this a night time piece. It just seems to want to go in that direction. This is by the way, another Color Pencil piece. Not done yet, but getting close.

James Robert Foose

James Foose was my Painting teacher at UK. We disagreed on a lot, but I did think he was a great Painter. As a person, as a friend, we got along great, but in terms of art is where we would disagree. To put it this way, I believe you should really enjoy painting what ever you want, regardless if someone thinks it's Art or not. Nobody can take away you pencils and brushes. Some people have spent so much time thinking about what Art is, they have created all these rules on who can paint this, or can't paint that, or how they should do it. And are they doing it for the right reasons. I would borrow a phrase from Jeff Garlin and say "that's a big bowl of Bull sh&#@T"! When I first stared drawing as a 4 year old, I did it to see images I'd like to see. IN art school I was hammed from every direction that Art must say something meaningful, must say something about the Social-Political environment. Blah, blah, blah. That's why if I'm thinking, I always refer to myself as a Painter, not an Artist. Artist slips out because I'm so used to hearing that word when talking about Painting. What Politcal meaning did Jackson Pollack express when leaving cigarette butts on his Paintings? Anyway, Foose was a guy I really liked talking to, and actually did teach me a few things while I knew him. He passed away this year, and while I have mentioned Ross Zirkle a few times in these posts. I've never talked about Foose until the last post, so I thought I'd talk about him a little here. He was a well respected Painter around the country, and a REALLY good Book maker.  Here is a statement from UK about him here...http://artmuseumatuk.blogspot.com/2013/10/passing-of-great-friend.html

Cliffsart History

Here is a piece of Cliff's Art history. I did this painting in 2000 titled, a New Creation. Sounds stupid but it was the best I could come up with at the time. It was actually for my First painting class at UK. I was glad my teacher, Jim Foose, would allow me to pursue Space as a subject. Later I entered it in a Space Art competition in Piqua Ohio. At the college there. I spent $130 or so shipping it up there, my car wasn't doing great at the time, and the painting is 18 by 72 inches in size. I won an honorable mention and got $25 dollars. I also got a call from someone wanting to buy it, and then they backed out. That was my first to be followed by MANY other back outers. It was my first exhibit experience, and alll and all, kind of neat. Funny thing is, I still have this painting, but I'm not sure what room it's in even though it's huge. Take care and have fun!

New drawing

Here is the drawing for the next painting. Malissa did some nice poses down in Gatlinburg.

Ascending Spirit

I may be done with this one, not sure yet. I titled this one Ascending Spirit. This was the Yahoo Arch down in Whitley County in the Big South Fork. A really neat place if you ever go. It's on the same trail as the Yahoo Falls, but about 30 minutes past the Falls. It's by far the most unusual and neat Arch I've ever seen. I'm glad that a good friend and model was willing to hike there for the photo session.

Atmospere! Happy Thanksgiving!

I did a little more work on this. I few more sessions and I should be done. I worked with the white pencil to add more atmosphere. Thew in some more leaves too. Happy Turkey day everyone!

Color Time!

Here is the first layer of color now that I have everything worked out on the mat board. This one is of The Yahoo Arch in the Big South Fork. It's the neatest arch I've ever seen. About a 40 minute hike.

A new peice

Here are two drawings for my next piece. I'm really looking forward to doing it. The last one has been really kicking my butt. BUT, tonight I have a theory on how to kick it's butt, but I'll wait until I finish this one. I'm trying to figure out how to put one more but, or butt into this post.

Rocks!

I went back and worked on this piece with Malissa. There were some visible rocks under the water. I thought I'd avoid a head ache and skip over them. But I often leave these in my living room, even after I'm done so I can look at them fro time to time and see if any great ideas pop into my head to make them better. Finally I thought I could tackle these rocks, so I did. Here are the results. I'm pretty happy with it. This piece is now so much more true to the picture.

Drawing

The new drawing for my next painting. I haven't painted too much in the last week. I think I needed a break. Sometimes you just need one.

