Toward the Covered Bridge, 131

This was a little area we found while out cruising one afternoon around our house. I can't remember the road it is off of because it is at the crossroad of 2 obscure dirt roads, but I know it was on the to or from the Covered Bridge. Guess I could go take a ride and find out, but I like the name...

This was done in the palette of death, which I will soon have to rename... it is getting easier to use and it just makes everything sing and glow... everything has an energy to it. I love it! each 150ml tube is about $25 but worth every cent. Don't know if I will be using any of it anytime soon with the palette knife, but I ordered 2 extra tubes of each just in case...

Savannah Compliments, 130

With school starting, I have had trouble getting into the rhythm of painting. As I ease back into a full time work schedule, it will be easier, I have done it before! To make up for my sloth, I overcompensated with a really big painting. I have really been missing painting large. I have found that since joining DailyPainters, I have been hyper focused on the smaller pieces, building inventory for the Cotton Pickin' Fair hasn't helped either. I used to pump out a couple of large pieces a week, now it is 5-6 smaller ones. I guess that is ok now that I think about it. In this economy, buyers for larger pieces are few and far between. The smaller works move just fine. Anyhow, this piece was based on a photo I took last time I was in Savannah, I did a smaller study that I put on DailyPainters and it was the least succesful piece I have ever put up. I was blown away. So much for my theory that DP is a great place to get feedback for what I should do larger, I hope this one blows it out of the water...

Apple's Eggs, 129 SOLD

This latest nest was based on my profile picture on my Mac. As you can see, I am in dire need of finding nests, my friend and sculptor, "Camper Bob," has volunteered a nest or so for my collection, so I hope to be painting from the real thing very soon. I have been told than fall nest hunting is much easier since there is no foliage to hide the nests, then I will just have no supply my own eggs...

This one was done in much the same manner as the last, using the "Palette of Death" and a bit more of my rigger brush. I also used burnt umber and a bit of cerulean on the eggs, the were much greener and warmer than I could ever hope to get the cobalt blue light.

Nest with leaves and Sky, 128 SOLD

This summer I made a decision to stay away from school at all costs, this was the summer of painting... I owed it to myself, my students and to my administrators to come back, inspired and ready to teach. The best way for me to do that was to not go there, and I didn't until about 2 weeks ago, and I must say I was right. I am excited about this year, my classes, the school and the mass of work I collected this summer.

These past few week I have not had much desire to paint, which is probably very normal after painting most every day, sometimes 2-3 pieces a day, to have some downtime. I think I have settled into school, even though we are only 2 days into it, but it has started and all is well.

I still feel no creative pull to do anything, so I took some hints from people in my life.... one word has been popping up: nests. So, I guess I will paint nests. The Cotton Pickin' Fair is coming up the first weekend in October and I want to sell!!! Problem: I have no nests, but the internet does, so thanks to all of you who have inspired these studies. Any of you that do have any reference materials, preferably an real nests you would be willing to let me borrow, I would appreciate it! I mush prefer to paint these smaller pieces from life, rather than pictures.

This was done with the "Palette of Death" which I have grown to love. The paint is expensive but worth every penny. I need to become more comfortable with before the workshop with gene Costanza in October... I will also be doing a workshop with Jill Steenhuis in early October.

Horseshoe park, Toccoa River, 127 SOLD

On or last trip to Blue Ridge to vist the Stuarts, we tubed down the Toccoa River. We started in Horseshoe Park in McKaysville and floated down a mile or so until we were pulled out. Horseshoe Park was beautiful, every time we went something cool was happening. A guy was fly fishing one day, a guys was swimming his black lab, these 2 boys caught a rainbow trout with their bare hands... I call them the Accidental Noodlers, and they have bluegrass there every Friday night. I snapped dozens of pictures of the beautiful spot and used one as reference for this piece...I intend to use thais as a study for a larger painting further down the road.

Eggplant on Red and Green, 126

We had plenty of eggplant this summer, too. Not one of my favorite eats, but when prepared and disguised correctly, can be delicious! They are a beautiful fruit... on the outside. Wonderfully strange color combinations of violet, red violet, blue violet and green. I hope to do a series of these on different colors, exploiting the different colors that appear in the fruit itself. This combination was good, but the shadows were too dark, I feel like you have trouble discerning the edges of the fruit and the shadow, even with the reflected light.

Behind the Scenes, 126

My sunflowers continue to flourish in the garden, but as the grow and expand, they wilt towards the ground and aren't quite as beautiful as they were when they stood tall. Interesting, but not beautiful. This piece looked great in my head, too. Darker, warm blue in the background with warm yellow petals... the end left me dissatisfied, even after some knife work, so I took a tissue and dabbed it and popped at it... I guess that was my way of hitting it out of anger!

