finding a spot - 15x17"

The dog is done and I began a new "beach people" that is nearly done as well. I also decided that it was time (in a spirit of organization) to transfer all of my photos from the backup cd's I made before moving to my new computer. This has had several affects on me........first, I am beginning to comprehend the mac system better (and it takes constant repetition to undo my windows sensibility) and second it has triggered a mix of missing where I was and being glad I left at the same time. Weird, but I think I am fusing my past home with my new one via my visual sense of each place. I mean how can the grungy convenience store around the corner from my home in Fall River trigger such a sense of longing even as I delight in the beauty of my current woodsy/oceany home if it doesn't represent something else? Figuring those things out and representing them in a painting is what keeps me going.

Sego - 11x14"

I started this today for my new neighbor.............her dog died right after I moved here and I felt really bad for her since it was totally unexpected and the dog was quite young. I should be able to finish it in the next day or so since it's going pretty smoothly. It finally cooled off a little and we have a breeze which actually startled me, it's been so long!

Group Show at USCB - reception tonight!

I am exhibiting four paintings (including "Blue Tubes") at a group show at University of South Carolina at Beaufort and the reception is tonight from 5:30 - 7:00 pm. This show features artists from the Beaufort Art Association (BAA), the Society of Bluffton Artists (SOBA) and the Art League of Hilton Head - I am quite pleased to be included. Obviously, the bottom painting is just an update........I had to move from my little studio into the house so the photo isn't great. The heat has so totally permeated the studio that it takes half the day to get it cool enough to paint in and I fear that my electric bill is going to be huge! Well, cooler temps are coming soon and, for now, the house is fine.

development - 24x24"

I have had to change a bunch of things in this picture to make it work better and am still mulling over further changes....we shall see. I have been trying to pay close attention to values - something that can be quite difficult to judge from a photo so you have to rely on all of the knowledge gleaned from the unsuccessful studies you have done outside! It was quite hot here the past few days so I wasn't remotely tempted to paint outside.......plus the traffic to the State Beach I live near is awful on weekends and holidays. Now that Labor Day is past, it should de-congest (is that a word?) 

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. 

resurrection ferns study - 10x8

When I first moved here I discovered these ferns......I didn't know what they were called and I only saw them after rain and not really very often. They grown on my live oaks and I have numerous live oaks on my property. These ferns are quite amazing - within hours after it rains heavily enough to make the oak branches wet, the ferns grow quickly. They die nearly as soon as the sun hits them or pretty quickly if there is no rain. Their visual impact is quite complicated so there is no real way to spend time drawing them.....you just have to go for the gesture and feel of them. I think this plein air is pretty successful plus I just love the name of them (my neighbor told me).

station creek landing - 14x11

I had to get out today since it's been raining so much the past week.......I left a rubbermaid pitcher on a table right before it started to rain (I was watering plants) and it's nearly full. When the sun came out this morning about 9, I was in the car. I had to work fast because of the bugs so I decided to use an old panel and not worry about drawing. I have really been looking for color anyway........hey, I didn't wipe it down.