Big Bend Shadows

Another of a series of paintings I have done based on my son's recent trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. Here is an arresting contrast between the distant hills and the sunlit foreground greenery. ​This is also my last painting of 2014.

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The Lost Mine Trail

This is another painting based on reference from my son's trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. Part of their hike was on the Lost Mine trail. I enjoy rendering rock textures.​

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High Ridgeline

My son just got back from a trip to the Big Bend National Park in Texas. He took a lot of photos and this is from some of his reference. This park is the largest, yet least visited parks in the U.S. I was visually drawn to the long afternoon shadows and the sunlit rock faces.

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Left Behind

This is a typical sight along rural highways.

Storage

This is from an onsite painting done in 2012. The subject is a shed near the cabin where we stay sometimes in Greenfield, Tennessee.

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Youth Symphony

I painted this a long time ago. It was a cover illustration for a magazine featuring the Memphis Youth Symphony. They supplied me with several photos of past concerts and I put them together in this arrangement. This is the original illustration.

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Gourds and stuff

These are a selection of decorative gourds used as table adornments during our family reunion/Thanksgiving meal. The day after, I took them out for a photoshoot and arranged them in various ways.​

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Barn with Truck and Trees

I did this one with a free splashy technique. I squinted at the subject, splashed the color around with a big brush and then tried to do something with it.​

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Down By The Pond

I walked down a little hill next to a pond and ​saw this eroded section of the bank. Visually speaking, I am fascinated by the intertwined root structures, the textures and the contrasts of lights and darks.

Mesa Verde Dwellings

I used reference I had from a 2007 family trip out west. We scrambled through the cliff dwellings and listened to the tour guide. The people who lived here left sometime in the 1300s.

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Autumn Run

This is a typical scene in the neighborhood where I live.

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Temporarily hiding paintings

Tonight...November 14, 2014, I am selling paintings at my son's school at Westminster Academy 2500 Ridgeway Road. It is a combination tailgate party and arts and crafts sale.

Anyway... This afternoon I will be temporarily hiding my paintings on the website...that is, Daily Paintworks, so that I will not accidentally sell a painting on the website while I am selling the same painting at the school. As soon as the sale is over, I will reactivate the website paintings.

Does that make sense?

A Nice Cow

My brother is raising some cows and I got a few reference photos. I asked this one, "What are YOU looking' at?" He was not intimidated in the least. I enjoyed the colorful shadows on this one.​

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Backyard Study

I am always visually intrigued by layers of vegetation. My eyes are drawn to the various shades of green and the depth and of course the sunlit versus shadow.

Rutledge Tributary 2

This is a second Rutledge tributary painting. The day I was there I took a lot of reference shots from many angles. Rutledge falls is a large and wide falls near Tullahoma, Tennessee. There are a number of smaller little cascades leading into it.​

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Lynchburg Street

A street I happened upon while walking the streets of Lynchburg, Tennessee.

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Tennessee Barn

A typical sight when you are rolling through middle Tennessee. This is near Lynchburg.​

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The Far Shed

There are other sheds, but this one is a bit farther out...near the small pond. I tried to capture the feeling of a late fall afternoon in the country.

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Sunset On The Small Pond

There are two ponds on my brother's farm in Greenfield, Tennessee. This one is a bit smaller, but the fish are usually plentiful.​

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Honey Bee Smoker

My family has a long tradition of raising bees. This old smoker has seen good service over the years.

High Barn

There is a lot of beautiful country on the rural roads around Lynchburg, Tennessee. This barn is a good representative of the many rustic outbuildings that accent the countryside.

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Filtered Light

Down below Petit Jean mountain in Arkansas there is a creek. I used photos I took quite a few years ago to design this one. I love the strong backlit edges of the rocks, and the shadows on the water, giving the scene a placid mood.​

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Vintage Coke Crate

We have a couple of these old tray​s sitting around. One of them is supporting the microwave. I didn't really have any old glass coke bottles, so I kinda looked at some images online and I kinda made it up. I do remember the days of a nickel coke in a glass bottle from a vending machine back in the 60s. Nothing was better on a hot day!

Trail Rest

For this one I started with an image from a backpacking trip in the Sipsey Wilderness area in Alabama. I opened up the image in Photoshop and played around with adding shadows and eliminating elements. This is the design I came up with.​

Duck River painting step by step

My first step here was to draw everything in pencil and then thoroughly wet the paper. Before I did this, I checked with my wife to make sure she didn't have any pressing tasks that would interrupt this. Once you wet the paper and start with the color, you can't stop until you're done. So I laid in some general color washes and tried to be as free and loose as I dared. Oh… I did use a little liquid masking material to preserve some whites in the waterfalls and tree branches.

