Leiper's Fork

I have to say you never know what to expect when you're in Leiper's Fork.

The class I teach has started meeting outside for a little true plein air work and last Thursday night as we painted, two guys roll out a hot air balloon, heat it up and blast off. All in about 30 minutes. I had no idea you could get one in the air from the bed of a truck in that little time.

There is a very eclectic group of people with varied pasts and interests that reside in the Leiper's fork area. Some of the best musicians and guitar players that have ever played with resumes you wouldn't believe. Celebrities like Faith and Tim, Steve Winwood, Keith and Nicole, (I sat at a table next to them at a Starbucks recently and yes, she is that gorgeous in real life even at seven in the morning. She looks like she is from a galaxy of incredibly beautiful people and she doesn't belong here with the rest of us.) Bo Bice (sorry, I don't watch American Idol so I said "who?") played in town a few weeks ago on a Thursday night and last week as we were watching a balloon take off there was a rumor Robert Plant was at Puckett's. Granted, I got it second hand, but it's Leiper's Fork. Nothing surprises me about that little town.

So if you get the chance, swing through Leiper's Fork. I am sure something there will catch you off guard. And if you see Nicole, tell her I said "hi".

Hunting

I finally found a little time to turkey hunt Saturday morning and actually filled a tag. It was a small turkey but a turkey none the less. Hunting has slowly taken a back seat to everything else I am trying to get done in my life right now especially raising busy kids and painting. I was not aware of how much time, energy and attention painting would require and consume. Nobody warned me. Before I knew it, it had me. Even when I hunt, the painting wheels are turning in my head. "Look how close those values are." "How would I get that color?" "Man I wish I were set up right now." And on and on. I posted the photo of my hunting compadre because if you will notice the sun was rising and casting light on the ridge to the left in unbelievable colors with the fog hanging along the Duck River in the background. I almost threw my gun down and ran screaming back to the truck for my painting gear. The only thing that stopped me was as I was taking this photo, two of the largest turkeys I have heard in awhile were gobbling their heads off about 50 yrds. to the right just over the crest of the hill we are on. I wanted the turkeys to wait until I had finished watching this sun-up or for the sun-up to hang on just a minute until I had dispatched one of these turkeys. Of course neither happened because when you are out there you are just a spectator on Mother Nature's time. You can't stop it or slow it down. Just feel incredibly fortunate for the experience.

The paintings are a couple from the week and the tree line with the chert rock road is from class last Thursday. We got out and did a little plein air painting there in Leiper's Fork and I have to say I was quite proud of the class. It was windy and about 50-55 degrees and they all hung in there and had some real nice paintings for their effort.

April

I spent most of the week painting in the Leiper's Fork area and Thursday morning had the opportunity to paint with Leiper's Creek Gallery owner Lisa Fox. She doesn't get the chance to paint as much as she used to due to the time that the gallery takes so it was good to see her out. I also picked up my first sunburn and tick of the season.

Heads Up!

As I was painting Wednesday the snake in the photo above slithered right up next to me. He was about two feet from my two feet. Had invaded my personal space. As creepy as they look, theoretically they are about harmless as a bag of cotton balls. But, after seeing one, your concentration is shot. You spend an inordinate amount of time checking the ground. Checking the ground. Checking the ground. I was turkey hunting with a friend one time and we were "sneaking up" on one and were crawling along veeeery quietly. I eased up in to position and got settled and then my buddy eased up into position. Unfortunately his position was on the end of a vine that due to some physics equation moved on the other end, my position. Have you ever seen a vine move in the woods? All it needed was a forked tongue. I flinched so bad I pulled muscles and let out a noise like a 6 yr. old girl on Christmas morning. The rest of the hunt I spent checking the ground, checking the ground, checking the ground. I think I even checked the floor board of my truck a couple of times on the way home after that one.

The paintings are from the previous week and the two at the bottom were painted yesterday with the Chestnut Group for a show they are having at the end of April of the historic buildings and areas in Columbia Tennessee. The two you see are of the courthouse and the building in profile is from the old Columbia Military Academy which was one of the premier military schools in the nation at one time. The plaque on the front says it is the old Guard House but its architectural demeanor leads me to believe it was designed to keep something in or something out. Maybe an arsenal or brig. If those walls could talk.

