Sketchy Thoughts...

I love to paint highly detailed, colorful and refined paintings with a "tight" look and a high degree of finish, but I also love the balance that comes with simple, quick and expressive pieces as well. These expressive, instinctual pieces may lead to more elaborate pieces with a higher level of control or I may choose not to expand on them and just enjoy them as they are, for what they are.

Artists use sketchbooks and journals for a number of different purposes. They may serve to brainstorm ideas, work out compositional problems, preserve memories or record thoughts. The sketchbook truly serves all these purposes, but usually one or two more than the others. I fall mostly into the latter categories.

I keep a sketchbook almost like someone might keep a diary or a log. I don't make entries daily, but when I do, I find I am primarily recording images from surroundings, thoughts in my mind's eye, details about the scene and an overall sense of mood; both my own and the mood of my environment. Whether I choose to make later work derived from these sketchbook entries or not, I am and will always be a sentimental and reminiscent fella. My mood and feelings toward a person, place or event are often my prime motivation for the creation of art. Life is just so powerful, it seems to me, and there is so much going on all around us in a never ending cadence that it seems only appropriate to record and appreciate as much of it as possible. These little glimpses into our past wandering can so often bring so much joy as we remember where we've been, what we've done and who was there.

The sketch on this page is a case in point. Titled "Restless Night in Knoxville", this little drawing of my dorm room was and remains one of my very favorite things I've ever made, and I've drawn and painted a LOT! I came across this a few weekends ago in my sketchbook from college while I was cleaning my studio. Looking at it, I am so happy now that I took the time to record this snippet of my busy and disorderly college life. The feelings and moods of that night are still crystal clear and easy to recall, thanks in large part to the information I've recorded. In the upper right hand corner, I recorded the date. It was late April, 2001 and the spring semester was drawing to a close. I can recall a lot of anticipation of the coming months of summer and the bittersweetness of finishing up my freshman year of college and knowing I would miss a lot of folks I had met only eight months prior.

I recorded the time...at 1:07 am and later at 1:39 am. I certainly didn't need as much sleep eight years ago! I suppose that's a major contributing factor as to why I don't make as many of these little sketches as I once did.

At the top of the drawing are the words, "Got central heat and... and I'm alright". These are lyrics from the song I was listening to at the time. I almost always have some kind of music going when I draw or paint. I like the fact, especially in hindsight, that I wasn't straightforward with a statement such as, "listening to Dave Matthews", but rather I jotted down the lyrics that stuck out to me most at the moment. If I recall correctly, the combination of studying the details of my surrounds and hearing that lyric guided me to include the air vents to the left and just above the door.

All of the information in this drawing sparks the impetus to recall the mood and sensation of that particular moment in time. I remember that wonderful feeling of expressing myself, capturing a mood; the essence of the moment. I remember the unique feeling of that time in my life, the sublime feeling of that night, the realization that such times are fleeting and a pause to acquiesce to the moment is of great worth.

The overall drawing, as stated before, is accomplished quickly and expressively with just enough detail and information to provide a record. For the investment of about $8 and perhaps 30 minutes, I have so much documented. I have so many memories I can call up! In times of financial uncertainty, how's that for a return on investment? I say it's priceless....

Shutterbuggin'

The painting shown here is titled "Friday Afternoon Hike, No. 2", and was inspired by a photograph I took this past summer in Oregon. I love to work from photographs that I have taken, and it really struck me as I was working on this piece what an asset the camera is to a painter.

My father, Jerry, is a professional photographer (have a look at his website: www.thefilmbox.net) , so I have had the good fortune to learn about composition and photography all of my life. It's exciting to be able to use one form of art to spawn new ideas in another form.

As I said before, the camera is a great asset to the painter, but only if the camera is with the painter to capture those awesome images. It is natural to take the camera along on trips or vacations, but how many of us keep the camera close at hand when we are crossing town to go to the grocery store or stop by the bank? The most mundane of daily errands can often take us by some spectacular scenes or bear witness to beautiful skies that we never expected. I can't begin to count the number of times I have been out in my truck just "taking care of business", only to come across a beautiful scene I had never noticed before or saw beautiful clouds rolling across the sky and creating dramatic, back-lit forms in front of the hot afternoon sun. I would reach for my camera but, lo and behold, it would be in my studio at home.

Cameras in the digital age continue to grow smaller and more convenient than ever before, so we really have no excuses! Keep the camera close at hand, whether on the road to the beach or the dry cleaners, as you never know when you'll see something beautiful. Inspiration may be just around the next curve!

Inagural Post

I hope it is fitting and appropriate to follow Inaguration Day with my Inagural Blog Post (although this post has nothing to do with politics!)

I'm new to blogging, but it looks like a fantastic medium for sharing information, ideas and inspiration so I figured I would give it a go! I'm so impressed with my friends Wilson Bickford and Buck Paulson who have very interesting blogs (and fantastic work!!) and I look forward to reading their posts and enjoying their new pieces which are posted frequently.

The painting "Greeneville Depot" (shown above) seems appropriate to share with you this month as we are in the throes of Winter here in East Tennessee. Although we generally escape heavy snows and below zero temperatures in the south, we are not immune to the occasional dusting and temperatures in the teens. It is in January that, each year, I thank God for our mild winters and that I was born to a family living below the Mason-Dixon line!

The painting was a Christmas gift for my Dad the year before last. I had so much fun painting this one and pushing myself to make it the best work I possibly could. I really wanted to impress my Dad, who is a great artist himself with pen & ink and his Nikon! My Dad is to a large degree responsible for my initial love of art both as an idea and a pursuit. It's so nice to paint with your audience in mind. You might be surprised how much harder you try to push yourself if you paint with the vision of someone important to you seeing the painting.

The painting began on a foam-green colored canvas primed with acrylics, which was followed with more acrylic work in ultramarine blue and white to establish almost all of the values in the finished painting. I followed that with thin glazes of oil color to "build-up" to the final details.

Please feel free to comment and contribute! I look forward hearing your ideas and feedback.