Safety First

I painted this morning in a blazing lightning storm. I know, I failed my plein air safety class. But it was just far enough away I felt safe. Just don't tell my wife, she will take my brushes away. There is something about having a good one going you just don't want to stop. However, I watched Kenn Bachaus try to run from a Grizzly bear on a video in which he and Matt Smith and Jean LaGassick painted in Denali. A bear meandered up and Matt and Jean booked. Kenn however tried to pick up and carry his French easel painting and all. My daughter said,"man, he must have had a good one on." I have never done a painting good enough that would slow, impede or hinder my retreat from a bear. I just don't paint that good. I bet if that bear would have charged him though he would have gotten a face full of French easel.
I also was going to do a little demo for the blog by taking pictures as I went. I got the first one and the last one. I have to say when the lightning got cracking I starting painting with a bit more speed and focus and forgot to take pictures. I also took a picture of the storm. It was beautiful. It started small in front of me and just exploded as it went by. I noticed as I went back to Leiper's Fork it had blown down quite a few trees as it passed through.
Also, don't forget the Harding Show is tomorrow night through Saturday afternoon. Come by and say hi!

Good ol' Summertime

Alright, here is a list of a few reasons I enjoy painting in the winter as opposed to summer. Bear in mind I encountered each and every one of these items within an nine hour time span on Friday:
1. Lightning
2. Pollen
3. Humidity
4.Pollen
5. Snakes
6. Knats
7.Pollen
8. Ticks
9. Oh yeah, and Pollen
The reason I mention pollen as I do is it was the only thing on the list that actually put me in the doctor's office the following morning. I spent two full days in and out of the bed with a fever and completely wrecked sinuses. It was the sickest I have been in years. When I paint in the winter I encounter nothing that can't be fixed with a hot cup of coffee. I am now in for over a hundred bucks in medical expenses for Friday's little painting adventure. Here's the kicker. As soon as the antibiotics got me back on my feet, ya' know the first thing I did Monday? I went out and painted. Hay.
Yeah, I know.

Shock and Awe

I was approached this morning by a member of the Cumberland Society and asked to join their group. This is an honor that I cannot describe with mere English language. I have a dictionary right here and there is not a word for how flattered I am by this.
Before I became a painter I was an illustrator who constantly said,"someday I will be a painter" and constantly put it on the back burner, always finding a reason to do it later in life. I went to a Cumberland Society show here in Nashville and I actually saw people who were doing this as a profession, right here in my community. They were doing what I wanted to be doing and they were doing it very well. That day they became the yardstick I used to measure my life in art, what I would strive to be. If I worked and committed myself with laser like focus I might be able to do this also. To have them consider me a peer and to know they think my work qualifies for this honor leaves me speechless.
I have also seen the work they do in the art community here and consider them to be a tremendous asset to anybody in the art field in this area. I know they have coached and prodded me along over the years and I have seen them do it with anyone who approaches them with questions. I hope I am able to give and help as much as they have.
So to Dawn Whitelaw, Jason Saunders, Pam Padgett, Roger Brown, Paula Frizbe, and Michael Shane Neal, thank you, thank you a thousand times over and I will do everything I can to uphold everything the group stands for for the next artist wanna be who stumbles into a Cumberland Society show and says,"that's what I want to do."

Better Living Through Chemistry

It's that time of year. Caffeine and Diphenhydramine. Starbucks and Benedryl.
Allergies kicked in last week and have been on my spring diet of chemicals. If these paintings start to get Van Goghish, I will need an intervention.
This was done in Wartrace this morning. We finally had a sunny day and it is supposed to rain again for the next two days. Sheez.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I like a good rainstorm as much as anybody but this is getting ridiculous. We have had storms and floods almost everyday for weeks now. The Duck River has flooded parts of Bedford and Maury and has just about washed away parts of Hickman County. Each time it settles a bit another storm has it everywhere again. I rode to Hickman County tuesday and the river was back up in the property we have leased and it looked like an ocean.
I was in Bell Buckle Friday and jumped out between rainstorms and got this painting done in about an hour. After I got everything up, the bottom fell out. This is the first plein air piece I have gotten done in a week due to the weather.

Harding Show Has Been Re-Scheduled

Yea, it's a go.
The chairs of the show have worked feverishly (If the CDC and the State Health Department read this I mean "frantically" when I say "feverishly". They do not literally have a fever. Please do not close the school again.) for the past few days and have decided to re-schedule the show for May 28th from 6-9, May 29th from 10-9 and May 30th from 10-3.
As somebody who has 30-40 paintings sitting in boxes in our playroom, I could not be happier.