The Highway Gallery

I am pleased to announce that several of my paintings will be exhibited in the Second Annual Highway Gallery Exhibit at the Florida Mining Gallery located in Jacksonville, Florida. The physical exhibition will run from August 2 through September 19th. The opening reception starts at 7pm this Friday, August 2. The Highway Gallery's Exhibit will then continue to be on display on various digital billboards in the Jacksonville area over the next 12 months. For more information about the exhibit, you can visit the Florida Mining Gallery's website or facebook.

The featured paintings include Swimmer and Living Room with Tent, along with several others.

Swimmer, 12" x 16", oil on canvas

Living Room with Tent,  24" x 36", oil on canvas

Cover Art: "Blue Eyes When" for "Picked Strings" by Liz Robbins

I am pleased to be a part of Liz Robbins' newest publication of poems. Picked Strings is an audio chapbook of poems, written and read by Liz Robbins. You can listen and download this book at EAT Poems, click here or here. I created the painting Blue Eyes When, as the cover image for this collection. For obvious reasons, my favorite poem from the collection is An American Artist Marries. 

Here is the history of the cover painting, as always I am better at documenting some steps more than others. This painting started by covering up an older work, with a source photo change towards the end.

                  

                                          

Blue Eyes When, 12" x 12", oil on panel

Placeholders

In anticipation for my upcoming exhibition Moments in Bloom at Wynn Bone Gallery, I would like to share the process of painting Placeholders.

Unlike many that I share, this painting came together very easily. The painting is based on a source photo taken in my backyard with my sister mimicking a ritual of hanging laundry. This act took both of us back to experiences we shared at our maternal grandparent's house. Memories of times spent at "Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house" fill our hearts with warmth. Martha's namesake is that of my maternal grandmother, and technically that of my mother as well. Her fair skin is also a legacy of those genes. My grandparents lived their entire lives in Chester, South Carolina. Their modest house featured a vast and open backyard, lots of green grass and a wooded area with swings and picnic tables. Entire summers were spent in that space. We feasted on "Chilly Willy" popsicles and homemade peach ice cream. They always had a large garden, I shucked buckets of corn and snapped many peas under those trees as a child. Nostalgia is certainly the right word for my feelings about that place.

I hope you enjoy Martha as a placeholder for those memories.

Placeholders, oil on canvas, 24" x 24", 2013

Sometime in September

Here is the recap for Sometime in September, oil on canvas, 30" x 40", 2013.

This is when, I decided that the character on the left should be facing the other way. So of course she turned into me. What is ironic about this, is that she is the entire reason I was drawn to the photo in the first place. OH WELL!

Final Painting!
Sometime in September, oil on canvas, 30" x 40", 2013

Sleep Now no.1, no.2, no.3

Since September 2012 I started a Facebook Artist's Page, if you haven't "liked" it already I encourage you to do so (shameless, I know). With its inception I have taken to posting updates on my painting process there and have fallen off on posting the progress here. With that in mind, I am going to attempt to start posting the end result of paintings, with the steps leading up to them here. Consider this a "total" recap. With all attempts that I make to record my process, the photos are erratic. Some paintings are better documented than others. Additionally, some steps have significant documentation, while others go for weeks without me taking photographs of the process.

Below are the photos of the paintings Sleep Now No.1, No.2, & No.3. Each of these paintings is based on a photograph of my mother sleeping with myself or one of my two siblings. In actuality I am not sure if each of us is represented, but in my mind we are. No.1 is definitely me, No.2 has been fictionally assigned to my brother leaving No.3 for my sister.

Sleep Now No.1, oil on canvas, 16" x 20", 2013:

Sleep Now No.2, oil on canvas, 16" x 20", 2013: 

Sleep Now No.3, oil on canvas, 16" x 20", 2013: 

Remember Where We Parked

I am very happy to share the installation shots of Remember Where We Parked, the show closed yesterday at Florida School for the Arts at St. Johns River State College. It was a fantastic show and I would like to give a special thanks to Sarah Alexander, the gallery director, for making it possible.

Here are several close-ups of pieces completed over the winter break for the show:

Sleep Now #1, 16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013

Sleep Now #2, 16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013

Sleep Now #3, 16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2013

The Deep End,  24" x 24", oil on canvas, 2013

TS 158 (somehow I missed this number a while back)

TS 169

TS 170 

TS 171 

TS 172

Finally, this painting was deemed "finished" for the show and is definitely NOT. Let it be known that no painting is safe upon arrival at home!