Texas Masters Show

Mother and Child
bronze on granite

I  have two shows coming up this weekend.  The Texas Master's Show at the Insight Gallery in Fredericksburg and

Art  Reach at  Christ  Chapel. I will have my newest sculpture, Mother and Child in both shows as well as my sculpture of a crucifix in Art Reach. These will both be really enjoyable shows. I am looking forward to  seeing  many  of  my  good  friends  and  fellow  artists  at  both  shows.

Flowering Quince or Japonica

Flowering Quince
8 x 10
oil on canvas

  One of the earliest plants to bloom here is what my grandmother (and therefore I) call japonica. Other people call it flowering quince. It is a beautiful red that stands out very bright against the greys of winter and the bright, light greens of winter grass.

The inspiration for my painting.

I went to paint in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens today with several of my friends  including Claudia Davis, Janis Weaver, Sara Ward, Candy Clynch, Hai Chi Lee and Dan Spangler. Some more of my friends and fellow artists  came walking through the garden to visit but they didn't paint today. I walked around for a while before deciding on some japonica bushes by a stream.

Hai chi and Dan painting.

 It was a beautiful day to be in the gardens today. There was a beautiful blue sky, and the temperature was in the 60s. In addition to the japonica, there were pansies, daffodils, forsythia, and Bradford pear trees blooming. It was the nicest place to paint. Doves were cooing, an owl was hooting, and the stream bubbled past.

Daffodils by the pond.

 As usual I did not finish my painting on location. There are a few things that I want to do after it dries a bit more, I want to darken the three small trees on the right side of the painting as well as add in some pieces of branches on the bushes. Then I will look and see what else it needs .

A flowering pear tree.

My goal was to be loose today. It isn't perhaps as loose as I would like but  I am satisfied with the start that I got on it.

A close up of the blossoms of the pear tree.

In addition to painting today I also sculpted . I have many works in progress but today I chose to work on my Limousin bull. I am pretty close to finished but I can always work some more on a piece.

A long row of turtles on a pipe in the semi drained pond.

I have had a great  week  with several sculpture sales and two shows starting next weekend, The Texas Masters Show at the Insight Gallery and Art Reach at Christ Chapel here in Fort Worth.

An urn full of pansies.

Two Weekends of Plein Air

A Winters Afternoon
oil on canvas
8 x 10
$250

   I have had two very nice weekends of plein air painting. Today I went to church and then lunch with my parents before going to paint with my friends Sheri Jones and Joyce Thomas. We painted near Lake Benbrook.     
                                  

Putting the final touches on my painting.

                                     
    It was cold, windy, and rainy yesterday. But today, the wind and rain were gone and the sun was out. It was a beautiful day to be out and a great place to paint. We were not the only ones out enjoying the day. As we painted,  we were passed by joggers, walkers and a multitude of bicyclists.

Joyce and Sheri working on their paintings.

                                     

View along the creek where we painted.

Winter woods
oil on canvas
8 x 10
$250

   Last Saturday it was cold, it didn't get out of the 30s. But it wasn't windy and mostly it was sunny, so ten of us went down to Granbury to paint at Campfire's Camp El Tesoro. The camp is open one weekend a month during the winter and this was the weekend, so despite the cold some of us  went.

Me painting, with Sheri in the background.

   El Tesoro is a beautiful place,  the Brazos River flows through it as does Fall Creek. If the weather had been nicer we would have had over 20 artists but most cancelled and I have to admit I came very close to cancelling as well, but I was glad that I didn't, once I had a look around and began painting.

Dan and Robbie painting the river.

  The group consisted of myself, Tina Bohlman, Debbie Box, Sabine Higgins, Sheri Jones, Robbie Clemmer, Maryann Brummer, and her nephew Austin, Claudia Davis, and Dan Spangler. We spread out along the creek. There are so many great spots to paint.

Our group dressed for the cold and painting too.

   The creek was such a tempting subject with its falls and that is what I started with. But, my painting just wasn't working out so I wiped it down and started over painting the view across the creek, leaving the water out of it altogether. I was drawn to the back lit trees and the pale green fields beyond them.

One of the falls along the creek.

   I was much more pleased with this painting. By this time several of our group had left. I thought about starting a second painting but decided that I had had quite enough of the cold. So instead Robbie and I went to a Mexican restaurant in town. Painting was great but enchiladas, chips and salsa in a warm restaurant were even better.

The white cliffs along Fall Creek.

Pictures from an Exhibition

Our Art Show, Ann is in Turquoise and Black.

   Last night was the opening of my two man show with my friend Ann Hardy at Southwestern Adventist University in Keene. ( I forgot my camera  so I had to take these with my phone. ) Ann brought a large collection of her newest paintings and I had 14 sculptures. I think Ann is best known for her still lifes, and she brought some of those, but many of these new paintings had wild animals as their subject matter, including deer, rabbits, and birds.. 

Three of my Small Longhorns.

   The majority of my sculptures at the show were longhorns and horned toads including a longhorn cow and calf that I worked on as a demo at my show at Southwestern last year. I brought my Limousin bull sculpture to work on as my demo last night. I always have a lot of people come up who are interested in the process of creating bronze sculptures and last night was no exception.
   It is a tremendous honor being in a show with Ann. The show will be open Sunday - Friday until February 22. If you have a chance come by and see the show.

One of Ann's Beautiful Still Life Paintings.

    

Two Man Show With Ann Hardy

   This is the invitation to the show that my friend Ann Hardy and I are having at Southwestern Adventist University. .I'd love for all my friends who can to come. The show will be in the Meadows Gallery in the Chan Shun Centennial Library.. The opening is Feb. 9th, 6:00 - 8:00. The show runs February 9th - 23rd. The address is 101 W. Magnolia, Keene, TX 76059.
    Ann Hardy is an amazing painter ( I have two of her paintings in my art collection ) and  I am very honored to be doing this show with her. I am really looking forward to seeing the oil paintings she brings. She paints a wide variety of subjects including still lifes, landscapes, and figurative works. I will have fourteen of my bronze sculptures in the show ranging in price from $300 to $2,700. They are all animals, except for a crucifix. I will also bring a sculpture in clay, that I will be sculpting as a demo.
     Last year I did this show with my friend Sheri Jones. We were both honored to have the University purchase our works for their permanent collection.They bought one of Sheri's beautiful floral paintings and my large  longhorn steer, Native Texan.

More paintings from the Plein Air North Texas Show at DFW

I wanted to share some more paintings fom the DFW show, it runs through March 2nd.

Another of my plein airs from the Botanical gardens.

One of Maryann Brummer's plein air paintings of the ruins of a  grist mill.

One of Linda Reedy's from the back roads of this part of the state.

One of my favorite paintings by Claudia Davis.

A great one by Jan Bateman.

A large spring landscape by Darnell Jones.

One of Ann Hardy's still lifes

A watercolor by Leslie Talty.