Discovery No.2

Discovery No.2 - 16 x 20 - oil on panel

I painted a composition similar to this for a corporate commission a couple of years ago, and really wanted to visit it again. I've got over a hundred photos of these items in various configurations, and it seemed a waste to only use one, so here's another. This will be joining Coke Classic at the Tree's Place show in July.

I talked with Julie at Tree's Place a little while back, and she said that they will be doing an article and full-page ad in the July issue of American Art Collector magazine. Very generous of them, and very cool. Karen and I shared an article in AAC back in 2007 when we had a joint show at Wynne/Falconer Gallery, also on Cape Cod. I have to admit, I'm very excited about this!

The canvas is prepped and ready to go for the one large piece I'll be sending to the show. An alternate version of the B-25 I did for Mason Murer Fine Art. It's an interesting crop, and I'm looking forward to getting started on it. If it works out time wise, I'll put up an in progress shot.

Coke Classic

Coke Classic - 18 x 24 - oil on panel

I had intended to post an in progress image of this painting, but Blogger went down for a couple of days right around the time I reached the end of the first pass, so I went ahead and and waited until it was done to post. This piece, as with practically everything else I've painted this year, will be shipped up to Cape Cod for a solo show at Tree's Place Gallery opening July 9th.

This is the first time I've dedicated this much time to a single gallery for a show, and I have to admit it has been an endeavor filled with more than an little anxiety, but it felt like this was the right time, and this was the right gallery to give it a try. Keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well.

My next painting is currently at the halfway point, and I should have an image of it ready to post in the next couple of days. I've got three more paintings to do once its done, and four weeks to do them in. One of them needs to be a large "centerpiece". I predict it's going to be a busy month.

Two More for Tree's Place

PB&J No. 14 - 10 x 30 - oil on canvas

I've been working for the last week and a half on these two horizontal's for the Tree's Place show. I had already started another painting on this particular canvas, but hated it, so I sanded it off, and reworked it into a pb&j. I'm partial to these off center compositions, and use them frequently. Maybe over frequently it, I don't know. With this 10 x 30 I was able to push the subject significantly off to the left, and I like it a lot. I think it gives the subject a greater sense of its position in space.

Pool Bowl No. 20 - 12 x 24 - oil on canvas

What would a collection of my paintings be without at least one painting of some pool balls? The size of the balls in the composition are a little over scale, but not so much as to make them freakishly large. They're just big enough to incorporate some serious detail into their surface. One of my favorite parts of these paintings that utilize a mixing bowl, is that thick rim at the top of the bowl. I love the distortion it creates of the contents, and how it imparts that glassy sense of glass.

I've got another Coke painting going now. It's large enough that I may post some in progress images of it. It's getting close to the deadline, and I've still got a number of paintings to go if I'm to meet my quota. Hope I can do it.

Cory Electric

18 x 24 oil on panel

Every once in a while I work on a painting that is just snakebit. The process goes wrong from the very beginning. This has proved to be one of those paintings. Most often, by it's completion, the painting has been salvaged, but there are occasions when the canvas will get the rag. I won't go into the full litany of problems I've encountered with this piece, but suffice it to say it's been fighting me every inch of the way. Part of the problem was the surface and the panels' construction, another, to be honest, was me, and most recently an incorrect use of a medium. I never use a medium, but thought with this painting it was a good idea. I'm currently waiting to see if I made the right decision. I went ahead and posted the image today because even though there are still problems to be solved, I think it's a good painting, and believe it can be saved.

Dinner with Friends

Carol Marine

Way back when I finally summoned up the courage to quit my day job to paint full-time I also began an intensive search online for other artists. I wanted to see who was out there, what were they painting, and how were they doing it. One of my search methods was to browse the art auctions on ebay. I would sift through hundreds of auction thumbnails in hopes of finding a jewel. It wasn't hard to spot talent. As I scrolled through the listings the gifted artists work stood out like a neon sign.

Crossed Brushes

One of my first discoveries, and still honored in my personal Hall of Fame, was Carol Marine. Her elegant chiseled method of painting blew me away. I'm a huge fan, and was very fortunate this week to have the opportunity to meet her for the first time. She was in Atlanta to teach one of her immensely popular workshops.

