WOW! is right… I have an affinity for trees against a very blue sky. I can’t help but take photos of them. Not sure why, they’re striking I guess, and this is no exception. You can just feel how tall that tree is. Love the clouds! Such a nice painting!

Look at this light! This painting stood out to me for that very reason. The light highlighting the cacti – whoa! The nice light on the mountain tops and the soft wispy clouds all around. So nice! I love that he painted the cactus with the sun hitting the back. It gives the painting such nice contrast. Check out his website. Wow!

Read a bit about Mitch, from his website:

As a representational painter Mitch believes that painting is a celebration of life and the beauty that surrounds us. He is devoted to the traditions of the late 19th century artists who looked to the figure and nature for inspiration regarding light, color, and design. Seeking out this inspiration, Mitch works directly from life to capture the qualities and nuances of natural light and color harmony. He has a strong conviction that great artistic communication depends on good draftsmanship, design and vision. His artistic desire is to “portray a positive visual statement and hope the viewer will experience what I see and in some sense be inspired, uplifted, or moved by my painting, whether it is of a small intimate setting or a grandiose subject.”

Mitch resides in the desert southwest in Mesa, Arizona with his wife Emily and children Siena and Spencer. He is a Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America and is also a member of the American Impressionist Society and Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters.

All images via MitchBaird.com, used with permission…

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Kyle Paliotto can really paint the light, can’t he? This little piggy is precious… the light coming through his ears… stunning! So loose and wonderful, such character! This knocks me out!

I think it’s safe to say that Kyle can paint just about anything! From pigs to fish, they all have character, and I love that! Love his signature – very cool!

Read a bit about Kyle, from his website – he sounds like a nice guy:

Oil painter Kyle Paliotto gathers imagery from the beautiful rustic landscape of his local  surroundings in North Idaho.  He searches out rural settings which display a time gone by when harmony between land and man existed.  His style is one that takes from impressionism without disregarding the discipline of representational art up to the early 1900′s.  Painting plein air on location is essential to his process but the real meat and potatoes is in the studio.

At the age of 39, Kyle has had some great achievements, but his greatest joys are his wife Rebecca and children Vincent and Sophia.

Images via PaliottoArt.com, used with permission…

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LOOK AT THOSE BRUSH STROKES! Fabulous! Eric Jacobsen is an artist who captivates his viewer with his paintings! Each one fabulous in its own way. I love the wild clouds, the autumn trees and the shady area in the foreground.

I love this painting. Something about it draws me in… perhaps the fabulous color palette, interesting shadows and overall composition. I am impressed!

Read a bit about Eric, from his website:

Eric Jacobsen was born and raised in New England. He received a BA in History from Gordon College in Wenham, MA in 1989 and studied fine art at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, CT from 1991-1995. At the Academy he received training in the Beaux Arts tradition of drawing and painting from life.

Eric’s true inspiration is the amazing beauty that he sees in nature. Jacobsen is a “Plein Air” painter. He takes his oils wherever he goes, setting up on site, working until his painting is finished.

“It is most important to me that my paintings convey a certain mood”, Eric says. “I want them to be felt by the viewer without his or her having to analyze or think about them. As a general rule, I try to find strong compositions in nature and then paint the scene accurately while leaving out any extraneous details which would only busy up the painting and detract from the strength of the piece as a whole. My painting process consists of finding a painting site and setting up to paint for a couple of hours, or until the light has changed. For larger paintings, I will return on consecutive days at the same time, under similar lighting conditions to finish a piece.”

Images via EricJacobsenStudio.com, used with permission…

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Kevin Beers. He’s always a pleasure to watch paint. Fred and I have seen Kevin on Monhegan several years toting his large canvases for plein air painting. He just shows up at the same spot and same time the next day to continue working. His paintings are treasures! Especially if you love the island as much as most people who visit do!

I love nocturnes, and this one is extra special! A short walk from the wharf is a cabin called Uncle Henry’s. I love the moodiness of this painting, and those few stars make it extra special!

Kevin is fortunate to be married to one of the nicest people on the planet, Amy, who is also an artist! They have recently made the big move to Maine, and they couldn’t be happier!

Arriving at Gleason Fine Art on Thursday…

If you’re in the Boothbay Harbor, Maine area be sure to stop in to see the “View from Here” show at Gleason Fine Art. it should arrive in the gallery on Thursday! Here it is… Dennis Gleason shared some info with me about this painting… This truck painted with Old Glory – does it look familiar? You may have seen the real thing on Rte 90 just off Rte 1, where Jay Sawyer has his sculpture “garden”. This is going to be a fabulous show, don’t miss it!

The show opens TOMORROW, June 18, 2015 and runs through July 28th!  The reception is on JULY 3, 2015, from 5-8PM so if you would like to meet Kevin in person, be sure to stop by Gleason Fine Art!

Kevin can paint the lightkeeper’s house on Monhegan in the most unbelievable way, but just when you don’t think there could be another twist… POOF! A painting within a painting – Clever!

Check out Gleason’s website and see all the other fabulous paintings that Kevin has been working on!

