Back Light Fun

 I’ve been having fun with recycled unsanded wood panels. My contractor saves wood scraps and cuts them the sizes I use. I love the texture, lines and knots in the wood.

This painting is an example. One of my favorite landscape situations are

 

strong backlit trees. They are more difficult for me than frontal or side light. Getting that halo around them is difficult to do without exposing too much of the texture. It is easy to do flat dark tree trunks but they look fake. Getting just enough texture in the tree trunks, and variety in the light behind them is the challenge. This one is pretty abstract but it was great fun!

Country painters love to learn……

Studio Tour Review

 The studio tour was a huge success for me. A good crowd came on Saturday. Lots of sales! Sunday was calmer, with fewer guests but a more relaxed day with old friends. It was excellent in every way. I hope the tour includes me again next year.

This week I’m working on some commissions and trying to catch up so I can get back to my experiments with palettes, my summer project. I’ve worked through three tetradic palettes and now I’m using my favorite long time palette of cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, Payne’s gray and titanium white. In the winter I substitute yellow ochre for the cadmium yellow. This is a no risk palette. You cannot mix a bad color combination with this palette.

Country painters love to experiment…..

Gainesville Fine Arts Studio Tour

 This week I’ve been preparing for the studio tour on this Saturday and Sunday 10 AM - 5 PM. A shout out with kudos for Deb and Wes Lindbergh, who did all the hard work for this
event. 

Due to a resurgence of Covid, I will be wearing a mask on both days. I urge you to wear one too. My studio assistant won’t be joining us due to a Covid infection.  So sad! My sister will lend a hand, so please do come. I will keep the studio sanitized during both days. 

I’ll be serving hot dogs, potato salad, Cole slaw, fresh fruit, and chocolate bark. We will enjoy a cup of tea or soft drinks. I know it is hot, but my studio is air conditioned. If you want to avoid the afternoon showers, come morning through lunch time.

I’ll have lots of paintings to show in sizes from 4x6 inches to 40x60 inches. Don’t forget my free art gallery too. Ya’ll come!

Country painters love their friends! 

Farms and Ranches

 

 

For the last 20 years or so I have focused my work on agricultural land in Florida, Alabama and on occasion, North Carolina. I taught painting at the folk school in NC for a few years, and my daughter went to college in Alabama, so I had good painting time there as well.

 I grew up around agriculture, farming and ranching. My daddy’s best friends were farm and ranch men. I tagged along with him and studied the fields, woods, and pastures with great interest. We had horses and a cow or two out here. I would say farming and ranching is in my blood. I know a lot of farmers and I am a great admirer of them. They put in long days of hard labor and they are true environmentalists. They manage their land with great skill and protect the wildlife who live on their land. Many of them have invasive plants removed regularly, so that their lands are truly primal Florida, the Florida I grew up in. They are naturalists and have great knowledge of the rhythms of land. 

 Many Florida painters focus on the coast, beaches, boats, tourist towns, and what most people think of Florida. Few tourists understand that the real Florida is something else entirely. Kudos to our farmers and ranchers. 

 Life is wonderful for country painters.......