A Merry Christmas and a Fitting End of 2013 and Start of 2014




My dog Scout and I

    This has been a very good year. My family has been blessed with health and happiness. The end of the year came and went very quickly. We had an ice storm that kept our roads frozen for days. The roads were so bad that I had to miss the opening of the Christmas small works show at the Insight Gallery. I wasn't able to get my car out of my driveway for four days, but I did get some nice photos of the Christmas lights with all the snow and ice. on the lawns and trees. Christmas was wonderful. Christmas Eve we were at my sisters and Christmas Day at my parents. We had delicious meals and played games and enjoyed each others company.


Round Bales in Winter
8 x 10
oil on canvas

     After Christmas the weather has been somewhat erratic with warm and cold days but my friends and I have made good use of our time. Last Friday, Dec.27th a group of six of us went down near Waxahachie at a place near an area called 5 Points. It was a beautiful day. There were so many interesting things to paint including an old cotton gin, farmhouses, out buildings, and barns with rusted tin roofs, round bales of hay, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and chickens. On this day I began a couple of paintings and finished the one above.


Texas Farm and Field
8 x 10
oil on canvas

 On the next day Saturday even more of us, around 10 or so, converged on this small community. The locals were intrigued to find artists painting their farms and livestock. They were all very welcoming and hospitable. We received invitations to paint on peoples ranches and even had an offer to cook hamburgers for us. I painted a hay field with the farmhouse in the background. The following Sunday was going to be cold and windy , so no painting, but a group of us used this day to go to Dallas to see the Sorolla exhibit at the Meadows Museum. This is an incredible exhibit. I can not say enough good things about it.


Winter Sun
8 x 10
oil on canvas

    On Monday it was a little cool again, no painting. I had lunch with my parents, two of my nephews, and some cousins. Then in the evening we went to my sisters to watch the Alamo Bowl.
    Tuesday it was still somewhat cool, but it was New Years Eve and I wanted to get one last painting in during 2013, so I went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. The scene I painted is one that I have painted before .  I like it because when almost all the leaves are gone, this tree still has glowing orange leaves.


Winter Greens
8 x 10
oil on canvas 

    Today on January 1st, 2014, I wanted to get the year off to a good start. I went back to the 5 Points area with my friend Kent Brewer. We were joined by our friends Tina, and Mary. We were painting an old barn beside the road when the owner showed up. She unlocked the gate and invited us to park and paint on the property. She was on the way to another ranch and just told us we could close the gate and put the lock on when we left. The hospitality of the people of rural Texas is so amazing. It was a very nice day for being outdoors and painting.

Botanic Gardens and Views West of Fort Worth

 

  Yesterday, Monday I painted in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. I finished the painting shown above and started another. T. K. Riddle, and Tosca and Allen Engish were in the gardens this morning too. The temperature was great starting out, but it was getting hot by the time we left.

   In the afternoon I drove out to Graham to the Old Post Office Museum to pick up some sculptures that I had in a show there as well as some paintings for my friends Sheri Jones and Blair Currin. I passed through some really beautiful country. There were several areas that I think will make great places to paint in the future. It really is pretty neat how varied this region is just a short drive to the west.

Today I went to life drawing at the Fort Worth Community Art Center in the morning. We had a great model. After drawing seven of us walked to the Kimble Art Museum for lunch. The Kimble is one of my favorite places to have lunch and after lunch I bought a few art  books in the gift shop at 80% off.

Art Every Day

The Garden Child
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$175

 I have not posted in a while, but I have been really busy creating art. I have a lot of paintings in progress but I'm posting one I finished on Saturday. I am also working on several sculptures, working on entering shows, and generally staying really busy.

Olivette and I painting at Chandor Gardens in Weatherford.

Today for example a group of us went out to Chandor Gardens in Weatherford  to paint. It really was not too hot, and it always seems about 10 degrees cooler or less in these gardens. We had a good group turn out to paint, Olivette Hubler, Steve Miller, Allen and Tosca Engish, Dan Spangler, Moira McCarthy, and Linnea (I don't remember her last name.) It was a great day for painting. We also had a great lunch catered by a local restaurant called the Wild Mushroom. It was served in the  room that served as the studio of Douglas Chandor. I sculpted later in the day.

