Fall Lake Near Blue Jay Point

Over the last few years most of my paintings have been inspired by pictures taken in various spots in the Carolinas and elsewhere on the east coast. I always put alot of thought into where I might find my next painting. Will it be a lake, a river, a waterfall or field? Usually my family comes with me on these trips so we generally find that "perfect" location between 10 am and 4 Pm. Of the hundreds of pictures taken and all the sites we have seen, I now realize I am neglecting the time of day in finding an ideal subject. I am certainly aware of the different colors and tones involved with atmosphere and time, but I have never made the effort to go out and seek them. Even in this most recent painting of Fall Lake which is only a few miles from my house, it was just by coincidence that I was able to take the picture at sundown. Sometimes the perfect subject might not involve driving 5 hours to the western part of the state, but rather just a matter of waiting a few hours for sundown or getting up early for sunrise.

This painting was inspired by a view from Blue Jay Point Park at Falls Lake. The sundown setting allowed me to dust off some of my red and yellow paint tubes and create a neat sunset.

Falls Lake Near Blue Jay Point 20x16" Acrylic on Canvas

Falls Lake at Six Forks Road #2

I painted a smaller version of this setting in the spring of 2008. A slightly larger canvas allowed me more detail and color. The black outline around the trees is something that I have moved away from, however using the earlier painting as a reference I found this to be a good effect that I will use on future paintings. Both the sky and the water use varying transparent glazes in conjunction with opaque acryl gouache.

Falls Lake at Six Forks Road #2 – 20x20” Acrylic on Canvas

Gablesland Trail Along the Eno

In a further evolution of working with grids and the patterns within them, I used the sky of this work for more experimentation and abstraction. Like the earlier piece I did of the Quarry at the Eno River, the sky and water were broken down into 1/2"x1/2" squares. The sky was first pained in a series of contrasting blues, and then symbols of were added in other blue contrasts. After this a light blue glaze was applied over the entire sky. The water does not have quite the same abstraction, but the same painting methods were used. I like the way the rocks were positioned in this setting. Being the rocks were right on the river bank it allowed me to use a different palette of colors to distinguish the main body of land from the water.

Gablesland Trail Along the Eno - 20x16" Acrylic on Canvas

Easter Eggs!

The Easter Bunny stole all my canvases and left the kids and I all these eggs to paint. Faberge would be proud.