Spire of the South

Spire of the South

6X8, Oil on Panel

Available

So you're painting along and you've spent about 2 hours on something new and you're just about to close up the session.  You've got all the bones of the design in place.  All you have left in the next and maybe last session is the muscles, the light, and some jazz.  But then you see it... holy shit, how did I make THAT BIG of a screw up!

Then you sit, and sit, and sit wondering, pondering the choices, the solutions, all the options.  All the while, it whispers in the back of your mind, "Do I even bother to fix it??"

Well, did I?

Calhoun County Courthouse, Hampton, Arkansas.

#28 of 50

New Gallery Representation

I am very pleased to announce that my work can now be found at Frame of Mind Gallery in Camden, Arkansas.  It is very cool to forge new relationships and this one is particularly interesting since the gallery owners also fellow mountain bikers!  While down there, I got lots of pictures of Camden to work from and even ventured out to White Oak Lake State Park to do some painting.

I have only ever been to Camden one other time in my life and that was about 30 years ago so it was basically like having never been there.  I must admit that we did not even make it to the Ouachita River front area of town.  That will have to be for another trip, perhaps sometime before the holidays when the weather is cooler.

Calhoun County Courthouse, Hampton, AR, Calhoun County

Calhoun County Courthouse

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

 



Calhoun County is one of the smallest in Arkansas by population.  It is smack dab in the middle of timber country and I suspect the small population is due in part at least to the fact that timber companies own most of the land!

This painting was much more difficult than I believe it should have been and I'm not sure why.  It was also terribly difficult to photograph.  I may revisit this subject sometime in the future.

This is my first completed new county of the year!  I have put myself under the gun in the first half of the year.  I have committed to Cantrell Gallery that I will have this project complete by the time my show there hangs at the beginning of May!  I have 13 counties left to do.  Not sure how I'm going to pull this off.

62/75

Old Beer Joint, Felsenthal NWR, Union County

Old Beer Joint, Felsenthal

11X14, Oil on Panel

SOLD

Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge is an absolutely HUGE swampy area in the extreme southern portion of Arkansas.  One of these days I would like to take a kayak and go explore this place in greater detail, painting for several days deep in the swamp.  I hope I wouldn't get lost but navigating this type of terrain is definitely out of my ken so maybe such a trip would be unwise.

The county seat of Union County is El Dorado.  I had heard lots of great things about the town but it had been many years since I had been there.  I had no idea just how cool of a town it was!  I will be going back and painting El Dorado one of these days.

60/75

Timber Island, Bradley County

Timber Island

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

Driving through the timberland in Bradley County, I saw this big copse of trees out in the middle of piece of land that had been cut a few years back.  The sapling pines provided an almost sea-like surrounding and made me liken the big trees to an island.

Bradley County Courthouse, Warren, Bradley County

Bradley County Courthouse

8X10, Oil on Panel

 Available

 

 

Warren was probably my favorite town I visited during my trip.  It had lots of great buildings and a surprising rolling landscape that gave really nice views of the downtown area which is built up on a small rise.  I set up by the local historical society and painted for far too long again.

 

One interesting thing to note, while painting both in Warren and Rison, I had people stop and ask if the painting would be in the newspaper.  I thought that was kind of strange.

 

57/75

Tailgater's, Hope, Hempstead County

Tailgater's, Hope, AR

8X10, Oil on Panel

SOLD

This is a little sports bar in downtown Hope, which as everyone knows is the hometown of former President Bill Clinton.  This place was doing a decent bit of business for the time of day we were there.  That was before the Razorbacks season went into the tank.