Frogmore Nocturne - 24x12

There's nothing like entering a painting in a show and buying a frame to get me to finish a painting! I was nearly done with this but always put it off because I wanted to work on new things. This painting is one of two that I have entered in Beaufort Art Association's big spring show......more on that to follow. Frogmore is basically a crossroads on St. Helena Island where I live and can't really even be called a town but the spot had a distinctly metropolitan feel to it on this night!

reading in the sun - 18x14"

Sorry about the glare but I worked pretty late today & decided to post anyway since I have had a bad summer cold for the past few days and did little else but sleep and blow my nose. I must say, having a fever when it's 93 and humid is no fun. At any rate, I woke up and felt much better this morning and couldn't wait to get to the studio, began this one and it flowed.

light on the tracks - 20x16"

Just a bit of an update.........the two kids are nearly done and I began the top one yesterday when the "kids" were wet enough that I had to put them aside. I have four or so paintings that I need to finish that are in this drying/setting process and am going to attempt to finish them in the next couple of weeks. In addition to that, it is plain air weather in SC again! One thing that is great about down here is that you get the same angled, side-ish (not a word?) light that you get in New England without the wind and freezing temperatures......it was 75 today. Anyway, even if I don't show them, I do plenty of "studies" outside and really think of them that way - studies for me to learn and use.

New Orleans side street - 24x24"

I began this after a week of supreme busy-ness and plein air painting squeezed in. At any rate, I felt a true desire to escape the heat and brightness so my studio (with its AC & absence of windows) was just the remedy. I am attempting to retain the looseness I have developed while painting outside this summer while working inside using photo reference.............I am liking the fact that I have given myself the opportunity to just work outside without worrying whether it is a "good" painting. 

refinery light - 14x11"

I had never really seen an oil refinery prior to my drive to Austin......I wasn't prepared for mile after mile of them stretching from mid-Louisiana into Eastern Texas. The air was bright and totally filled with an acrid haze that seemed to make everything uncomfortable to look at. My eyes burned and the air smelled.............I had just driven through a visual paradise of swamps and wetlands so it was rather shocking to reach "oil-land." How anyone could not see and feel the pollution everywhere is beyond me. So, I thought I would make a stab at painting it.

savannah industrial 2.0 (aka: almost done)

This photo is terrible but, alas, my Canon SLR digital seems to have broken.........at least I can't get it to focus. Bottom line, I had to use my iphone to take the photo. I have realized that the older my poor camera gets, the more sensitive the settings are to the battery dying. Either that will work or I will be shopping for a new one. My daughter is arriving from Texas on Tuesday for a quick visit and wants to go to the beach a lot so I will hopefully get some studies in while she suns..........otherwise I have been working inside recently because of the heat & humidity.

unrelated - partially complete - 16x12"

I just started this last night and brought it with me to work on during my shift at the gallery today...........taking a photo is always a problem if I wait til near dark but there was little choice today. I went to the MFA in Boston on Sunday to meet my son and see the new "Art of the Americas" exhibit and saw these people near Mass Ave. I was struck by how four people could be so close to one another and remain so totally unconnected.  It was a relatively warm day so the cold doesn't explain it............it wasn't even a bus stop so it just seems to be a city experience. These things always fascinate me. For anyone who lives near Boston, the new exhibit at the MFA is wonderful and the John Singer Sargents are unbelieveable - some I have never even seen in a book.