Demo of "The Dory"

This is my first attempt at creating a demonstration of one of my paintings. Hope you enjoy watching it. Have the audio up as I narrate each slide.

New Orleans

The first time I traveled to New Orleans was in 1991. I just returned from my second trip. I saw the city differently during this week-long visit. Post-Katrina has changed it. Although it was actually nice to see lines for many restaurants and construction throughout the city. This time, I saw the city with a full-time artist's eyes. The weather was perfect which plays well in a composition when shadows fall just right. You can't escape the energy, music, and color that abounds throughout the French Quarter. I love the architecture with hanging flower baskets over rod iron balconies. I'm not too interested in being around a lot of people, but it was easy to get caught up in the way people walk freely up and down Bourbon Street without a care in the world. This painting depicts some of the liveliness from one of the hot dog carts that are common fixtures.

Nova Scotia

It has been awhile since I posted as I took two painting trips. One to Nova Scotia and another to New Orleans. This post will focus on my Nova Scotia experience. For several years, I have taken annual paint trips to Maine. I feel an affinity toward the fishing villages and historic architecture found throughout the New England coast. Years ago, I heard that Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia was a painter's paradise. So this year, I decided to venture to Canada and explore the Meritimes. I found it to be even more rustic than Maine. Weather can be an artist's friend or foe and unfortunately, it rained too often during my visit. I still found many opportunities between downpours to paint. In addition to Peggy's Cove, I painted at Blue Rocks, Chester, and Lunenburg. Paint trips are great, not only for what you accomplish during the trip, but the studio pieces that are created long after returning home.

Honfleur

I learned about Honfleur from my art studies in college. This fishing port in France's Normandy region was a favorite spot for the Impressionists to spend their summers. Eugene Boudin grew up in Honfleur and has a remarkable museum in Honfleur with many of his masterpieces. Although Claude Monet is popularly thought of as the father of Impressionism, Boudin was painting plein air (outdoors) well before Monet. In fact, Boudin was outside painting when Monet saw him and became a mentor to Monet.

I had wanted to visit this idyllic city since first studying about it. In May 2006, I rented a car for two weeks and painted my way through Normandy. Unfortunately, I first drove through Honfleur on May 1, a French holiday. Because of the masses of people, I kept driving knowing I would return when I could experience it without the crowds. When I returned a few days later, I spent two days paintings various harbor scenes. The painting at the top of my blog is one of the paintings from that trip. Two other Honfleur scenes from that trip are in this post. It was surreal thinking that one of the original Impressionist might have set his easel up at the same location where I painted.

Oil Paintings in a Chicken Coop

I received a B.A. in Art from the University of Utah in 1987. In a future post, I'll talk about how my art education has been a great foundation for my current art work. For now, I want to share how about 12 of my oil paintings from college were saved from a chicken coop.

I had been living in California for many years and thought I would never see those paintings as I had been divorced for many years and they had been in storage in a small chicken coop at one of my ex-wife's relatives for decades. During a trip my life-partner, Steve, was making to Utah. without me knowing, he arranged through my sister, Cindy, to pick up my college paintings. He loaded them in a van and returned to California arriving home in the middle of the night. He placed the paintings throughout the living room where I would see them when I woke up the next morning. It was a complete shock for me when I was reunited with so many of my paintings. I truly thought I would never see them again, so it was one of the best surprises of my life.

These paintings are dear to me not only because they are over 20 years old, but also because some were painted the year my daughter, Alexis, was born. Others I painted in classes I took from my favorite art instructors.

Race Track is a 30 x 40

Edward Seago

People often ask me who are some of my favorite artists. So, I thought from time to time, I would write about some of them. Edward Seago, (1910 - 1974) an Englishman was a prolific painter in both oils and watercolors. As a boy, he had a heart condition that kept him in bed where he would sketch and do watercolors. He excelled in his career, but was resentful over not receiving national attention or important recognition during his life.


I enjoy his use of light and shade in all his work. People and objects are rendered with great ease and simplicity. His work has a sense of depth by using cool flat color in the distance and then increasing the warmth and contrast in the foreground. When you look at a Seago painting, there is something sincere in its beauty. No exaggeration or over intellectualising, but always technically exciting. That is what I strive for in my work. Below is an example of his work called,
The Doorway, Venice.


There are several books about his life. I study, Edward Seago, the vintage years by Ron Ranson which includes a selection of his work from the private collections of members of the Royal Family.

China Camp

I discovered a new painting location this past week called China Camp. It is near San Rafael at the San Pablo Bay. It was a Chinese shrimp-fishing village that thrived in the 1880s with nearly 500 people from Canton, China who lived in the village.

On Wednesday when I painted Sea Breeze (the shrimp boat's name), I was the only person around. Sometimes not having human interruption while plein air painting is a luxury in itself. I was comforted by the solitude I found so close to the water.

I enjoyed my time at China Camp so much that I returned yesterday and painted China Camp Sparkle. I loved how the sunlight danced off the water and thought about what the people's lives may have been like when they lived in the cabin so many years ago.