Big Stars

Went to the Cheatham Wildlife Management Area yesterday and painted an area that I used to duck hunt in. The season is over so there is never anybody in there this time of year. The only person I saw was a crappie fisherman who wanted to know if I did portraits, don't ask me why. He put his boat in right by me and putted around the trees you see in the painting and disappeared.
Painted again this morning with Plein Air Nashville in Leiper's Fork. I tried my hand at the barn you see covered with these giant metal stars. Due to time constraints I had to weed out quite a few stars. They are all over it. I didn't have the patience or the time. When I started there was a nice horse trailer parked in front of it that I drew in and started to paint when out steps the owner with his horse in tow. He loads the horse, hooks up the trailer and leaves. So I erased the trailer and drew in the stars and the side of the barn. As soon as I had blocked in the painting Mr. Greenjeans showed back up with the trailer and parks it where it had been before. I didn't have the energy to draw it again. Enjoy the stars.

Radnor Lake Show

This is one more piece I did last week for the Radnor Show the Chestnut Group is having to benefit the Friends of Radnor Lake. The show will be Thursday night the 16th of April at 6:00 and Friday, Saturday and Sunday the 17th, 18th and 19th from 9:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the evening. It's going to be a great show for a great cause. If you have never been to Radnor Lake come one of those days and make it a hike/artshow day. It's a great place to kill an afternoon.

Larger Paintings

Typically what I do to get a larger painting is pull a small painting I have here of mine and copy it, maybe changing a few things I didn't like about the original.This is my latest and you can compare it to the painting I used in the December 19, 2008 post. Painting larger has been a goal for me but I tend to be vasillating with my goals at times. It seems like life gets in and changes your circumstances which in turn may alter what you need to achieve at any given moment. I keep up with a painter named Stacey Peterson through her blog and she was a chemical engineer before becoming an artist and she appears to have a very analytical way of setting her goals, revisiting them from time to time, and staying on point. I never seem to have this real concrete target of where I want to be, say, at the end of the year. I just paint and work as hard as life will let me and hope to have made ground at the end of the year. When I do try to set goals, I realize I can't control what happens a week from now much less a year. There is so much that bombards our lives, outside circumstances that keep you re-adjusting so often you get off track. I think that is why it works for certain people, they stay on point. Stacey Peterson seems to stay on point.
Oh, and if anybody out there has tips on photographing work, share. It is a constant struggle for me. I am thinking about investing a little money to try and set up a small booth with lighting but then again, I am not sure what light will give me the closest color. The color above is atrocious and I even corrected it a bit in a software program.

New Personal Record

I have been painting at Radnor Lake quite a bit recently because I am chairing an art show that the Chestnut Group is having that is a fundraiser for Friends of Radnor Lake. Last week we had some incredibly cold weather and last Thursday evening I painted in about 10 degree weather. However, the following Friday morning I met Dawn Whitelaw and Erin Jones for a winter paint-out in about 5 degree temps.
The girls walk the walk.
Years ago when I started duck hunting I realized the only way to actually enjoy it was to spend the money and buy the winter wardrobe complete with every technological breakthrough in outdoor clothing you could afford. When I have it on I just can't get cold. I was much colder on my November 10 2008 post in about 45 degree weather. But these two looked like they had a few layers of cotton with coats and uninsulated boots and they stayed. Erin got there before me, finished one, and then did another while I was there. I was pretty sure Dawn would stay because she's like a painting Terminator, she won't stop. But I wasn't sure about Erin.
I have to say I was impressed. We all earned a plein air merit badge that morning and afterward Erin and I enjoyed the best hot coffee I have ever had at our local Starbucks. Now if I could teach these two to duck hunt they would be unstoppable.

"I'm Sorry, It Just Doesn't Match My Drapes...."

This is a piece I did back in November right after Thanksgiving. It's just a blown down tree but with the light just right I had to give it a shot. It's one of those things that when you paint it you wonder if it is marketable or will a gallery want it or will somebody want it in their home but ultimately you have to paint it regardless of it's marketability because if you just paint the things that you believe are marketable it will ultimately show up in the quality of your work. You have to paint those things that "move you" or "you connect with" or any one of those other flakey cliches that describes what you love to paint. I think that may be one more in about 10,000 reasons I like what Richard Schmid does. In a recent magazine article he said that his proudest accomplishment was that he always painted what he wanted and he wasn't driven by the market. And in his book Alla Prima, one of the nicest paintings in the book is a blown down tree.