Lemon Slice on Lilac, 125

I am overdosing on lemons and citrus... I must paint something else next time... I promise! I have some eggplant sitting around, a SPAM can and a crap load of sunflowers... I started back to work today by getting certified to do CPR... so much for a day cleaning the classroom. I hope to keep the summer momentum going, at least with the smaller pieces for now.

Three Lemons on Green, 124 SOLD

Today I went crazy with the citrus but got distracted by lawn mowing and cartoons before I could see it through. I did get 2 solid pieces out of it. I have about 3 acres that I push mow, and after the monsoon that sat on top of Georgia last week, it is growing like spring time and I had to bag and mow! Torture... and it was Friday, which mean time to start thinking about the cartoons for the Monday deadline! So, I got this one done and the one I will post tomorrow. I don't know how I feel about this Piece, I like the colors of the lemon on the green, but it didn't turn out on the canvas the way I saw it in my head. I think I need to build a shadow box... any suggestions? I have found a few on other blogs that look pretty good, but I will have to re-arrange my world to use it. It may be worth it, too many competing light sources!

Sunflower, 123 sold

When we planted our garden, I planted a few rows of Skyscraper sunflowers. The grew like crazy, this is the first time I have planted them and they did not become food for the local deer. They are so tall and beautiful, next year I may try to plant a whole field of them. This was just a quick study I did to get a feel for the colors, this was done with the palette of death.

Weiss Liquors, Nashville 122

I took several reference pictures of this great Googie Art sign in Nashville a couple of weeks ago. The whole of the complex must have been Googie, but it was in a very shady part of town and I didn't take enough time to notice the structure, which is secondary to me anyway. I wanted to get a night pic but because the store still functions as a liquor store, the local winos were congregated en mass around the base of the sign. Since I am not a Street Photographer, I elected to wait until the following morning. That evening we saw or friends, The Wrights with Alex McCullough open for Chris Isaak at the Rhyman, what a great show by both groups. We met Adam and Alex the next morning for coffee and I thought it would be a great time to get the sign pictures without too much interference... I was wrong. Being a reformed scotch man, I forgot that sometimes, you are thirsty all day if you know what I mean. These guys sure were. The store was every bit as busy at 9:00am as they were at 9:00pm. Anyway, not letting that get in my way, I snapped a few reference pictures from which a did this little study. This will become a larger painting and part of my Goggie Art sign Series.

All Standing, 121

This was my favorite of the Pear studies. I feel like the tone and colors for the pears were by far the most accurate. I also like the subtle values of the background, I also like the top of the pear kind of sneaking off the bottom right of the canvas.

Warm Pear on Cool Background, 120

This was the second installment in my pear experiment today. This one pear had a lot of warm, rich tones in it and a great shadow. He was the only one I left out of the still life set up, so I felt that I had to include him one way or the other.

Pears on Gray, 119 SOLD

I found these great pears in the the store yesterday, the were very muddy looking and neutral, not the usual green or red I would expect. They don't even look like they would taste good but the do. I was drawn to the lack of color they had, but they also seemed to glow in all of their beigeness. I did 3 smaller paintings of them and experimented with the color I saw oozing out of the pears, they had pinks and greens and red, though very subtle. This first piece I really liked at first, but has fallen out of favor with me. The shadows are very hard, seems to upset the delicate values in the pears, but one man's transh is another man's treasure.

Study, Mineral Bluff, 118

This is the color study I did for Jeff's painting. I used a limited palette for the study: cad red med, cad yellow pale and ultramarine. For the larger piece I added flesh tint by Georgian and Sap Green... in all large pieces I also use my leftover paint which I tube and use as my mud, I picked this little tidbit up from Kevin MacPhearson.

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.

Mineral Pluff, 116 sold

I did this piece for my good friend Jeff to mark his half century mark. He chose the subject matter which happened to be this train station in the little village where he and his wife, Donna, just bought a mountain house near Blue Ridge, Georgia. This piece went off without too much fuss. I usually curse a lot and throw a few tantrums while working on pieces this large, but not this one, although it was exhausting. The finished product was much different than I had in my minds eye. I didn't do my knife technique on this one for a few different reasons, one, the brush work actually looked too good to destroy and the paint wasn't thick enough to manipulate. Either way, I am very pleased with this and I hope Jeff and Donna will love it as much as I do and hang it with pride in their new home away from home. Happy 50th, Me Jeff...

