"You Are My Sunshine" - SOLD

Tomorrow I catch an early flight to Albany for a 3 day workshop at Hudson River Valley Art. I've heard great things about this place and am very much looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll have internet, and if so I'll post updates. Toodles. : )

"Not a Pair" - SOLD

I've been working hard lately on getting the subtle shifts in the backgrounds more accurate. I use a spotlight, so it's usually very bright in one area and gets darker away from that. It's easy to just see it all as one "color" and not pay attention to the values. But I think it's more dramatic this way.

If you haven't already, I'd like to turn your attention for a moment to my buddy, Qiang Huang, who has been doing some really spectacular work lately. Not that he doesn't always, but he's made a leap lately and I'm blown away.

"Sidetracked" - SOLD

The Wally Workman Gallery in Austin will be celebrating its 30th anniversary next month(reception August 7th) with new works from 40 artists (me included). If you're in the area next Saturday, please join me! If you aren't able, please see below for one of my included pieces:

Sunday Portrait, 20x28 inches

"Side Dish" - SOLD

Please forgive my lack of posting the last couple of days. I was taking a little break. I have to remind myself sometimes to get out of the studio. To replenish my creativity but also to just ... relax. And spend time getting other stuff done. It feels good.

"Obnoxious Stack" - SOLD

See how the stack on the right is leaning a bit close to the left stack? Where's the personal space? Huh? -- I really enjoy doing these stacks.

"Multicolored Toyota" - SOLD

I snapped a shot of this cool car in Santa Fe. It's kind of funny how we ended up there. We have a GPS and on the way up to Colorado recently, Nuvi (our GPS) deemed it unesessary to go through Santa Fe. On the way back however, for some reason we were suddenly there (on a long haul day when we meant to drive 11 hours). So, as it was around 5 in the afternoon, we stopped for the night, had Vermicelli at Saigon Cafe (awesome!), saw some galleries the next morning, and made it home a day late. All well worth it.

"Originally Blue" - SOLD

This is another truck from last week's camping/painting adventure. So, a couple of my buddies came out and we drove around Burnet, TX looking for cool things to paint. We were outside of town and going about 50 mph when we passed this awesome truck (and another like it) - and yelled, at the same time - "that's it!" So we turned around and went and asked if it was alright if we painted them (along with a whole field of them behind the building you see). The folks were real nice and said we could paint there anytime and asked if I would mention that this truck and another very much like it are for sale. I got their card so if you're interested let me know.

"Face the Dawn" - SOLD

This is one of the paintings from my camping trip last week. I'll tell you more about it soon. First I want to add a couple of things to the painting from photos discussion (see yesterday's post and comments for more). Yes, I think it is best to paint from your own photos. And yes, a long time ago I stopped printing them out and instead paint from a monitor set up next to my easel. Because the light shines through everything is just more vibrant and alive (as close to as you can get w/ a photo). And, yes I agree, painting from life IS "funner!" And, as Karin Jurick said, "it doesn't matter if you're standing in a field or looking at a photo - whatever gets you to paint!"

"Casual Stack" - SOLD

After my recent paintings of cars done in my studio, someone asked me to comment on the subject of painting from photos. I'll probably open a whole can of worms here, but my opinion is: it's a compromise either way. You lose a lot of information when you take a photo - mostly in the lightest lights and darkest darks, and color too. That's a big con, unless you are familiar with the subject and know how and where to add what you're missing. That said, when you're working from life, you've got a big time constraint, especially outside. In one to two hours, the sun will be in a completely different spot, and your subject will have changed considerably from what it started out looking like. Even with a still life, flowers move or wilt, apples brown, radishes shrink, etc. That's a big con. I can tell you tons of artists who do brilliant work from life, and tons who do equally brilliant work from photos.

"Rear Ends" - SOLD

This is another one I didn't have time to paint on location (backstreet in Rico, CO), so I snapped a photo. I was really taken by the succession of cars, from behind.

Yesterday's car turns out to be, well, probably an old Volvo. Possibly a Studebaker? Thank you to those who wrote!! And thank you all, in general, SO much for all the wonderful comments you leave every day! I can't tell you how much they mean to me. I wish I had time to respond to every one. THANK YOU!!

"Red Zinger" - SOLD

I got a picture of this cool red car in Telluride. It was at the end of a long day so I didn't have time to stop and paint it, but I loved the way it was partly in the shadow. I don't know what kind of car it is ... anyone got an idea?

"Cracked Windshield" - SOLD

Camping was wonderful! We just bought a camper and it made everything so ... comfortable. Which made for good sleeping and a lovely respite from the heat (this from a life-long tent camper filled with guilt). I did squeeze in a little painting too, which I will post about later. For now, here is a car I photographed in Colorado. I was especially intrigued by the huge cracks in the windshield. It kind of looks like an old wrecked shark in a sea of grass to me.