I know this actually dosen't have anything to do with fine art but I wanted to share and the reason there is no title to this post is that I have no words to describe it.
I went duck hunting over the past two days in a little spot in the road called Holcomb, Mississippi. We were hunting a farm that consisted of about 90 acres of rice fields. I have been hunting ducks now since about '86-'87 and if I get to the field to hunt and count, say, a hundred ducks, I have had a great day. It is rare to see clouds of ducks that blot out the morning sun.
When we got to the fields Tuesday morning the sky filled with THOUSANDS of ducks and geese.THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS. The most impressive thing was the sound. From about a half a mile away when this many waterfowl take off it sounds like a train or distant thunder. It was one of those incredible moments that you were glad you had the privilege to experience.

Back in the Groove

I don't know about ya'll but the holidays throw me off. The schedule becomes terribly chaotic and it makes it hard to get out and get anything done. My painting was very sporadic and blogging ceased entirely. But school starts tommorrow and the groove is coming back.
Over the holidays the house was usually full of little girls. We had the two Vietnamese girls, Tram and Nikki, that stay with us on weekends and holidays. For those of you who don't know, the oldest is the roommate of my oldest daughter at Webb School and the younger one is her little sister and a freshman there. They are 5 day boarders, so they are with us on the weekends and holidays. Add to that 4 girls that my youngest had over the week of New Year's and the 4 my oldest had fly in that she goes to the Duke University T.I.P. program with each summer. They do a good job of staying in touch each year and this was the first chance they had to get together away from the T.I.P. program. They have a lot in common and from all appearance they had a great time together. Needless to say, with shopping and Christmas the week before, and then the house full of girls New Year's week, productivity at Kevin Menck Fine Art has reached an all time low. However, like I said before, school starts tommorrow and productivity should get back to pre-holiday levels.
Also over the holidays I picked up a third gallery. It is in Lewes, Delaware. I have been to Lewes and it is a very high end weekend get away place and it has tons of old east coast village charm. It is a beautiful area that I hope to get to paint in more often now that I have an excuse. The gallery is the Peninsula Gallery there in Lewes.
Alright, now let's go painting.

Tennessee Christmas

This to me is what a Tennessee Christmas should look like. Too bad we had it this past week instead of Christmas. Maybe we'll get another one on the 24th.
If I don't post again, Merry Christmas everybody.

OMG

Oh my God, indeed.
I feel like I am standing in a room full of people and I am in my underwear.
I typically would not show my first attempts at plein air painting because of the quality. They were a horrible mess and I feel exposed, but there is a reason.
When I see other people start to plein air paint and their first attempts are a bit short of what they expected and they feel that they "don't have what it takes" or "no talent" or any other reason they can't, I try to convince them to be patient. Trust me when I tell you this: everyone starts at zero in plein air painting.
I too thought I would just step out there and start cranking off gallery quality paintings left and right. It has been a long gradual process. Talk to any other artist and they will say the same thing. Their first attempts were horrible and they have painted thousands and thousands of paintings that the general public will never see to get to where they are.
The paintings I have posted here were done in the first summer I started painting which was five years ago. I had no idea what I was doing and for the first three years plein air painting would just whip my ass and send me home to think about what else I could do with my life. The first thing I learned was there are no magic brushes, panels, palette colors, workshops, schools, etc., etc., that are going to make you better or teach you how to paint. It is all just equipment and information that YOU have to learn to apply and the only way to do it is paint. Paint everyday. Over and over and over. Make thousands and thousands of mistakes. Each mistake is a lesson that no one else can give you. I found that for me it was a very organic process. I just crammed my head so full of it and painted so much that I was actually just along for the ride. Your work changes and you get better and you' re doing things you couldn't do before and it snowballs and gets bigger and you wonder where it will go in 5-10 years. I remember asking John Budicin what he thought he would do with his art next or where he wanted to be in, say 5 years, and he said,"I have no idea. I never planned any of it. I just go where it takes me."
So keep painting. You may be suprised where it takes you.

Painting in Gray Weather

Painted on Swan Creek a lot last week because we seemed to have had a lot of gray weather lately and the creek always has nice darks and lights when everything else gets kinda' flat and gray. Anyway, another creek painting.