Karin Jurick

Karin Jurick, artistic genius, close friend and another ebay find, wrote me an email to say Carol would be in town and we should all get together. So, we all met up at the OK Cafe, one of our favorite places to eat. Karin was accompanied by her better half Brett, a framer, motorcycle enthusiast, designer and builder of "The Paint On" table top easel, and all around great guy. My Karen was up in Asheville with friends so I came alone. It's too bad to, because she would have loved meeting Carol.

Leanto

I had a terrefic time. Carol was wonderful, and it was so nice to finally meet her after communicating for years via email. Working as an artist is an isolated profession, and so it was a real treat to sit and talk art with other artists over a great meal. The only problem with the evening was that it ended way too soon.

I'll have an image of my next Tree's Place painting in a day or so. This one, for some reason, was a real bear.

Half Loaf No.4

12 x 12 oil on panel

I've done three of these "half loaf" paintings in the six by six format for auction on ebay, but wanted to work in more texture and detail with this subject, so I scaled it up to 12 x 12. It worked great. I was able to really get into the bread and also enhance the look of the plastic bag as well. A fun painting. This will be headed up to Cape Cod for the July show at Tree's Place Gallery.

I ignored my easel yesterday and spent the day making arrangements for our trip up to the Cape. I thought it would be a good idea to get an early start since accommodations in that area fill up quickly in the summer months. Karen and I were last there in 2007 when we shared a two person show at Wynne/Falconer Gallery. It was a great trip and we had a wonderful time. While we were there we stopped by Tree's Place on our way up to Provincetown, and were very impressed with the quality of work they had on display. It's hard to believe that now I'm returning four years later to attend a show of my own.

Black Grapes No. 4

16 x 16 oil on panel

I shipped off the first five paintings for the Tree's Place show in July yesterday. Hopefully they will be well received by the local collectors on Cape Cod. Maybe get a little early buzz going for the show. The Black Grapes were completed Sunday evening and will be heading up there along with Seven Spoons in the next shipment.

Karen and I are planning to attend the show, and are currently working out the logistics. There are two places we'd like to visit while we're in the region. Karen wants to go to Martha's Vineyard and I really want to veer northward to see the Olson House in Maine. I've been enamored of Andrew Wyeth since I first discovered his work in a show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco July of 1973. I was twenty one and knew of Christina's World, but when I saw his paintings in person I was hooked for life. I went back a half a dozen times before the show moved on. I still have the dog eared catalog for that show. In 1979 I drove up to Chadds Ford to visit the Brandywine Muesum, and while I was there I was able to track down the location of the Kuerner House. The home was still occupied at the time, so you couldn't go inside, but Anna Kuerner was on her porch as I drove by. Unreal! Anyway, to actually visit the Olson House and walk around inside would be like a pilgrimage. Hope we can make it happen.

Back in 2006 I did a small painting of a Maple Leaf to auction off on ebay. Not too long after that I received an email from Tina Maple, co-owner of Maple Vineyards in Sonoma county California. She wrote that they were about to produce their first vintage and wondered if I would be interested in doing another maple leaf painting that they would use for the label. It took about two seconds to say yes. We worked out the details, I sent them the painting, then never heard anything about the wine. About a week ago I got another email from Tina stating they made wine for only two years, but decided it was too much and had come to the conclusion that they would rather just grow the grapes. She then offered to send me a few bottles of their 2007 Zinfandel. It arrived a couple of days ago, and it was fun to see my little painting on the bottle. We haven't tried the wine yet, but we're looking forward to it.

Thanks Tina!

Seven Spoons

12 x 12 oil on panel

Enough with the books and iPad apps for now, it's time to paint. Julie at Tree's Place mentioned she liked the Flatware paintings, so I'm planning on a few for the summer show. Seven Spoons is the first. I've also got three more pieces working in rotation, painting on one while the other two dry between passes. I'll post those starting early next week.

A New Book: Six by Six

I've got one more commercial venture to announce before I get back to posting new work for the Tree's Place Gallery show in July. When I got back the proof copy of my first book Paintings In Oil and saw the high quality of the printing done at blurb.com, I was excited about the idea of producing a second.

Back in 2006 Karin Jurick convinced me to take part in a new art movement that was gaining popularity called A Painting A Day. It was an exercise developed by Duane Keiser, and the idea was, you complete a painting each day for some pre-determined length of time. Many artists decided upon a year, others chose a shorter amount of time, and some never stopped. I knew I was too anal to keep something like this going for any length of time, since for me it was all about the detail. I settled on a time frame of one month. I thought, if nothing else, this may help me to loosen up a bit. A quality I thought I needed in my work.

