Thursday, January 29, 2015

Criss Cross - gouache

gouache, 2015
original available, 5"x8" $75

      This is a small piece I did in a sketchbook a couple weeks ago. I might do a larger, more finished version some time.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Pontiac Pow-Wow - watercolor

watercolor, 2015
original available, 15"x22" $300

      I'm starting to find ways of integrating a looser technique with enough realism to satisfy my previous style. This is very much the direction I want to go -- something I want to call loose realism, but that probably has a better, more accepted name. This one might actually be a little more "photographic" than I want. So, my loose realism eventually will be looser than this -- I think.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Sunday, Fall Market - watercolor

watercolor, 2015
original available, 15"x22" $300

      Here's the second attempt on this image. As much as I liked parts of the first try, I like this one much better. I got a little more impressionism into this one. Check that first post for details on what "Fall Market" means.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Coleridge House - watercolor

watercolor, 2014
original available, 11"x15" $200

      This beautiful old house is on NC 42 just across from what is essentially a ghost town. Literally, if you were standing in this spot and turned around, you would see the brick shells of buildings that haven't been occupied in many years and just around this curve is the shell of the abandoned textile mill that was the backbone of this town.. Coleridge used to be a thriving little mill town with a small textile mill, its own bank and a few other businesses. All that's gone now. But a few people still live in the area and either farm or drive to large towns nearby to work.

Monday, January 5, 2015

50 Kaiser #2 - watercolor

watercolor, 2012
original available, 9"x12" $150

      Here's that missing Kaiser painting I mentioned last week. I really like this one. I'm surprised I haven't posted it yet.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Sunday Morning, Fall Market, High Point NC - watercolor

watercolor, 2014
original available, 15"x22" $300

      Really stretching with this one -- and pretty happy with the result! It's looser than most of my previous paintings. It has an expanded color palette. It has a much expanded view of subject matter. And it has figures in a landscape. All of these are things I've been working on -- or trying/wanting to work on. And here they all are in what I consider a pretty successful painting. Having said all that, by the time this post went live I've already started -- and probably am nearly finished -- re-painting this one. The more I looked at it, the less I liked the inclusion of the hood of my Jeep at the bottom and some of the ads on that bridge structure between the two buildings. We'll see how the second attempt looks. Maybe I'll post it and leave this one up too.
      And for those who don't know, the International Home Furnishings Market (which was in full swing when I took the reference photo for this painting) is a twice-yearly convention of sorts in High Point NC where furniture and other home furnishing manufacturers host buyers from stores from all over the world. It's here that these buyers find the products that will fill their stores for the next few months. High Point's normal population of about 107,000 doubles during these two weeks each year (one week in the spring and one in the fall) and brings in more than $5 billion.

     And happy new year to one and all!