Backstory

In preparing for a speech on my artwork a couple of weeks ago, I uncovered some relics from my past. Seeing that this blog started little more than 2 years ago, I though I might give some backstory on myself and show these first paintings.

I am the eldest of 3 children born to Rosalyn and David Boyd of Newnan, GA (just south of Atlanta). I have 2 younger sisters, Rosalyn Moore and Bonne, both married now with children. My father is an editorial cartoonist and illustrator for comedian Jeff Foxworthy and the series of You Might Be a Redneck If... books.

The folks always encourage my artistic endeavors as did my teachers in high school. I attended SCAD from 1991-95 and returned with home with no job and no hope and a degree in illustration, a field that was in revolt as the computer came into being. Having been a house painter for a construction company during summers and winter breaks, I created The After Midnight Painting Co. Being from a respected family brought many great painting opportunities for me, however the long days and hard work quickly drove me into the ground... managing clients, workers and painting 12hrs a day was killing me.

As, luck would have it, my old art teacher had enough and was retiring. I filled in for her and quickly grew to love teaching. I have been the middle and upper school art teacher at the Heritage School in Newnan for over 15 years now.

I continued to teach and die a little bit every day as I was doing nothing for myself. I was in a town that cared little for art, I had friends who really never understood what I did or what I loved. In that type of environment I withered away. I did logos and painted murals here and there, but that was just for the money and never went anywhere.

In 2003, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer and I had to take his place at Mark Morgan Syndicated Features, Inc. My father started this company in 1970, three years before I was born and he had never missed a cartoon deadline. This helped me get back on the horse, but It was very difficult. Three cartoons a week, holding down a full time job, watching a ton of news and dreading every weekend.

I dabbled a bit in painting around this time as well, I will show those images in a future post. In 2005 I quit smoking in an attempt to quit drinking so I could clear my head. Out of the haZe came the realiZation that I wanted to be a painter, but know nothing about it. I had my first workshop with friend and mentor Millie Gosch in the winter of 2006 and I have never looked back.

My life was changed forever. I dream in oils I can't wait to get home everyday to paint. Vacations are time for me to paint LARGE which is all I want to do. Small pieces are great, but nothing feels better than knocking out a giant.

These image that I have posted are the first real paintings I ever did. The tree still is a recurring image and theme in my work. 15 years after the first piece, I still paint trees... mostly from south Georgia, born out of the windshield of my '79 Toyota Land Cruiser as I made my midnight runs from Newnan to Savannah and Charleston.

I see these paintings now, and I am surprised. Sometimes I feel like I knew more then that I do now...

Enjoy!

Melons, Cherries and a Plate 271

Sunflower 2 271

Sunflower 1 270

Halves and Quarters 269

Three Peaches on Blue 268

Running out of time to paint peaches. More gobs of paint and experimenting with a new palette of cad yellow med, aliZarin crimson and ultramarine.

Three Spoons 267

Haven't been using the knife much, but have been mixing up gobs of paint and lathering it on. Been fun.

Meriwether Gas Station 266

Love the shadows on the sides of buildings but have not really painted one, now I know why! It is harder than it looks, although I completed this one under duress, it may be a bit before I do another one! The values were difficult and there is a general lack of color it it.

Madge 265

Did this commission piece for a buddy of mine as a wedding present for a friend of his. Painting pets are of no particular interest to me, with the exception of mine, but I really enjoyed this, perhaps because Old Madge hear reminds me of my first dog who was named for Dinah Shore. Don't know why, I just liked her cooking show when I was a wee boy.

Greenville Hay 264

Pulled this picture from my pile of hay pics I have taken the past few weeks. It's that last cut of the season but it is WAY to hot fro me to want to get out. I like the slope of the field and the trees in the distance, but the need to be pushed back a bit... to saturated. Otherwise I am pretty happy with this small study.

Mt. Carmel Barns 263

See these barns every day on my way to and from work. Thought I should paint them more, even though they have been the subjects of several paintings.

Been painting on my new plein air get up made by ArtBox out of AriZona. Got to say I love it better than my Guerilla box and my Julian Full... it is stupid light and has tons of mixing space.

I'll post a picture of it the next time I am out.

Dr. Kim's Tea Cup 262

Time is short now that school is back in session and I am kinda wiped out. Did this little study of my favorite tea cup given to me by Dr. John Kim, a great integrated medicine practitioner. The tea cup even has this cool little lid that I did not include in the painting. I liked the thick swipes of the brush so much , I did very little manipulating with the knife.

Piece done from here until the beginning of October will be for sale at the Cotton Pickin' Fair the first weekend in October. If you really love a piece, let me know and I will put your name on it in case it does not sell.

Electric Moon 261

Once again the limits of modern photography have been pushed to the limit. There is now way a camera can capture the color in this piece. I tried several times to no avail. There is no way to capture the oranges of the moon and the subtle yellows of the sky around the moon. Guess you have to see it in person!