Thirty days later I had finished thirty paintings. It was a fun, though exhausting, challenge, and afterward I was ready to get back to my more "completed" style of painting. I did however retain the six inch by six inch format I had chosen to use during the exercise for paintings I would create for auction on ebay. Since that month, five years ago, I've done hundreds of these little paintings, and I thought they would be a good subject for another book. Six by Six is produced in a 7" x 7" format so the images are virtually the same size as the originals. The book contains 100 paintings culled from nearly 400 done over the years, and is available in a softcover or a hardback version with a dust jacket. If you'd like to preview the entire book and make a purchase click here to be directed to the blurb website.

my iPad app

iPad App Home Screen

When I saw that Jeff Cohen had his own iPad App, I knew that I would have to put together one of my own. It was just too cool of an idea to pass up. Plus I just got an iPad for Christmas and thought it could be a good way to present my work to friends, collectors and galleries. Technically I had no idea of how to actually build the app, fortunately Spencer Cohen (computer prodigy and son of the afore mentioned Jeff and Leslie Cohen) was there to provide those skills.

iPad App Standard Page View

I did the easy part, picking out the images I wanted to present. I sent those pages with layout instructions and the brief amount of text I included to Spencer and he did the real work. The app went live yesterday evening, and I'm have to say I'm very happy with it. The paintings really pop on that beautiful hi res screen.

iPad App Full-Screen View

The app presents 58 paintings done over the last ten years. Some of my favorites. It's very easy to navigate. You swipe right to left to advance to the next painting, and swipe left to right to return to the previous image. You can pinch/zoom within the picture window to examine the details, or double tap the image to see the painting in full-screen mode. There is also a scroll bar along the bottom to quickly move to a specific painting.

If you'd like a copy, you can get it for $1.99 at the App Store on iTunes. You can either search the for the title at the App Store: Art of James Neil Hollingsworth, or click here. If you do purchase a copy, and like it, I'd be grateful if you would leave a positive comment about it on the app's page on iTunes.

Realism: Remembered

visitor checking out Teresa Fischer's paintings

Before I get started I have to report that when I downloaded my images from the show last night, half of them had been corrupted, so a lot of the artists I wanted to spotlight got lost in a digital wasteland. If it's any consolation, this includes myself. None of the photos of my wall were salvageable. The photo above shows one of the visitors checking out Teresa Fischer's work, and if you look through the doorway you can see one of Paul Cadden's amazing pencil drawings.

taking home a copy of one of Jelaine Faunce's paintings

Mark, Kelly and Andrea did a great job putting this show together. The weather was perfect, the turnout was huge and for a few lucky artists profitable. Abby Ryan, Teresa Fischer, Sally Tharp, Marc Chatov and Karen all had red dots by the end of the evening. Congratulations!

admiring the work of Jeff Hayes

It was great talking to the visitors. Everyone was very nice and complimentary of my contributions to the show. It's great to hear that people appreciate what you do. I have to say, for me, the best aspect of the evening was having the chance to get reacquainted with old friends I haven't seen in a while. Lots of friends made the effort to drive in and for me that made the night. Thank you all for coming!

he spent a lot of time viewing the work of Alvin Richard

The show will run through the first week in May, and hopefully somewhere during that time a red dot will show up on one of my paintings. If I can get one on the Mule or the B-25 I will view that as a sign that it's okay to paint another, and I really want to paint another.

stopping to view the work of Michael Naples and Abby Ryan

Now I'm back to work full-time painting for the show at Tree's Place in July. I've got a number of pieces complete, but still have a way to go. I've got three in rotation on the easel right now and will post and image of the first one done in a day or so.

Realism at Mason Murer Fine Art

Friday evening is the opening reception of the Realism Show at Mason Murer Fine Art. Karen and I delivered our paintings yesterday, and did a walk around to see what had already been hung. There are a lot of beautiful paintings on those walls! The weather for that night looks to be perfect, so hopefully there will be a good turn out. I'll be bringing my little point and shoot camera. If I get some good pix I'll post some of them in the days following the reception. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by.

