Red Row Boat on Still Waters - 5x7 Oil Painting

5x7 on canvas panel
SOLD

I'm back from my trip to the mountains and I had a great time. I don't have much time tonight to catch up on comments left while I was gone, but I appreciate everyone that stopped in and left comments! I'll hopefully be able to catch up on Monday, and on Monday I'll draw the winner for my painting giveaway too.

I was just looking at placing an order with Dick Blick and noticed that their line of high quality pre-stretched canvases have some great prices right now if any of you artists out there need to stock up! Things have gotten so expensive in the art world lately so it's good to grab the deals when you can. The trick with Dick Blick is buying in bulk; their 24x24 canvases in traditional profile are only $9.17 each right now when you buy five or more, which is the lowest price I've seen in a long time. They also have a source code at the top of all their pages for additional discounts, expiring tomorrow night (though they almost always have one running). With the discount code (the discount you get depends on the dollar amount in your cart) and the bulk discount, 18x24 canvases came out to $5.51 each for me, 12x24 canvases were $4.81 each, and 24x24 canvases came out to only $7.57 each. Your final amount will vary but it's a good deal either way! Their studio line is also a great value and even less expensive than their premier line if you're on more of a budget.

I hope everyone's doing great and had a wonderful weekend!

Storm over Harvey Mansion - 4x8 Oil Painting

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

(This is a scheduled post; I'll be back in town this weekend.)

The Harvey Mansion is a familiar site to residents of New Bern. Originally the home of a ship merchant in the 1790's, it's now an inn and restaurant. The day I took my reference the sky was darkening as a storm loomed overhead and everything was beginning to look a bit ominous.

My painting giveaway for this month runs until May 30th, so check it out if you haven't entered yet!

Amish Farm in Pennsylvania - 4x8 Oil Painting

Don't forget to enter this month's painting giveaway if you haven't entered yet!

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

This week's challenge from Different Strokes from Different Folks was to take a black and white photo of this farm in Pennsylvania and add our own interpretation of color to it. I really enjoyed this one; I sometimes have a hard time deviating from the colors right in front of me in a reference so it was nice to not have any idea what the actual colors were in the scene.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the mountains!

Bluebonnet Flower Hill - 4x4 Oil Painting

4x4 on canvas panel
SOLD

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I'll be heading to the mountains later this week for a family get together, but hopefully will be able to schedule some posts to autopost during my absence.

During my trip I'll be stopping at an art outlet and will be looking for a vivid blue oil paint. I was thinking of trying Da Vinci brand's Lapis Lazuli, which looks like it might be promising for a strong, vivid blue, but if anyone has any suggestions I'm very much open to them. I currently usually just use Winsor and Newton's Artists' French Ultramarine, but sometimes I need something more striking. I also have a tube of Cobalt Blue.

New Bern City Street View - 5x7 Oil Painting

5x7 on canvas panel
SOLD

Every time I pass this street in New Bern the house with the red roof catches my eye, so I thought it would be fun for a small painting.

Don't forget to check out yesterday's post about my Painting Giveaway and how you can enter to win!

Free Painting Giveaway for May!

4x4 oil painting on canvas panel

It's time for my May Painting Giveaway! Up for the giveaway this month is the painting above of a field of bluebonnets, a 4x4 oil painting on canvas panel.

1. Email me by 11:59 PM EST on May 30, 2009. DON'T just leave a comment on this blog post (though comments are always welcome!), you have to email me to enter!

2. In your email, include your name and physical mailing address. Your address is not given away and is not used for anything other than this contest, and is deleted after the contest is over. I like to already have it on hand if you're name is chosen so I can get the painting out quickly!

3. That's it! I'll use the random number generator at random.org to chose a winner from the entries, and the winner will be contacted shortly thereafter.

Ocean Waves at Night - 5x7 Oil Painting

5x7 on canvas panel
Click to bid on this painting on eBay

Somehow for the third time so far this year I've contracted a cold so I might be slow in responding for a while. My goal in this little nocturne painting of the ocean was to play with my blending technique; sometimes I lose control of little seascapes so I tried to keep things simple and the paint relatively thin and I was able to blend it the way I wanted.