One of Dennis's great landscapes.

Yesterday I went to the Art with Artists critique group. This is a super group that I go to in the summer. They meet once a month at one of the member's homes and have breakfast and then they bring their art to critique and share what they have been working on. This month the group met at Blair and Janelle Curren's home in Aledo.

Four of John's great still lifes

Not all the members were there this time. Those present were, Blair and his wife, a friend of theirs, John Cook, Dennis Farris, Beatriz Welsh, Darnell Jones, Nancy Boren and me. Blair and Janell fixed a great breakfast including fresh Parker County Peaches.

John getting ready to share a larger painting.

There was a lot of really great art to look at. One of the things that makes it so great is that they all have very different styles but they are all very talented. John Cook brought the most paintings, two large partings and four small ones. Nancy brought five, Dennis  brought three, I brought two paintings and a sculpture, and everyone else shared one painting. One of the topics was information on painting from old art books. Nancy told about one from England, that talked about how when an artist goes out to paint they should find a "rustic" to carry their materials when painting outdoors. Blair had a great old book  from his grandfather from the 1920s. It said that  to create a great painting took two artist, one to paint it, and one to "kill him" before he over painted it. This was the author's way of talking about the universal  problem of overworking a painting.

Blair and Janell's patio, it reminds me of a view in New Mexico.

Blair and Janelle live out in the country. We saw several hummingbirds on the patio and a roadrunner in the front yard. There is a great view off the back patio. You feel like you are far away from everything. In fact they had a lot of photos of a mother fox that raised a family of six foxes under their deck. Seeing wildlife up close is one of the treats  of living in the country. At my mom and dad's they have some foxes too, as well as deer, armadillos and cottontail rabbits.

Scout on my patio where I did some of my sculpting and painting.

   
Sunday I worked at home on my sculptures and paintings on my patio, accompanied by my studio assistant Scout. My friend Tosca had told me about an old British mystery called Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers. It is about a  group of plein air painters, one of whom gets murdered,  on a painting trip in Scotland. I had  ordered this from Ebay and started reading it today. I'm also reading a book on the art of Maynard Dixon.  Lastly I did quite a bit of yard work.

Me painting the picture I posted at the top of this blog.

Saturday several of my friends went to paint in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.We had a good group show up for painting and later lunch. My friends with us today were Olivette Hubler, T. K. Riddle, Tosca Engish, Candy Clynch, Margie Whittington and her husband, who has started painting more, Hai Chi Lee, Dan Spangler, Moira McCarthy and Linnea.

T.K. painting behind where I was set up.

Tosca painting on a park bench in the gardens.

Candy painting a floral painting

A grazing bison at the Fort Worth Nature Center.

 I'm working on several bison paintings for some shows this fall so earlier in the week I took some more photos at the fort Worth nature Center when I went painting there with my friend Kent Brewer from Waxahachie.

Bison in the shade at the nature center.

Hot Morning in the Garden

Hot Summer Morning
$150
oil on canvas panel
8 x 10

  I went to paint in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens this morning. It started out hot and it only got hotter. Of course the fact that I set up in a place that was in full sun after about 45 minutes did not help.

T. K. and Olivette painting.

  I met with my friends T. K. Riddle, Olivette Hubler, and Dan Spangler . The three of them all set up in the shade. The gardens are looking pretty good. We were in the perennial garden. There were plenty of blooms, butterflies, and lots of really colorful dragon flies.

Me painting, while I still had shade.

  I had to leave early, I forgot to leave money for my cleaning lady. They kept painting while I ran home to pay her. Then I met them for lunch afterwards, at the Swiss Pastry Shop, where we often eat after painting
. A special thanks to T. K. who sent me some of these photos.

Olivette and Dan looking at his painting.

Fort Worth - Where The West Begins

My painting that was accepted into the Plein Air Southwestern Salon.

