The Things Between Darkness and Light

The Things Between Darkness and Light

30X40, Oil on Canvas

Here is the large version of the study I posted a while back.  This piece again made me question ever working on canvas again.  I just do not like the brush feel of the surface.

#7 of 50

The Timid Wild One

The Timid Wild One

18X24, Oil on Panel

SOLD

From a small little plein air done at Richland Creek in the early spring.

Where the Birds Always Sing

Where the Birds Always Sing

11X14, Oil on Panel

I took a photo of this place near Snowball, Arkansas about a month and a half ago or so.  We were going to visit my wife's grave and I made a stop along the way to take a look the old Snowball General Store which was for sale at the time.  On the way, I got a text from my cousin-in-law telling me that my uncle was not doing very well.  We went to visit him one last time.  He passed later that evening.

Fall...and Fade

Fall...and Fade

9X12, Oil on Panel

SOLD

I started this one on site in the Richland Creek Wilderness on a cold and windy evening months ago.  I actually finished it quite a while ago too but as usual, I am slow in posting work.

March 5

A plein air from a camping trip this past weekend on Richland Creek.

March 1

This one was started on site at Falling Water Falls the week after I broke my wrist.  This was the third time I've painted here.  This one will still need a bit more work but it's starting to take shape.

The Pensive Moon

The Pensive Moon

8X10, Oil on Panel

SOLD

This is a little plein air I did at Woolum while camping there a few months back.

Memories of Woolum

Memories of Woolum

8X10, Oil on Panel

SOLD

This is a studio piece based upon daytime pictures and my memories of firefly filled night at Woolum on the Buffalo River.

Fuzzybutt Falls, Searcy County

Fuzzybutt Falls

11X14, Oil on Panel

Available

 

 

 

Fuzzybutt Falls is a fairly easily accessible fall in the Ozark National Forest.  It's tucked back into a box canyon near Six Finger Falls.  The stream here feeds Falling Water Creek.  I can only speculate as to why it is called Fuzzybutt Falls and perhaps I would rather not know.  Still, beautiful little water fall.



Six Finger Falls Cascade, Searcy County

Six Finger Falls Cascade

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

 

 

After I got a really good solid start on my painting of Falling Water Falls a few weeks ago, we drove on up the road to another nice multi-cascade fall called Six Finger Falls.  Here, thin layers of shale have been shaped into multiple "fingers" (six I guess, I have never bothered to count them) in between which roar cascades of water.  This fall is more impressive in higher water but if it gets too high then the water covers over the finger effect.  I was not very pleased with the result I got on-site so at the end of my session I wiped away basically all of the rock area to a mid tone gray and took it home and worked it into this a few weeks later.

 

We had been planning a camping trip to the Buffalo this weekend but with the government shutdown, all national park and forest service campgrounds are closed.  Looks like we may be venturing to a new place instead.

Maumee Sycamore, Searcy County

Maumee Sycamore

11X14, Oil on Panel

Available

This was from a photo taken during a camping trip last summer.  I embarked on this one with the thought that is was an incredibly difficult subject and it was going to wind up an utter disaster.

Maumee is on the Buffalo National River and is essentially a very large bend.  The camping area here is small and there aren't many good spots with shade.  Lots of great painting scenes here though and I think I hope to get back up there pretty soon.

The Nars #2

The Nars #2

24X30

Oil on Canvas

 

 

Those who know me will know that the Nars is one of my favorite places on Earth.  I wrote more about the place here.  This is the second time I have painted this view.  This particular painting took over a year to resolve and for quite some time I wondered if I would ever finish it.  

Snowball, AR, Searcy County and Merry Christmas!

Snowball, AR

14X18, Oil on Panel

SOLD

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone out there!  This painting is currently on display at the THEA Foundation as part of the Arkansas League of Artists Winners Show until the end of the month.

Sultry Searcy Day

Sultry Searcy County Day

18X24, Oil on Panel

SOLD

 

Here is a larger version of a study I did a few weeks ago.  I have not painted this large in a while.  It was nice to see this one come together as quickly as it did since the last relatively large piece I did took several months to work out.

Being the lazy blogger I am, I have a rather substantial backlog of pieces to post, including some new counties.  You'd think I'd be in a hurry to post new counties.  I'll get around to it soon.

