Tub Painting

I bet you thought you were going to see a painting of a tub... right? Actually, I'm painting a real tub with smelly epoxy paint at that little rent house we are renovating. I've already painted the floors, so I can truly say that I've been doing a lot of painting... just not the kind that I can share with you... unless you want to rent a cute little farm house complete with barn and paddock for a couple of horses. Any takers?

Truck Stop

"Truck Stop"
7" x 9" acrylic on gessoed masonite
Xanadu Gallery

It was not until after I had taken the photo of these gulls that I noticed what wonderful cloud reflections were in the truck window. I hated to run these guys away but, alas, the truck was mine and it was a really chilly day. I'd been out on the pier taking pictures and the thought of moseying on down to the nearest coffee house sounded really good... so SHOO!!!

Bulls in Muck

"Bulls in Muck" SOLD
7" x 7" acrylic on gessoed masonite
4/18/2009 Received 'Honorable Mention' in painting category
in "Georgia in Bloom"

Normally pastoral scenes are luscious green grass and sleek colorful cows...not so, this one! The reference photo of these young 'white' Charolais bulls after an early spring rain was taken in Alabama from the window of my car while stopped at a traffic light. To the right of this pasture was a school and to the left was a car lot. There was a large red barn in the far ground that looked like it was slowly sinking into the ground with age. I'll paint that on another day.

I had fun with this one because I painted it in my lap and allowed myself to noodle to my hearts content with little brushes and do repeated glazes. I purposefully left it 'unprecise' to accentuate the gritty feel of dirt and the fleeting glimpse of this scene as urbanity takes over the land it inhabits.

Symbols of Georgia

"Symbols of Georgia"
8" x 10" acrylic on gessoed masonite

This little painting is a tribute to the Cherokee rose, state flower of Georgia. As the legend goes, when the Trail of Tears started in 1838, the mothers of the Cherokee were grieving and crying so much, they were unable to help their children survive the journey. The elders prayed for a sign that would lift the mother’s spirits to give them strength. The next day a beautiful rose began to grow where each of the mother’s tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; a gold center represents the gold taken from Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem for the seven Cherokee clans. The wild Cherokee Rose grows along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma today. To me, no painting of this rose would be complete without adding the brown thrasher, the Georgia state bird and a welcomed resident of my back yard. They often build their nest very wisely among the extremely thorny tangle of Cherokee rose branches offering protection to their young.

"Symbols of Georgia" is in January's EBSQ's Flower of the Month contest. Winners are decided by member and patron voting, so please visit, see all the entries and hopefully you'll cast a vote for this offering or "Sunflowers", my previous post and also an entrant.

Sunflowers

"Sunflowers"

12"x36" overall
(3) 8"x8" detachable painted panels
acrylic on gessoed masonite

8"x8" left panel

8"x8" middle panel

8"x8" right panel

Happy New Year! Over this past weekend I finally broke my painting 'fast'! It's not that I haven't been busy in the studio, though... it is now completely cleaned up and reorganized in preparation for a very busy 2009.

This first offering for the new year is a double show entrant. It is physically up for show and sale at the Middle Georgia Art Association's juried show, "Sunflowers". The show runs Jan.16th through Feb.13th and is a really bright spot in the dead of winter.
UPDATE: This painting won Honorable Mention!

You will also find it on-line in the "Flower of the Month" show at EBSQ as the state flower of Kansas.

I opted to mount the floating panels with velcro on a separate panel of blue so that each one could be detached and hung individually if desired. Presently they are framed in an antiqued alizarin crimson frame that coordinates with the sunflower centers.