The New-ness

The Paintmonkey is expanding the empire! Okay, we just got a dedicated website that combines everything in one place, but it feels like a big step. But one thing that isn't changing is the work!

I have a project I'm working on that requires a tree. I've not focused a lot on trees in the past, so a little research was required. I had to renew my library card so I walked to the local branch and took some sketch supplies with me. Here are the results...

Not a bad start...but not EXACTLY what I'm looking for. It's getting there. I'll find it.

And I hope you enjoy this new platform for Paintmonkey art.

Alumni Weekend and Plein Air Practice

This weekend was alumni weekend at Young Harris College which is my spiritual home. I needed to get in some plein air practice for an upcoming event (details to be revealed very soon) so what better place and time than to go see old friends at my very favorite enchanted valley.

I got there right around 10ish so I parked and grabbed my gear and set out for the patio in front of one of the dorms.  I love the Susan B. Harris chapel but everyone always paints it from the same couple of places.  I wanted a different view so I chose the one that most people know but I don't feel they think of as often.

Here's the photo from where I set up...

And here's the painting I got from this vantage point...

So after this, I met up with a couple of friends and we headed over to the gym where we were being served lunch.  Had a lovely time chatting with friends and talking to some students about school and then it was back out into the sun for more painting!

I crawled up the back of campus (holy crap, I am not as young OR in shape as I used to be) and found what everyone pretty much said was the best view of the valley and campus.  After finally wheezing my way up there, I am inclined to agree.

The view...

And what I took from it...

So once again, I had a great time at my alma mater and got some pretty decent pictures out of it.  Not bad for someone who used to be TERRIFIED of landscapes.

Savannah Sketching

The wife and I went down to Savannah this week for a little vacation.  (This is why there was no Tuesday Toonsday this week.  Sorry!)  We ate a lot of seafood and walked around enjoying the town.  And I mean WALKING.  So much walking.  Take our advice.  Don't walk that much.  Jump on one of those trolley tours.  Hijack it if you have to.

We started out by walking down to River street and checking out some shops.  At the end of the street we took a rest and I sketched the waving girl for a few minutes.

We got some tips about stuff to see from my friend Robby.  As the wife and I love old cemeteries, Bonaventure seemed a wonderful place to go.

Tattnall Way running down the length of the cemetery draped on both sides by live oaks and moss...

And here is one of the better carvings on one of the graves...

This week was a big learning experience for me in regards to creating art in the wild.  You might notice that both of these sketches seem a little hurried and unfinished.  This is because...THEY...found me.  "They" are these little insects.  Not the mosquitos.  Those I could tell because they were as big as fruit bats.  No..."they" were these tiny little bugs which took a chunk out of you like a bear trap.  So on both occasions I started working and the little beggars found me and I got up and ran away.

I also learned in Bonaventure that I need to cut down the size of my painting gear when walking around that much.  It gets HEAVY.

And my last sketch is of our hotel, the Thunderbird Inn.

This one got hurried a little, as well.  The sky was a lovely blue when I started but in the course of about 20 minutes started getting more and more grey.  I had to run back into the room before everything got rained on.

We had a fantastic time and absolutely will be going back.  There's just too much down there to see.

Hope and Joy

I went to Young Harris today.  It was a complete coincidence that I had today off.  But once I realized what day it WAS...I wanted to do something positive.  I wanted to do something to make me and other people happy.  So I packed up the painting gear and headed out.

I got to the campus about noon and set up.  I worked for about 2 hours and in that time several of the beautiful, curious children stopped to talk to me about painting and the school.  (I am not using the term "children" in a condescending manner.  Quite the opposite.  I use it in the manner of wide-eyed children eager to take in everything.  They really were lovely.)  And during those conversations I realized something.  They are so proud of what they have.  They wanted to know if I liked the changes.  They were excited to talk about the changes and just as excited to hear about how it used to be.  And I told them truthfully that there were very few of us who would have gone anywhere else and we are actually a little jealous that they get to have four years there.  They seemed to appreciate that.

Then they went on to class and I finished up working on my painting.

As I left the school I realized that my day had been spent exactly the way I wanted...I went to a place that I hold very dear but it actually turned out better.  Change is inevitable.  But sometimes the best stuff stays exactly the same.