Used a very different palette just to play around and was blown away by the colors. I used windsor green (Windsor and Newton), cad yellow light (Rembrandt), Quinacridone Red (Gamblin) and some Permalba white.

Afternoon Hay 260

The second cutting is cutting of hay is in progress in the Georgia Piedmont, but it is TOO hot to paint outdoors anytime after 10am. I have taken a couple of great reference pics to work form, including the one that inspired this piece. We have a huge field across the dirt road from us, if they leave it out for a couple of days, I will sneak over there one morning.

Jiffy 259

Another box for the collection. There is noting better than Jiffy... the crack of cornbread. I can't leave a skillet of this stuff alone after it has been cooked. If I still ate ice cream, I swear they would go great together.

Galveston Caddy II, SOLD 258

Second in the series of the Caddy I found in Galveston. Look for the larger version coming soon.

Stand of Pines in Warm Yellows and Pinks 258

Being here at the beach has given me some great colors to play with in this series.

Galveston Shutter 257

Sometimes you just need to play. I wish this had turned out the way I had envisioned it, but that just doesn't always happen...

My new BFF in Fairhope, AL

Julie and I dropped artwork of at Quincy Art and Toys in Seaside this morning and after chatting with Jared, the manager, he suggested I check out Fairhope, AL for possible galleries as some of their other artists have gallery representation there. Ironically, Julie and I had just seen an article in Southern Living (the same on featuring the Idea Home I am in) about a couple who moved an old house to the lake and get their mail by boat... my kinda house.

Fairhope was only 2 hours away from Seagrove, so we skipped on over to "check out the scene". We drove around a bit and gawked at the houses on the bay. Next, we drove around downtown to scope out where the galleries were. They definitely have some great shopping there but most of the galleries I found were for local artists; not my flavor for several reasons... the strongest of which is that I am not local. So, I am guessing I may not have been in the right area... but it sure looked like it.

However, on our last stop we found a gem... or two. The gallery/studio is owned by Christine Linson who is also the only artist in the gallery. To me, she was living the dream. Working and selling out of one space in a great area. I never tell anyone in a gallery that I am an artist, Julie usually does that. They either stop talking to me, or just stop the sales pitch. Quite the opposite with Christine and her partner in crime (whose name escapes me as I write this, I never forget a face, but I can forget a name as soon as I hear it). She and her friend were so cute and too funny. They spent a great deal of time with us talking about my future as an artist and getting our stories. Her cats had the run of the place and the space itself was large.

We hit it off great, and due to her lack of computer savviness, I agreed to blog about her. Christine can do it all and is a master marketer. She had great plein air watercolor work, beautiful water and wind inspired abstracts, note cards of the city landmarks she had done, pulls of her work and a couple of books that she has written and illustrated. It was so great to see someone doing what they love and making it work. It was truly inspirational. We bought some note cards that she signed for us, and then we chatted some more.

My dream has always been to have a live/ work space in an artsy downtown area where I can paint day and night and show my work. Christine has showed me once again that it can be done!

Thanks, Christine!

Stand of Pines in Violets 257 SOLD

Did this monster for an old high school friend of mine and her husband. There had been whispers of a commission of the Pines for a while now. It's is always nice when someone identifies with imagery that is so special to you. These are not done from pictures or even from life. It comes from the heart and from the soul. This one is the largest of the series I have ever completed at 30"x40". It was a challenge, but so much fun!

This picture doesn't do this painting justice. I have 3 more and each one looks different.

Coming Storm, Whitlock, TN 256

Skull on Green 255

Working on my drawing skills... need to do more of these, apparently. At the beginning of the summer I had pipe dreams of drawing or painting the skull everyday for a month. Maybe I'll try that later, I think that would really help me get creative with setup and composition

Three Peaches on Green 254

The county where I live in Georgia, Meriwether, is the second poorest county in the state and as far as I know, the number one or two producer of the best peaches in the world. There are 3 peach orchards with 10 miles of us. A couple of which are several generations old. If you have never had a true Georgia peach, you have yet to live. They are fuZZy, soft, sweet and about the siZe of your fist. None of those puny little peaches around here. One thing we do down here is keep up with the local produce. We have peaches everywhere. I plan on painting them until I can paint them no more.

Two On, Two Off 253

Trying to get my rhythm going. Life has been a bit hectic and I mow 3 acres with a push mower. I have 4 days to myself to paint, paint and paint some more. It was really hard to get it back together for this, took me all day to work up the nerve.

Santa Rosa Morning, 252

Started going back through my masses of pictures from this summer looking desperately for some inspiration or something. This piece goes back to when I first started painting and I was using house paint and some pictures of trees I took in Costa Rica. I used a color combo I painted last week. It took a long time to do, so I am pretty sure it doesn't have the freeness I really want for it to have. Either way, It was an experiment and a strange siZe and was fun to do!