Read a blip about Kevin via Gleason Fine Art website:

           Monhegan has come to mean a lot to Beers. It is where Beers transformed a passion for painting into his life’s work. It is also where Beers met his wife, Amy Raye, who, in a scene right out of a Hepburn and Tracy romantic comedy, literally ran into Beers while admiring a magazine article about Beers painting on Monhegan. Fittingly, Beers and Raye married on their island a couple summers after their serendipitous meeting.
            To his many collectors, a Kevin Beers painting represents everything they love about Maine: intense blue seas and skies, puffy white clouds, and sunlight dancing off neat clapboard houses. To Beers himself, “Monhegan is a dazzling place with incredible, beautiful light. I love to paint the buildings on the island—the color and structure of weathered buildings, the patterns of sunlight and shadow, and the sharp contrast between a red roof, white clapboards, and bright blue sky.”

All images via GleasonFineArt.com, used with permission! 

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Steve Curry. I really like his paintings, they have a moodiness about them! These trees seem to be dancing in the light, don’t they? Quite like an enchanted forest!

There is a cool video on Steve’s website – get to know him a little bit better and then read a bit about Steve, from his website;

Born in Milbrae, California in 1957 Steven spent the first 21 years of his life in the beautiful surrounding of Northern California. Both parents were practicing artists who nurtured Steven’s love of drawing and painting from an early age.

     In 1982, he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Visual Communication from California State University, Long Beach working the first 6 years of his professional art career as Graphic Designer in Los Angeles, CA.

    From 1988 to 2003 Steven owned and operated the Curry Design Agency based in Santa Monica, California. CDA’s many prestigious clients included Nissan North America, Sony Pictures, and the Academy Awards. CDA’s significant impact on the graphic design industry is emphasized by having three graphic design projects selected to be archived in the collections of the United States’ Library of Congress.

After more than 15 years of commercial success, Steven retired his design agency in order to pursue his fine art passion full time, choosing the Ojai Valley of California as home and inspiration.

 Images via StevenCurryArts.com, used with permission…

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Katie Dowling. Around the Bend is a great example of simplified strokes making a knock out painting. A painting without a lot of detail leaves something for your imagination to fill in. The color palette, brush strokes and composition are very nice. Check out more of Katie’s work!

Read a bit about Katie, from her website:

Katie grew up in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. At age 18 a family friend invited her to go painting outside. Weeks later the same friend told her she must sign up for a workshop given by Don Sahli, a nationally recognized plein air painter, so she did. On the third day the entire process clicked and there began a new love and a new career in the fine arts.

Don Sahli introduced her to the tradition and heritage of Russian impressionism, to the work of Sahli’s teacher Sergei Bongart and to the palette and techniques of the Russian masters. With this springboard of information she was equipped to experience nature in a totally new way.

Katie began to win awards in local art festivals and then was included in Southwest Art magazine’s section, “21 Young Artists To Collect Now.”  She was featured in the exhibition “Legacy of the Russian Masters” with Filmmaker and painter George Gallo along side her teacher Don Sahli and most recently won the Artist’s Choice award for the 9th annual Sedona plein air festival and the Crested Butte Invitational in the open class division.

As she grows she has developed and discovered the importance of both the outdoors and the studio. This has enabled her to explore the elements of design, structure and balance in pieces painted from her field studies. As a native of the Vail Valley in Colorado, she searches for beauty near her home and throughout the west.

Image via KatieDowling.com, used with permission…

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Karen O’Neil. Gorgeous paintings! Different! I’m not sure how to describe, but the technique is so clean and just absolutely beautiful! She can paint these still life’s so beautifully. Refined and a little delicate, simply beautiful! Such nice color harmony and so pleasing to the eye!

LOVELY! Karen is a master painting glass, isn’t she? Beautiful! Click HERE to see Karen’s list of Workshops/Classes for 2015!

Read a blip about Karen, from the Thaddeus C. Gallery:

“My goal is to capture the brief and fleeting visual excitement of our everyday lives…” Karen O’Neil studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and in Provincetown with Henry Hensche. Since 1990 Karen has been an instructor of painting at the Woodstock School of Art in Woodstock, NY. Her work is represented in many private and corporate collections throughout the United States.

Images via KarenONeilFineArt.com, used with permission…

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Jacob Tarazoff. Nice work! Very different! Love his style. This guy looks like he loves life. I think it’s so cool how he travels around and paints. Check out the photos (link towards end of this post)… This is a nice street scene. Love the colors! The power lines add so much! So nice!

Velvet Hues… pretty cool, eh? This is what Jacob is known for. His love of skiing, rock climbing and snowboarding really shows through in his paintings, doesn’t it? Check out his work, he paints pretty much everything… Great work!

