Linville Gorge Revisited

 

Linville Gorge Revisited 

8" x 10" oil on board

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For me, there is no greater feeling of peace than the one I get from staring into an endless range of mountains. Just like a wide ocean view, staring into the mountains or any open vista (as opposed to staring at a phone or computer screen or being trapped in a city) expands your field of vision, which is supposed to reduce stress. I can confirm that it works. There's also something about the contrast between the ground-level, zoomed in, view that you get from hiking through a gorge (as in Linville Gorge), hemmed in by rhododendron and the noise of tumbling rapids and then scrambling to the top of the ridge to view not only where you just were, but as far as the atmosphere will let you in any direction. 

This is the second time I've attempted this painting and while I think it's better than the first, it still has a ways to go. Still working on that sense of peace. 

Linville Gorge

Linville Gorge
16" x 20" oil on canvas
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Oregon Inlet Surf

6" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Panel
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Per usual, we were left with a four-hour window of time after driving to the Outer Banks, NC, buying bait and beer, and checking in to our lodging, to fish.  Turns out this would be the only window of fish time available to us thanks to freezing temperatures and 40 mph winds the following day. One, unidentifiable fish was caught. Despite the weather, we found ways to amuse ourselves.  This painting is my recollection of Thanksgiving weekend in the Outer Banks and that four-hour window of unproductive surf fishing.

Bud

8" x 10"
Oil on HD Canvas
Commissioned

This is Bud.  He's an old dog now, but I turned back the clock for him in this painting. I think it turned out pretty well considering I've never met the dog and my only reference was a 2" x 2" photo print from many years back.

'On the Beach'

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

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I've said this before, but there comes a point in every painting when it may not be perfect, but any further attempt at perfection will have the opposite effect.  I like this painting a lot, but as always I reached the point where I felt like I could do better - in this case, I knew better than to go on.  I think that's a step forward for me actually...Some of my best paintings might have been better if not for my obsessiveness.

I thought about calling this painting, 'The Ocean,' but I think the painting is less about the strength and cold indifference of the ocean as commonly depicted in art and literature and more about a warm, shimmery, day at the beach.  Maybe if I do a painting of one of the 15 foot, Hurricane Earl waves that we saw during the same beach trip, I'll call that one 'The Ocean.'