Framing!

I just wanted to show this Frame repair job I got to do at work. A frame fell when a customer tried to hang it and I got to work on the damage. A quick peek at what I get to do at work. I say "get to" because it's fun. After building up with Glue and Wood putty I reform the pattern and let it dry over the weekend. Monday I sanded it smooth and painted it. The bottom is a side view of the repair now that I'm done. It was good that the putty could dry over the weekend and really harden. It would be really hard to do this otherwise..no pun intended. Ok, it was intended.

Earth and Stone

This color Pencil piece is titled Earth and Stone. I'm pretty much done, I may touch up a few things here and there. This is of my friend Britney at Anglin Falls. The landscape is so awesome I hardly ever paint the falls. I'll have to do that soon.

Halloween!

I played with one of my drawings in Paint Shop Pro for Halloween. Happy Halloween.

Happy Hallowdays!

Keeping up the Happy Hallowdays theme.

Halloween

Happy Hallowdays! Did I invent that?

Old Drawing

I've showed this a while back, but I'm just working on it tonight. I got side tracked with other projects. I worked on it for a few hours tonight. I'll try to post what I have tomorrow. It's amazing to me how much faster I am with Color Pencil than Acrylic paint.

The Hub

I went and saw the exhibit at The Hub in Danville last Friday. The Hub is a neat coffee shop and has good food. They have WiFi and open mike nights and just a cool place to check out if you are ever in Danville. I also think Brandon did a good job hanging these. 

Water Dance

Finally got a better picture of this one. It still looks better in real life. Hopefully people will see it when I exhibit it. I titled it Water Dance. She kind has a dance like pose.

My photgraphy sucks!

I'm pretty much done but all my photos were bad, so I just wanted to put out this sneak peek. It's the only part of the painting that kind of worked. Maybe I can get a better picture later this week. Malissa did such a good job with this pose it figures it's the only part that came out in the photo.

Let there be light!

I was needing some more light and this cool book light Malissa lent me helps mucho! The way the big light is positioned makes a shadow from my fist on whatever I'm working on. Love the book light.

Drawing

I'm not letting the grass grow under me. Here is the drawing for the next painting. It came from the same photo shoot as the last. I was on the fence if I wanted to paint this or Color Pencil it. I decided to Color Pencil it. Color Pencil just gets more involved when framing enters the picture, but I'm getting some good help on framing the last piece from my bosses at work, so I'm in good hands. I'll post it when it's framed, they had some good ideas I've never tried in my own art before. I'm excited.

Water Spirits

I pretty much have this one done.  I titled it Water Spirits. Maybe I'm a hippy fruit loop, but I like the title :) Malissa really had her Spirits up, she likes dancing around in places like this. This was just outside of Gatlinburg Tennessee. Some people think they know exactly where these places are, and they may, but there are many many many streams that look just like this in that area. In other words, if this stream committed a crime and had to be identified in a line up, it may not have much to worry aboot. Sorry to borrow that from Jerry Seinfeld, but I think it works here.

Big and round!

I figured I would post another artwork form Cliff's Art History. I used to paint on round wood table tops I'd buy at Home Depot years ago. They quit carrying them. I tried to find similar surfaces to work on, but I never found anything I liked as much so I quit. These were two feet across but a little heavy. This one sold on line back in 2007 or 2008. The shipping costs ate a lot of the profits, but it was still good to get my work bought and out there. This one is titled Awaiting the Sign and is based on a Color Pencil piece by the same title. That Color Pencil piece was juried and accepted in an International Exhibit in Seattle. That actually turned into a nightmare, but I won't go into that here. I'll just say sometimes shipping can really go wrong.

The fun of puzzles

Still on this one. We took a trip this weekend and I didn't get to work on it but now I'm back and pumped to finish it. Once I start these pieces are like a puzzle I want to finish so I can see the final look. Is it going to be as good as I want? Will it look the way I imagine? Will it look better if I do something I didn't plan? Will I make a mistake that will actually make it better or teach me something? These are the challenges that make it fun to work through.

