Moonlight Hiker

With the Covid Pandemic there has been upheaval in everyone’s lives. During this past year I took a break from my wood canvas art paintings. Just recently, I decided to explore art again. I do absolutely love working with wood and painting, and combining the two for me is rewarding. My oldest son back in 2000 hiked the Appalachian Trail. It inspired me to try a different art form. 3D art I guess you would call it. The piece you see here only has about $15 in materials, but I know could sell it for many times that. The laired panels to create the 3D look is just from a 1/8″ piece of wood panel which I bought at a big box store for about $6. I just cut it to make it look like mountains and then sanded and painted them. The frame is just repurposed from an old ugly painting it once held that I bought from a second hand store. The cutouts of the hiker, trees and moon were bought on-line for cents on the dollar. The cutouts are bare wood, so I painted them with the colors that I thought would best suit the picture. The creation is just a labor of love for my son and what he accomplished. I presented it and gave it to him last week, and he absolutely loved it. I don’t know what is more rewarding, making art or giving it away. Anyway, I just thought I would share it here, and welcome any comments.

A Haunting Alley Springs Mill On The Jacks Fork River

Alley Springs Mill

I’ve always wanted to do a painting of Alley Springs Mill, but I wasn’t sure on what kind of mood I wanted for it. Then it kind of hit me with Halloween coming. I decided to do a ghostly, haunting theme. It’s not quite night as the sun rays fall on the mill and the moon rises above the bluff. An unworldly set of tiger eyes pierces through the trees. Just staring and waiting for the impending darkness. I think I created an uneasy beauty with this theme. It took me awhile to get this one done because I wrestled with how I was going to create the mood. I almost left the tiger eyes out, but then decided to go with them. I hope it was the right decision. This painting is done on 4 pine planks glued together.

Big Piney River Frog Gigging

Recently, my oldest son and his fiancee, my niece and her fiancee did a float trip on the Big Piney River. When my son posted some great pics of their trip, I asked him if I could use one to make a painting. The painting here is when my son snapped a pic of my niece’s fiancee standing at the river’s edge watching the frog giggers light up the other side of the river bank. The beam of white light freezes the frogs stare, so they can gig them with their long spears. I’ve been on the river myself watching people gig for frogs. As they troll up river, the echoing sound of the flat boat motors bounces off the bluffs in the thick black night. It’s a sensory experience to behold. Their brilliantly strong spot lights pierces the darkness with ease. The bull frogs eyes glow in the blinding white light. They freeze like statues, and then with a swift gig their fate has ended. I made this painting on two small pine planks glued together.

Cloud Hawk

This is my 4th painting of a Hawk. My previous efforts were Puddle Hawk, Harris Hawk and Moon Hawk which all can be seen here on my blog. I think one time or another we all have seen or wanted to see shapes in the clouds. So, I brought a Hawk to cloud life with this painting. It’s painted on two pine planks glued together.

Penguins In Africa

This is my 7^th painting of Penelope and Louis penguin adventures. This time they find themselves in the African plains. This painting was inspired by my 8 year old grandson who says he wants to be a zoologist when he grows up. He asked me…”Grandpa can you paint the penguins in Africa?” He loves everything animals! How could I say no. I did this painting on 3 pine board planks.

Donkey Kong

Who doesn’t love a couple of Donkeys on the farm? Why did I paint these two? I don’t know, it just felt right at the time. Besides I know a couple of people who love donkeys, and so I did this painting for them. I used two small pine board planks for this painting.

New Day Current River

My wife and I just floated the Current River, and I felt inspired to do another painting of it. It was a great float! I decided to go with a bright pink and orange sky, and a huge morning sun. The river winds around the bluff on the left, and is complimented with a large gravel bar on the right. Great place to pull up the canoe and have a morning dip. The Ozark Mountains up ahead. The morning air is cool with spring fed water that’s crystal clear. We go with the flow. Made this painting with two small pine wood planks.

Float On

One of my favorite places on earth is the Missouri Ozarks. People come from all over the world to float it’s rivers. Of all the rivers there that I have floated, my all time pick has to be the Current River. It’s gravel bars, caves, bluffs and the river itself teaming with wildlife makes it hard to beat. In this painting the river divides temporarily by a center gravel bar. Looking back from the canoe towards the large tree in the center, you can make a choice to float down the left or right side of the gravel bar. The painting shows the canoe resting on the other side of the river on another gravel bar. The occupants chose to come down the left side. but as we look into the painting this would be on the right. Looking back at the amazing bluffs on either side, the canoe made a long sweeping turn on the right side of the painting, and came to rest before launching over a small rapid. It’s a good place on a hot summer day to grab a snack and beverage and look up river from where you just came from. The summer sky, the rushing water and magnificent bluffs can fill your senses. It’s personal to me because I have floated this river countless times since I was a teenager. I’m 60 now, and hope I have many more floats in me. It never gets old. This painting is a compilation of my many memories to reflect several aspects of the river. It’s hard to compact all aspects in one painting. That said this painting makes me want to go back and “Go With The Flow”. I made the painting on three pine planks. 

Sunrise Moon Hawk

I called this painting Sunrise Moon Hawk. It has a sort of mystical look to it I think. There is a tree near where I live that when stripped of it’s leaves in winter looks like the one I have in this painting. The moon is the moon and it can look many different ways depending on the light, time of day and season. The moon here looks half asleep and half awake as it rises above the cold morning sun. The sunrise within a crystal blue sky is always a cool sight, so I thought it would be the right backdrop for these images. Then I decided to add a Red Tailed Hawk to the scene. There are 17 species of Hawk in North America and the Red Tailed Hawk is one of my favorites. There is a Hawk in the woods within walking distance of where I live that occasionally visits the trees near me, so I wanted a Hawk in this painting. All these images are bold and stand on their own, but when I put them together in one scene they sort of created a mysterious other world to me. I guess part of the reason is the silhouette and reflection effect. Most of my paintings mixes realism and fantasy, and this painting is no different. For me, this painting is easy on the eyes and creepy at the same time. It creates different reactions. If I can do that with a painting then I feel good about what I painted. I look forward to reading any responses to it. Three pine board planks were used for my canvas. As always, thank you for stopping by and having a look, and I look forward to any thoughts about it (good and bad).

The Lion Within

The air is crisp and clean. The majestic Locomotive roars powerfully across its tracks. The Lion within also reveals itself as it roars powerfully in the escaping steam. With manmade and nature forces combined, these two images are unstoppable as they speed across the shadowy landscape. Do you have the Lion within you? Are your body and mind like a Locomotive? I wanted to capture in this painting the strength and noise of the Locomotive and Lion together as one symbolic powerful roaring force. I decided to go mostly black and white with this one using three cedar planks to show-case more of the grainy cedar wood canvas. I’m pleased with the result, and I hope whomever lays their eyes on it is pleased as well.