Holidays

Well, I'm on a break until 2009. The holidays are just too demanding this year for me to get any painting done. I hope to make a lot more paintings in 2009 and post much more often to this blog. Anyway, whoever does find and read this blog I wish you a safe, happy, and peaceful holiday season no matter what you celebrate, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, something I'm not aware of, or even if you don't celebrate any particular holiday. All the best and happy new year too. See you in 2009.

Carolina Peaches

Carolina Peaches
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

Sold - private collection

Three Carolina Peaches hand painted in oil. A vineyard not all that far from where I live wants me to hang a few of my works for sale in their tasting room. I think this one would be a good candidate. I'll post the name and location of the vineyard once I've got some paintings there. These small still life paintings look even better in real life. The computer image takes something away from them.

Beehive Blender No. 1 relisted

"Beehive Blender No. 1"
6x6 inches
Original still life hand painted in oil.

Hay Bales No. 4

Hay Bales No. 4
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

Sold - private collection

My fourth 6"x6" small landscape painting. Titled “Hay Bales No.4” This is the fourth in a series.
I enjoy making these landscapes of hay bales. There is just something about them.

New works

I have not posted in a while. I do have some new oil paintings started. One is almost complete. I also have to wait for them to dry before I can scan and post them. The cold weather has them drying much slower. The last two weekends I was able to get out and shoot some pictures of the fall colors. I have to go through them and decide which ones are good reference material for some new paintings. I use a variety of working methods and sometimes that includes photo reference.

Applesaucer

"Applesaucer"
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

Sold - private collection

I removed this painting and reworked it. There were one or two small things that I just didn’t like. Now I think it really works well.

Lemon and a half

"Lemon and a half"
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

Sold - private collection

Here is a still life of a lemon and a half of a lemon on a saucer. I thought this composition would make a nice painting. For such a simple still life there sure is a lot going on. The light blue cloth, the red orange and yellow of the lemon, the blues and yellows reflected in the saucer, and the subtle purple in the shadows. Not to mention the translucent quality of the lemon half.

Hay Bales No. 3

Detail


Hay Bales No. 3
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

Sold - private collection

My third 6"x6" small landscape painting. Titled “Hay Bales No.3”
This is the third in a series.

Hay Bales No. 2

Detail



Hay Bales No. 2
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

Sold - private collection

My second 6 x 6 landscape painting. Titled “Hay Bales No.2”
If you like my work or visit my BLOG please leave comments or send me an email. A link to contact me is on my profile page. Would love to hear from you. Right now I don't think many people even know I'm on here. I've decided to lower my reserve prices on auctions to hopefully jump start a few sales.

Beehive Blender No. 1

Beehive Blender No. 1
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

This is the last painting for a short while. I have a wedding to attend and some car repairs to do. Then I’ll be back at my easel. I picked up this old beehive shaped blender that looks really cool and I had to make a painting of it. All the reflections were a bunch of fun to paint. Well, for me it was fun. I do think I’ll be making series of paintings featuring this blender. Maybe even a large painting or two.

Sunflowers

9” x 12” oil paint on canvas board.

Products such as t-shirts etc. featuring this painting are available for sale – click here.

The Liberation of St. Peter

This is a reproduction (not for sale) at 28” x 34” in oil that I work on occasionally. The title of the original is “The Liberation of St. Peter" by Sebastiano Ricci painted in 1722. I have a book called “The Glory of Venice” that contains a picture of this painting. I loved the composition so much I decided I had to make a reproduction for myself. We also moved shortly after I started this one and so it always seems to be on the back burner. I hope to complete it someday, but it always takes a back seat since it's not for sale. It has inspired me to consider doing my own series of angel paintings. I’m still in the gathering of ideas stage for that so it will be a while before I start. I have started work on a new series of small photo realist paintings and I’ll be posting them on here when they are complete and dry.

Self-portrait 20 year span

self-portrait 1988 (left) NFS, self-portrait 2008 (right) NFS
charcoal on paper

I’ve been working on my web site and there is still a lot to do. I decided to do a self-portrait in charcoal and make a business card. I wanted to have a way to promote my work when I meet someone face to face and they ask what I do. I found an old self-portrait drawn in charcoal I did in 1988 which is the drawing on the left. The new 2008 self-portrait is on the right. Things sure have changed in twenty years.

Hay Bales No. 1

Hay Bales No. 1
6x6 oil painting on archival panel

Sold - private collection

I grew up in a suburb that was surrounded by farmland. Both of my parents grew up on farms. Although I didn’t, farmland always holds a special place for me. I do remember baling hay on a friend’s farm and delivering those hay loads to a horse farm. In those days the bales were rectangular, some still are, but most seem to be round. I think the round ones are more visually interesting. Even though living on a farm wasn’t a part of my daily life, the times I did work on a farm left me with good memories. This painting of hay bales brings back those good memories.