My goal in art each year is to grow professionally as an artist in order to produce work that in some small way acknowledges His world and His creations, both people and places. The highlight of 2012 was being able to witness first hand the artistic demonstration of this by Richard Schmid (http://www.richardschmid.com/) and Daniel Keys (http://danielkeysfineart.com/). Watching the two of them demonstrate concurrently their individual techniques resulting in beautiful art was inspiring. Meeting Mr. Schmid and then spending a week painting under the instruction of Daniel Keys was certainly cause for giving thanks for an inspirational year.
Richard Schmid and Daniel Keys painting demonstration
Suzanne and Ben with Richard Schmid
Looking for poppies in Tuscany
The expression on my face reflects how elated we were to happen upon a field of poppies after a day of touring Tuscany and seeing only a single bloom or two along the way. It didn’t take long to immerse myself into the beauty, reluctantly leaving with beautiful photos to reference for my paintings and muddy shoes.
Pink Poppy 16 x 20 Oil
Being able to spend the week at Skyuka Fine Art Gallery under the watchful eye and talented hand of Richard Christian Nelson resulted in a renewed love of creating and painting still life subjects. It will be a treat to paint with Rich in the future.
Rich Nelson giving a Still Life demonstration.
While in Sausalito, California recently, I was captivated by the many different poses of the people seated on the benches by the bay. Each pose, along with the individual(s) themselves, unquestionably represented a unique story. I made a small study of several of these Seaside Stories (each on a 3″ x 3″ canvas) with the intention of painting on larger canvases later. The most interesting aspect of this project is the ability to change the positions of each painting to give an entirely different relationship to the painting next to it.
Old Man and Young Boy
Additional Seaside Story paintings are shown below.
Ladies
Family
Seaside Seats One
June 2010 – What a treat to be able to study for a week under the gifted eye of Kevin Macpherson.
Kevin Macpherson and Walt Gonski
A teacher teaching
One on one instruction
April 2009 - Caleb, my 5 year old grandson and an aspiring artist, has completed this study of Monet’s water lilies. You can see his easel in the lower left of my studio.
Caleb's easel
June - August, 2009 - After waiting far too long since taking the last class, I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to scratch the surface of landscape painting by taking classes under Michael Story from my home town of Lexington. One of his paintings has hung over the fireplace in my architectural office for years and now I am getting the chance to learn from one of the best. One of the marsh studies done in class is at left.
August, 2008 — Suzanne and I drove through the mountains of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee to get to Kingsport, Tennessee where I would be setting out on a three day stint of plein aire painting with Karan Hagan.
