Casbah White House

I decided to paint this building because I saw it on my honeymoon. I guess I was reminiscing about the fun times I had while visiting Morocco.  I saw this house in Tangier, within the walls of the Casbah.  I loved how it looked with its off white color against the pale blue sky.  This was especially fun to paint because it is a larger size of 11 x 14 inches. This one sold before I even posted it in my store. The early bird catches the worm...

Snow Covered Sunset

I saw this on my way home and was amazed by how blue everything seemed. I mentioned before how farming made modern civilization possible. Just a few days ago i heard a radio story that made a similar claim. Men that knew how to farm 10,000 years ago made better mates than those hunter/gatherer slackers. The farmer's children would have more to eat, and therefore would be more likely to survive.

Trapped Brass Pig

I came up with the idea of painting a pig in a vase while waiting for a software installation to finish. I had limited time to set up since the sunlight only comes into the living room a certain way between 10 and 10:30 in the morning. The pig I originally wanted to use didn't look very good either so I chose this brass pig that was on a shelf nearby. I used a piece of MDF board for this piece because I've heard good things about it. I'm not sure I'm sold on it just yet, maybe a couple more tries will do the trick.

Walther Farm No. 2

As the snow lets up a little more color is able to peek through. The red of the barn is more apparent and the golden wheat stands proud in the distance. The hard work that goes into this farm provides not only food but beautiful scenes like this snow covered wheat field. This is painting number 4 in my agriculture series of paintings.

Walther Farm No. 1

I drive past this farm in Bear, DE every night on my way home from work. You can find anything from Angus beef to squirrel feed to scarecrows. It's a vibrant and welcome contrast to the shopping center immediately behind it. The Dunkin' Donuts from last month's paintings are right across the street and offers a stark contrast to the busy suburban life surrounding this small family farm. The fascinating thing about snow is it's ability to allow only the most vibrant colors show when heavily muted.

BARC Swine Unit No. 2

These are the pig houses (swine houses?) at the BARC site in Beltsville. They look like they're constructed pretty solidly and remind me of the story of the three little pigs. I seriously doubt these would be blown down easily. It's easy to forget that this is within a few miles of Washington, DC. I've been using larger brushes than in some of my previous small paintings. After the painting of Baltimore I realized I was grabbing the small brushes not just for the detail but for the bulk of the painting so I'm trying to break myself of that habit.

BARC Swine Unit No. 1

Contact Me If Interested In Purchasing This Piece

I was amazed at how warm this cold winter's day looked. This week's painting is of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center's Swine Unit. I drive past it every day to and from work and it always fascinates me. Early in the morning the pigs get fed so they all huddle around to eat. I'm amazed each time I see them as to their large size. Living and working in such a technology driven society can make you forget that our real success depends on farming. Without agriculture most of the last 5,000 years would have come out very differently. This is painting number 1 in my agriculture series of paintings and number 11 in my series of small weekly paintings.

Breakfast & Dinner

Like the coming new year's celebration, night brings both an ending and a beginning. I felt that to convey this feeling it was only appropriate to paint this scene. Dunkin' Donuts is usually associated with breakfast but can just as easily soak up the wild night before and Grotto Pizza is just as tasty at night as it is the next morning. The lights dance in the melted snow in this scene, making a very suburban and sleepy Bear, Delaware just as festive as Times Square.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

   

I can't think of a more appropriate treat when the snow is falling. I have a long drive to work every day so coffee is a must in the morning. When I'm working in the middle of the night, I'm drinking coffee. When my wife and I go out for the night, we get coffee to perk us up. The only time I'm not drinking coffee is when I'm drinking tea.

Perpetual Calendar Finished

I actually posted these on Facebook a while ago but I wanted to make sure everybody could enjoy. 

Getting Stale

For as long as I can remember, I stop at Dunkin' Donuts most often when it's dark. When I was younger I'd stop by early in the morning on my way home from a party. Now, I stop by there at night on my way home from work to get my wife coffee. When I was thinking of ways to execute this week's painting, a nocturne seemed like the only obvious choice for me. I saw this woman inside the Bear, DE store looking out as if she was waiting for something.

Lehigh Cement

Every morning I drive through Baltimore to get to work. Every morning the light hits the Lehigh Cement tower just a little differently. I suspect it has to do with the pollution in the area, but pollution has a funny way of enhancing the color of the sky near the harbor.

I read this book by Paul Strisik recently and he wrote this passage about working from memory because it helps you better capture the feeling of a place and I placed more emphasis on my references than anything else. Working on a skill and evaluating ourselves over and over again is, after all, how we learn.

Chocolate Frosted

Who doesn't love a good chocolate-frosted doughnut? For a long time I would stop by Dunkin' Donuts every morning for breakfast. This was an obviously unhealthy tradition that I've been able to stop so it was a rare treat to pick up this doughnut early in the morning. Even the ladies now know my order when I walk in and before I even say anything. Now, to be honest, I chose a doughnut for the first painting only because I wanted to paint a doughnut. I love paintings of food so I gave it a go. This is painting number 1 in my Dunkin' Donuts-themed series of paintings and number 7 in my series of small weekly paintings. Mmmmmmm....

Bostonian

An empty pair of men's shoes was a natural choice for me this Thanksgiving week since they had such powerful meaning for me. Dad's shoes after coming home from a tough day at work. The empty shoes of a fallen hero. A grandfather's shoes near the door after coming to visit (with presents!)  I could go on and on but ultimately it's the viewer who decides for themselves the meaning behind a visual impression. That can sometimes be the most beautiful part of a painting, how it makes you feel.

Pole Dance

My home office overlooks an old school that is used for some sort of adult education program. I've never really looked what the programs are but the sunlight at the end of the day really livens up the field behind the building. These utility poles get washed in a brilliant orange and the back of the shopping center behind it have these mottled streaks of blue and yellow as shadows dance on it.

Get In Line

We often have shoes in the hallway before the door and so when I was thinking about painting a row of shoes it was natural to position them in the hall. I was surprised by how green the shadows were when I really started looking at them. I have a tendency to correct incandescent lighting so it was a challenge to keep it as true to the color I was seeing as possible.

This is available for sale from the Rehoboth Art League Docents. All of the proceeds for this piece will go to maintain the buildings on the Art League's property.

Splenda Pig

I had the day off today and decided to use the time to get some more work in. I took the opportunity to finish a painting that is not part of this month's theme, shoes, and paint this small creamer filled with Splenda packets. We have a large collection of pig creamers and this one is definitely my favorite. This is painting three in my small painting project.

Busy Weekend

 On top of the paintings I've been working on, I've still got the calendar that I'm building taking up most of the dining room. Seeing as though Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up I'm under some pressure to finish up and clean out the room. I finished lettering the months, applying Danish oil to the wood, and (mostly) screwing it together. The picture is what it looks like so far with the holiday tiles in the rails.

Pedro

I committed myself to one painting per week, but there's nothing wrong with finishing two. Pedro, our Chihuahua, has one of the most expressive faces I've ever seen on a dog and I tried to capture that. This is actually the second painting I've finished of him, the first was for our perpetual calendar (below.)

Shoe Boxes

I kept this Nike box on purpose to do something with because I loved the orange color. After last week I was so happy with the tablecloth I had used with the red shoes I reused it this week. I thought painting a couple of boxes would make this go by quickly but I quickly realized that the number of shadows and light sources made this much more fun and complicated to paint.