Info from Jacob:

Over the last twenty years I have had some incredible experiences rock climbing and riding my snowboard in the wild areas of the Western US and Canada. It has become important for me to find ways to memorialize these experiences, and oil painting has provided me with a means to record that reaches beyond the scope of photography and video. I want to help people to make their climbing and ski memories something more substantial than just a helmet cam video or a ton of pictures after a ski day. Let me help you make your climb/ski experience last a lifetime, with an archival and fully reproducible original oil portrait by Jacob Tarazoff. Options for ski /climb portraits would be generally be one of three;

-Send me photo references and short synopsis of the day

-Meet me at spot of your choice for a custom climb or ski day portrait

-Meet me at the Festival/Event of your choice for a custom climb or ski day portrait

I was born in Santa Fe New Mexico in 1982, and grew up exploring the high dessert of Northern New Mexico. Snowboarding, rock climbing and mountain biking led to a deeper appreciation for the land and eventually paint and brushes became a means of exploration. I have a BFA from the University of New Mexico, 2006, and have had the opportunity to study with many wonderful painters in and around the Western US. I have had many public showings of my work and have won numerous awards at plein air events throughout the US, and my work is represented in private collections around the world. I am available for commissions, as well as an adventure-painting guide in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and throughout Northern New Mexico.

Check out some photos of Jacob (from his website)- he says:

It looks like he has a blast! What a cool way to roll!

All images via JacobTarazoff.com, used with permission…

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Skip Lawrence. His paintings have pizazz. A little something unexpected and wonderful. They have life. Depth. Feeling and movement. They’re fabulous! Skip loves to paint and it shows in every single one of his paintings!

Red Mark is a perfect example of a loose painting that has total shape and movement. That white outline on her right hip/thigh is brilliant. Love the red mark and the swishes of color… what else do you see in this painting?? Fabulous!

Are you looking for a workshop to take? Something different? Look no further! Skip is offering workshops in several locations… check out his workshop schedule!

Read a bit about Skip, from his website, also check out his blog!:

EXPRESSIVE ARTIST

I love everything about painting. I love feeling the paint, seeing a rich color spread under my brush onto a surface and the play between colors coming together. I love watching my idea take form  until a painting finally says “it” and I am surprised and delighted every time. I love sharing my art and knowing that someone is moved by it.

I see no hierarchy among realism, abstraction, non-objective painting styles.  I see only the relationship of colors, shapes, surface and line that either thrills or bores me. When these elements come together to communicate an artist’s intention to the viewer, to connect with someone, it is nothing short of wonderful.

TEACHER & MENTOR

All images via SkipLawrence.com, used with permission…

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Brad Kunkle. Shadow led me to Brad Kunkle’s art work. Who’s Shadow? Shadow is Brad’s beautiful dog that was recently missing in Brooklyn, NY. I saw the FB post “Bring Shadow Home…” and all I could think about was Shadow. Long story short… Shadow is now back home safely, but you may want to check out the FB page, it’s a wonderful story!

Brad’s paintings are so unique, stunning in every way. The way he captures his subject, gives it a twist and paints with oil, gold and silver! Just look at those birds! They appear three dimensional, don’t they? The woman looks as if she will stand up and walk right out of the painting! Check out some of Brad’s other paintings… Wow. Wow. Wow!

Read a bit about Brad via an article “Brad Kunkle: Give Me the Light” in visionaryartistrymag.com (Fabulous!)

Kunkle’s work is prevalent in New York, where he resides. He has participated in several group and solo exhibitions since 2009 according to his curriculum vitae located on his website. He is a self-taught artist originally from Pennsylvania, who studied legendary artists and found his own niche while doing so. Kunkle tells the art publication “Fine Art Connoisseur” that he “paints to connect with the part of being human that is beautiful and slightly dark, stripped to its truth and always changing: the part of being human that appears to be romantic, but feels very real.” Each one of his paintings definitely represents this thought, all of his work is beautiful upon first glance but when you look deeper and take into account what surrounds each subject the dark side comes to light.

Image via BradKunkle.com, used with permission!

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Rebecca Kinkead. WOW. Her paintings generate smiles. Big, very happy smiles. Shake (Blue Sky), above, is so fabulous, I love how you can just feel the water as this dog shakes. So happy, so wonderful in every way! Rebecca’s paintings stir a sense of happiness… especially if you love dogs, and I do!

This painting makes me think of our own beast, a Jack Russell named Charlie. He has so much character with his wild flying hair and his circus like antics. Charlie loves squirrels (and cats, and birds, and Lizzy’s and basically anything that moves)! He will spend hours “watching TV” (looking out of the sunroom window watching the squirrels in the yard, in the tree, running around, digging in HIS dirt… they jump into the tree, look him in the eye and eat HIS acorns, twitching happily, knowing that Charlie can’t get through the window). This painting, with the dog’s tail wagging a mile a minute is precious!!

I want, I want! Ha ha!

Read a bit about Rebecca’s paintings, from her website:

These paintings are based on memories, both personal and borrowed.

They are an attempt to explore a collective human experience.

Details and features remain ambiguous, inviting the viewer to seek something of themselves in the work.

The figure (human and animal) has provided a generous vehicle for color, form and surface to evolve.

Paint and wax are layered, dripped and scraped to create a sense that the subject is still emerging…

 still ‘becoming’.

 — rebecca kinkead

All images via RebeccaKinkead.com, used with permission…

Catch you back here tomorrow!