My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Faith Baptist Church, Damascus, VA
11.5x7.25 Watercolor

Yes...I took a vacation...of sorts.
It has been nearly a year since I wrote on this site!  A YEAR!  I was in a COVID funk.  No, I didn't catch it, in fact, we have had both of our shots.  I just had a disconnected year with no interest in painting or much else and unlike most of my life, I let it hold me back.  Over.  Done.  Back on the road to painting my life and the people in it!
I do need to thank a few people:  Tom Lynch, whose Zoom/YouTube 6-day workshop I took in December of 2020; Fred and, younger brother David Rawlinson who talked me back into the studio; and last, but always first, Bobbie, who put up with me during this past year, and yet maintained a committed love for Mr. Crabby!  How special is that?
Enjoy!

I don't know about you, but I am busy setting records!  That's right, setting records.  Yesterday my Apple Watch told me I had "closed all of my exercise, standing, and who knows what other rings" for the day and if I did it five more times by the end of April, I would set another record!  Wuh...makes me tired just thinking about it.
But you know, I have been spending a lot of days walking and listening to books lately, and that's a good thing.  I never have been an avid reader, but I love someone reading to me (thanks to my first grade teacher, Miss Wilson).  I have "read" more books and walked more miles since the first of the year than I have in the last two years...another record.
And since we are social distancing and staying home a lot, I have completed more paintings so far this year than I have ever done in the first four months of the year.  Amazing.  Some of them are pretty good!
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GORDON RIVER  15X22 Watercolor

Visited my Heart Rhythm Specialist's office this morning, and they like what I am doing too.  Uh oh...my watch just made a noise.  Message:  your activity rings are usually farther along at this time of day.  Better get busy...walk...listen...paint.
​More records to be broken...enjoy!

Have you ever seen a banyan tree?  
They are amazing...thick, muscular trees, twisted by nature, with roots growing right up out of the ground and hugging the main trunk before spinning in all directions.  As a kid, if I had had one of them in my backyard, I would have been in it all summer.  Instead, I spent the summers in the Carter boys tree house.  Thank you, neighbors.
Next week, I'll flip another page as I turn 71.  I am glad during this time of "social distancing" that I have painting to keep me from going half mad...well, OK, totally mad!  I've been a little crazy all my life, and..."still crazy after all these years."
​Enjoy!

​Empty Creel  15x22

Do you remember "HEE HAW?"  Great music, corny jokes (in fact they were in a corn field when they would salute a small town, population whatever...then all jump up from the stalks and shout...well you remember)...I was working in TV at the time and loved it...even in syndication.
Well, today I send a "shout out" to a world famous fly fishing guide, long-time friend, who chose fishing around the world to playing golf around the world...kinda' like me!  Well, you're right, I am not world famous at fishing or golf, but I sure did cut down on my trips around golf course to spend more time painting. My back hurts a lot less, too.  Randall "Bo" Goins guided Chad and me last summer before Father's Day on the Little Red River.  Caught plenty of good fish...but I caught a number of good photos to use for sketching and painting.  The name of his company, he retired from the food business, is the Empty Creel.  His slogan is "Life is Good on the Fly."
Bo, I have no idea where this scene was shot, but I started painting it a decade ago during a workshop where someone asked, "how do you paint rocks?"  I stuck you in the left side of the painting, and dang if you didn't steal the scene!  Something I must have learned in design class last summer, or watching Hee Haw...hope you are enjoying Peru.
Saaaaa-lute!

Wildwood

I remember a youth retreat from my childhood down in Mississippi.  Don't ask me where, I am excited to remember the state!
But, I do remember the old Baptist Church song..."come to the church in the wild wood, oh, come to the church in the..."  Well here it is.  The "Little brown church in the dale." I think this scene is an early snow with some shades of orange left on the tall, slender trees...the little chapel is barely, but still standing, although not all of the surrounding trees are.
So with that, we are off to a good 2020 start with lots more to come!  Stay tuned...

.Back in Naples after a very productive summer.  Kevin Lundgren and his team at Edgewater Builders completed the new studio, building inspectors have signed off and I have completed two paintings!  Off to a pretty good start, huh?
Before leaving the Mountain, I attended a workshop in Huntsville, AL led by Tony Couch (got to see brother and sister-in-law on the trip).  He is pretty amazing for 90 years young...no, Tony.  Can't paint like Tony, but I learned a lot about design and I am trying to add those elements to what I do now.  First, Ol' Chad appears in another fly fishing painting called, "Mossy Creek" that I stole from our fishing guide and Arkansas pal, Bo Goins.

