Lupine and Oak

"Lupine and Oak"

5"X 7" Oil on Panel
This is such a small painting, 5x7 inches...I started it 3 days ago! Hahaha. There has been so much stuff going on and I felt guilty each time I walked past this painting sitting on my easel waiting to be finished. Sometimes you have to do things that need to be taken care of and art just has to take a back seat. I used to hate when times like this happened but I discovered there is a silver lining there. An artist needs to get away from time to time from their art. The time spent away from the easel is as important to an artist as the time spent sitting at the easel. You have to recharge the batteries and the time lost also keeps the desire to paint where you need it. When I started this painting I was sort of burned out again....not enough to not want to complete this painting but enough to feel it building inside of me.
Another good thing about the time spent away from this painting is that I did get a lot of things done that needed to get done. I took a huge load of old rotting wood to the dump, fixed up a gas bbq my dad gave me, ordered frames, ordered more frames and badly needed larger brushes, made reservations for a hotel in Coos Bay OR. to drop off a painting and see the museum for the first time up there, smogged the truck, went to a meeting to jury artists for an upcoming guild show and cleaned up the garage so I can make some gallery wrapped canvas that I had promised a friend I'd do....a very long time ago. So things got done. and now I'm itching to start a large painting....good deal!

Moonrise At Foxen Canyon

"Moonrise At Foxen Canyon"

24" X 30" Oil on Canvas

Just finished up this large painting. This was inspired by a small 5"x7" painting done in the studio a few weeks ago. It was nice to go large trying out my new Utrecht paints which I am absolutely loving. Utrecht makes a great cadmium yellow light which lets me mix some awesome greens. I don't buy greens and mix my own from french ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light and alizarin crimson. I started that combination using Winsor Newton paints using their cadmium yellow pale which is my personal favorite cadmium yellow. I've been trying out various cad yellow lights by other paint companies and Utrecht wins hands down. A good close second would be Lukas's cad yellow light.

I can tell when I'm using the right cad yellow when I can mix my favorite greens in 2 seconds. Using other brands I can play with mixing the same greens for 20 minutes....ok, maybe 5 or 10 but who wants to do that, especially when out painting in the field! It's hard enough to keep the momentum going on a painting without having to mess with the uncertainty in mixing commonly used colors. I like to experiment but not when I'm on a big painting or one that is going really good at any size.

Wooden Boat Foundation

"Surf Training"

16" X 20" Oil On Canvas

Today I received some show info for the upcoming Coast Guard 2010 show reception at the Salmagundi Club in New York. My painting "Surf Training" has been juried into this years collection. I'd love to one day go to one of these show receptions but NY is a long way off and my life has been spent on a budget, haha....someday. Anyways, the letter from the COGAP coordinator, Mary Ann Bader, mentioned that my painting has already been requested for a 2 month show in the Fall. The Wooden Boat Foundation which is located in Port Townsend, WA. has requested the loan of the painting from the Coast Guard's Collection and will be shown for the 2 months in Fall. I think it will be there during the Wooden Boat Foundations annual Wooden Boat Show in September...well, that's my guess since I haven't called the WBF to confirm the details but will soon....so that's' pretty darned good news!

I'm a longtime, no L O N G T I M E boat nut and have been flipping through pages of various boat magazines for years...one of those magazines was Wooden Boat which was always a blast to read through. I still have many copies too. My pride and joy though was one day walking into a second hand store and finding an almost complete collection of Nautical Quarterly books. These hardcover books were the "to die for" books on things nautical in an upscale presentation with the most "your gonna drool all over them" pictures you've ever seen. Each issue had an artists work in there too so that was also great to see. One issue had Loretta Krupinski's beautiful work...what a style. I've also spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours reading through boat plan catalogues and anything else you could read on building a boat. Naturally, the internet has only broadened my reading pleasure immensely. Recently I joined a forum to enjoy reading about guys who have built Tolman Skiffs....tough boat from Renn Tolman in Alaska.

(sorry...I know this absolutely nothing to do with art)

When I read the note from Mary Ann I thought how cool is that to get my work requested by an organization who I have off and on followed for years. I guess it's a personal thing but having my art being associated with a subject I have loved and followed for years is just one of those highlights in life. I feel great! I'm really proud a piece of my work was chosen by the Wooden Boat Foundation to show up in Port Townsend this Fall. Too Cool!

Juried into Coos Bay Show

"Koho At High Tide"

12" X 16" Oil on Panel
I was just informed that my painting "Koho At High Tide" was juried into the 17th Annual Maritime Art Exhibition at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay Oregon. This show is an annual show sponsored by the American Society of Marine Artists. They had 232 submissions by 97 artists and the judges selected 66 works by 41 artists. Very cool! Getting one of my paintings juried into this show with members of the American Society of Marine Artists is a nice feather in my cap...the work in this show is usually very high quality Marine work.

Another nice thing is that two of the 3 judges are two of my favorite artists...Austin Dwyer, a Signature Member of ASMA and June Carey, a Fellow in ASMA. Austin does incredible Marine work and June not only paints great California scenes of the wine country but does fantastic coastal scenes.

I'm hoping to actually go to this show in July. I missed the last one that I was in a few years back because I had another show going on down here that weekend. As the show approaches the CAM website will post pics of the paintings in the show and it's always a rush to see something I've painted in with this caliber of painters. I'm jazzed! The show runs July 17 - Sep 18 at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay Oregon.