First I have some great news. I entered the Outdoor Painters Society's Plein Air Southwestern Salon Show and I had the above painting accepted into it. This painting is a view of the rose garden's fountain in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. This is a tough show to get into. This year the juror and judge is John Budicin. I cannot even express how honored I am to have a painting in the Salon. The show will be in April in  Dallas at the Southwest Gallery.

Fort Worth Mayor, Betsy Price

This morning I got up and did a bit of painting and then went to one of Fort Worth's great Western traditions, the annual Stock Show and Rodeo Parade. I think this is the largest all horse and horse drawn vehicle parade in the world. After almost two hours of horses, mules, donkeys, and burros, you start to wonder if any equines are left in Texas, the surrounding states and Mexico..

The Six Flags of Texas

It really is a very colorful and interesting event. The mayor,city council, and other state and local officials all participate as do many of our wealthiest and most prominent citizens. Our mounted Fort Worth Police officers and many of the surrounding sheriff's posses ride in the event.


One of the stage coaches.

  As I said there are no motorized vehicles but there are many stage coaches, wagons, carriages, and buggies.The big draft horses are some of my favorites. This year there were several large groups from Mexico. The women wore beautiful local costumes and rode sidesaddle, The men wore the traditional clothing of the vaquero including large sombreros.

TCU's marching band

 My university, TCU's marching band participated as did many local high school bands, Scottish pipers, and a band from Zacatecas, Mexico. They were all on foot, but the Texas Girls' Choir rode in wagons. (They rode along singing.)

U.S. cavalry

A Christian riding group.

Confederate Cavalry

 There are a wide variety of clubs and groups that ride in the event including churches and historical groups and reenactors. There are cowboys, vaqueros, U.S. Cavalry, Buffalo Soldiers, and Confederate Cavalry but I only saw one Indian and he was riding in a wagon.

Beverly riding in the parade.

 My very dear friend Beverly Fletcher rode in the parade with a group from the Benbrook riding stable. She used to ride a great deal and I believe she was a barrel racer. I think it is terrific that she is riding again.

Me sculpting in front of the mountain lions enclosure.

 After the parade I went to the Fort Worth Zoo to work on my mountain lion. The mountain llon, or panther, is one of the symbols of Fort Worth and one of Fort Worth's nicknames was Panther City. In the 1800's a panther was spotted in Fort Worth. Dallas, always the rival of Fort Worth, quickly printed in their city's newspaper that Fort Worth was such a sleepy place that a panther was  asleep in one of its streets. Fort Worth accepted this with good humor and the fire department adopted two panther cubs as their mascots. Today the fire department and I think the police department have it on their badges.

The male mountain lion.

The mountain lions were sleeping in the sun most of the time so they were not much help to me. I did spend a while talking to their keeper. I always enjoy learning new things and I learned so much from him about the mountain lions and other big cats in the zoo.

My mountain lion in clay.

I am not quite finished with my mountain lion sculpture but I think I am pretty close. I've about reached the point where I am ready to be done with it and take it to the foundry.

The Road Not Taken

The Road not Taken
9 x 12
oil on canvas
$400

This is an unpaved service road/trail in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. I've never walked all of  it, but I like how it looks and have painted it a few times.  I just recently painted an 8 x 10 of it and decided to do a larger version of it in my newer, looser style. This one is a 9 x 12. I really am enjoying painting faster. I think I'll get a larger brush and try an even larger version in the near future.                               

Color at the End of Fall.

Warm Colors of Fall
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$300

Here is a painting that I began in early December, still fall, in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. Then I decided to go back in and try loosening  up my brushwork. I think I like it better now. It sure has a different feel to it.
 I love the colors of fall and of course in Texas fall comes late, and sometimes hardly at all. There is something so special to me when the weather first starts to change. But tonight it is COLD and I'm sitting in front of the fire in my den with one of my dogs curled up beside me and I'm thinking I wouldn't mind some warmer weather.

