The Volksmarch

Once a year, in June, the public is allowed to hike up onto the arm of the Crazy Horse carving in South Dakota. People come from all over the country and the world to participate. 

I have taken a bit of creative license here in painting the colorful crowd standing on the arm. In reality, there is a railing that keeps you far enough back from the edge that you are not visible from below. It is the presence of figures that truly tell the story of just how monumental this carving is.

The Mad Chicken

SOLD

Here's another Challenge painting. I only do the ones that interest me, but I got a bit behind. This chicken looks a bit ticked off to me. I wouldn't mess with her. You can find the Challenge paintings here: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenge/2E4BD8D1-E0B9-41A7-891C-88091173C34B

The Road Taken

Here's my response to the German Landscape challenge on DailyPaintworks.com. You can see it and the response by other artists here: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenge/56AAD6CE-3D9C-44E2-9A5D-D949A16212B0

Stars & Stripes

Love the bright green star fruit with turquoise and that touch of orange. It is such a fresh and pretty color palette.

Valentine Drama

Here's my submission to this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge. The DPW Challenge has added another level of engagement with my daily paintings and it has been fun to see all the different artists interpretations.

I knew this week's challenge would have something to do with Valentine's Day, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed that it was a ubiquitous red rose. My personal challenge was to try to elevate it above the mundane via the use of my textural technique and some unexpected coloring, while keeping to my preference for realism.

How did I do?

Dockside Sugarland

We escape from New York and the snow, and what happens in NC? Snow! The difference here is that it doesn't last more than a day, it's never deep by our standards and you don't have to own a snow shovel. 

The snow here was damp and so it clung to everything, even building up on the marsh grasses. Just a wonderful, frosted vista of the lavender and browny grays of winter diffusing into the distance.

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I wasn't really happy with this image as first posted. So, in violation of the alla prima nature of all the others posted so far, I went back to this painting and made some changes. 

The method is so forgiving that it is easy to wipe off anything I don't like and rework the areas. I was not loving the underpainting color I used in sky and so changed it from a teal to a straight ultramarine. Then, the woods on either side of the creek receding into the distance were too warm and pinky-purple. I cooled them off considerably and reworked the expression of the snow covered boughs. Much better, I think.

A Murder of Crows

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I've had this painting in my head for a long time, planning to do a large version of it. I pass harvested corn fields all the time near my house in NC, and one morning I saw a thin blanket of snow and black crows picking about. The coloring was so beautiful. The golden corn stalks, the white snow and the black crows with a touch of iridescence to their feathers. 

Now, here is where the guys can stop reading. 

Ladies, here's where the title of the painting comes from. If you have a gynecologist with a sense of humor, as I did, he or she probably put posters on the ceiling that you could entertain yourself with during your examinations. Mine had a poster that listed what names were given to groups of animals. Like a pod of whales or a murder of crows. It stuck in my head. I find crows foreboding and iconic anyway. I have probably read one too many Poe, King, Koontz, Rice, etc. novels.

Dig That Tailight

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This piece is a departure for me in a few ways. First, it is not biographical in the sense that it is something that I have seen with my own eyes and/or photographed nor is it from my personal surroundings. It is my entry in the Daily Paintworks Challenge which can be seen here: 

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenge/5CC79C3E-2FFD-4D99-BA32-009677FA696E

The premise is that a photo is posted weekly (or sometimes it might be a theme) and artists enter their take on it. It is not a competition at all, merely a fascinating peek into the minds,  methods and interpretations of different artists. I will tell you that it is worth clicking on the individual paintings to see the larger versions because the coloring seems dimmed in the smaller versions.

The second departure for me is using this technique which I developed many, many moons ago, for a small daily painting. I usually reserve it for MUCH larger pieces. But part of my reasoning for engaging in this daily painting project was to push myself into trying some new things: subject matter, viewpoints, mediums, etc. So I thought, why not? 

I am very happy with the results. The very nature of the artist's crayons does not allow for fine detailing on such a small textural surface, so I had to loosen up which was fun and different for me.The day I, (or any artist for that matter), think that I have nothing more to learn or investigate with my art, is the day I should hang it up and not consider myself an artist any more. Art is nothing if not a constant process of growing and searching and learning.