The Visitor

The next piece in the series. I have called it The Visitor. It's title again refers to the transitory nature of things. We are here but a brief time and then just a memory. It is an actual place as well. You are looking down the tracks in Winter Park, FL. On the left is the Winter Park Historical Society and Farmers Market and on the right is the actual Visitor's Center for the City of Winter Park. This painting will be going to Dallas for the Dallas Art Fair and showing with Tanner Hill Gallery. It is 7 1/8"x 9 1/8" on wood.

New Direction

I have been painting for many years now and I wanted to start moving beyond just pieces that were beauty for beauty's sake. I am sure it has to do with getting older. I notice the temporary or transitory nature of things. It seems melancholy but it is the most real thing there is. We are only here a little while.

Hurricane Katrina came ashore near Waveland, MS. I wanted to see it right after, but only managed to get there 5 years later. Last summer, coming back from Denver, I stopped by. It was early in the morning, just as the sun was rising. It was dead calm. I made my way directly to the beach and as I got closer the homes began to disappear. On the shoreline, where once many large and beautiful mansions sat, now appeared to be a park. Nature had taken back the land. It was extraordinary. My painting is looking east. The gulf is on the right. The beach line had clearly been altered and a temporary road through the sand was made. On the left there was only a few signs of what once was, in terms of people. The trees mostly survived the storm and were thick. Grasses were tall and lush. It really did look natural. Nature does what it does. It doesn't know we are there and doesn't care.Without the human markers its not really a disaster at all. And yet there were many signs along the road we were moving back in, although slowly.

My first notion, in terms of a painting, in human terms, was to make the tragic look beautiful. Retain the idea of a Hudson River School painting. Have all of those elements there. I think I did that. But make it clear life is temporary. We are always in transition of some kind. The painting has a driveway, broken docks leading out into the gulf, and a fence from a prior home. There is a Port a potty that represents that lack of permanence. Seems to me a perfect object for that. The streetlights represent time for me. Time is something I think about alot. There is no past. There is no future. There is only the present. Now. Everything exits in the present. The past exists only in our memory. Regardless of age, all things are in the present. The universe does not keep time. It just is.

God's Country

This is a painting I just finished. 10"x 10", oil on wood. It is the same creek as in "Low Country", but from a slightly different view. I have since made a few adjustments to this. I made the mud area in the left foreground a little less red and it seemed to help. It's an area of South Carolina. I love the South. I love driving around a finding new things. It's the discovery for me that gets me excited. There is so much history, so much beauty to be found on the back roads. The real America is there. It's God's Country.

Morning of Discovery

While perusing through Dan Sprick's website and such, I came across a blog called Open Museum. It's a great blog for Museums and artists and anybody who wants to write about and show their work. In it I found a great artist I had never heard of. His name is Martin Greenland. He is a painter from the UK. Exquisitely invented landscapes. SO beautiful. His comments on his blog are great, too. martingreenland.co.uk

Back from LA......

Well, we are back. 3 day LA art blitz. I am already back to working and we have been home only an hour..............I am a sicko.

This was a great trip. The images above are from the Museum show. My painting was front and center and the first one you see when you enter the building. My smaller piece was in the second larger room. Had quite the shadow on it. It was very well attended. I took pictures when we arrived and it was 30 minutes before the exhibit was to open and there were many people there already. I am very happy to be part of such a great show.

The LA Art show was humming. The first image is of the Arcadia booth. It was also opening night and all the stars were there....We just didn't see any. It was packed with a lot of activity and a lot of posers. People try so hard to be noticed. But it is LA. Arcadia did great, selling many paintings. Mine were not among those, however. I have confidence, though, considering they always sell my wave pieces. The show runs until Sunday.

Go west young man....

Here is the painting, with its frame, I am bringing to the LA Art Show. 24"x 30". Oil on canvas. The opening is Wednesday night. I am excited, but tired . I have some new ideas I am going to pursue when we get home...............

Nantucket

We went to Nantucket this summer to drop off a large wave painting at Quidley and Company, a gallery right on the main street in the middle of the only real town there. It was quite lovely and we stayed for 3 days thanks to a B&B called the Century House. They have a program where artists can stay there and work on the island. We went out to the beach near Siasconset and I did a painting from some photos and notes I made. The surf was very dramatic that day. It was so exciting being right there and it reminded me why, again, I am drawn to painting the ocean in the first place. This painting ended up being part of a show at Quidley and Co. in Boston during December. We went up for the opening and I actually sold it to gentleman who is from Winter Park here in Florida. He still has a home near the Polasek Museum, where I have painted a number of times. Small world.......this piece is 8"x 12", titled "Siasconset".