Beavers

I haven't blogged in a while and I think it may be due to the weather this time of year. From Thanksgiving to the last of December is my favorite time of year to be outside. I deer hunted a little around Thanksgiving and have been trying to paint when not hunting.
The coolest thing I have found lately is this great big beaver lodge on Swan creek. In all my time wading streams and creeks and ponds and lakes, all the float hours I have spent on the river, I have never seen a beaver lodge. It looks like it might be about the size of a large Jacuzzi and I would love to be able to peek inside but am afraid I would be mauled by a family of 40lb. beavers and my bones would wind up as construction material in their lodge.

Fall

We finally got some good color in the trees and it has just about come and gone already. I think it may have peaked last week and now they are beginning to fall, rapidly. It seems like it goes so fast.

Confined

I know it's a bad attitude to have about studio painting but all I can think about is the weather clearing and getting back out.
We have had rain and it has given me time to work in the studio. Ya' know, I knock it quite a bit but it too is a tremendous learning experience. There are techniques and things I can take my time with in the studio that I couldn't do afield. Ways I handle paint, experimentation with tools and techniques, and nice careful thoughtful drawing. I guess ultimately anytime you are painting whether outside or in it is actually good for you as an artist. So here's to studio painting! Now if the sun would just come out...

Brrrrrr

Had a pretty stiff cold front blow through yesterday with a very constant north wind. I had gone out to paint in the morning but was not prepared for the drop in temps or the wind. I can paint in most conditions but the wind is just aggravating, especially a cold one. Anyway, I got this done yesterday afternoon in overcast, cold, windy conditions. I usually get some pretty funny looks from people when they pass but yesterday they were looking at me as if I had lost my mind.

Cheekwood

Painted with Plein Air Nashville this morning at Cheekwood and had quite a turn out. The most I have seen in a long time. This little painting would be much, much, better had SOMEbody not dropped a tripod on it.
I picked up the latest Art of the West magazine the other night and there is a layout in it titled,"Winter Wonderland."The first painting in the article is a Cyrus Afsary, followed by a Len Chmiel, a John DeMott and on to a Richard Schmid. By the time I got to the Richard Schmid I could feel my rods and cones shutting down from too much incredible art that they were trying to filter through to my brain. I am a sucker for a winter landscape and these are some doosies. I think Richard Schmid is the best at making trees "barky", rocks hard, snow soft, clouds airy, and on and on. Giving an object its inherent qualities that make it unique. You can tell what kind of tree, the softness of a flower, the age of a barn, the coarseness of a fabric through a suggestion of texture and those beautiful lost and found edges. Even though it's just paint applied to a 2-D surface you can "feel" everything in the painting, from temperature to moisture in the air. Awesome.

Autumn Colors

The fall colors I have been waiting on have arrived, I just don't remember them being this late. Maybe I'm wrong but I thought it was usually in October a little more.
Painted in Normandy again. Painted at the TWRA Fish Hatchery and again at the farm in the previous blog "On a Back Road". That farm is slowly becoming one of my favorite places to paint. The lay of the land with that farm at the other end makes some beautiful compositions.
Had a guy pull up though, and ask me if I "was a survey'n?" I said,"yep" and he said,"what fer?"I said,"a mall."
The depth and the length of the silence was stunning.
I finally snapped him back to reality by telling him there would be no mall and I was a painter.
Again, stunned silence.
I explained to him what I do for a living and I honestly believe it would have been easier to convince him a mall was coming.

Bells Bend

Bells Bend is a jewel. It is an area that is about 20 minutes from downtown Nashville that is still very rural. It has remained this way because the citizens that live there have worked hard to keep it that way and it's geographical location is in a deep bend of the Cumberland river that only allows one way in and one way out. It is truly a paradise of culture and landscape. I have painted there numerous times and have only begun to scratch the surface.
And then along came the developers.
I am not sure what in a person can make them look at this and see massive urban sprawl sold as "new green development" when it just boils down to the destruction of more and more of what makes Nashville unique. What it amounts to is the destruction of quality of life in the area. WE DO NOT NEED ANOTHER MALL, IDIOTS!
Anyhoo, a giant urban area with malls and office space and I am sure some condos and residential called "The Maytown Center", named after the family who proposes this, is being pitched to the city. The folks in Bells Bend have started a massive campaign to get it stopped. This Saturday they had a day of activities in the area to really showcase how special the area is. It started with a paint out followed by classes and workshops at the Bells Bend Park nature center, food and crafts and organic food vendors at the Scottsboro Community Center, and a canoe and kayak float on the Cumberland with all of this followed up that evening with a concert by Nanci Griffith with a s'mores cookout at the campground. I stayed for the Nanci Griffith concert and was impressed. She is very good and has written a ton of hits.
Having said all of that, we had a great day with perfect weather. Had a good group of painters out and picked up a few we don't normally see. I got three done and took in a concert.Yeah.
I wish the people that live in the bend the best of luck getting this stopped. For selfish reasons because it would be one less place I have to paint but more importantly it would be one more place for my grandkids to paint.