Ode to Biscuits

My youngest daughter loves biscuits. I mean loves biscuits. She will sit down to a pan of biscuits for breakfast and eat them with nothing on them. No jam, jelly, butter, nothing. She had a writing assignment at school recently and this was what they got:

"Ode to Biscuits"

Seeing sunlight

and buzzers sounding,

I saunter to the kitchen for

biscuits

Slippers scuffling

and people humming

everything's alive because of

biscuits

the oven is up and running

burning crisp the bottom

of what's in it

biscuits

my teeth pierce the outside,

crunch! into the gooey inside

it tastes like home,

biscuits

You gotta' love that.

Also, an artist and friend of mine, Erin Jones, will be teaching art classes beginning March 29. It will be a great class for getting going with drawing and oil painting. For more info, check her blog at: erinelizabethjones.blogspot.com.

Home Again, Home Again...

I think I am good for about a week on these painting trips before I start to miss the family. It's not that we do these incredible things together but I just feel better when I am around them. Kinda' like a security blanket I guess. And it doesn't hurt that they are really awesome people.

Above are a few of the paintings I accomplished on the trip to Atlantic Beach. Before we left on Tuesday, Lee Dellinger and her husband Charles Jones had a social at their home and the guest list was Marc Delessio, Jimmy Craig Womble and his lovely wife, and Jason Saunders and myself. Had some great stories. I always ask each artist I meet where they would paint if they only had one place to paint for the rest of their life, where it would be. Marc said Morocco. Yeah, I know, me too. I pictured France, Venice, mountains of Tibet. And believe me, the guy has been everywhere. But that was it for him. I will say this, the way he described it, it has moved up on my list considerably.

The following morning we hit the road and arrived home after a 13 hour drive with a couple of stops. All in a days work for a plein air painter.

Tales From the Road

I am not sure what it is about my demeanor or appearance that makes people want to give me things but as I write this there is a bushel, not one or two dozen, but a bushel of raw oysters in the bed of my truck.

On Thursday Jason and I left for our paint trip to Atlantic Beach, NC and spent the day driving, arriving in Atlantic Beach around 6:30 that evening. Next morning we wandered aimlessly as you typically do looking for a place to paint and getting our bearings until we stopped at Callico Creek where we were met by Vision Gallery owner Lee Dellinger and painter Jimmy Craig Womble. After a painting, we stopped by the gallery where Lee helped with maps, locations and the name of the coffee shop.

The next morning with our maps in hand we got busy. However, the tone of my day was set when after getting my subject picked out, a nice group of boats, and having the drawing and about half of the painting done, a gentlemen drove in, backed up and parked what looked to be about a 16 foot box trailer right in front of my boats. It blocked everything. Scrapped it and moved on. Another plein air story. Speaking of which, Marc Delassio happened to be in town and painted with us today and we started telling plein air stories and he beat us all with, "they filmed a porno movie where I was painting one time." He said another painter there was complaining because it had broken his concentration. Really?

Anyway, today while we painted I was painting by a commercial shrimping/oystering/crabbing boat when the owner pulled up and told me a diver would be arriving shortly to change the prop on his boat. While this was taking place he and I conversed and I got to watch a diver change a prop on a boat the whole time continuing to paint. Oh, did I mention his 10 year old son had just gotten an automatic pistol bb gun for his birthday and was standing next to me ripping shots off into the bay as fast as he could pull the trigger? 350 to be exact. That's all he brought and was out by the time he left. Right before the boat owner left he said," you gonna' be here awhile?" I said yes and about 20 minutes later he pulled in with a bushel of oysters with my name on them. He opened a few there on the dock and between us we may have eaten 15 but it didn't even knock a dent in a bushel. I know on the last trip I was given some beets that I promptly traded for Mike's Hard Lemonade but I'm afraid the oyster trading may not be as easy. But ya' never know.

ROAD TRIP!

The gallery I'm in in Atlantic Beach, NC, Vision Gallery, is having a plein air show the first week of June and encouraged their artists to come over and paint the area for the show. I don't need a lot of encouragement for a road trip. I will be leaving in the morning and Jason Saunders will be accompanying me for the 5 day painting trip. I will try to blog from the road.

This must be the same feeling that Lewis and Clark had before their epic journey west, minus the threat of death from bears or indians. That anticipation of new landscapes and people and sites you have never seen and places you have never been. I read an account of their journey in the book "Undaunted Courage" and their journal from the trip and it is amazing some of the things they accomplished and did, and did it so matter of fact, like it was nothing. Just a day at work. Weather, Bitterroot Mountain Pass, indian fights, Grizzly bear attacks. They lost one man. That's it. And he died at the start from illness. I can't afford to loose one man. That's all I'm taking. I almost lost him on the last trip at the Bayside Tavern.

Anyway, I know we won't encounter the adversities of the Lewis and Clark Expedition but I'm am still pretty excited. Nothin' beats a road trip.

