Cafe, Sheridan, Grant County

Cafe, Sheridan

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

Last summer when I went down to Pine Bluff, I made a stop in Sheridan in neighboring Grant County for some picture taking.  I was walking down this side street when I smelled the aromatic fragrance of the tree seen here.  I turned around and took a picture of the tree and the street.  Now, almost a year later, I got around to painting it!

With this painting, I have now completed 38 counties.  This makes me officially over halfway done!

Louisiana Purchase Memorial, Lee County

Louisiana Purchase Memorial

8X10, Oil on Panel

SOLD

Been a while since I've posted anything!!  I have been working quite a bit and have several things that need to be posted.  This is stone marker is located in the Louisiana Purchase State Park at the corner of Lee, Phillips and Monroe Counties.  It marks the location where surveyors began the process of determining exactly what Thomas Jefferson had purchased from France.  An interested individual could get here by way of a nice boardwalk through the swamp.  Since I was looking pretty much into Lee County from Monroe County, I decided to count this one to Lee County.

North Fork Saline River, Saline County

North Fork Saline River

11X14, Oil on Panel

Available

Downtown Van Buren, Crawford County

Downtown Van Buren

11X14, Oil on Panel

Available

I have been meaning to make mention of this but I was juried into the Oil Painters of America a few months ago.  I will probably not enter any of their contests this year because I doubt I would get in but at least I made it in!

Low Slung, Poinsett County

Low Slung

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

Here's a rare totally alla prima piece I did a while back.  Poinsett County is in the Delta so it's flat, flat, flat.  That makes for good big sky paintings.  Last night I attended the opening of a show at Cantrell Gallery called "Structures" by Daniel Coston.  Dan currently lives in Fayetteville which is in the northwest corner in the Ozarks but he is a product of the Delta and paints a lot of scenes from the flatland.  He prefers a long, low aspect ratio for many of his Delta pieces.  Great show and a really nice guy.

Sims Farmhouse, Montgomery County

Sims Farmhouse

5X7, Gouache on Matboard

We finally got some weather that could be considered winter!  And it coincided with some of my plans to go out painting.  Actually my plans were for some painting and mountain biking combined into one trip.  However, I was planning on riding the Womble Trail in the Ouachita Mountains which is an IMBA Epic trail.  It's over 30 miles and traverses some very remote terrain.  I have been told not to ride it alone but that was my plan.  Had the weather been better I would have gone through with it and gotten in hopefully 5-6 miles and still had time to do a quick painting.  However, with temperatures barely expecting to get above freezing and a modest little windchill, I decided that it was exactly the type of weather in which people die from doing dumb things like riding difficult mountain biking trails alone.  I still went painting though and made due with the view out the front window of the car.  This was my second time to get out with the gouache for some plein air.  The first time was not terribly successful.  This time, well, just successful enough.

I stopped off in the small town of Mt. Ida just a few miles before this area to take pictures and in doing so ran across a brand new gallery in town!  It is called the Ouachita Artist's Gallery and has only been open a few weeks.  I dropped in out of the cold and talked painting with them.  

View from the front window.  I eliminated the large cedar tree.

The portable studio setup