I have also recently learned that the Buffalo National River has canceled all artist residencies going forward due to budget cuts.  I believe that mine is the first one being cut.  It may be a blessing in disguise though as about half of my residency was going to taken up with teaching a workshop.   While I would have enjoyed the new challenge of teaching, I think I need to be spending most of my time in the act of painting.  I still plan on going to the river this fall and camping and painting just as I would have during my residency.

Searcy County Barn, Study

Searcy County Barn Study

9X12, Oil on Oak Panel

SOLD

I painted most of this one during last month's Argenta Art Walk.  It is based on a barn between Snowball and Witts Springs in Searcy County.  The actual barn is considerably more dilapidated than I'm showing it.  I'm seriously considering doing this on an 18X24.   There are at least 2 errors here that need to be corrected...anyone?

Big Springs Smoked Meats and Restaurant

Yesterday, we went up to Searcy County to hang some paintings at Big Springs Smoked Meats and Restaurant in St. Joe on Hwy 65.    It would be pretty hard to miss the place, it's on one of the few straight stretches of road between Western Grove and Leslie.  I can personally testify that the brisket sandwich is extremely tasty and worth the stop if you happen to be traveling 65 through the heart of the Ozarks.  Of course, I think my paintings are worth a stop too but I'm a bit biased in that.  And if my paintings are no longer there, then you will probably be able to see some by Harrison artist Tara Carey.  Great food, great art,...it's a no lose situation.

I also used this trip to get more reference photos from the Gilbert area.  Gilbert is a small town (population 33) right on the Buffalo River.  It is very typical for Gilbert to record the coldest temperatures in the state during the winter and the sign coming into town proudly claims it to be the "coolest town in Arkansas."  There's one shot I got of a church which I think will be excellent material.  I almost got a face full of barbed wire fence when I slipped in some mud coming back across a small creek from getting the picture.  That actually makes me fairly certain it will turn out to be an exceptional piece, no pain no gain after all.

Grinder's Ferry, Buffalo National River, Searcy County

Lean to the Light

14X18, Oil on Canvas

Available

I almost can't believe I hadn't posted this one already.  This is a place called Grinder's Ferry on the Buffalo National River.  If you can't tell, the Buffalo is one of my favorite places in the state.  Grinder's Ferry is just downstream from the Hwy 65 bridge.  I did a small arts and crafts show this summer in Marshall, AR and had this one on display.  A young boy who was maybe 12 came up, looked at it and announced that he knew exactly where this was and that he and his dad spent a great deal of time here.  He even made note of changes I had made to it!  Turns out, his family was descended from the Grinders for whom this place is named.

The logging industry used to be the king in Searcy County and Grinders Ferry was a place where logs were rolled into the river to transport downstream.  I believe most of the time they were pulled out at the town now called Gilbert to be loaded onto the train.

The photo references for this piece came from February of this year.  Early rains often swell the river and turn it a beautiful blue green color from suspended rock solids.  I leaned the tops of some of the trees to the left, where the light was coming from, and that's the source of the name of this one.

Tomorrow I'll try to start up a second blog to show all my work that is not related to Arkansas.

Tyler Bend Field, Buffalo National River, Searcy County

Tyler Bend Sunset

8X10, Oil on Wood

SOLD



I've been doing solely still lifes lately and no landscapes at all.  Even though I posted a couple of these, I think I'll forego posting more of them since they really don't fit the intent of this blog.  So, I'll use this down time to post older paintings that have not made it up here yet.  The above painting is in the Tyler Bend camping area on the Buffalo National River.  Tyler Bend is right off of the Highway 65 and is one of the more popular camping areas on the river.  I tried to do a larger painting of this but failed miserably at it. 

Once I get off my still life kick and mentally ready to tackle landscapes again, I plan on actually doing some paintings from our trip this summer to Laguna Beach.  Hopefully I can space out my postings of older stuff to fill the gap until I hit Arkansas landscapes back full tilt!