Class II

Just a quick post to let everyone interested know I will be teaching again at Leiper's Creek Gallery on Tuesday and Thursday nights starting March 23 and March 25. It has been great fun talking art every week twice a week. I actually learned a bit myself and found out I can crank out a pretty good demo in 30 minutes to an hour.

Again, it will be a landscape class as it pertains to plein air painting. Basic drawing, seeing masses and the big shapes, three color palette and values, values, values. Anyone interested should contact Kay Keyes Farrar at dkisfarrar@charter.net.

16x20

A quick post. Gotta' pick up my 12 year old at school.

This is a studio piece that is 16x20. Huge for me but lots of fun actually. It didn't hurt that it all just fell into place and I didn't have any areas in it that I had to scrape and paint and scrape and paint and....well you get the idea. I am also pleased with the feel of it, the moodiness. Typically I have a hard time getting it and controlling it in the studio.

Back At Poole Knob WMA

With the snow on the ground, I am going to get all I can out of it. Went back again this morning and hopefully will be able to go again in the morning. There was this wonderful cedar thicket that had snow hanging on it and was hanging with the weight of the snow and was just beautiful. Maybe it didn't get warm enough to completely get rid of it but I am afraid I may have missed it by not doing it this morning. But then I wouldn't have the one I have. Life goes on.

The game warden's curiosity finally got the best of him this morning and he had to stop and ask.

"What's goin' on?"

"I'm working."

A brief moment of silence and then that look of comprehension.

"Oooohhh, you're paintin'! How 'bout that!"

After showing him a few paintings and explaining it all, he was overly friendly about helping me find spots and suggested quite a few.

I have found that once most people find out you're a painter they're fascinated and incredibly accommodating. The only thing that seems to sour the conversation is when they ask,"How much you want for it?"

More Tennessee Snow

Believe it or not we have had yet another snow.

I woke up this morning with every intention of studio painting and looked out the window to see another snowfall. I immediately grabbed my gear and headed for the Poole Knob WMA. There are paintings everywhere there. Everywhere you look. This morning with the snow it was almost overwhelming. After having scratched out a good spot and getting one started it began snowing. Hard. It actually snowed so hard I couldn't see the tree line in the distance. I have seen other artists put falling snow in their paintings, and do it well. But having never tried it I didn't know technically how to pull it off. Stippled? Splattered? Itty bitty brush? Suggestions? I have seen it in some of Marc Hanson's paintings and it is sooo delicate. Different sizes and values and the pattern they created was very even and rhythmic.

I think I may practice a bit, let this painting dry, and then give it a test run. If I get good at it though, I am afraid I will like the look of it so much I'll get carried away with it. If ya'll start seeing it in some of my July and August paintings e-mail and tell me to stop. Thanks.

The other painting is from last week during the clouds in the same area, Poole Knob. Like I said, so many paintings.

More Snow Painting

My youngest daughter was out of school yesterday so she and I got out rambling and wound up in Poole Knob Wildlife Management Area. It was completely empty of people because of the snow and mud I believe. But it was gorgeous with the snow on it. We took a little time to throw some rocks on the pond and then I got to work. I enticed my daughter to go by promising her the opportunity to drive the truck. She did. And very well. I think she liked driving in the mud and snow and I see a four wheel drive vehicle somewhere in her future. Out of all the girls we have in our home, from ages 17 down to eleven, I explained to them all if anything happens to me and ya'll need to drive me somewhere, let the little one drive. She is right now the best in the bunch.

The only other person we saw in the area was the Game Warden. He only waved and kept going, so apparently painting there is allowed or because I was painting in the snow and mud thought I was mentally unstable and my daughter and I left before his back-up arrived.

The Second 2nd Annual Radnor Lake Plein Air Freeze Out

Plein Air Nashville scheduled a winter paint out at Radnor Lake for this morning around 10ish. When I saw the e-mail I thought we might have three or four show.

Man, when it snows Plein Air Nashville turns out.

I didn't get a count but I estimate we had 15-16. For PAN that's quite a few, especially with the weather as it is right now in Tennessee.

We don't get a lot of snow in Tennessee so when it does snow we just go nuts. We wreck cars, bend and break every sled we own, close the schools for weeks, empty every grocery store of milk and bread within 300 miles and generally act like, well, Tennesseans. Me included. I'm out in it the whole time it's on the ground. Like I said, go nuts.

