Four Peach Slices on Green 146

What a week, these last 2 pieces concludes what I can safely paint and put in the Fair. I have been rediculously distracted with the business of art, the side that I don't like as much and the art part. I have found myself distracted and to worked up to paint, and that is a first since I gave up the drink and my favorite vegetable, tobacco (thanks, Frank) and my only release is painting and exercise. Anyway, next year, I sell nothing within a month of the show much less have a show the week before! It is too much. You live, you learn.

Jill Steenhuis Workshop

Today was the first day of the Jill Steenhuis workshop. Her approach to plein air painting is very different from what we do here. Jill lives and teaches in France, and has studied and taught for the Cezanne and Van Gogh schools there. The biggest difference in what she does and what I do is the palette... I use limited, she uses a very expanded palette with at least 2 version of each color. I found myself staring and my palette most the time and thinking WTF.

It was a great day. We spent the morning mixing this palette and then, in the last hours of the day I whipped these pieces out. I found myself slipping back into my old brush habits, but they are pretty engrained. I have no problems with the work I am doing now, I need to learn as much as possible since they do not teach this style of painting at any school, I certainly didn't get it at SCAD or high school. I usually roll what I learn from these things into my own thing. I am very curious to see how this workshop manifests itself. in my work to come.

Robins Egg Blue Caddy, Front 145 SOLD

Here is another big one for the week, I hope to do one or 2 more before the Cotton Pickin' Fair. I painted the back of this car earlier this summer, so I thought it was time to do the front. I lobe the bumper and front of this model Caddy almost as much as I love the fins in the back. It is a beautiful example of American design in the 50's, on of my favorite time periods as evident by my Googie Art sign series. As a friend of mine mentioned the other day, "Is it in a hole or is it supposed to look like that?" I will let you decide for yourself...

Cotton Pickin' Fair

If you are in the neighborhood, come and see me at The Cotton Pickin' Fair in Gay, Georgia. It is the only "fair" I do!

Jiffy, 144 SOLD

If there is one thing I love to eat, besides ice cream, it would be Jiffy cornbread... with ice cream on it. To make it even more nutritious, use buttermilk and bacon grease. I hope this starts a new direction in subject matter for me, I have a stack of Moon Pies and a fridge full of YooHoo. I tried to paint a Moon Pie in it's wrapper yesterday and it didn't go very well, I actually scraped the painting back, a first for me. I usually try to save it, but this one was too far gone.

Trinity of Peaches, 143 SOLD

Peach season draws to a close as well as many of the other subjects I have been painting this summer. I saw these huge beauties in the store and had to paint them, even though I think they are foreign, i.e. not from Georgia, I felt compelled to paint them. They deserve it. Though the colors are much more saturated than I usually use, I am pleased. Saturated color seems to be the theme of the week. I have enjoyed the journey.

Square Sunflower, 142 SOLD

My sunflowers are dying out, I wanted to capture them before it is all over until next year. I have done a few of these, but the ones in the square format didn't quite work, as a matter of fact, I did not publish them. I was very pleased with the abstract, reflective quality of this sunflower in particular. I likey...

Small Clam Bay, 141

Still trying to master this palette of death! The time draws nye for my workshop and I need to be doing a bit better than this. As soon as the Cotton Pickin' Fair is over next week, I am headed to the great out doors. I must get out of the studio and work with these colors... this piece looks better in person than in picture, which is usually the case, but this picture is pretty rough. The trees have no mass, there is no sense of depth, the shadows are too warm, it just ain't workin'! Arrrgghh...

Pear on Purple, 140

With all of this dreary weather, I came to realize, with this piece, what a disservice I have been doing to my work without having better lighting in my studio. I have painted many pears, but I am especially fond on this one. I love the values, colors and well as the thick impasto. I hope to ride my studio of some of the natural light or at least build a shadow box for my still lives.

SlowExposures

On another note, I love to take pictures. I have a couple of pieces selected for SlowExposures which will be up until Sunday. If you are in the area, it is a show you do not want to miss. Go to www.slowexposures.org for directions and times.

Small Stand of Pines in Violet, 139

I returned to this imagery for a break. This is what I usually do when I get tired of painting from life and want to do something that comes from the heart and soul. After Artwalk this last Friday and a couple of large commissions, I have found that this imagery speaks to others as well. This piece helped to shake the rust of my technique that I will be using for the 3 large commissions I have gotten to do more of these.

Avocado on Electric Blue, 138 SOLD

This piece was strongly influenced by Pearl Jams last album cover, I have done avocados on blue before, but not this loud. I really like the contrast that has been created by the warm, mellow yellow-greens in the avocado and the bright, electric blues. I also like to composition with the interest on the top of the canvas.

Wilson Farm, 137

In checking location for our school annual art auction, we visited my friend and fellow art teacher's farm in Roscoe. It is a beautiful spot and I couldn't help but to take a few picture to bring home and practice with the palette of death. I really don't feel like this piece was that successful, but it was the first landscape in quite sometime. This was definitely to get back out there with the plein air setup, landscapes should just be done that way. Photographs do not do them justice. I hope to do a few more small landscape in the 8"x8" format.

Can of Spam, 136 SOLD

I rescued this can of Spam from my emergency stash of Glenn Beck provisions. Jules and I actually ate this stuff... she made an "Egg McMuffin" with grilled Spam and it was really, really good. Very salty, but good. When I was younger, one of my favorite NASCAR sponsors was Spam, they had an awesome looking car driven by one of the greatest named drivers in the history of NASCAR, Lake Speed. Other great NASCAR names: Dick Trickle & Fireball Roberts.

Georgia Apple and Peach, 135 SOLD

This concludes my play time with the apples and peaches from around the state. I really enjoyed working with these colors and fruits. I am also aware that these fruits and colors are going to be slim when fall and winter sets in, however, I love those colors as well. These pieces went well and really helped shake the rust of, I was very surprised how much information I "lost" and had to re-learn. I never, ever want to go this long without painting again.

Georgia Peach, Halved and Quartered, 134 SOLD

It is that time here in the south when the peaches are full tilt. I almost missed the season due to it's shortness. Meriwether County, where I live, was once the peach capitol of Georgia, producing more peaches than any other county in the state. We still have 2 huge orchards in the area you can buy directly from. Both also serve homemade peach ice cream, you can get a bowl and sit in a rocking chair and enjoy. One of them has been around for several generations. You can pick you own as well, they also have pick your own blueberries and strawberries. Gotta love it.

Georgia Mountain Apples, 133

After my last post, anything is an improvement. This one became very abstract, which I like. It is very suggestive of the subject matter and you have to search a bit. I used the Palette of Death plus another light green that I cannot recall. I have had such a hard time getting back to painting, we have so much going on in our little lives, there is a function every weekend and every free hour I find myself in the yard trying to keep the grass from growing inside. Excuses, excuses... I have a few more paintings lined up and ready to come out...

3 Eggs, a Mug and a Blue Bottle, 132

Man, I have had a hard time getting back to the easel, and when I have, I wish I hadn't. I did a piece earlier this week I did not even post. I never do that. Even though I don't like this one, I feel like I need to post it. It started well, but if you compose wrong, nothing ever gets better. This is one of those times. It was probably to difficult a still life to ease back in with, but the composition is so boring... nothing you can do about that!