Nancy Bozeman was kind enough to think of me as a painter (rather than writer and editor) and nominate me for the challenge of posting 3 paintings a day for 5 days. There isn’t enough room in a Facebook posting for lots of commentary, so I thought I would add some here.
1. Natchez, Mississippi
In 1994, I began traveling just to paint after earning an extra week of vacation from American Artist magazine. My friend and mentor Thomas Buechner encouraged to use that gift to focus on my plain air painting, so I made several trips back to my hometown of New Orleans and to cities in Mississippi that I fondly remembered from my childhood. This painting was done in 1998 on one of those trips when I also met up with my parents to celebrate my 50th birthday. The view is of a sunrise over the Mississippi River.
2. Chipping Campden, England
In 2000, my wife and I met William Hook and Kate Singer in England where we shared an apartment at Kiftsgate Court, one of the great manor homes and gardens noted for its white climbing rose known as the Kiftsgate Rose. William and I painted around the estate and in nearby villages, and I developed this oil of the view down towards the village while he painted a similar scene in acrylics. That’s when I learned one should not work downwind of an acrylic painter who constantly sprays his palette with mists of water.
3. Devon, England
In the late 1990s, Sara and I traveled to Devon and Somerset counties to visit gardens and paint, and I found this charming one-lane bridge that seemed almost too picture perfect. The bridge was so narrow that trucks — or lorries as they are call in the U.K — had to drive across the stream.
4. Milan, Italy
In 2002, my wife and I traveled to Italy where we met up with her two sisters and their husbands for a vacation in Tuscany. We flew to Milan where I painted this church near our hotel and just behind the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana museum that owns a magnificent Caravaggio still life painting.
5. Los Angeles from Griffin Park
On a business trip to Los Angeles in 2004, I painted near the Griffin Observatory where one can find great views of the Hollywood sign and downtown L.A. I worked until dusk and did a couple of other small paintings of the city.
Outdoor Painting Adventures 