The Bright Sky

Strangely, I am experimenting with the idea of going back to this blog. Here is a painting from 2013.

Last Farm in Short Pump

The Last Farm in Short Pump will be available at the smART Art Show. The price is reduced and I am ready to sell. Check it out.

It is being held at Grayson Hill.

Good News

Glave Kocen Gallery has agreed to represent my paintings.
This small painting was completed this summer at Nimrod. Contact glavekocen to purchase.

Power Lines III

This is one of a long series about how rural settings connect with the modern world.
I did it while at Nimrod this year and sold it to one of the other artists.

Main Street Station

I didn't realize this but one of my older paintings, from before I started blogging was not up here. We were having a discussion in my doctoral class about postmodernism in educational research and my teacher started to describe one of my paintings to the class. It was a very weird feeling but I figured she must have seen it on my blog. She hadn't it wasn't here. Until now.
She said that the contrast of the types of architecture were postmodern.
I would also add that postmodernism appreciates the beauty of both.


22" x 32"
Acrylic on canvas
$ 850

The Market is Your Canvas

Never got around to posting this pic of the painting I did for second place at the market is your canvas.It is a reproduction of a Jamie Wyeth painting, "Pumpkins at Sea."

Inside Outbuilding #3

I have really enjoyed painting this new series. Here is another Inside Outbuilding. I know that I am on the right track because when I look at my new paintings I want to go paint.
Inside Outbuilding #3
Acrylic on canvas
30"x44"

ImageKind Print

back to reality and still painting

Inside Outbuilding #2
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 40"

ImageKind Print

See-Saw #3

The last see-saw for now. I am hype to paint some more of these. I am wondering what they would feel like bigger.

See-Saw #3
Acrylic on canvas
10"x20"
$150
ImageKind Print

See-Saw #2

They don't make kids playground equipment like they used to. See-saws teach kids about balance, weight, force, and teamwork. I can't think of anything like that anymore on playgrounds. Believe me, I would know, as a teacher and a parent.
I really enjoyed making these paintings. I have some more lined up to do as soon as I can make the canvases.

See-Saw #2
10" x 20"
Acrylic on canvas
$150

ImageKind Print

See Saw

Remember see-saws? How about carousels, monkey bars shaped like spaceships, or miniature rocking horses mounted on sheet metal? This series of paintings will focus on these childhood images. They will also examine the affects of time and weather on them. I will look at them in a close up manner causing them to become almost abstract. Here is the first one.

See-Saw
10"x10"
$150

ImageKind Print

The Second Window

Looking inside for the last time. After this painting I began to look through the buildings. I considered posting in order but I was eager to post inside Outbuilding so I skipped this one. After this I also began the See - Saw series. I will post this series soon.

This is the second window of the barn with two windows.

Second Window
24" x " 24'
Acrylic on Canvas

ImageKind Print

Inside Outbuilding

This painting titled this series. It also solidified my ideas about what I was trying to show. My paintings since doing this one are more complex than the Two Windows or Window paintings. They show landscapes framed by the buildings in them. They show patterns colors and shadows that rest just this side of abstract. I try to maintain my fidelity to the subject matter while trying to create something beautiful. I also want to acknowledge that I know there is an entire history of painting that I am aware of and that there was a time when the minimalists where thought to have killed it.

Inside Outbuilding
28"x50"

ImageKind Print

Barn with Two Windows

This painting provides some context for my recent series. It is of the barn at Nimrod. Actually, all of the paintings in this series came from that one barn. I like the tension between the heavy roof and the windows that seem too small. I really see this series as a continuation of the landscapes I have done all along, only closer to my subjects.
Barn with Two Windows
48"x36"
ImageKind Print

tip toeing towards abstraction

I did this second painting in the new series while thinking, "How close can I get to abstraction without letting go of the landscape concept?" This painting is simple but I hope interesting. In context it is a barn window but alone it is abstract. I think it works either way.

Window #1
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 24"

ImageKind Print

The breakthrough painting

I have struggled in my paintings to find a way to show the intimate relationship between man made structures and the natural environment. I am fascinated by the way the two types of space affect each other. I have had a break through and have begun a new series. I will continue to do my more traditional landscapes that explore the duality of man interacting with his environment and not always acknowledging his impact. I will also start to explore how nature pushes back against man's structures, often committing slow violence against the offending structures. I have begun a series that shows how outbuildings, which are often created for entirely functional reasons become changed by their environment. Water, bugs, and sunlight decay these buildings over a long period of time and, because they are entirely functional and still fulfill their function are not "kept up" by the people who use them. More on these themes in the coming days.