Demons and Art

Just a little more work I did last night on this piece. I also had Bobby peeking at me this morning while I was using the outdoor light for some picture taking. She looks cute but there is a reason why we nick named her "The Demon". And yes, we like her a lot.

Color Pencil

This is a sample of the new piece. I'm not really done with the last piece but I decided to take a quick break and work on this small piece. Every since I drew this pose of Malissa down in Gatlinburg, I've been wanting to do it. In Color pencil too. I transferred my original drawing onto Black mat board and drew in the rest with a white charcoal pencil. Love the White charcoal pencil! I work much faster in Color Pencil. I took this picture this morning, and now...at 12:52 at night, the mat board surface is mostly covered. Love Color Pencil! I'll post more soon.

Water please!

Still working on this piece. It's coming along, but I need to work on the water some more. It'll be OK, water is fun!

The Show!

Some pics from the Creative Harvest show in Paris tonight.  It was a good night and I talked with many peoples.  I even met a lady who bought one of my paintings in 2005 or something. She bought it from the Lexington Art League back when they used to sell art!  And yes, that's a slam. The top pic has By the Stream in the center of the main wall. In the next you can see Febuary Fields. They both got lots of comments and the crowd really seemed to like them, but Febuary Fields had the most. People REALLY seemed to like that one. The bottom pic has my friend Patrick Lynch. A great painter and we may have been separated from birth. It's weird how much we are alike. We have the same taste in almost everything. But it was a big night with a large crowd. I don't know if anything sold yet, but hopefully something did.

Working it out.

Ok, I have things a little more filled out here. I didn't add her shoes though.I added some trees to the background. Levitating women! I think this will be neat.

New Painting

I couldn't get the pics off my phone last night. But here's where I am for now. I'm happy with the background. The challenge is making the background (sky and all) bright enough. It has to have that strong light coming through. I think this will work.

Drawing

Here is one of the drawings I did on vacation. I drew it about an hour after I took it. Malissa was in a stream near Gatlingburg Tennessee. Kind of on the way to Cades Cove. I didn't see any bears but Malissa did. A little cub all by itself, but I'm sure the mother wasn't too far away. Fortunately there were other hikers near Malissa so there wasn't too much danger. I was still sleeping in the hotel room. She's a go getter!

Vacation

We've been vacationing but here is one of the pics of the new piece. Malissa modeled for me some in Gatlingburg Tennessee and I'll be working on those soon. I already have a drawing done. But I'll show it later.

Drawing corrections

've shown this drawing before but I made a few corrections in it. I drew the neck way too long and her legs not long enough. You can see where I cut some paper and taped other paper on.This will be in the next painting. This one will have a touch of magic. You'll see what I mean soon.

Selling more!

Well, it's been a good week. I found out today the same person who bought October Fields also bought Summer's End. Today. So I'm pretty happy. I'd like to that Monalisa for making this work, she's been really good. And she has other Painter's work and some neat pottery by her and her students. If you ever happen to be in Warsaw Kentucky, swing by, she has a neat place.

Framing!

I just thought I'd show my day job stuff. I get to build frames and play in the shop, which is really cool. Me and my boss, Mike carved out this frame. The art to go in it was a metal sign advertisement for Diamond Dyes. It was not square, but it was tombstone shaped, so we had to router and then wood chisel the shape on to the back of this Gold frame. Mike stared the first half then I finished the rest and decided this would make a neat picture. At he end of my stint at UK, I was at the computer almost all day. This is MUCH MUCH better.

October Fields

I didn't get around to announcing that October Fields sold last week at the Mudlark Pottery Studio in Warsaw. I love announcing good news. It;s definitely one of my favorite paintings, I guess it's getting a good home. Creations really are a little like critters, you want them to go to a good home. Hopefully another will sell soon.