I finished my schooling at LaGrange.  I could've gone anywhere with a degree from Young Harris,  but it didn't matter where I went.  I am always a Mountain Lion at heart.

Grr!

Heroes and Friends* Revisited

*Now that Randy Travis is safely out of the hospital, I can use his line without fear of seeming insensitive.

This past week I went down to Saint Simon's Island.  A fellow alumni of Young Harris who lives in the Brunswick area had let me know about a retrospective being put on by the Glynn County Art Association.  The artist: why, none other than St. Simon's resident Mr. Jack Davis!  (Who, as you may recall...I am semi-obsessed with.)

Now unfortunately, my wife couldn't make it down on this trip.  I was forced to doing my secretive "meal drawings" alone.

I thought he was praying over his little continental breakfast for what seemed like a REALLY long time...just head down and not moving.  Then I noticed his phone behind the cup of juice.

Since the wife couldn't go, I had an extra ticket to the art opening and the accompanying panel discussion.  But I knew another of my fellow YHC alumna lives just north of the island in Savannah.  Robby was more than happy to take me up on the offer and Thursday night he headed down.  If you want to read some good stuff, be sure to check out Robby's blog Ramblings From the Tide.  He and his wife are both excellent writers.

Once Robby arrived, we headed over to the panel discussion.  Mr. Davis and his family were in attendance as well as many locals who obviously thought the world of him.

The panel was moderated by Nick Meglin, who used to be a writer and editor of MAD magazine.  Great stories and hugely entertaining, Mr. Meglin was actually interviewed with Robby beforehand by a local television station/internet pornographer/we're not really sure what they were.  If we get our hands on the footage I will be sure to post it.  It was really great.

The other two people on the panel were Mr. Jack Pittman, former president of the southeastern chapter of the National Cartoonists Society...

...and Mr. Tom Richmond, who is a current artist at MAD and is the new caricature hired gun now.  He is also extremely wiggly...

.

...and so he ended up looking like Nicolas Cage in my sketchbook.  (He does NOT look like Nicolas Cage.)

They all talked about Jack's influence and what he meant to each of them personally.  At the end of the discussion, Mr. Pittman presented a beautifully bound art notebook filled with cartoons from many of today's comic artists expressing their appreciation for Jack Davis.  The cover had an image of a self portrait that Jack had done, and they ran it through a 3-D printer to make a plaque for the cover.  Very cool.

We walked back across the street to the Glynn County Art Association.  I highly recommend if you have the chance to go see this exhibit.  Jack Davis drawings are amazing in print.  In person, they defy description.  Just go.  Thank me later.

Robby and I went up to Jack and his grand-daughter was kind of wrangling him and keeping the flow going.  She asked me if I had something I wanted him to sign and I replied "no actually...I have a gift".  I gave him a copy of one of my Bulldog calendars that I had written "thank you" on and signed.  He smiled warmly and seemed genuinely excited as he looked at it.  When everyone refers to him as a "true southern gentleman"...THAT is what they are talking about.  I will carry the image of Jack Davis smiling at my drawing for a VERY long time.

At the end of the evening, Robby got an old Bulldog clipping he had signed and we got our picture made with the man himself.  It was a wonderful evening.

...and it wasn't quite over yet.  More on that tomorrow.

Plein Air Practice

I've been working more on my plein air painting/sketching. For those that don't know that term, it means "paintin' outside". Which is usually what I call it. Anyhoo...

So I had today off as a co-worker is having her wisdom teeth out this week and I'm working the weekend for her. I thought I would take advantage of being off on a day I normally am not and try to go outside on one of the (semi) drier days we've had in a while. (As I type this the thunder is rolling in followed by what I presume to be another 8-10 inches of dampness.)

So I have seen this section of shops every day as I go to work and one day a few months ago, I thought to myself "you should paint those". So today I did.

As I sat there ALMOST done, A Clarkston police officer pulled a woman over for running a red light. Naturally she pulled over right in front of me so the police car was directly in front of what I was working on.

This next one is from last week. We took my Dad to dinner (belatedly) for his birthday. As we waited I got out the kit and the wife waited in the car, every now and then telling me I was going to get sun poisoning because I forgot a hat. (I didn't.) Here's what I got out of that one.

I'm still getting used to painting on my lap and the general hotness of it. I can't just confine my painting to those four days a year where the weather is perfect. But it's getting there.