Bank of Carthage, Dallas County

Bank of Carthage

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

This old building is on the National Register of Historic Places despite being about to fall in on itself.  It was amazing to me but the town of Carthage seemed more remote to me than many places even in the Ozark Highlands.   Quite a few people who were driving by while I was taking the references picture waved in a friendly manner.  Unlike the dogs living in the house that's  right beside this place.

I'm currently working on a larger version of this for an upcoming show.

I went out plein air painting in Saline County yesterday.  It was one of those days that challenged my resolve to try to paint in plein air...

New Gallery Representation

I am very pleased to announce that this afternoon, I will be delivering more pieces to the Cantrell Gallery in Little Rock.  I really like the way the fine folks at Cantrell operate and I think this is an excellent fit for me.  I look forward to hanging many pieces of art on their walls during the coming years!

Cantrell Gallery is located at 8206 Cantrell Road in Little Rock.  If you are ever in the area, please stop by and take a look.

Toney Bend, between Buffalo Point and Rush, Marion County

Toney Bend, Buffalo National River

20X24, Oil on Panel

Available

Here at Toney Bend, the river loops back on itself and starts on a 7 mile circle around that closes on the other side of this mountain.  If you were to climb up this terraced slope, you would find your way blocked again by the river at the bottom of the other side.  Someday in the far future, the river will break down this mountain and meet itself.  At the apex of the 7 mile circle is Rush Landing.

For the past several months, I've been using Flake White almost exclusively.  I had realized from the very beginning that flake can do some marvelous things but that it has some distinct disadvantages.  I think I'm finaly beginning to get a handle on the strengths and weaknesses of both flake and titanium such that I can leverage the strengths of both in the same painting.

Blue Hill, Pulaski County

Blue Hill

11X14, Oil on Panel

SOLD

Lately, I have been having a lot of trouble with my camera overemphasizing blues in my paintings.  No such problem here.  I am also very pleased to say that I was able to use more than 1 blue in this painting!  In fact, all 3 of my major blues are here: cobalt, ultramarine, and prussian.

Happy New Year!

I would like to wish all of you out there a Happy New Year!  I don't have any new paintings to show just yet but that's more a function of my laziness about taking pictures than not having produced any work.  I have a new Buffalo River painting as well as a couple of portraits which I'll eventually get around to posting on my other blog, The Art of John D. Wooldridge.  That's a very good thing since it's been a few months since I've had anything to post over there!

2011 was a pretty good year for me.  I won several awards and was accepted into all but 2 shows I entered.  Sales were better than I've ever experienced also.  I didn't do as much heavy lifting on the Painting Arkansas project as I had hoped but I did complete 15 new counties this past year.  I was hoping to be halfway done by the end of this year.  I got close but not quite there.  Around the middle of last year, I made a pact with myself that I would paint nothing smaller than 9X12 in the studio.  The spirit of that commitment was to force myself to produce larger landscapes.  Even though the 2 portraits I did were 8X10, I'm not going to count those against my commitment since I really did intend it to apply to landscapes.  In fact, after that commitment, I did no landscapes smaller than 11X14!  I'm happy for the calender to shift though so I can do some more smaller work and try to get some substantial progress made against this project.  I have photographic reference material for 8 additional counties that need to be done before I ever have to get into the car for more travel!

I'm not much for publishing my goals because it seems as soon as I do I wind up not living up to them.  That's one reason I don't publish any WIPs of my work.  As soon as I take in-progress pictures, I find myself unable to close the deal and the piece gets set by the wayside!   However, in the interest of trying to get over that trend, I'm going to go ahead and establish some goals here.  I'm only going to include those things over which I feel I have enough control to enable them.

1.  Get a gallery
2.  Complete 10 show worthy plein air paintings
3.  Get into a show outside of Arkansas
4.  Complete at least 20 counties
5.  Publish a WIP!
6.  Post more often, even if what I write about seems very mundane to me
7.  Network more online
8.  Participate in a plein air competition

In addition, I plan to join the American Impressionist Society and also submit to join Oil Painters of America.  Membership in AIS is non-juried but OPA is.  I think I have the quality of work to get in, but I guess I'll find out if the jurors feel the same or not.