From Montmartre

22 x 14 Watercolor on CP300

At the Water's Edge

14 x 20 Watercolor on CP300

Red Door

11 x 14 Watercolor on CP300

I painted this from a photo I took downtown on the backside of restaurant in downtown Mobile, Alabama. I don't know what the front side is but the little silver thing on the door is a tortilla press or something refashioned into a knocker.

The bike is a purple Gitane, like I had as a youth. Mine was 10 speed. This is fixed gear. I didn't know they made fixed gears. Maybe it was refashioned too.

I won a merit award for this one in the Mobile Art Associations Fall Juried show, 2011.

This painting was recently accepted in the juried show, "Bike Art at the Dairy."

Wish me luck :)

Little Ladies of Laurel Falls

11 x 14 Watercolor on CP300

This was painted from photographs of a recent trip to Tennessee. It depicts my nieces first ever hike in the Smokies. They were little troopers and made it all the way without any whining or assistance.

Gulf Coast Girls

Gulf Shore Girls
11 x 14 Watercolor on CP300

This is a painting I did about a years ago. It depicts my nieces on a trip down her to the Gulf Coast State Park Beach, Alabama, very near the Florabama Bar and the Florida State Line. I've since given this one to their mother and have painted a 2nd painting that will make a pair for the girls.

Heron #2

16 x 20 on Arches 300 CP

I painted this great blue heron as a commission a friend. She was specific about it being beachy and blue and beige. She seems happy with it. She said it was for her husband's wall but changed her mind and hanged it in her own space. How's that for fickle? I'm pleased she likes it that much.

Airplane Girl in Piney Creek

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

I painted this from a photo I made on a hike to Fall Creek Falls, Tennessee.

Walter, the dogs and me hiked down Piney Creek Gorge, across a dinky suspension bridge and down to the cool cavernous creek bed. Behind us came a small busload of Christian school teens.

Thankfully, none were afeared of the dogs and we were free to let them loose to play in the creek.

Long Cool Egret

8 x 20 Watercolor on Arches CP 300

I took this from a photo I took on one of my many birding trips to Dauphin Island. 

This guy was by the airport along with many of his allies. I have him framed in a rustic pale gray frame with a white mat and just a sliver of cerulean blue around. It looks great. I think he is one of my favorites at the moment.

He was juried into another show at the Mobile Museum of Art, "Celebrating Our Maritime Heritage: A Coastal Holiday", December 2011. It was a very small group show and I was glad to be a part of it. 

Tugboat, Bayou La Batre

11 x 15 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

I painted this from a photo I took down in Bayou La Batre, South Mobile County, Alabama. I love those little day trips with Walter. Our mutual interest in pictures makes helps make our outings consistently interesting.

I had never been to down to the waterfront at Bayou La Batre before. I wasn't prepared for how extremely stinky the dock area was going to be. The refuse from the shrimping and fishing is ridiculously noxious.

I made a few good photos from that trip but so far this is the only good painting that has come out it. This one made it into the "Shared Expressions" Group Show at the Mobile Museum of Art, which was the first real juried show I ever entered. 

I like the simple color palette of this painting but, even more, I like the repeat patterns and angles. I think I'm drawn to such things.

Owlets in the Oak Tree

11 x 14 Graphite Drawing on Vellum

These owls were hatched in an ancient oak in the middle of a children's park in the center of Daphne, Alabama. 

They had been featured in the Mobile Press Register for several weeks, and as a birder I was desperate to get down there and photograph them so that I could paint them. 

I talked Walter into going down there after work one day. And although I asked Walter to bring his longest lens he didn't. I don't think he fathomed the distance from ground to branch. Fortunately, his normal lens was sufficient, but in the end I felt a graphite drawing fit the subject and composition better.

We tried to hang around long enough to see the mom up close, but she kept her distance in the height of nearby trees. We could hear her swoop and whoosh but by the time we looked up she had secreted herself in the shadows.

Sam & Anna

11 x14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Frances the Wonderdog

 

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Green Apples

 

11 x 14 Watercolor on Arches 300 CP

Sometimes the light comes in my kitchen so beautifully that I just grab what's available and make a few snap shots of it to see if a painting can emerge.

I love the green and blue together.