Coinage

12 x 12 oil on hardboard panel

I spent the better part of the last week working on this commissioned painting for my good friend Phil. He and I have known each other since our first years of high school (I'm talking like since 1968). He commissioned me to paint this as a gift for his brother, who owns a coin shop. I have to say this was a tough one. I can't really say why, but the embossed images on these coins was a bear to paint. I think all in all it turned out pretty well. Karen and I will be heading up to Phil's this weekend for a cookout, and I will be turning over the painting to him then. Hope he likes it.

Paul Coventry-Brown

I had to pass along some very cool information about an online colleague of mine Paul Brown. Paul and I have been corresponding for years. He's a great guy, and an amazing realist painter living in France. His work has recently been adopted by two major art suppliers for the promotion, and packaging of their products. The image above is an ad running in the April issue of The Artist's Magazine. Dick Blick has chosen his work to promote their cradled hardboard panels. The same ones I'm so fond of. He gets his own image in the ad along with three of his paintings. If that's not cool enough . . .

. . . Winsor & Newton has chosen his work to adorn the packaging of their new "Fine Detail" canvas. Elegant packaging to say the least. He even gets credit on the label for the painting. Unreal. Paul really deserves it. His work is truly outstanding. Congratulations Paul. You can see more of his work by clicking on his name above to visit his blog, or click here to visit his website.

Pool Bowl No. 16

10 x 10 oil on hardboard panel

The entirety of last week was spent working on a commissioned Pool Bowl painting for Elliot Fouts owner of Elliot Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California. Two of my online colleagues, Christopher Stott, and Vic Vicini are represented there. I've been fortunate to receive a number of requests for commissions in the last few weeks, and will begin my most recent commission today. Something completely different, for a long time friend, as a gift for his brother.

Mason Murer Fine Art, here in Atlanta, has proven that they are definitely a more conducive space for my work. I got a call this weekend from Mark that two more of my paintings had sold. To add a cherry on top of that good news, about twenty minutes after the call from Mark, I received a call from Cathy at Dean Day Gallery in Houston, calling to tell me that she had just sold one of my paintings. This is a trend that I hope will continue.

In a previous post I mentioned that I was considering the idea of doing a "big" painting. I received a number of "go for it" responses about that plan, so I'm going to give it a try. I think this recent burst of sales has given me the financial breathing room to spend some serious time on a larger painting. Unfortunately commercially produced cradled panels aren't available in a size I need to do this painting. I could use canvas, but I've become addicted to working on a hard surface, so I'll need to build one. Before I started to paint full-time I used to spend my time building furiture, and remodeling our house.

The bed, pictured above, was the last piece of furniture I built before I began my new career as an artist. I also put in the floors, created the wainscoting, and the beamed ceiling. I have to admit, I still mourn the loss of time to build furniture, and re-model the house. Building the surface for this new painting will be a good excuse to head back out into the shop, and create a little sawdust. I'll keep you all posted on how this new project goes.

Commission No. 2

6 x 6 each oil on hardboard

After I completed my portion of an ongoing project I'm doing with a group other artists (more on that later) I got to work on these two commissioned paintings. The collector had purchased a painting of PB&J bottles from me a little while back, and requested these two compositions to go along with it as a kind of triptych. These will probably be shipped in the next few days, and in the meantime, I've begun a third commission for a larger Pool Bowl piece. I'll post that as soon as it's complete.

In other news, my relationship with Mason Murer Fine Art has already begun to pay off. I received word from Kelly that one of the paintings sold the day after my collection was hung. That's pretty cool.

Sugar Bowl

6 x 6 oil on hardboard

This sugar bowl was part of a collection of silver items given to us by Karen's parents a while back. The gift consisted of some flatware, sugar bowl, creamer and a water pitcher. I love the symmetry of this little silver bowl, with the pineapple finial on top. A really great shape, and the mirrored finish provides a wonderfully distorted view of the surrounding room. If you'd like to bid on this painting, you can access the auction by clicking here.

A Gallery Shift

I moved to a new Atlanta gallery yesterday. It was sad saying goodbye to Anne, Tiffany and Sybil at Anne Irwin Fine Art. I just felt my style of painting didn't mesh very well with that of the gallery's other artists. My new space, here in town, will be Mason Murer Fine Art. Their gallery has a much more varied collection of artists, and styles, and I believe it will be a better fit for me. Mark, Kelly and Andrea are wonderful people, who appeared delighted at the opportunity to show my paintings. The gallery space is huge, impressive, and includes my favorite Atlanta artist (other than Karen), James McLaughlin Way. I'm really looking forward to working with all of them. Hopefully for a long, long time.