"Mini Tractor" - SOLD

I went out with my buddy Randi the other day, driving around Bastrop (the small town we're near), looking for something cool to paint. When I saw this little tractor I said "that's it!" It was behind a tall fence so we went to ask if we could move inside and of course had the common misunderstanding that we actually wanted to paint ON the tractor. Once clear we proceeded to paint. It was gawd-awful hot, but we persevered.

"Reflecting on Peaches" - SOLD

"Who's First?" - SOLD

"Peach Extract" - SOLD

Back to peaches, and this cute little bottle my good friend Lee gave me.

"Caught!" - SOLD

This is another mouse piece for Steve Worthington's book project. Mr. Mouse is smaller in this one than the others I've done, and so it was much more difficult to give him any detail. But you get the idea anyway, and that's what's important.

I'm off tomorrow for a few days of camping with my family. They miss me - I've been a painting fool. I may be able to sneak off and paint some - we'll see. I'm ahead with my paintings so I'm going to post ahead, which worked great last time. I'll be back Wednesday or Thursday. Toodles.

"Sacrificial Peach" - SOLD

It's the season for peaches. At least here in Texas it is. As a kid, every year about this time my mom would make the best peach cobbler ever, and serve it with vanilla ice cream. Yum.

"Scopper-Upper" - SOLD

This was my last painting from Silverton, and the last painting of the trip. I didn't realize how lucky we had been all week with the weather until this painting, when, out of nowhere the clouds came out (partly cloudy is the WORST for plein air). I spent so much time waiting for the sun to come back out, again and again, that by the time I was done it had shifted a ton and the tractor was lit completely differently. Not to mention the background, which I ended up painting mostly as it looked when the shadows came over the hills/mountains, because it contrasted nicely with the tractor.

At any rate, it was a wonderful trip and I can't wait to do it again! Below are the three of us, delirious at the end of a week of painting and camping: me, James Coulter and Penny Lentz.

"Used'a Work" - SOLD

This old beauty is also from Silverton. Along with yesterday's trucks, it was right near our campground and begging to be painted. In fact I think all 3 of us painted it at one time or another. The problem with all this is - I've become obsessed with old vehicles. They're all I see when I drive around. Ok, this isn't a problem. I think they're super cool!

On a completely different topic, if you're looking for cool hats, for you or your dog, my aunt is making some super awesome ones! Her company is called Bad Dog Hats. Check it out!

"Better Days" - SOLD

The day before we left Telluride we all pulled out our paintings and laid them out on the picnic table. It was the first time we'd seen them since we'd painted them, which was a fun way to go about it. This way we never felt really bad about any one painting. We could forgive the first few as rusty, and see our progress more easily. Here are Penny and James:

The next day we moved on to Silverton, which is where the trucks above are from. This is my personal favorite from the trip. I think it looks better in person.

"Stay Awhile" - SOLD

This was a great night! James and I bought little head-lamps so we could each attempt a nocturne (painting at night - a first for both of us). We set up right in the middle of the street in Telluride, in a special middle lane just for parking. We drew a LOT of attention, but it was fun. James said "better paint the guys first because they'll move." So I did, and got one completely out of proportion. But I was scared and going on adrenaline, so I kept going with the rest of it. Well, by the time I'd gotten everything else painted in, the guys were still there, so I decided to wipe one out and try him again. Right then ... they got up to leave! But they'd seen us painting and came out to see. I told them they'd gotten up a minute too soon, so they sat back down for us. What troopers!! This was really fun and I hope to try it again at some point.

ps. He hasn't posted his nocturne yet, but if you check James' blog you'll see a lot of the same scenes I've posted. I thought it was really interesting to see how different his take was every time.

"Afternoon Sparkle" - SOLD

For our second day in Telluride we decided we would complete 4 paintings by sundown, no excuses. I thought this was a reasonable goal, but it was tough (I did all 4 but wiped one - does that count?) One thing I've learned is that it's good to have at least a day to scout an area before you get out your paints. You should bring a notebook and write down places and times, because one area might look good in the morning, but not the afternoon, or a place might look for just a little while (esp sunup and sundown). Above was my afternoon painting.

"Fixer Upper" - SOLD

We found this old jeep deep in a Telluride garage. And had a nice chat with the guy fixing up the house next to it while we painted. The values were tough here - it was too easy to make the jeep way lighter. I ended up reworking quite a bit to get them right.

"Old Timer" - SOLD

After a couple of days in and around Rico, we went to Telluride. Wow. It's quite beautiful. But for all the scenery, all I wanted to paint were the old trucks and city stuff.

If you missed the radio show this morning, follow this link, then scroll down to On Demand Episodes. You will see the July 1st show with Carol (me) listed there. Just click the play button to listen. It lasted just about an hour and they had some very interesting questions.