Seven-Barn Farm

Seven-Barn Farm

Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125 

Years ago, when I started making the 10x10 paintings, they were what sold first, when I went to shows. At the better shows, I could always count on five or six of them selling - these paintings are original oils, and less expensive then what many artists charge for prints. But starting last year, people stopped buying the 10x10s. Happily for me, they started buying bigger paintings. 

But the not-buying of 10x10s has continued, and has sort of mystified me. Of course, as the paintings stopped selling, I more or less stopped painting them, which has meant that most of my available 10x10s are of the southwest. And not everybody wants paintings of the southwest, especially if they live on the East Coast. 

So I've started a new series of 10x10s, with farms and mountains and salt marshes and who knows what else. I am curious to see if they begin to sell again. I'll let you know. 

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MY FIRST CHANCE to test my theory on the ground, so to speak (as opposed to on the internet) will be July 9-10, in Wickford, RI, at the Wickford Art Festival. This is a fine-art-only show that takes place on the streets of Wickford, a quaint New England seacoast village. I'll be in Booth 82, on Elam Street. Hope to see you there! 

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IF YOU'RE TRAVELING anywhere this summer, be prepared to be delayed by road construction. I went to Cincinnati and Omaha and back, and encountered construction - mostly bridge repair - on every road I traveled. Interstate 80 was the worst, with construction pretty much everywhere. 

I have to say that I got a good look at some of the bridges being worked on, and they were scary. This one, which I believe is in West Virginia, is nowhere near the worst. One bridge being worked on in Ohio was literally crumbling as I drove across it. 

All those news stories about the state of our infrastructure? They're right, and not exaggerating. 

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Dog of the Day

AT THE PARADISE CITY Art Festival, I was part of a surprise involving this painting. Great fun! And here is Boy himself, looking at the painting. I think it's a scream that the dog in the painting is bigger than the dog in real life.  

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A Final Thought

"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: 

I am here to live out loud." 

- Emile Zola