OPA Lamar Potts Shack 291

One of my favorite places to paint. Got a ton of reference material here . There is a great red barn there, too. My shack is a little bit too purple, I still have a lot to learn about painting buildings and shadows!

Chandler Road Field OPA290

Last Saturday, Millie Gosch hosted the first ever OPA Paint Out in the state of Georgia. It was great fun! Here is the first painting from early that morning.

Two Pears and a Plate on Pink 282

Started this one as a demo at the Cotton Pickin' Fair, but got so busy talking to people... I never wrapped it up. This was the first time I had really worked on top of a dried underpainting. Interesting experiment, I like to outcome but I don't know if I will continue to do that. I love alla prima... the way the paint flows together in one uniform soup on the canvas.

Lilies I 251

Finally found my groove, it only took all summer. I switched from my little palette knife (1.5") to my larger (3") knife that I used to use. My large pieces we missing energy, they were too tight even though they were loose. Things are funny like that. Looking forward to cranking out a few larger pieces for the OPA regional show this weekend with that in mind. I may be holding pieces more than usual as I feel that I am ready to participate in some of the regional shows. You can't compete if you are selling those key pieces... and I have let too many of those go!

Summer Morning Shadows, 117 SOLD

This is the view off of my back porch. It is a beautiful field that looks amazing during every season. After each hay harvest, it becomes "Dave's Driving Range" and I can hit golf balls for a couple of weeks before it get too tall and I start to loose golf balls. It's a good 3 iron to the farthest spot. I finally spent the money to get the brands and colors I needed and it has made all the difference... it was quite the investment, but since I have not been using the palette knife on these landscapes, I hope it goes further. They are all Rembrandts and Windsor & Newton.

Going to the Gallery

These pieces were inspired by my smaller daily pieces. Some of my favorite work is of small objects painted larger than life. So I decided to do the same. After beginning theses larger works I noticed I had a penchant for dissected fruits and veggies. I love the form of fruits and the like, but the radial and lateral symmetry are much more interesting to me, so I am moving in that direction.

These pieces will be taken to downtown Newnan, GA where they will hang in the Flint Gallery in Panoply. All pieces are 24"x24" painted inoil on museum wrap, which has a much deeper profile than gallery wrap.

Tuesday, Day 3 Jekyll Island: Surrender 088 SOLD

We decided to stay for and extra day despite noisy neighbors and barking dogs. I am so glad we did, they all packed up and left and pretty much left the tent section to us and the raccoons. Needless to say, we goofed off in the morning, I reworked my pack situation and really got it down to a more managable, packable size. This was key since we ware haling lunch, chairs, blankets, hammocks and tarps around not to mention my gear.

We went back to Driftwood, where I dared to paint a dead tree. After my tree experience the day before, I was a bit gun shy. The best thing about Driftwood is that you dont need a tent. We took our tarp whihc was our ground cover, some rope, our chairs and my backpacking hammock whihc is amde of parachute material and seats 2. The high was going to be 97 that day, so I bought a rediculous straw hat just in case I had to be in full sun... we set up just right, tied the tarp over somew dead limbs, hung the hammock, set up the chairs and hung out all day.

The tree I painted reminded my of surrender, like it gave all it had, faughht the ocean but never gave up, so far as it never fell down, it just bowed it's head. It was a beautiful majestic tree at some point. I was so pleased with this piece. My brushwork was passable and my color harmonies were just right. I squeezed out 3 tiny squirst of my mud and put my primaries on top of them, thus creating harmony in the secondaries and tertairy colors as well. Painting the ocean water was also a first. very pleased with that piece.

Afterwards, I slept the afternoon away in the hammock in the peace and quiet.

Pink Grapefruit on Green 077

This is the second in my large scale fruit series. I did paint this one from life, which made it much easier. It was a bit difficult to draw so much larger than what I saw in life, but the colors that you can see when drawing from life are what really made the difference for me. This color combination is based on an earlier piece based on grapefruit as well. I really enjoy this mint green with the corals of the grapefruit.

Half on Blue 076

I have started a new series of paintings based on my smaller daily work. This piece is the first installment of the initial 6 pieces. I hope to have these up at the Flint Gallery in Newnan by the beginning of summer.

I love the smaller pieces I have done as daily paintings, but I LOVE small subjects done larger than life. I am looking at this painting as I type, and I am going to pick it to pieces.

The composition is OK, nothing earth shattering here. What I love about the smaller pieces is the way the break down when I use the palette knife, and I just ain't gettin' it here. I am using the same knife on this 24"x24" that I use on 8"x8" and I am getting more of a pixelated look than a breakdown or explosion of the form. At this point, I don't know if I like it or not. This piece was done from a smaller study and not from life, and I felt myself wishing I had the subject in front of me, I may try that in my next piece as well as a latger knife, however, I want these pieces be similar, I don't know how much straying I will be doing!

Small Stand, Marketing, and Plein Aire: a Day in Gay 046, 047, 048

What a greta day today! I got an early start today and accomplihed a great deal. I completed 3 pieces, but started 4. I hope to finish a 30"x40" painting of the infamous "Sorry Charlie" sign from Savannah.

I started the day painting a version of my logo for the Cotton Pickin' Fair. It will sit on an easel in front of my tent and hopefully bring people in. I am a huge fan of graphic design and a firm believer in branding. This logo/signature i use is a culmination of hundreds of hours of doodling and years of trial and error. It is too complex for the smaller pieces, but perfect for the larger ones. It appears on my letterhead, business card, website and every painting. Influences are many, from Albrecht Durer to Chinese caligraphy to Francoise Gilot.

After painting the logo, the leftover paint was the perfect palette I was searching for yesterday when I painted the other stand of pines piece, so I used the leftover to paint for this smaller version, a 6"x6". It is a small beauty. One of my favorites. As of now, the greens in this series greatly out number the color schemes with 5 pieces.

After cleaning some Bass David Pendergrast brought to us, I loaded up the Cruisre and Mo' and headed out on the property. The field painting was frustrating, I think I have painted these 3 cedars anough! But I love them and keep coming back at diferent times of the day or from different angles. This piece really got away from me, and I hated to end the day like that. But it got me to really think about the things that didn't work the way I hoped they would.