MOTTO FOR 2011

Life is full of magic . . . find some

Thursday, December 31, 2009

"Propane"


5 x 7 postcard series
From the camera while riding down a blue highway in South Georgia. Blue Highway from the book by William Least Heat Moon. Blue highways are those that show up as blue lines on the maps. "Blue Highways" was a great travel book. Check it out.
This is one of my favorite exchanges that is appropriate for the new year.
"What kind of work you in?" he asked.
That question again. "I'm out of work," I said to simplify.
"A man's never out of work if he's worth a damn. It's sometimes he doesn't get paid. I've gone unpaid my share and I've pulled my share of pay. But that's got nothing to do with working. A man's work is doing what he's supposed to do, and that's why he needs a catastrophe now and again to show him a bad turn isn't the end, because a bad stroke never stops a good man's work. Let me show you my philosophy of life."
From his pressed Levi's he took a billfold and handed me a limp business card. "Easy. It's very old."
The card advertised a cafe in Merced when telephones were four digits. In quotation marks was a motto: "Good Home Cooked Meals."
" 'Good Home Cooked Meals' is your philosophy?"
"Turn it over peckerwood."
Imprinted on the back, in tiny faded letters was this:
I've been bawled out, balled up, held up, held down, hung up, bulldozed, blackjacked, walked on, cheated, squeezed, and mooched; stuck for war tax, excess profits tax, sales tax, dog tax, and syntax, Liberty bonds, bady bonds, and the bonds of matrimony, Red Cross, Blue Cross and the double cross; I've worked like hell, worked others like hell, have got drunk and got others drunk, lost all I had, and now because I won't spend or lend what little I earn, beg, borrow or steal, I've been cussed, discussed, boycotted, talked to, talked about, lied to, lied about, worked over, pushed under, robbed and damned near ruined. The only reason I'm sticking around now is to see WHAT THE HELL IS NEXT."
Thanks for looking.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

"Yellow"


5 x 7 (sold)
From Canaveral National Seashore. Yellow is always popular in paintings. Why is that?

Monday, December 21, 2009

"Cloud Forming"


5 x 7 plein air
Another from the end of the dock. (You can tell I like it at the end of the dock, can't you?) One of the things I set out to do this year was paint more clouds. You really need to be able to use clouds for compositional elements in Florida. But clouds are really tough to paint "en plein air". Why? Because painting clouds outdoors is like going to a preschool at recess and trying to do paintings of the preschoolers on the playground. They just don't hold still. For this one I studied the cloud for about 2 minutes. I started with the part that was most dramatic and would likely change first. That was the sun peaking over the top of the cloud. Once I got the value of the cloud I put a spot in the water that corresponded to the correct value for the water at that time and then finished with the things that would not change as quickly. Bottom line you have to paint fast and you have paint from memory. You can't chase the cloud from one formation to another. So before you start, take some time and study what is happening with the idea of the elements that will make up your composition. Two minutes doesn't sound like a lot of time, but right now walk outside and look at a cloud for two minutes. You will be surprised at how much it changes.
Thanks for looking.

Friday, December 18, 2009

"Quiet"


5 x 7
From the postcard series. A quiet farm in south Georgia.
Thanks for looking.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

"Heading North Near Guana"


18 x 24
From the trip to Guana. From a photo and the plein air reference stuff I did there during the Crescent Beach Paintout. This is Florida. Flat Florida. I took a plein air workshop with a well known California plein artist at St. Simons Island a couple of years ago. It was the first workshop he had done in St. Simons Island. I remember him walking around and scanning the horizon and saying "what do you guys paint over here, everything is so flat". Yeah. It is.
Thanks for looking.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

"Storm Chaser"




6 x 8 (plein air)

I've been watching the reality show on Discovery about the storm chasers out in the Midwest who follow storms to capture tornadoes on video. It's very interesting with lots of different personalities and crazy gadgets. There are two guys with specially designed vehicles that they drive right in the middle of a tornado and take photos and make measurements. Check it out.

Maybe its just a guy-thing, but I love watching big storms develop and roll in across the lake. This one was painted from the end of the dock. There are certainly people who see me painting in this kind of situation and think "what kind of crazy idiot is that". But . . . I'm careful. Now I don't use the NCAA rule of no-play-if-the-lightening-is-within-10-miles rule but I do count the seconds between the flash and the thunder. In the end this is just a great answer to the composition question of what do you do to break up the horizontal bands.

Thanks for looking.


Wednesday, December 09, 2009

"Road to the Red Roof"


5 x 7
From state road 84 on the way to Valdosta. From the postcard series.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

"From Vilano Beach"


5 x 7
Painted at the Crescent Beach Paintout from the water looking back over the dunes to the St. Augustine lighthouse on the other side of the inlet.