Lemon on Lilac, 116

Very pleased with this smaller piece, I love the play of the yellows, oranges and purples. I have used this color combo before, and I loved it.

Lime on Lilac, 115

This is smaller than I usually wok, but times are tough! I had a few 6"x6" canvas's left, thought I would use them up and I really enjoyed working this size. It makes those 8"x8" canvas's seem huge and bulky. I put this lime on lilac for some reason, I usually like to play more with compliments for the bang factor, but I didn't this time. I feel the need to do a lime on a pink or red color, guess I will put that on my never ending list of things I want to paint.

Lemons and Limes, 114 SOLD

Been on the road again, this time to Nashville for Chris Isaak. My friends band, The Wrights, opened for him at the Ryman. It was a great show. If you like well written country music that has lots of harmonies and air, you would love the Wrights. Adam and his wife Shannon are incredibly talented. You can find most of their music on iTunes. It was a whirlwind, as usual, up on Wednesday, back on Thursday... Dinner at Margot's and breakfast at Marche. I also got a couple of great pictures of some Googie Art signs for my collection.

To make up for lost time, I did 3 paintings today, studies of whole lemons and limes. Tomorrow I will cut them up and play around with thim. This piece is the first. I really like the neutral lilac color in the background of this piece. I usually don't do that to often, I tend to lean towards more pure color, but I also like to mix things up a bit. Pleased with the outcome here.

Shed, Imlac 113

Back at it again after a long weekend celebrating one of my best friends 50th birthdays, Jeff Stuart. Jeff was my history teacher in high school, then when I was in college we became very good friends, both being creative entities and all. I was also a groomsman in his wedding, one of them! Jeff is also a founding member of our 2 man band, The Swerve Kings. He is a very talented musician, he plays the piano, guitar, sings and writes musicals. He is also a folk artist and one of my favorite people on the face of the planet. He and his wife, Donna, had our close group of friends up to their mountain house in Blue Ridge. I am sure the locals were glad to see us go...

Anywho, got some great pics, but I am ready to get back into the saddle after several days off. Today was painting class, Millie did a great demo and then I rattled this baby off from a picture I took a few weeks back when Jules and I went to pick peaches down in a neighboring village. This is the same palette we have been using that is different from my usual palette. I also got new paints in today, I hope that they will help with the colors, I have been bumpling around with Winton brand oils... these are MUCH better Rembrandt oils. Can't wait to use them...

Grandpa's House, 112 sold

This is a commission piece for Ellen who runs the Cotton' Pickin' Fair. Ellen is a 6th generation resident of Gay, the town was actually named for them. Gay was previously known as Sasserville, which was also named after her family. When Sasserville wanted to incorporate and get a post office, the found that there was already a Sasserville, GA. Thus the name Gay was used. The family sight where Gandpa's house is located is also where the fair is held. There are dozens of old tin buildings that were used back in the days when Meriwether county was the peach capital of Georgia. The fair is held the first weekend every May and October. It is the only show I do and it will be my second one this year. Ellen and crew have been very good to me as has gotten a great deal of exposure for my work. She plans on using this piece as a logo for the Fair.

Savannah Morning 111 sold

This was a piece from my painting class this morning. Today we worked from our own photos in the dreaded palette of doom, which I must say, I am growing somewhat fond of.... somewhat. I had to do it twice in class and the second time was the charm. I would like to do this piece larger at some point, but I say that about all of them!

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Clam Bay Marsh 110

I really needed a day like today. A day when all the stars align, there is enough coffee and plenty of patience to make something great happen. I started this painting with one thought and ended with another, which may be my only complaint. I initially planned on having the trees in all blues and violets, very somber and cold, and then out where this is light.... the water, the marsh grass, the trees on the other side, i wanted to make warm, vibrant and electric... somewhere along the way, i dropped that and went ahead with what I was doing, whatever that was. I listened to 4 Tom Waits albums, drank 2 cups of coffee (after 3pm) and painted like I hadn't in a long time. I am pretty sure that since I have been with daily painters, that has tainted me and my efforts to some degree. All my attention goes to that and checking the status of my painting and hoping someone will nibble on one.... blah, blah. That first week spoiled me, when I sold 2. I figured, hell, if I sold 2 in the first week, I should at least average one a week at worst or maybe 3 a month, right? Wrong. Lesson learned. I will paint what I want to paint and that is the end of the story.

Peppers and Cherry Tomatoes, 109

Thought I would break the square mold a bit today with this 6"x8" piece. We have an overabundance of cherry tomatoes and peppers from the garden at this point in time. I love the yellow greens and the deepness of the reds together, it is a great combo.