B-25: Complete

24 x 72 oil on canvas

The B-25 is complete. I can't believe I was able to finish it in time for the Realism Show at Mason Murer. Opening night reception is April 8th, and this should give me enough time for the painting to dry and maybe get a coat of varnish on it as well.

detail: nose section

This is by far the largest and most complex painting I've ever done, and I have to say, I've developed a taste for large and complex. I really hope there's a market out there for something like this because I'd love an opportunity to paint this subject much more often.

detail: left engine nacelle and prop

Even though my career as an aircraft mechanic only lasted a few years, I could easily imagine myself in the presence of this plane as I was painting it. All the sights, sounds and smells of working on the flight line came back . . . and it was great. I still kind of miss it.

Now it's time to reduce the scale and get back to work for the July show at Tree's Place on Cape Cod. I'll be shipping them the first five paintings within the week, and should have an image of their sixth painting ready to post in the next few days.

Karen's First Book: WindowScapes

Karen and I have been working together to assemble a collection of her WindowScapes paintings into a book. We used blurb, an online book creation/publication website that I used for my first book, Paintings in Oil. Her "proof" copy arrived a few days ago, and it's top notch. I don't know how blurb does it so much better than other book creation sites, but the images are a spot on match to the originals. It's a 12 x 12 inch hardback book with a dust jacket and contains 39 of Karen's favorite windowscapes paintings. If you'd like to preview the entire book and make a purchase click here.

B-25 in Progress: Days Six, Seven and Eight

24 x 72 oil on canvas

Finished up the underpainting of the fuselage last night, which completes the first pass. Eight days in so far. I'm really working hard on this one trying to stay ahead of the deadline. Not sure at this point if I'll make or not, but doing what I can. One possible scenario, it may have to go to the gallery wet and unvarnished. Worse case scenario, it's not done. Back to work on the sky today, and if I'm lucky I'll be able to spend some time on the right wing as well. This may be the last of the in progress shots. I don't think the changes will be pronounced enough to justify further posts. I'll probably hold off and post a high quality jpeg of the final painting when it's complete.

B-25 in Progress: Days Four & Five

24 x 72 oil on canvas

Days four and five on the B-25. One day each on the underpainting for the engine nacelle's. Today I'll start work on the fuselage. When I've got that done, I'll probably do the second pass on the sky, then return to the wings for their next pass.

B-25 in Progress: Day Three

24 x 72 oil on canvas

Day three on the B-25. Finished up the underpainting on the wings. Now it's on to the engine nacelle's and props, then the fuselage.

B-25 In Progress: Day One

24 x 72 oil on canvas

For people who regularly paint large this wouldn't appear all that impressive, but for me gazing upon a canvas that requires two easels to support is a pretty daunting scene. This piece also comes with the added pressure of a deadline. It has to be completed in three weeks if it's to be ready for the Realism show at Mason Murer on April 8th. Suffice it to say, I'm freaking out. On the other hand, this is a subject I've wanted to paint for ever. It combines my love of flying and vintage aircraft with my love of painting.

One more side note about the Realism show, my nephew called the other night to tell me that he saw my Mule No.2 in an ad in Atlanta magazine promoting the show at Mason Murer. Karen and I went out the next day and picked up a copy. Andrea at the gallery creates all their ads and she did a great job. She's got a great eye for design and the use of type. It's wonderful seeing my paintings in print. I still can't believe that I get to do this for a living. It took fifty years and three previous career moves, but it was worth the wait.

Ketchup No.2: Complete

16 x 20 oil on hardboard panel

I am really tempted to continue on and work this one to death, but Karen says, "it's done, move on". If I didn't have a deadline on the next painting, I'd probably override her suggestion and keep refining it. I'm sure she's right. The added work I'd put into this one would probably be lost on everyone else in the world. I had some trouble getting a good photo of this one. It's a bit darker than in person, but it's close. Now it's onto the next piece. Hopefully I'll have an in progress shot in the next few days.

Stacked Blocks: Complete

5 7/8 x 24 oil on hardboard panel

On some occasions the first pass of a painting comes very close to a completed piece. At least it appears that way in the image I post here on my blog. In the flesh, they do look more distinct. Stacked Blocks is a good example of this. The in progress image and the jpeg of the completed painting look very similar on the computer monitor, but the finished painting is, in actuality, much more developed. I've been working on the second Ketchup Bottle for the last few days and I'm facing that same situation with it. Any in progress post at this point would be very hard to discern from it's predecessor, so I'm holding off until it's complete to show the final pass. My next painting will be a very large and complex one and I think it will work better as an in progress piece. If it takes as long as I think it will, you may all be pretty sick of seeing it by the time it's done.