Evening Hangs Over the Marsh - 6x6 Oil Painting

6x6 on canvas panel
SOLD

I've been struggling with inspiration the past few days, but I think I've got some ideas on what to paint soon coming up. Painting really is best when you're excited to get started.

A hopefully useful tool for those who ship a lot of paintings: I cut up a lot of cardboard when I'm making boxes for shipping my larger paintings, and sometimes it's difficult or annoying to use a utility knife. In those cases I use Black and Decker Power Scissors (the link is to Amazon but I found mine at Lowes) to quickly cut through the cardboard. I've found they're useful for a lot of things but that's been my main use for them. Sometimes I also use them to open those annoyingly hard plastic shells that come around products I've purchased.

Frozen Memories

6x8 - NFS

Today was rainy, dreary and completely unsuited for taking pictures of my latest painting, so instead I'll post this painting I did for my mom on Mother's Day. It's of her grandmother's house, taken from the one reference photo that she gave me years ago:

While I vaguely recall the house from my childhood, it was owned by someone else at that point so I can't recall ever getting a close look at it.

I'd like to find a picture of my mother's childhood home, which was right down the road from this one and is one I have many, many memories of. I also wish I could go back in time and get photos of the country store that used to be at the end of the road. As kids my brothers, cousins and I liked to walk there and come back with cheap candy and trading cards with the bubble gum inside the wrappers.

Red Boat at Ocracoke Dock - 6x6 Oil Painting

6x6 Oil Painting on Canvas Panel
SOLD

This red boat caught my eye last time I was on Ocracoke. I caught a picture of it right as the day was starting to fade, before I had to get on the ferry.

Taxi Cabs at Stop Light - 5x7 Oil Painting

5x7 Oil Painting on Canvas Panel
SOLD

The Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge was to paint this scene of taxis on Madison Avenue in New York City. I really enjoyed painting the taxis, but not so much the buildings. Still, it was fun to step out of my comfort zone again.

eBay Store Reorganization

For the longest time, my eBay store has only had two categories: Small Oil Paintings and Large Oil Paintings. Today I went through my store and added a section for Medium Oil Paintings (for me, those are anything from 8x10-11x14 usually), but most importantly I added subsections for sizes under each category. I think it will help customers looking for groupings of specific sizes find them more quickly. I also added a Sale and Studio Clearance section for paintings that have been marked down. The image on the right is an example of the new look.

It looks like each item can be added to two categories. I was thinking it might be beneficial to add a category for Subjects so customers looking for, say, coastal themed paintings would be able to see all that's available quickly, but I don't know if it will make navigation more cluttered or confusing. Any thoughts?

Red Poppies Under the Oak Tree - 4x4 Oil Painting

4x4 on canvas panel
SOLD

Thankfully this little painting of poppies came out without a struggle and was enjoyable to paint. Working on 4x4s is usually either a complete struggle as I get stuck in details, or just flows from beginning to end with minimal fuss; I'm glad this was the latter.

Dirt Road House - 5x7 Oil Painting

5x7 oil painting on canvasl panel
Click to bid on this painting on eBay

From my father's photos. This is another house that's still in pretty good condition from the outside.

Side of Wisteria House - 5x7 Oil Painting

5x7 oil painting on canvas panel
Click to purchase this painting on eBay

One more of the wisteria house, this time from the side. Painting this house reminds me of how much I'd love to have a wrap-around covered porch.

Back of Wisteria House - 4x8 Oil Painting

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

I don't have much time to post right now but I wanted to add this painting, of the same house I posted yesterday from a different view.

Wisteria House - 4x8 Oil Painting

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

This was my favorite house to paint so far and I have several more lined up of it from different angles. One of my favorite sites to see in Spring is the wisteria that starts creeping over everything, and it was trying to claim this old house as its own.

My father took a quick picture of the inside of the house through one of the windows. I'd love to see what this house would look like restored.

Powerline Farm House - 6x6 Oil Painting

6x6 on canvas panel
SOLD

Another from my dad's photos. This house stood in much better condition than the previous one.

This Old House

4x8 on canvas panel
SOLD

One of my father's hobbies is photography. He was kind enough to consider me when he was coming to visit a few weeks ago by capturing images of many of the old farm houses and barns in the area where he lives so I could use them as inspiration for my paintings. This one has already lost half its roof to time.