"BERNIES" WINS PEOPLE'S CHOICE

My Quickdraw painting "Bernies" from
my previous post won the People's Choice
Award at the Coastal Paintout last weekend
held in Port Aransas. The gallery
opening was well attended which gave
collectors a good opportunity to meet the artists.

All-in-all a good time, nice people
and great painting location.

QUICKDRAW AT PORT A

"Bernies" 9"x12" oil/c

Today was the Quickdraw. I chose to
paint a famous local eatery known
as Bernies. Rick Pratt, the Port A Gallery
owner announced the beginning of the
Quickdraw by playing bagpipes as his
wife and co-owner, Cameron, drove
him around the parking lot in a fully
restored MG convertible.

Fifteen minutes into my painting three
trucks parked right in front of me completely
blocking my view. It was too late to find
a new location so I had to walk around
the trucks, observe the scene, walk
back to my easel and paint. Add to
that the fifty or so people who stopped
to watch me paint and I had one heck
of challenge on my hands. Its safe
to say that this was the toughest
Quickdraw I've ever done.

PORT A DAY TWO

"Caldwell Pier" 9"x12" oil/c

Good day painting today. Put six
paintings in the box. Painting today
was easier than yesterday. Sorry for
the bad picture. I'll reshoot the paintings
tomorrow under better light.

PORT ARANSAS PAINTOUT

"Bungalow" 6"x8" oil/c

I'm in Port Aransas, TX this
weekend taking part in a
three-day paintout. There will
be a Quickdraw on Saturday
and a reception and opening
Saturday night.Today
I spent most of the day in the
town of Port Aransas doing
small paintings. Completed
three worthy of showing
and two wipe-offs. Kind of
a so-so day. Finished the day
with a shrimp barbeque
get together with all the artists.
I'll try to post agaain tomorrow.

CANYON DE CHELLY

"Canyon Reflected Light" 9"x12" oil/c

If you ever want to really challenge
yourself I highly recommend
Canyon De Chelly. There is light
bouncing everywhere and determining
where the light is coming from, then
deciding how it plays in the grand
scheme of the painting is a real mind
boggler. The canyon walls receive their
light from the sun above, the reflected
light from the ground and then from
other canyon walls that are near by.

I chose a simple design for this piece and
let the power of the light take over. I even
threw in a fourth light source coming
down the canyon lighting up the yellow
grass at the base. If I had chosen a
more complex design, the play of light
would have been wasted.

This piece will be available at the Whistle
Pik Miniature show next month.

BACK FROM ARIZONA

"Red Rock Study" 6"x8' oil/c

This should actually be called the
"Study That Almost Wasn't" because I got
run off three times before I was able to finally
set up and paint. West of Albuquerque and
before you get to Gallup, NM there are these
wonderful red rock mountains that run along
the highway for about twenty miles. I'm sure
John Wayne has spent a movie or two on
location here.

I set up once and got run off by an
older gentleman yelling Spanish at me.
I don't speak the language but I knew he
wasn't happy with my presence so
I packed up my gear and left. I tried to
ignore the mountains and painting potential,
but couldn't so I pulled over and set up again
on a little side road. Wasn't long before
another pick up truck pulled up and
stopped a few feet from where I was painting.

The driver got out of his truck, spit at
the ground and mumbled something
under his breath as he approached my
location. "Gotta gun?" he asked.
"No" I replied. "Ain't safe to be here
if you don't have a gun. If I was you
I'd mosey on." Sounded like good advice
so I packed up my gear a second time
and "mosied" on down the highway
some more.

Unable to ignore the red rocks I got
about three miles down the road and
pulled into a rest stop figuring this
would be a safe place to paint from.
I was wrong. I had just put down my first
red wash when a highway patrolman
pulls up, red and blue lights flashing.
Same story...third verse. I packed up again
and off down the road I went.

Finally, just before reaching Gallup I
found a secluded spot off the highway under
a tree. Twenty minutes later I had
my very first red rock mountain painting.
I went on to produce 18 paintings over four
days at Canyon De Chelly to go with
three paintings from Palo Duro Canyon
and a couple of grain elevators I found
outside of Amarillo, Texas. I
will be posting most of the paintings
here over the next week.