Painting in Prison

Old  Outbuilding
8 x 10
oil on canvas panel
$50

Today I went down to paint in Waxahachie with my friends Kent Brewer, who lives there, and Olivette Hubler who lives in Dallas. We decided to go paint at the old Ellis County Prison Work Farm. In the old days, the prisoners were taken out to the farm to work and I believe they were housed there. Today the old buildings are in ruins. I know there is a big new jail in town where the prisoners have television, air conditioning, and basketball courts. I think working on the farm would probably be more of a deterrent for repeat offenders.

The building I painted from the cell.

After looking around I decided to set up in one of the cells looking out at one of the outbuildings. I don't know how long the buildings have been abandoned, most have only the foundations left. I think I would not have felt very comfortable being there, if I had been there by myself. It had the look of a place that horror movies could have been filmed in.

Me painting in the cell.

The good thing about painting where I was, was that I was in the shade, the thick walls had kept it fairly cool and the insects other than a few flies were not too bad.

Me painting in the cell, I thought it interesting that the windows were so large.

 Both Kent and Olivette painted outside views of the prison. Both created interesting paintings of the abandoned buildings.

Kent painting the prison.

Painting in Waxahachie

Illinois Central Gulf Caboose
painting in progress

   This weekend I had a paintout down at Waxahachie. Of course it would be cold and raining. The paintout was at the old train depot which has been restored and looks great. Tina Bohlman organized the event and did a great job as always. Despite the rain we had areas to paint, but the result was we were under the awnings at the depot, so we had to paint what we could see, thus there were lots of caboose paintings.

Kent with a cup of coffee and my painting.

   I painted on the side of the depot next to my friend and Waxahachie  resident Kent Brewer. Steve Miller another friend of mine painted a bit further down, and Tina and some other artists painted in their vehicles. There were a lot of people at the depot to see the new caboose and the restored station, as well as attend a model train show.

Kent painting next to my easel.

   I enjoyed the day despite the weather. A lot of us walked up the hill in the rain to the Dove's Nest for lunch, (nobody wanted to lose their parking spot). If you go to Waxahachie that is one of the places you need to eat at. The food is great and so are the desserts. After lunch I came back and painted some more. My painting is not finished yet, and it is not my subject matter, but I enjoyed doing it.

The Caboose

Autumn Evening

    I  recently finished this painting. I began it last fall up the road from where my friend Claudia Davis lives. It was so nice to go back and work on a painting from cooler days. I think all of us are ready for fall weather here in Texas.Last night the lowest the temperature got was 86 and I think our high was 111.
    I drove down to Waxahachie on Monday to see a demo my friend Steve Miller was doing for the Ellis County Art Association. I usually enjoy the drive out to the surrounding towns. At one point on the road south I saw some foliage that looked like it was turning colors. For just a second I thought of fall  but then I realized that the trees were dieing. It is amazing how the grasses and foliage look so dead across this region. We truly need rain very badly.

Last painting from the paintout.

Small Town America
8 x 10
oil on linen panel

I finally got around to painting one of the houses from the gingerbread tour of homes. This one was across the street from my friend Kent Brewer's house. He was already painting it when I drove up. It was a lot more fun having someone to paint with, plus it was great being able to watch someone else paint the same scene. (Kent won the top award in the paintout this year, Best of Show.) I'm really not finished with this one yet, hopefully I'll have time to make a few changes in the next day or so.

Paint Historic Waxahachie

Round Bales
8 x 10
oil on canvas



View of the courthouse and  down town from the parking garage.

    This is another painting I did at the paintout. It looks like a stable, but it really is the old train station by the feedstore, thus the bales of hay. This has been a great paintout. There are so many things to paint and so many great artists to paint with. Olivette Hubler and I both painted this building, but from opposite ends,
she got a great painting.

Place of Peace

Place of Peace
8 x 10
oil on canvas

I painted in the cemetery today at Waxahachie. It is a beautiful and old place. Many of the graves in the older parts belong to people born in the early 1800s. I think old graveyards are very interesting and beautiful places. There is so much history connected with them and often the graves themselves are works of art. The graves are often testaments of faith of the departed and their families.

Farm Fresh

The Saturday farmers' market at Waxahachie, on the side
of the county courthouse, a great place to buy fresh
produce, delicious bakery goods and home made soaps.

Farm Fresh
8 x 10
oil on canvas

I did this painting yesterday at the quick draw at Waxahachie. It was so windy and I just wasn't in the mood to paint buildings so I bought a bundle of red onions, a container of yellow squash, and one of patty pan squash at the farmers market and set up a still life to paint. It was a nice change. My friend Sheri Jones bought some fresh flowers and carrots and created a very colorful still life also.

Spring Meadow

Spring Meadow
8 x 10
oil on canvas
SOLD

I spent most of the day at the Paint Historic Waxahachie paintout today. It was a very enjoyable day, but hot, 100, and windy. I did one painting  at the quick draw but I need to rephotograph it so I'll post it tomorrow. I had lunch with Steve Miller and Ted Clement and their wives and Olivet Hubler. Then we all went off to find locations to paint for the afternoon. This was my second painting of the day. Most of my friends did paintings of buildings or homes but I wanted to do a landscape so I found this field on the edge of town by the bike trails. I found some shade and went to work.

Cloudy Day Painting

Hay at the Feed Store
8 x 10
oil on canvas

 Here is a painting that I did down at Waxahachie at the Jill Carver workshop. I did this one on the first day. We painted at the feed store. I painted one of the grain silos with the hay in front of it. I really chose this scene because of the trees in it. It was a gray cloudy day and all the structures were gray. So, our assignment was to work on values. The second day of class we looked at photographs of our paintings and the scene we painted on the computer in black and white. What I needed to work on was the wrappings on the hay, I had them too dark. The lesson for me was that yellow can be darker than green or blue. So today I got this painting out and lightened the wrappers.