Field Hand

Field Hand....Oil......16 x 20 Sold

This is a painting of my wife dressed as a field hand

picking cotton. Southeast Missouri is the farthest north

area of the country that cotton is grown. My of our families

were sharecroppers. We all worked in the field to help the family

business. I was fortunate to be raised "in town" and didn't have

to pick very often. There was, however, a field very close to

home where we could pick and make a little money. Cotton is

a very colorful crop as it grows. It evokes memories from a distant

past that are often not completely pleasant.

Pine Trees and Dump Truck

Green Truck...Oil....9 x 12

I would go to the next small town to a catfish restaurant with

my wife and this truck was always sitting right in the curve

of the road looking back at me. It spoke to me and I knew I

needed to paint it. I passed it by for several months, each time

wanting to stop and paint, but always with a car full of people.

Finally I did stop and take several photos. I did the painting

in the studio and the very next time we went by the location

it was gone. It just seemed to want to tell a story.

THE BLACK JOKER

The Joker... Oil.... 16 x 20 Sold

This was an itinerant worker who traveled through
town shining shoes. You would bring him a bag of shoes
to shine and then a few days later find him and pick up your
shoes. He always carried a guitar and would play music on the
street. Sometimes he billed himself as Cool Papa, and sometimes
he was the Black Joker, and had a jester costume on. He told
me that he was going to use this painting on his first album
cover. I feel like I caught the essence of his character.

Sea Oat....Oil.....9 x 12

$100

I was using my guerilla paint box for the first

time, when I pulled the palette out too far and

dumped my brush cleaner. The painting them became

a knife painting. I think it was a happy accident as

I think I liked it with a knife better. I am finding

as a beginning plein air painter that organization plays

a bigger role than I thought. I was fortunate to be near

our room, however, if I had been out in the countryside

I would have been in serious trouble trying to paint

with no brush cleaner. I am learning to think things

through much better, and to observe others setups

more closely.

COTTON VACATION

Cotton Vacation

20 x 24 Oil

This is my first post and I am trying to feel my way through.

I am electronically illiterate, but I am struggling

through it, all the time wanting to strangle everyone

who said it was so easy. This is a studio painting of my wife

and friends out in a cotton field that sits beside a bank

in our small town. It is reminiscient of times gone by

when we picked cotton here to get money to go to

the theater on Saturdays.