To Be Continued

Winter Path
8 x 10
Oil on Canvas

 Here are two works in progress. The first is a painting that I began in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens in plein air. It looked like one of my regular paintings. Then my friend Beatriz encouraged me to really loosen it up. I like the result a lot although it looks nothing like my regular work. I'll do a bit more with it but probably not much.

Black Bear
Clay

The second wip, (work in progress) is my plein air black  bear sculpture. I've been working on her at the Fort Worth Zoo. I read a book about Rodin recently. He often had his models pace or walk around his studio as he sketched or sculpted them. If it was good enough for Rodin it is good enough for me and the bear. Of course he had the advantage of being able to ask his models to stop or hold a pose so I am using some of my photographic reference material as I refine the sculpture. It has been a fun process and I look forward to casting it in bronze.

Starting two new sculptures.

American Black Bear in Clay

  I'm loving my Christmas Vacation. Wednesday I met my friend Dan Spangler at the Fort Worth Zoo. He sketched  and I began a small sculpture of a mountain lion. It is not finished but I felt like I got a good start on it. Our weather has been great so the zoo was packed but the crowds were not a problem.  On Thursday I went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens and started a small  8 x 10 painting. Anne from the David Dike Gallery in Dallas met me there while I was working on it to pick up five of my sculptures for the gallery. They have done very well selling my bronzes. In fact David is placing an add in the 360 West magazine with one of my longhorn bronzes in it. After I was done painting I went to the Kimble Museum to see the Caravaggio exhibit one last time. The museum was packed too but unlike the zoo it was hard to enjoy because of the crowds.

Today was another beautiful day. I went back to the zoo and began a small sculpture of an American black bear. When I got there the bears were pacing the enclosure but naturally once I started working on it the bears lay down and went to sleep. Neither of these two sculptures is finished, they are sort of like sketches in clay, but I think I have two pieces that I can develop later into finished sculptures. I'll go back again this weekend and either work some more on these or start something new.

I wish all my friends a very Happy New Year full of lots of wonderful art experiences and opportunities.

On my own in the Botanical Gardens

Pots of Color
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$175

     Anyone who knows me knows that when I paint out I usually have a group along, but today I went out to the Botanical Gardens on my own. (I probably will do a bit  more on this painting, but if I wait until then it might not get posted until next weekend.) It was a bit warm today since I didn't have much shade but I enjoyed it. I chose these pots because of their shapes and the colors of the flowers in them. (I decided to paint them last weekend when I was at the Art in the Garden Show and I think they had more blooms then.)


My subject before I took some liberties with it.

      The good thing about planting in pots is that you can add color to almost any spot . Plus it is easier to keep them watered than large beds, especially in times of drought,  like this year.

Monarch butterfly

    As I painted I noticed that there were lots of monarch butterflies flying around. I haven't seen any butterflies in quite a while. Every year the monarchs migrate across our state on their way to Mexico. It is one of the signs of fall, and something I always  look forward to, just like the long v formations of ducks and geese that will be heading south later.


Hibiscus in the center pot.

      Hibiscus are one of the plants that do so well in pots. They have large blooms and come in a variety of colors including red, yellow, pink, and peach. The bad thing about them in my opinion is that the blooms don't last very long and if you don't bring them in they will freeze in the winter. I  think there may be some now that are more hardy.


View of the garden. The best thing about this photo are the puffy white clouds. There is a chance of rain tonight!



Art in the Garden Show

Southwest Garden
8 x 10
0il on canvas
SOLD

    This Saturday was Fall Gallery Night in Fort Worth. I participated in Art in the Garden at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. This was the fourth annual show and more people than ever attended. I sold my painting pretty early in the evening.
     I believe this was the best show ever as far as quality. Many of my friends that I paint with were represented in this show including Sheri Jones, Ann Hardy, Olivette Hubler, Beatriz Welch, Darnell Jones, Chase Almond, Carol Ivey, and Jan Bateman. I always enjoy seeing everyone's work together especially when they are similar in subject. It is really great seeing how differently each artist interprets a scene or subject.

Here is my painting and Beatriz's painting.

Here are paintings by Ann, Darnell, two by Olivette, and Jan.

View from the gardens.

More lilies.