Rx for short plein air days

Silent Night, 12x12" oil on panel

Robert en plein air

Me en plein air

Studio mate Robert Rigsby and I had a two-painting day on Sunday. A downtown street in the a.m. (click to view), then downtown Center Street after dark. It was magical. Both of us had lights to wear on our heads. Neither of us had ever donned them. Fear of looking like crazed artists, I guess. Together, we looked like miners in search of a painting. “Strength in numbers” they say. Robert and I provided plenty of laughs for each other. The lights and dazzle of downtown Goldsboro provided plenty of inspiration for both of us.

I hope all of you had a Magical Christmas and that the magic will continue for you through the New Year.

A place called “home”

 Christmas in my hometown, 9x12" oil on panel

Ask someone who grew up in the military where he was born, and chances are that place differs from his hometown. Charles City, Iowa holds little significance to me other than, according to my birth certificate, its being the place where I was born. Goldsboro, North Carolina, on the other hand, holds great significance to me. It’s where I went to junior and senior high school, where I first fell in love, started a dreadful 30+ year habit of smoking cigarettes, reigned in 1967-68 as (heaven forbid) “Miss Goldsboro”, but most importantly, where my parents decided to retire, thus becoming “home” for my parents, my brother and me. Here’s a painting that includes the new Paramount Theatre, rebuilt after the old one was destroyed by fire in the wee morning hours of 2005.