Turning in at Blackbeard’s

Room at Blackbeard’s Lodge, 7x9.5" watercolor

Hotel rooms can be lonely places. When you’re alone and you don’t feel like watching TV or reading, what do you do? Well, I wasn’t quite ready for bed, and there was something about this room I wanted to capture. Maybe it was all the blues reminding me I was on the coast, on an island in fact, or maybe it was some of the dark wood that spoke to me of being old. Here I was in a not-so-good-value of a room at Blackbeard’s Lodge on Ocracoke Island. Maybe I just wanted to do a painting that included a roll of toilet paper—my second painting with toilet paper, in fact. Click Quail Ridge Reprieve to see the first.

More pier

Activity at Avon Pier, 6.75 x 9" watercolor

Photographer friend Dick needed another day at Avon Pier, and so we traveled back again the next day, allowing me to capture a different view of the old structure erected in 1962, just one year after the military delivered my family to North Carolina from the Philippines.

Alas! — a place in the shade of the pier that gave me a view worth capturing! I particularly like the spot of intense color offered by people gathered under their colorful umbrellas. Painting some quick watercolor sketches of beach people allowed ample drying time for the base coat of the pier painting to dry.

Beach people near Avon Pier, 5 x 8.5" watercolor

A little family history

Parked at Avon Pier, 6 3/4 x 9" watercolor

Bodie Lighthouse (for reference)

After visiting Currituck Beach Lighthouse, friend Dick and I traveled south to visit Bodie Island Lighthouse. I am no wimp when it comes to plein air painting weather, but a heat index of 114º became an issue. If I had found a good view of the lighthouse in the shade, I would have a painting of the lighthouse to share with you today. I did take some photos of the view that I will paint some time in the future.

On south even more to a pier I’d heard was torn down, Avon Pier in Avon, North Carolina. When I inquired, a lady in Rodanthe [NC] told me the pier was still standing. I’d never been to this pier that holds significant importance to my family’s history. In 1981 my dad cancelled an angiogram so he would be able to take a trip with his aunt, my mom and brother to fish on the Outer Banks. That October he and my brother were fishing on Avon Pier when dad was struck down with a massive heart attack. I’d always dreaded the day that I’d receive a phone call notifying me of the death of one of my parents. I was in Minnesota when I received the call from my grieving mother. When my mother died August 19 four years ago, I take comfort in knowing I was by her side.

Again, much of what I paint is tied to a memory.

A trip to the Outer Banks

Currituck Light 1, 6.5x9" watercolor

Currituck Light 2, 6.5 x 9" watercolor

 A Minnesota friend and I just got back from a week long trip along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One of my painting goals was to paint (in my calligraphic watercolor style) the lighthouses along our path. So, on day one, we headed up to Corolla where we visited Currituck Beach Lighthouse. I’ve painted the lighthouse before, but from photos. Nothing quite compares to being on location for reference when painting. Painting two views of the lighthouse better justified the travel time and expense to go there. As always with my calligraphic style, painting two views in the same vicinity also provided ample time for the wet base coat on each painting to dry.

Hotter‘n Hot

Hotter‘n the 4th of July, 6.5x9.5" watercolor

If I had kids and it was my desire to hand down to them a business that could ride the worst of economic times, I’d open a hot dog joint. I currently paint two popular hot dog stops in Raleigh, The Roast Grill and Snoopy’s Hot Dogs. The Roast Grill opened in 1940 and Snoopy’s, in 1978.

Notice the crowd waiting to get into the Roast Grill. When I stopped there last Friday to grab a hot dog, the temperature was 101º. Well, no need for me to stand in line. Nooooooooo, I can always do a painting! Watercolor dries a little too fast and artists melt in this kind of heat. Not only this, the jerk parked in the foreground of my painting had the audacity to pull away! Notice I left the J out of JERK in his license plate.

I cannot say when the prices on the image above were changed, but we can believe the Roast Grill wasn't selling hot dogs for $1.75 in 1940. Image came from a Roast Grill web site.

Theatre of the Absurd

Red balloons, 4.25x10.5" watercolor

It was in February when I last attended a Dr. Sketchy session, way too long ago. Those not familiar with Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School should check it out on the web.

Raleigh is one of over a hundred cities on five continents represented by a branch. Click here to go to Raleigh’s web page. I actually ran into someone there Thursday almost my age. She’s a professional illustrator, who like me, was there honing her skills.

The theme of Thursday night’s session was a French surrealist play titled “Les Mamelles de Tiresias”. One of you is French Canadian, and familiar with Dr. Sketchy in Montreal, so can you please translate for the rest of us?

The show was what they say, risqué? Loads of fun to try and capture such theatre. Not familiar with the play, I’m assigning titles to only three of the sketches.

Playing with lipstick, 8x10" watercolor

Virginia, 6x6" watercolor

Mad dogs and a Lexus

My neighbor's Lexus, 7x10" watercolor

I suppose you’d rather read here about the color, the composition, the medium, etc. Although I do respect and try to pay attention to the “rules of aesthetics”, seems my inspiration to paint what I do is often tied to a story or a memory. Today’s plein air watercolor is no exception.

I live in the house on the left in this painting. That’s my neighbor’s car in the garage.

I love most of what I can recall about my more-years-than-I-want-to-admit advertising career as an art director. Sure there’s a lot of schlock out there, but much advertising is downright entertaining. An ad group in NYC created one of the funniest, most clever ads I ever had the privilege to view. The name of the small, very-hot-at-the-time, agency in New York was Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Yes, I’m serious. (I Googled them and found the agency closed its doors in 2005.) The ad was for the National Wildlife Federation and the visual had a couple of small sparrows perched on a tree limb. The headline was, “Give to the Wildlife Federation. After all, who else is going to _____ on your neighbor’s Lexus?” something like that. You fill in the blank.

Yep, that’s a Lexus parked safely (from any wildlife) in my neighbor’s garage. Did this painting yesterday in spite of the heat. Click Morning pathway to see the plein air oil I painted this morning before the mercury soared.