The Time is Ripe

The Time is Ripe| 5"x7" | oil on hardboard

Fruit is the classic still life subject I suppose. Artists and art students have been painting and drawing these for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years and they still are ap-peel-ing to look at (sorry, I couldn't resist).

I think part of the reason why is that they are simple shapes, yet they are still challenging to capture on canvas. To create the illusion of the third dimension is always a thrill for me, no matter what the subject is.

I should eat more fruit. I try to take a piece along to work each day, but as you can see by the condition of the banana in the painting, our fruit is not always eaten in a timely manner.

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Spring Chicks

Spring Chicks| 5"x7" | oil on hardboard

I started this painting prior to our vacation, with the intent of posting it for Easter. I ran out of time so I finished it this weekend.

I have childhood memories of going to Jim's Feed Store here in Maurice to see the chicks when the shipment arrived in the spring. Fast forward 40 years and I find myself driving my son and his friends down to the local farm supply store to buy chicks.

JBC (Joe, Branson & Caleb) Poultry Farm is what they've dubbed themselves and they certainly have an entrepreneurial spirit. They started off their poultry hobby with 9 full-grown chickens that didn't lay too many eggs, and now they own 100+ chicks that are growing rapidly and no longer look anything like these cute chicks in the painting.

I think we'll still be waiting a while to see the farm fresh eggs from these beauties.

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Tennessee Road Trip

Hopefully there are a few of you who noticed that I didn't post a painting this week. Our family took an old fashioned family road trip vacation down to Tennessee this past week. We really had a great time and it was so much fun to see the sites, culture and people down south. We were primarily in Nashville and Memphis and they are two very different cities. I'm wondering if all of us Yankees should start calling each other "darlin" and "hon". Southern hospitality was very nice to experience, and I have to say that the food was wonderful too.

I've downloaded my photos and it looks like I limited myself to only 402 shots. I could have shot a bunch more, but I showed some restraint mostly due to the fact that I didn't have enough memory cards for my camera. My wife and boys always are patient with me while I'm shooting photos of everything in sight, no matter how odd it may seem to most people. They have grown accustom to my ways. Below you'll find 4 of the 402 pictures. There could be some paintings coming out of our trip. Y'all stay tuned...

Cardinals game in St. Louis on our way to Nashville

The Grand Ole Opry

Memphis BBQ at Rendevous

On the steps of Graceland

Mom's Bread

Mom's Bread | oil on canvas

It was my Mom's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I had intended to post this at that time, but of course it slipped my mind. So I thought I'd share it this week instead. This is a large portrait I did of her. Click on the photo to get a little closer look.

I featured Mom's cake on my very first blog painting back in September of last year. As I mentioned at that time, she loves spending time in her kitchen and homemade bread is one of her specialties. In the painting she's holding my favorite bread that she bakes. It's an oatmeal bread that is unbelievably wonderful....just like Mom.