It pays to ask.

Sunny morning on Marsh Street, 8x16" oil on panel

Some of you know I spent a good part of my life as an art director/graphic designer. For nineteen years I was self-employed and got used to getting the information from customers necessary to meet their objectives. Commissioned paintings come relatively easy to me now as a result of my graphics background.

Below is the second painting I did at the same address in Beaufort, NC. Sold the oil to someone in Charlotte, NC. Thinking the owner of the house wanted a bigger version, I’m glad now I didn’t go on automatic pilot and do another. He wanted a watercolor, small, and loose. I’m grateful he knew what he wanted. I delivered the watercolor to his Chapel Hill address on Thursday.

John Hughes Home, 7x9½" watercolor

The sky’s the limit

Coming home from Puerto Rico, 6x4" watercolor

I’m lost in thoughts of the massacre in Colorado and a graveside memorial I’ll be attending in just a couple of hours. Words really are inadequate and sometimes inappropriate. I will not tell my nephew that although he’s lost his 91-year-old grandmother, there are people today whose feelings of loss are more acute.

Above is a little watercolor I did on my way back from a wedding in Puerto Rico. I’m not the first artist that noticed looking down at the clouds is indeed spectacular. In fact, I know that Georgia O’Keefe’s Sky Above Clouds paintings were probably the trigger that inspired me to paint this little scene. I know of one other living painter/sketcher who will attempt to capture anything, anywhere. Raynald Murphy is an artist in Montreal, Canada. Both of us have sketched passing scenes from the passenger seat of automobiles. Not crazy, just passionate.

What is a sketch but a moment's passion, searching for the truth. 

(Stephen Aitken)

Binging on plein air

Red truck, 8x10" oil on panel

At the crack of dawn this morning I went for the second time to a sunflower field near Kinston, NC to paint with studio mate and painting buddy Robert. I’ll maybe share that painting on Sunday in my weekly Behr Path newsletter. Arriving back in Goldsboro, I drove by an amazingly red pick up truck parked near some pink and fuchsia crepe myrtles.

Painting Andy’s on a rainy day

I finished two commissioned oils last weekend, and came down with a miserable case of cabin fever. I still have more than a dozen paintings I’ve been asked to do. Five of them will allow me to paint en plein air. The others, four watercolors and three to five oil paintings, will need to be done from photos. This does not lend itself to fresh air and sunshine, two things to which I’ve become addicted. So, realizing that a good state of mind will lend itself well to the work in front of me, yesterday I went out in the rain and painted Andy Griffith’s old apartment. Click to see Andy Griffith lived upstairs.

Plein air Carolina style

Strength in numbers, 11x14" oil on panel

“Can't ya see the sunshine?”

Would have been better to get out in the morning Thursday before the day turned into such a scorcher. Not only did painting buddy Robert’s pick-up truck lift us into a bit of a breeze, it kept us above and away from thousands of fire ants. As we were packing up, I said to Robert, “That’s some piece of [plein air] equipment. We’ll have to keep it (his truck) in mind.”

Being elevated lends itself so well to much plein air painting. The first marshes I painted, I was lucky enough to have access to someone’s deck overlooking them. Had it not been for Robert’s truck, the field of sunflowers would have been reduced to a streak of yellow. Peering down makes for a deeper expanse of mid and foreground.

Whimsical whirligigs

Whirligigs at Fearrington, 7x9½" watercolor (SOLD)

The very same day I painted the Fainting Goats, I did these two watercolors. Vollis Simpson’s whimsical whirligigs put me in a whimsical mood, so once the idea entered my head, I couldn’t resist painting Partly Beltie skies. Read more about celebrated North Carolina whirligig creator Vollis Simpson by clicking NYT.

Partly Beltie skies, 7x9½" watercolor

Blue

I don’t think subscribers received my last blog post. Scroll down after this one and you’ll see the goats. Lots of them. Probably why you didn’t receive it — goat overload. Didn’t think about the byte thing.

The road leading out, 11x14" oil on panel

I’m into blues and purples, and it was a blue day when I painted this, but this shows up way more blue than it should. And no matter how I manipulate it, I can’t seem to tone down the blue. This happened with another recent painting as well. Click My backyard 2 to see way too blue hydrangeas. Pity, as it’s one of my better paintings. Recalling I photographed both paintings on the same day about the same time, I finally realized what happened. I either photographed them too early in the day, under a cloud, or in too much shadow. Woe. I may photograph them again in different light.

Fainting goats

Feeling divided, 3x3" watercolor

Lots to show this time but very little to say for a change. This is as close as I come to having kids. Soon I hope some of these goats will follow the cows home to Fearrington Village from whence they came. Many of the goats at Fearrington are belted like the Village’s Scottish Belted Galloway cows, but are a black-and-white-marked domestic breed known as fainting goats. Imagine designing a couch for them.

I need to lie down.

Bed and breakfast, 4x6" watercolor

Billie lunches with his better half, 4x6" watercolor

Billy fat, 4x6" watercolor

Check out the goatee., 6x4" watercolor

Different strokes, 6x4" watercolor

Double-spaced, 4x6" watercolor

Essence of goat, 4x6" watercolor

Drawing straws, 4x6" watercolor

“Here’s looking at you, kid.”, 6x4" watercolor

Hitting the hay, 4x6" watercolor

It’s hard to be coy when you’re a goat, 3x3" watercolor

Lunch at Fearrington, 4x6" watercolor

Tête-à-tête, 4x6" watercolor