The Nars, Buffalo National River, Searcy County

The Nars

11X14, Oil on Canvas

SOLD

The Nars, or the Narrows for those of you who don't speak the English dialect peculiar to the Ozark mountains, is the last vestige of a once mighty mountain of limestone high in the Boston Plateau. Below and to the left is the Buffalo National River. As you stand at this location, I guess the river is about 100 feet below you. To the right and about the same distance down would be the Richland valley. Millions of years ago, Richland Creek scoured the mountain away and then slowly moved across the valley to it's current location at least a 1/4 mile away. As Richland Creek meandered away, the Buffalo moved in and took out the other side of the mountain, leaving this narrow strip of rock. The brave adventurous type can cross this strip and climb up the throne on the other side. At it's narrowest, the rock ledge is only a couple of feet wide and while the distance to the ground is not terrifying, a slip would certainly result in a broken leg or worse. The ride down that way would be extremely bumpy to say the least. This is a pretty isolated place and to fall here alone without a GPS transmitter would probably be disastrous, especially if you fell onto the Richland Valley side. I certainly wasn't brave enough to cross!

I have only been to the Nars twice in my life and when we went here to get reference pictures a few weeks ago, I was actually pretty concerned about being able to find it again. The first time I went was about 20 years ago and I was working for the Youth Conservation Corp building and maintaining trails in the national park. A county road runs right past it but that road is all but abandoned. The Nars is marked on some maps but there are no signs pointing you to it and if you have never been there, you could very easily walk right past the trail taking you up to it.

Downstream on the Buffalo side is a place now colloquially called Skull Bluff. It used to be called the Bat House by locals. This was the very first place I ever went camping with my dad, uncle and grandfather. We slept open air with the milky way stretched out across the sky above us. I think I was only about 4 or 5 but still have very vivid memories of that gravel bar.

The Nars is a very special location to me. Not because I've spent a lot of time here or any reason that most people might consider a place special. It's special because it was obviously very special to my family. Visiting my grandparents in Pindall as a child, I would hear them talk about The Nars all the time. It was a landmark for locating places and people in time. "Remember when old so and so went up the Nars?" "About a mile past the Nars is such and such." My dad and most of his siblings were born very close to here and it figured prominently in the landscape to them both literally and figuratively. And it took on mythical proportions in the mind of a child, much like Tir na Nog, a place of wonder and mystery.

Woolum - Before it Rose, Buffalo National River, Searcy County

Woolum - Before it Rose

11X14, Oil on Wood
Available

About a month ago, we went camping at Woolum on the Buffalo River. We got there in the early evening of June 10 which was a Thursday. It was a beautiful evening with the lightning bugs rivaling the stars. I still have it in mind to possibly do a nocturne of the field there at Woolum with the lightning bugs. After the campfire died back, we retired to the tents with a few clouds beginning to build. Later in the night, we were awakened by a downpour that lasted all through the deepest hours of the night. The sky the following morning was clotted with clouds with bright but diffuse lighting. It's what artists usually call flat light because there are few shadows. The temperature was cool and the river was running clear. If it had risen any due to the rains, I couldn't tell. The above painting comes from early that morning. This is the end of a long hole of clear water. During the summer months, the sun rises across this hill and gives some spectacular colors. I got some pictures of that the following morning and may revisit this site again.

After breakfast, we took advantage of the cool temperatures and cloudy skies to ford the river and take off into the Richland Valley to visit one of my favorite spots in the national park, which I'll show later.

The sky cleared in the afternoon and temps went up quickly. Our oldest came back to the campsite and reported that the river was muddy and much higher. Almost immediately after he told us this, a truck from a campsite down the way drove by and stopped to tell us the river had risen dramatically and we should take precautions. They were leaving, we stayed. We walked down to the river and sure enough it was several feet higher. Thankfully, the camping sites at Woolum are a fair bit higher than the river. It had taken probably 10 hours but all the water that had fallen across the mountains had finally gathered itself into the Buffalo. It was a very good thing we left for our hike as early as we did or we would have found ourselves stranded across the river.

When we got home the next day we had a frantic message on our answering machine from my wife's mother. It was then that we learned about the tragedy that happened in the very early hours of Friday, June 11 at the Albert Pike Campground on the Little Missouri River in the Ouachitas. The storm that had awakened us in the middle of the night had passed though the Ouachitas much earlier in the day and stalled out in the mountains. The Little Missouri had risen with fury about 2AM when campers were asleep in their tents. At least 16 were killed. Our thoughts and prayers are still with these families who lost precious loved ones.