Double Window
Acrylic on canvas
25" x 40"

ImageKind Print

288 and Patterson

This is likely my most successful painting in my Infrastructure series. It is of the intersection of 288 and Patterson Ave. (Route 6) I bicycle on this road all the time. This farm was obviously bigger at some time in the not so distant past. It looks like they tried to make a go of being a nursery or an open air market before the interstate came through. It sort of hits you over the head with the content but I really appreciated the duality of the scene when I first saw it on my bike and I knew I had to paint it.
288
Acrylic on Canvas
28" x 50"
$ 2500
ImageKind Print

Last Farm in Short Pump

This is a large painting of the last farm in Short Pump. I have started a new series that I will begin posting soon. This one is about 4 foot by 6 foot.

I did two other paintings about this scene but this was the most successful. The birds in the painting are chimney swifts.

Duck Pin Summer - New Painting!

When I was a kid my sister and I would go visit my grandparents every summer for a week or two. Part of the time was spent at my maternal grandmother's then we would go to my paternal grandparents. The highlight of my time with my Mom's mother was duck pin bowling.

Both sets of grandparents bowled duck pin. I remember the feeling of walking into the cool alley after being in 100 degree heat. My sister and I would get our own lane. It was a blast. We would bowl with both sets of grandparents, then go to Ledo's pizza for lunch (the original in Maryland) then go with my paternal grandparent's house.

I don't know where my wife got this duck pin but I have wanted to paint it for a long time.
I have created an account with ImageKind. Now you can buy prints for about $30. I will start adding previous paintings soon. Or, buy the orignal just click the
button.

8" x 8" Acrylic on board $100

I am an Artoholic

Hello, My name is John and I am an artoholic. It has been 47 days since I last painted and longer since I posted to my blog. but, one day at a time right...?

Heaay Ocarina!

Painting of a Mexican flute whistle. I love that this is an object, an animal, and an instrument all at the same time.

It has a life of its own.

Acrylic on Board
6" x 6"
$100

Submarine Tower

Thankfully, I was reminded by my first cousin once removed (or something like that) that this is a painting of a submarine tower and, being from Baltimore, he recognized it as near Rehobeth. It all came back to me instantly after showing him the painting yesterday.
I guess I need to awaken my inner-marine.

Acrylic on board
$100

Chesapeake

Chesapeake $100
8" x 8"
Acrylic on Canvas

I spent a lot of time on the water when I was younger. When I got older I discovered my love for stories. The author John Barth really awakened this love in me and reawkened my love of the water. Some day I hope to have a sail boat and sail the Chesapeake with my family. (I will have to learn how to sail first.)

Gulf Station in Hanover County

SOLD Thanks Jon in VA, Beach
Gulf Station in Hanover County

Apple Still

SOLD Thank you!
I don't often paint still lifes but I find myself drawn to them just before a productive time. I think they sort of clear the cobwebs for me.


Apple Still
Acrylic on Masonite
$95

Shockoe Swifts

SOLD Thanks Phillip!


This painting is part of a series I have begun featuring Chimney Swifts. The chimney swift is a migratory bird that lives in the south eastern U.S. It used to live in hollowed trees but now makes its home in chimneys and burnt out buildings. I love the way this bird has of flying. It is related to swallows and swoops and dives like filigreed iron work. These birds live in large flocks and hunt bugs in the twilight hours. They often migrate at night keeping them safer from predators. I really see these birds as representing natures push-back. They are one of the first species to identify those places that are abandoned or forgotten. When man has built infrastructure and then moved on to newer technology these birds have moved in to use the left overs. More to come I think.

Shockoe Swifts
Acrylic on panel
8" x 8"
$ 100

Across from Best Buy

If you have spent any time in Richmond, or in any rural country side turned suburban metropolis like Downtown Short Pump, you have seen this place. It is the last hold out of the by gone era. This large farm has sat across the street from the Best Buy, Home Depot, Kohls, Target, and Walmart for almost 15 years. It is really no longer funtional though you can see all of the cast off functionality from the road. The grain silo and the multiple out buildings must have been useful at some point. Now there is a four lane stop light standing by, waiting for the road that will lead into this farm turned shopping center. It is beautiful, sad, inevitable, and somehow I really like the rythum of the stop lights against the sky. There is a backhoe parked in the grass 50 yards from the fence as I write this. There is a large gaping hole in the field to the right of the stop lights. I went out there the other day and took some photos so that I could finish this painting. I could hear it calling me.