On a Back Road

Found this farm a while back but never made the effort to stop until this morning. It is somewhere between Normandy and Wartrace along the Duck River at 3 Forks Bridge. It was a beautiful fall morning and everything just clicked. I love it when that happens.

A Gaggle of Painters

Painted this morning with a group. Roger Brown and Beverly, Brett Weaver, Gary Young, Erin Jones, and myself painted at Radnor Lake. Weather was perfect. It is not often I paint with a group (except Plein Air Nashville) but I actually enjoy it. It's not that we learn a whole lot from each other or even talk that much. When the painting starts it gets incredibly quite. It is actually a very solitary pursuit. I painted with Anne Blair Brown once and when we were leaving she said,"I enjoyed watching you paint from afar." The interaction was "good morning"...paint...paint...paint..."good bye." I think I enjoy it because you are with like minded people, people who appreciate the work, dedication, and effort that we all put into this and they know what it means when you say the word "struggle".
The other painting of the cornfield is at Derryberry's and it is the first 10x12 I have ever painted. I ordered a bunch of 10x12 panels from Sourcetek to give it a try and give myself a new compositional challenge. Not sure how I like the format yet, will keep you posted.

October

This was done Saturday evening after the cemetary painting that morning. It was the same cornfield in my previous blogs and yes, by the time I left it was full of "critters". For whatever reason, we have had very little color in the trees so far this year. Typically by now the woods are ablaze. I am not sure if it's late or if it is going to happen at all but it has been a very brown fall so far. It's hard to believe it's already the end of October.

Boo!

Plein Air Nashville painted in the City Cemetary to get in the spirit of Halloween. If there was such a thing as ghosts I would be in the City Cemetary. The stories you could get there would be awesome. It is full of the first settlers in Davidson County. The most notable one I saw was the first settler James Robertson and his family. Apparently, Davy Crockett is in there somewhere but I didn't find it. There is just too many there to see them all and still get off a painting.
I have painted in cemetaries twice now and it is very difficult painting. There are no large masses. It seems like every direction you look it is tons of little shapes and pieces and values and lots of drawing. The painting I did has been simplified and you can see there is still a million little planes and value changes. I suppose you could do a very intimate, small area of maybe one tombstone or something but some of the other ghosts might feel slighted and the last thing I would want to do is piss Davy Crockett off.

Bovine

I don't get the chance to paint cattle much because they never hold still in the field long enough. If I do paint them they are usually just kind of a suggestion of a cow or I paint in the studio where I can spend a little time with the drawing.
Had some studio time this week so I painted cattle. Had trouble with the anatomy a bit because the cattle proportions have to be pretty accurate. If you miss them slightly it quickly becomes a goat and if you miss them far enough, a big dog.

Skiing Weather

Painted downtown again where I painted the little fire boat a couple of weeks ago. The little boat actually sits right to the left of the edge of this painting. I almost painted it again but opted for this pedestrian bridge instead.
As we were starting to paint I heard the roar of a boat engine coming around the bend in the river. It was a ski boat with 5 guys in it and one barefoot skiing. He drops right at the bridge, they pick him up and then park where we stood to paint. Then, again, another ski boat with a team and skier. This continued until there were 9 boats and 9 teams of barefoot skiers. These guys barefoot ski race. They have teams from all over the country that travel around and do this. We actually were fielding a team from Nashville in this race.
They started at Old Hickory dam and raced to downtown Nashville. When they got there they blasted off in a line and raced back to Old Hickory then turned around and did it again. It takes exactly one plein air painting worth of time to race to Old Hickory and back. Bear in mind while they were doing this a pretty stiff cold front had blown through and it was a bit windy and never got out of the low 60's. You would think this was a young man's sport but most of these guys were my age or older and some appeared to be 60ish. Rock and Roll.
It has been a long time since I water skiied but I remember no matter how young or in shape I was I would always feel like I had been hit by a bus the next day. Sore in places I didn't know I had. Now, I can trip and fall in my den and be crippled for weeks and these guys were tearing it up at their age. Score one for the old guys.