This morning as we painted the sun came out and it was quite comfortable and the next few days the temperature is predicted to be much higher than 32 degrees so it won't be here very long after tomorrow but maybe, just maybe, we can have one more good one before the season's over. I just hope it waits until I can get some more milk and bread.

This is the Thursday night class demo and I let them work on an exercise until about 8:00 then asked if they wanted a demo and flew in and got this done in a little over thirty minutes. They were cleaned up and ready to go by nine. These under the gun demos are actually kind of fun because it is a very intuitive way to paint. You really can't over think anything. Mix and apply.

The mountains you see there are in the Cumberland mountains on the Kentucky Tennessee border. I had gone up there to the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area about three years ago to paint for a week. It is some of the roughest country I have been in both culturally and geographically. I actually knocked the exhaust out from under my truck on what they consider roads. They are these little coal company roads hanging on the sides of the mountains with these giant coal trucks coming and going.

While I was there I attempted to paint the scene you see in the post. I made a royal mess out of it. When I think back about that trip I don't know that I actually had one or two paintings that were decent and the rest just horrible. I keep telling my students about these moments you have in your career when you realize how far you have come and the things that you found so difficult a year or so ago you wade through now. However, it also seems the more I learn the more I realize how much more I have to learn. I actually hope I never loose that because ultimately it seems to be what keeps most of us coming back again, and again. No finish line.

Another Class Painting

Quick post. I have to leave for class at the gallery. It seems like I am teaching every 15 minutes. I was just there.

Class is a lot of fun though. I have tried to knock off a demo at each class so far and have time for them to get something done in class that I can look at and kind of walk them through. It causes some fast demos. The one above took about 40 - 45 minutes. Granted, it is small, but I felt like I was trying to put out a fire.

Anyway, gotta' go. I'll try to get some photos up of the class if I can remember to take pictures.

Class Time

I officially began teaching last Tuesday night and had another class on Thursday night. The paintings posted are the demos I did from each class. I think after it has all shuffled out I have 5 beginner students on Tuesday and 6 intermediate students on Thursday night. For me that is plenty. I am kinda' glad these classes aren't bigger than they are until I get a little experience under my belt. Teaching is far removed from "doing". When I paint, a lot of what I do has become subconscious and I don't think about how to explain it. When I try to explain it I think I tend to skip some of the things I take for granted, some of the things you have done for so long you assume everyone knows how to do them. The Tuesday night class is a beginner class. Some have never opened a tube of paint so I think it will be very basic stuff for the next six weeks for them. When I see them Tuesday we are going to go through the color wheel and how to get color with a three color palette. Hopefully at the end of six weeks they will understand things like value, mixing color, and basic drawing skills. The intermediate class of course has the basics and as I did a demo for them they seemed to ask some very precise and experienced questions so I should be able to get into more advanced practices.

All and all I am very excited about the possibilities in both classes. Lisa at Leiper's creek Gallery was kind enough to let me have the gallery in the evenings so we have a great space with plenty of top notch art on the walls we can use for examples of some of the things I will be referring to. It's going to be a lot of fun and as excited as I am to see what it will do for the students ability I am just as excited to see what it will do for mine.

2nd Annual Radnor Lake Plein Air Freeze Out

Last year, Dawn Whitelaw, Erin Jones and myself painted at Radnor Lake on a morning when the temperatures were in the low single digits. I think it is still a record for me. This year we did it again although the temps were not quite as low as last year and Dawn wasn't there. Just me and Erin and somewhere in the teens. But, it did snow and there seemed to be more ice on the pond this year. It was absolutely gorgeous. No matter how hard you may wish it, it will never snow in the studio.

The photos above are Erin and myself at the lake, the piece I did and the piece Erin did. Her's was in the beginning stages when I photographed it but I thought it was a wonderfully done painting. Nice values and a great composition. The other piece of the Beech trees is one I did last week right before the cold snap when the wind was howling so I did a painting in the interior of the woods way down in a hollow to try and get out of some of the wind. I don't do many "interior"paintings because they are very hard to do. Lot's of drawing and the masses are less defined because there are so many bits and pieces in the woods. Compositional nightmares.

Unfortunately here in Middle Tennessee we don't get enough snow to actually study it and paint it on a regular basis so when I paint snow it is less from experience and a knowledge of how it should appear in any given situation and more on trying to paint what my eyes tell me I am seeing. If you want to see some painters who have studied it and been exposed check out Clyde Aspevig, Matt Smith, Skip Whitcomb and Marc Hansen. Clyde Aspevig has a couple of ice paintings on his web site right now that when I have them up on my Macbook I have to go cut the thermostat up because the temperature in the house drops 10 degrees.