Downtown street paintings done on this month

An extended 2009 Dogwood Arts Festival adds new events while retaining the outdoor and arts attractions that build it East Tennessee's annual salute to spring.

The 49th festival events begins with a $125-per-person April 2 gala and patron party; events will continue through this month.

The 60 miles of Dogwood's seven trails and five, a little garden byways open April 8-24. This year's feature trail is Holston Hills; The April 21 "Diva Luncheon" at the Knoxville Museum of Art add a fashion show of wearable art. A new one-mile night race downtown will conclude the traditional festival parade April 24.

And there'll be a little bit of festival after April. The festival event hosts the Knox County Art Educators' Exhibition May 1-29 at the University of Tennessee's Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St.

Choosing paint colors for house paints

Each specific color will reasonably have their particular compliment when it comes to the location of the house, for example:

Red

Houses painted with shades of red, such as pink, coral, or even rose can have a playful and feminine touch to it, although deeper shades can have a rather theatric effect to it.

Green

Shades of green have a tendency to provide a house an earthy feel, and look attributing to the color green being associated with nature and the environment.

Blue

The color blue has often been connected with a lot of things, including peace, contemplation, coziness, the deep ocean, and the wide open sky. With these in mind, houses colored with shades of blue often depict the same atmosphere, looking like calm and contemplative dwellings.

Update: ebay, friends & dino bones

Stacked Bread No. 2
oil on canvas
10'' x 10"

The third commissioned piece is nearing completion, and I must have an image of that in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I've gotten back a small number of gallery paintings, and I've decided to auction them on ebay. Stacked Bread No. 2 will be the first. There will be three in total. Two paintings at 12 x 12, and one at 10 x 10.

In other news, our friend Robert Deyber just announced the publication of his first hardbound book of select paintings. Production was handled through his gallery, Martin Lawrence, and it's themes, A Language All His Own. Our copy arrived a few days ago, and it's terrific.

Iced Tea

Iced Tea No. 2
oil on canvas
12'' x 12"

Here is the second of three superior paintings to be auctioned on ebay. It's 12 x 12 on gallery wrapped canvas. Tomorrow I'll post the last piece for auction. The third commission for Chicago is finish, but I'm going to wait until these auction paintings are all up before I post the image. The theme for this one is Family, and I'm truly pleased with how it turned out.

Sliced Bread No.2

Sliced Bread No. 2
oil on canvas
12'' x 12"

And finally the third eBay paintings for this week, Sliced Bread No.2. This will be the last large painting on canvas to be listed on eBay for a while. The Chicago commission is getting closer to completion, and I plan to get back to several small paintings on hardboard for auction once it's done. I'll also have to get busy produce new work for the galleries.

3rd Completed Commission: Family

Family
oil on canvas
24'' x 24"

Here is the third of four commissioned paintings headed to Chicago . The title or theme of this painting is, "family". I had come up with a number of ideas while contemplating this title, but it was Karen's suggestion of using shoes that finally made the cut. It was an inspired idea. The "fathers" shoe, in back, was issued to me at Lack land Air Force Base on November 17, 1972. They were part of my dress blues, and I still wear them today as my dress shoes.

Secrets of oil painting to make good painter

Technique is not the secret of paintings. It's not using tissues, toothbrushes, sponges, cotton swabs, palette knives, or razor blades along with your artist paint brushes. Nor is it regarding "put a little blue here." All of these have a place in our bag of drawing and painting actions ... but the real secret of picture making is composition.

Paintings have underlying principles that manage the elements of the picture in order to bring the eye of the viewer into and around the image in an interesting way and to organize the elements into a cohesive whole.

In a painting of a sky, mountain range and valley let's say you want the sky to control. You would make the sky ½ the height of the canvas (3/6ths).

To be sure, an understanding of technique, color theory, form, drawing, perspective and proportion need to be studied and developed but they should serve on an fundamental structure.

Composition is the secret of paintings.