Corn Fairies

If you have ever watched a combine work, it's like magic. The stalks, johnson grass, sticks, etc., etc. goes in the front and out comes this beautiful golden kernel corn, almost ready to eat. It is as if thousands of little corn fairies are busy inside cleaning, husking, and kernelling corn. I pictured it like Willie Wonka's chocolate room. It's an amazing piece of technology.
Well the one pictured in my blog broke down last week and I got "Tim the Corn Guy" to explain and show me how they work. I have seen it and I still don't understand. There are augers, sifters, belts, pulleys, tumblers, and other things I just did not recognize. Again, who ever came up with it was a genius.
Last week they were busy at the farm I have leased to hunt on getting up the corn. I have been painting in the fields as they were there and after they finished. The neatest thing about painting in it now is the amout of wildlife that is coming into the field at dusky dark to pick up the corn that is left. I stopped yesterday afternoon and looked around and couldn't count the number of deer and turkeys that had crept into the field. Nature show.

Fire Boat

For those of you who may have noticed I posted this on Sunday when I painted it and then saw it on the computer screen and decided it needed a few minor adjustments. They look so much different on the computer.
I painted downtown Sunday morning in the greenway between the football stadium and the river. Plein Air Nashville had planned on painting there on Saturday morning but "Race for the Cure" had also planned on having their event there and they look like they outnumbered us about 5-6000 to one. As soon as I crossed the river I hit gridlock. It took me about thirty minutes just to get back out of the stadium area. The area we were supposed to paint was actually closed to traffic so I don't know if anyone made a painting attempt there but if you did you're a better man than me.
I went back on Sunday morning and there was only one other person there besides me and it was an elderly black gentleman that spent most of his morning trying to teach me how to fish the Cumberland River. It was a great place to paint. Stuff everywhere. I bit off this little fire boat that sits there all the time. Hopefully we will check ahead of time for downtown activities and barring any will paint there again soon.

Corner Market

Painted this little market/cafe yesterday in a little community in Rutherford County called Christiana. Apparently it serves a pretty good lunch because by the time I finished, the parking lot you' re looking at was covered up. When I started, no one. I pass this building everytime I go to Bell Buckle and everytime I pass I tell myself I am going to paint it. Finally.

Cold Front!

Finally. A good solid fall cold front blew through and the temps stayed in the low 70's. Perfect day. Rest of the week looks as good.
Painted this barn in Williamsport about lunch today and I noticed the greens are starting to lighten up and colors are starting to change to fall just a bit. Won't be long.

Bedford County

Spent the last two days painting in Bedford County. Fridays, I pick up my daughter at Webb School so I usually spend Friday's painting in the Bell Buckle area. I painted a barn that I have painted numerous times. I like painting it because no matter what time of day, it seems to always have "good light".
Then this morning, Plein Air Nashville painted in the Fisherman's Park in the heart of Shelbyville. It is on the Duck River and we were trying to get a few more paintings for the Nature Conservancy show the Chestnut Group is having in a couple of weeks. It is a great place to paint. Easy to get to the water and great views of the old corn mill and dam. I think in the later years they actually generated electricity with it.
The only issue I had was one of the "locals" walked up right when I started and stood right over my left shoulder about three feet away the entire time I painted. Two hours this guy stood there and didn't miss a brush stroke. If I can find out who he is I think I am going to send him a "workshop fee".

The Land Trust

Here in Tennessee we have a land trust that Tennesseans can put their land in and it keeps it from being developed for perpetuity. I would like to personally say thanks to anyone who has done it. It is a great gift to Tennessee and to generations that will be here long after we are gone.
Having said that, Jason Saunders is having a one man show at Leiper's Creek Gallery the month of October that is of the Natchez Trace and land trust properties. He knew I had an aquaintance that had a farm in Hickman County that had been put in the trust and wanted to paint it for the show. The farm is owned by Bill McEwen, a gentleman I used to buy bird dogs from when I quail hunted. He was more than gracious and took us all over the farm and told us to help ourselves. We did.
There was just too much there to paint. It is a magnificent piece of land that has been in the family for generations. There are views and little intimate landscapes everywhere. It has little rolling hills and lots of character to it.
We painted all day and I painted three with one being a scraper. I knew when I started it, it wasn't going to happen. Some paintings you just start wrong and you know it. I have a tendency to try and save them when I should just stop and start over. What a waste of time to try and save one that never got off the ground from the start.