After the previous step dried I began laying in large areas of shadow, trying to keep changing colors within the shadows to add interest. I went ahead and mainly finished the top section as I wanted to get that part behind me.

Then I continued laying in shadows and general details.

Finished painting is below in the previous post.

Duck River

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It has been a while since I have done a bigger painting. I figured it was about time. This is a scene in the Old Stone Fort park in Coffee County Tennessee. I was attracted to the multiple planes of falling water coming from different angles and the sparkling sunlight.

Tune in tomorrow and I will post a step-by-step.

Tellico River View - step by step

First, I found this sketch that I had forgotten about. I drew it while sitting on a boulder in the Tellico River in east Tennessee.

So then I prepared a piece of watercolor paper and sketched my design out in pencil.

I also found some photos from the same trip and printed one out so I could look at the colors and rock shapes etc...

Then, referring to the drawing and the photo, I began to add color in sections.

On this last step, I decided to add definition to everything by using my Ahab fountain pen filled with Noodler's waterproof ink.

And…here is the final painting. 

Farm Pond

Summertime fishing on the farm pond. If you look closely you can see the fisherman in the distance. My son and I caught 11 nice bass that day. He filleted them and we had a nice fish fry that night.​

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Super Quality

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An old pipe wrench from my Father-in-law's shed. It is all about texture and contrast….and memories and some nostalgia.

Spring Barn

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I found another good reference photo from my "Good Barns" folder and gave this one a bright spring treatment. I like the contrast with the rustic decay and the new spring greens.​

Umbrella Girl

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Daily Paintworks has a weekly painting challenge. This week was a photo of this girl, "Heather". I tried a loose watercolor technique.

Sweet 100s

These are the aptly named "Sweet 100" variety of cherry tomatoes. I love to pop them into my mouth or strategically plant them in a mound of cottage cheese as a summer lunch treat. I love the contrast of the green and red whiny they are ripening on the vine.​

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Redbird

I painted this one for my wife's birthday. She has a section of wall devoted to bird paintings and this one joins the collection. With a quick brushstroke painting like this, you have to loosen up with some practice paintings… so this is actually the third cardinal I painted.

Fancy Cut

I was searching through my father-in-law's shed and came across this can. It is a collection of unrelated tools. Sometimes you just run out of places to put things...you know how it is.​

A Nice Owl

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This is a rescan of the owl in order to include all of the tail. The size is now 5.5 x 7. Plus now there is FREE SHIPPING !


Knock Knock: Who's there?
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​Hoo, Hoo.
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Hoo, Hoo, Who?
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Boy, there must be an owl around here!
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Hah hah hah hah hah hah!!!!!

That's hilarious! Anyway, this painting is my response to the challenge of the week. I tried the bold, crisp stroke approach and I was pleased with the results.

Green Tomatoes #2

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This is another green tomatoes painting from my father-in-law's garden. This time I used a more wet-in-wet watercolor approach. The day before had been rainy, but this day, the sun came out.

Green Tomatoes # 1

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My father-in-law always grows a lot of tomatoes. It was a rainy cloudy day as I started this painting from life while sitting near the garden. I had to finish it indoors as the rain started up again. Here is a close-up look done in an illustration style.​

4th of July Weekend Reunion

I attended a reunion this past 4th of July weekend. It was a good time of fellowship, renewing acquaintances, and figuring out the family tree.​

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Wild Blackberries

I spotted these berries on my brother's land in Greenfield, Tennessee. I grew up picking wild blackberries and these brought back memories.

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Big Red Oak

Oak trees fall into two general categories - White Oak and Red Oaks. There is only one White Oak and it has rounded lobes on its leaves and whitish shaggy bark. There are many varieties of Red Oaks. This is an enormous one on my brother's property in Greenfield, Tennessee. I love the dappled sunlight and the way it blends into its background...and all the colors running through it.​

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Barn and Truck

I took a lot of photos with my new camera on a recent trip across Tennessee. My wife drove as I shot photos out of the window. I knew a lot of them would be blurry and badly composed, but I also knew that I could use my artistic license and make something out of them.

Behind The Barn

I still love old barns and I am not ashamed of it. I know it has been done before, but I will keep on doing it. Weathered wood....decay...nostalgia...sunshine and shadow... it is my landscape.​