Acrylic on Canvas
16" x 20"
$250

Fulton Gas Works

Sometimes I think that buildings and places speak to me because they know I listen.

The Fulton Gas Works has stood empty and gutted for as long as I have been here. (16 years!?) My friend EriK Robson and I would drive by it on our tours of places that make Richmond a city and not just a town. The metal blown out gas storage tank and the cool Art deco building that stands on risers has always seemed sacred in some way. I also knew that it was doomed. There was no possible way a building and structure like this could possibly survive a development onslaught. It isn't historical, there are no famous people related to it, it was just part of the infrastrucure that is no longer needed.
Then, came the ball park.
I finished this painting in January of 2005. I worked on it through the summer. I am not crying "Save the Gasworks!" I know it needs to go sometime. I am just saying, this is a great blues song I think should be heard. I think that is why it spoke to me. It has a song, sad, beautiful, and kinda funky.

Acrylic on Canvas
40" x 50"

$2500
This painting can be seen in real life at
Main Street Centre
600 E. Main St.

In Your Ear

This painting of Shockoe Bottom Row houses was painted entirely on site. It is behind the Adam Craig house on 22nd Street. I didn't realize this was In Your Ear studios until Robin Thompson came out to see what I was painting. Everybody who stopped by from the studio was really great. They have really done a great job revitalizing this block. I really loved how the porch roofs contrasted. The house on the end is looks like half of a "Double House." This style of house was built pre-civil war.
24" x 24"
Acrylic on Canvas
$500

Butch's Produce

This perpetually is it closed?/is it open? Richmond legend has always appealed to me. I liked the bike in front too.
24" x 32"
Acrylic on Canvas
$800

Manteo Light

SOLD Thank you LINKS patron!


This view of the lighthouse in Manteo is a little idyllic but I really saw it so, I figured I should give it a shot.
32" x 32"
Acrylic on Canvas
$ 800

Look Up

I am always looking for the cast off necessity in our environment. This water tank and tobacco warehouse are just two examples of our society creating and casting off its infrastructure. In a few years this warehouse will be condominiums. The global economy marches on. :)

4" x 4"
Acrylic on board
$ 100

World of Mirth

SOLD at the ART180 ART KARMA Benefit Auction
I painted this in the Fall of last year.

10" x 10"
Acrylic on board
$ 100

Tobacco Barn II

This barn is inspired by a cycling ride in the East End.

8" x 16"
Acrylic on Board
$ 100

East End Bridge

This is a painting of the 288 bridge over the James River in the East End of Richmond.
No matter how we feel about development I believe we must always look for the beauty around us.

8" x 16"
Acrylic on board
$ 100

East End Ride

This cycling painting is inspired by a ride in the East End of Richmond, Virginia.
It is larger than some of my paintings. If you have ever cycled near Battlefield Park you will recognize this turn. This field will likely be gone in the next 3 years from development. (If its not gone already.) That's why I painted it.

12" x 36"
Acrylic on board
$250

Wetland Fishing

This image is inpired by the lowlands arround Hatteras, NC and Savannah, GA.
Approx. 10" x 20"

$100

First Street Barber Shop

SOLD

This painting was purchased at the Fool for Art Auction for John Tyler Community College on April 1st. http://www.jtcc.edu/Giving/FoolForArt/FoolForArtGala

Union Hill

Not for sale. Sadly I have fallen for my own painting. THis definitely does not make good business sense!

North of Baltimore

SOLD Thanks Sudi!

North of Baltimore

$100

4" x 5"

This scene is inspired by the area that my wife's family hails from. We have made many trips there for family get togethers.

Syria Virginia

SOLD Thanks Sudi!

Syria Virginia $100

One of my favorite places to drive with my wife and family.

4" x 5"

Afternoon Ride

SOLD Thanks Sudi!

Afternoon Ride $100

Inspired by my bike ride out to Goochland and back yesterday.

3 1/2" x 5"