City-fied

Went downtown with Anne Blair Brown this morning to paint industrial/cityscapes. It is out of my comfort zone again but I think she and I have a plan to do this at least once a week. It would be good for me because for me it is a compositional challenge due to the fact there is just sooo much stuff and I need to filter a bit better. I tend to want to paint it all because it all looks like so much fun to paint. Little signs, telephone poles, fences, cars and trucks, architecture, etc.. I also kinda' let Anne feel out the spot because I was dying to try and just jump out and make some sort of composition with whatever I had to work with. It's tough. I always have a great deal of admiration for the guys and gals who can step up to something that you can't see anyway a painting will come out of it and they knock off a masterpiece.

Before we did this, Anne e-mailed me a couple of links to William Wray's and Randell Sexton's websites to get a feel for some urban work and if you haven't seen their stuff you need to take a look.

Next time I do this though I am going to try and ad the cars and maybe a person or two so it doesn't look like the day after some biological holocaust.

Finally, A Break In The Weather!

We finally had a break in the month long heat wave. I think we had near to over 100 degrees for over a month and last week we finally got a cold front that lowered the temps to the low 90's to upper 80's. Compared to what we have had I almost had to put on a fleece jacket and ear muffs. We gathered up a group that consisted of Roger Brown, Beverly Evans, Jason Saunders, Anne Blair Brown and myself and rode the backroads in Maury county and painted for two days and that was the first outdoor painting I think any of us had tried in awhile due to the weather. We had a small map that Jason had from his gig as a Bethel volunteer fireman and he navigated with "left here, right here, OK left here." We saw some unbelievably beautiful painting country in the area between Columbia and Mount Pleasant and need to get back ASAP.

When I paint with other very capable artists and see how they do what they do I always come away questioning my techniques and methods. I have found that every artist I know seems to have a different way of getting from point A to point B and after watching them I am tempted to try some of it. Use a different panel, different brushes, different palette, different method, but I have gone through all of that and it brought me here, where I am right now. Eventually I know it will change again because as an artist that constant search for more knowledge and skill will have an impact and pique my curiosity to the point I will change, bend and flex as I acquire my new skills and knowledge. That's what keeps this journey sooo exciting. What in the world will I be doing a year from now?

New Book

Landscapes of Kevin Menck by Kevin Menck | Make Your Own Book

Designed and printed a new book of my images through blurb. Easiest thing I have ever done. It's amazing the different venues and the ability we have now to promote our work that 10 - 15 years ago I would have killed for. The printed version of this was a little dark and saturated but I'll work on some color correcting and hopefully will be able to print a stack of them to use as a handout at a few galleries in the future. When you view it though, hit full screen. For whatever reason the image size I have it at now in the blog is the only one I could make fit. Just because the technology has zoomed along doesn't mean I have been zooming along with it.

100+

For those of you who follow my blog I assume you can tell I haven't been blogging and that is due entirely to the heat we have had here in Middle Tennessee. It has been unbearable and because of it I haven't painted outside. At all. I tried Saturday with Plein Air Nashville and the Chestnut Group at a paint out we had in Hartsville getting prepared for the Land Trust show we are having in October. I tried three paintings and failed three paintings, two being scrapers. The third will never see a frame. All I was thinking about while painting was to hurry as fast as I could to get out of the heat. I was miserable. The paintings got not one ounce of my mental attention, the weather had it all. And it showed. I can't remember the last time I left the field that frustrated and demoralized. Whipped...drained....exasperated.

I have painted in every weather situation I can think of and even as much as the wind frustrates me, the heat shuts me down. I noticed on the news that this weather is to continue for the next week so my blog will be a little sparse.

The piece I have posted is the second attempt at a commission with the first being the July 19 post. After it was done it was a little large for the space at 18x24. Fortunately it sold to someone else and the piece above is the second at 12x16. We shall see.