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.

Old Methodist Church, Harrison, Boone

Old Methodist Church, Harrison AR

8X10 Oil on Board

Available



This old church is on Stephenson Avenue in the Boone County seat of Harrison, only a few blocks from the town square.  When I was growing up, Harrison was the big city to me.  We went to town every Saturday to shop and buy groceries for the entire week. 

These days, this building is an apartment building and not one for folks making a ton of money.  The ivy growing on it that looks so nice in a painting is most assuredly raising the roof, resulting in extensive damage to the interior of the structure.  It's quite a shame.

This piece was one of the first of my experimentations with painting small, which I think has really advanced my work this past year greatly.  It has given me the opportunity to do many more compositions than I would have otherwise.

I lied a little bit in my last post it turns out.  I've started another landscape from Little Rock and have also been working some other Arkansas scenes.  This is in addition to more still lifes and a couple of beach scenes from Laguna beach!  November has been busy and productive.  No promises on when I'll roll out new Arkansas material.  I've been giving some thought as to starting a second blog for all of my non-Arkansas work.  This would include still lifes, landscapes from elsewhere, my code paintings or anything else that just doesn't fit here.  Anyone interested in seeing these? 

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!

Some Jalapenos

As promised, here a couple of still lifes I've done recently.  They were definitely very fun and a great change of pace from the landscapes.  I'm beginning to feel rejunivated and my confidence is picking back up for another run at plein air painting this Saturday.  The top one is about 4X4 and the bottom is about 12X14.  The peppers in both paintings are the same!  The greenish pepper in the top painting ripened very quickly overnight and was a nice bright red when I went to paint the 2nd painting the following evening.

Buckstaff Baths, Hot Springs, Garland County

Buckstaff Baths

11X14, Oil on Canvas

Available



If there's one place in Arkansas that is commonly known about outside the state, it would have to be Hot Springs.  There are lots of great locations in Spa City for paintings.  The Ozark Bathhouse is actually one of my favorites but the best composition I had in a photo was of Buckstaff.

This one's been on my easel for a while.  In the end I had to get some critiques from fellow artists over at ArtistDaily.com to help me figure out how to put the finishing touches on it.

Last night I did a small still life.  A little over a year ago, I started doing some still lifes and I noticed a remarkable improvement in my landscapes shortly thereafter.  I was pretty pleased with the results of the one I did last night.  It sure was nice to feel like I had some idea of what I was doing again.  It was definitely a fun little piece and fun has been missing in my landscapes lately.  I'll show that still life tomorrow night.

I've decided I'll definitely do the plein air event in Little Rock this weekend but I dont plan on doing any complete compositions.  Instead, I'll concentrate on studies, possibly in grisaille only.

ColorFest Aftermath

Boxley Church

Well, the Ponca ColorFest is over for another year!  It was certainly bigger this year than I remember last year being.  The colors were not quite as vibrant as last year due to the drought this summer but they were so much better in the Ozarks than here in central Arkansas! 

Above is the old historic church and community center in Boxley Valley.  The left hand side of the building is obviously being refurbished, making what is usually one of the signature photo ops in the area less picturesque than usual.

We didn't get any pictures of the elk herd this year.  I guess a full moon kept them out feeding throughout the nights and we just weren't up early enough to catch them in the fields in the valley.

Elk Education Center Grounds

I was pretty much skunked on Friday and got very frustrated at my painting efforts.  I'm so much more comfortable in my studio where I can take my time.  It just seems when I'm outside and possibly more precisely when there are people around, that I cannot focus and lose my ability to "see" the painting in the subject.  I do have a hard time believing it's the potential audience though as I've painted from photo in front of people on numerous occasions.  While it IS more difficult, it isn't as terribly frustrating as painting en plein air!  It's like my brain shuts off and nothing works right.  I've been told by several artists that plein air work will advance my skills in the studio and I'm sure that it could except for the fact that plein air painting makes me feel ham handed.  Arkansas League of Artists has started their plein air group back up.  I need to decide if I'm going to pursue painting with them.

Despite my frustration with my own personal painting, I had a very good time watching Bill Garrison paint.  Bill and his wife Gloria both did some fantastic work during the event.  Below is Bill in the early stages of a painting of a bucket of flowers.  Below that is the same piece approaching some latter stages along with his subject.  Behind that on the table are two fabulous pieces he did the day before.  One is of the creek behind the Elk Education Center and the other is the Buffalo River near the Ponca low water bridge.  I wish I had gotten closer pictures of both of those.

Bill Garrison working on some flowers

Getting there!

Winston Taylor with a raku piece he had just fired

Yours truly making a mess again