Next, is a painting based on a church in Highlands, NC.  The best Sundays on the Mountain in Linville start at Wee Kirk.  Music led by organist Cissy Shull and her bagpiper accompanist features her most requested hit...Highland Cathedral. That's where I stole the name for this one while visiting a long-time friend and his wife, Dr. Minor and Natalie Vernon of Macon, GA.  They invited us to Highlands/Cashiers and while they waited in the restaurant, I slid down the street at dusk to find this little gem...hope you like them both...no, not Minor and Natalie...the paintings, silly.

Highlands Cathedral

Well...it's been three months since I posted something for you...sorry, because I know you have been dying to know where I have been!
I have been to the Mountain; I have been to the River; and then I started painting again.  That's right, I took a few weeks off after our very successful opening at The Art Cellar Memorial Day weekend.  We left the Gulf a month later than usual, and spent the month of May getting ready for Bob's Big Art Show.  Then, in June, I gave myself an early Father's Day present...I drove to Nashville for lunch with our daughter, then continued to Memphis to go fishing in Arkansas with our son.  Got to see a couple of my best old friends in Memphis...Ralph Michael, who was recovering from bypass surgery, and Nicky, who is battling cancer.  Well, two years ago I had both major valves repaired when they cracked me open in Greensboro!  What is going on?  I had to have the month of July to think about it all...and I am still thinking about it...so that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
So, the first paintings are about Arkansas...people.  I met so many new interesting people on the Little Red River in Central Arkansas, thanks to my long-time friend and fishing guide, Randy Goins.  Bo loves fishing...and he has left the "president-CEO" title to his son...so he can fish! Thanks to Mike Winkler of The Ozark Angler for "posing" for my first painting...more to come...more people...stay tuned.
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GUIDE, Little Red River

LINE 'EM UP

So, last month I was on my way to Raleigh, Contemporary Art Museum, for the Raleigh Fine Arts Society annual juried show.  Great fun, especially when the juror, Chad Alligood, mentions in his presentation that "Foggy Morning on South Holston" looks like a modern day Winslow Homer painting!  What?  Thank you and thanks for the cash award, too.  Already sent some of it to Cheap Joe in Boone, NC.
So, what next?  The Art Cellar in Banner Elk, NC has asked me to open the season with a two-person show beginning Memorial Day Weekend!  I don't know if I can last until June.  The little croquet lady in "Line 'em Up" thought it would be a lot of fun to throw a surprise 70th birthday party for this ol' man on April Fool's Day.  Thirty-two people and our daughter, Kacy, entered the room as foursomes with bags over their heads (eye, nose and mouth holes decorated and funny sayings on each paper bag--Kacy had "Pull my finger" written on hers...it is a guy joke from when she was a child). Thank you, Bobbie...you are the hit of the party!
Stay tuned for more about Bob's Big Show @artcellargallery  #artcellargallery
No more corny jokes...well...nah!

Hot Rod

Well, I finally reached the end of this road...the fifth and, for now, last trout painting for a while.  "Hot Rod" sorta' looks like an old '32 Ford with the fenders off, big chrome pipes down the side, and flames painted down the sides from the engine.  Or, the fly fisher has a "hot rod" to catch such a mighty trout, and as it fights to get loose it sets the stream on fire!  All five of these trout paintings made the water look different in the photos.  I know it is a little strange from my usual take, maybe a little impressionistic for a representational painter...but you gotta give it a try!  BTW, did you know Dylan co-wrote "Wagon Wheel?"  

Now, I am going to do some smaller paintings...by request...and they will be different again.

So, heading up to Raleigh this weekend for the Raleigh Fine Arts Society 2019 North Carolina Artists Exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum.  I have entered this contest a half dozen times and finally...I got accepted!  You may remember "Foggy Morning on South Holston?"  Two guys in a drift boat riding the fog line looking for that special rainbow?  If it doesn't sell this weekend, it will be at The Art Cellar in Banner Elk, NC in June.  Got a BIG ART SHOW that opens Memorial Day Weekend (@artcellargallery; #artcellargallery). Hope I don't have to hitch hike back to Naples!

Stay tuned!