Confederate Rose

12" x 18" Oil on Panel SOLD

This is a painting of my confederate rose tree on a cold and gray December day.

Bridge Study

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas Board

This is a little bridge that goes across the Bayou Teche. I Painted this from direct observation. Really trying to work on fine tuning my color mixing.

Bayou Study

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas Board SOLD

So, I recently moved to a small town in south Lousisana and the only painting I have done in the past two months have been the walls of our new house. I am finally getting back at some painting and this is one of the first studies I have done in my new environment. There is a wealth of visual inspiration down here and I am excited to about the possibilities.

Great Egret

60" x 48" Oil on Wood SOLD

This is another commission piece I did for some close friends. They recently bought a new house and were looking for a main piece for the living room. Thankfully they were really open to my ideas and let me have creative freedom.
I've never been a guy that paints animals but I guess it's gonna happen sooner or later if you live in South Louisiana. A lot of the country roads in South Louisiana run alongside bayous that were probably once used for transportation. As I drive beside them I see a lot of these beautiful Great Egrets. I really like the contrast of their white feathers against the dark, almost black, bayou water.
Not only was this my first "animal" painting, it is also the largest painting I've worked on. I will say I have definitely developed a deeper respect for people who regularly work in larger formats.
I really enjoyed working on this piece and hope you like it as well.

Peonies

36" x 36" oil on wood panel SOLD

This is another commission piece for a good friend in Dallas. She loves peonies and loves the color red so here you go. The challenging part was that the flowers actually open up rather quickly and then begin to wilt. So I had to keep them in the fridge over night to preserve them. I had to work fast, when I placed them back in the set-up, because the flower would keep opening up more and more with each hour that passed altering the composition. With a smaller painting it would not have been too difficult, but 36" x 36" is pretty big to work from direct observation if the subject matter is constantly changing.
All that said, I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Loyola University

30" x 24" Oil on Canvas SOLD

This is a commission piece I did for a graduate of Loyola Law School in New Orleans. It's a beautiful school on St. Charles Avenue. It was a bit tricky getting a picture with both the trolley and the front of the school in it but I think this composition works well. Especially tricky was trying to express details of the ornate school without getting too deliberate with painting them.

Magnolia

18" x 24" Oil on Canvas SOLD

One of my college painting instrucors, Michael Crespo, once told me that a "flower" painting is the hardest painting to pull off. I think he meant that it could be perceived as decorative art or cheesy...Not taken seriously.

Hopefully this painting, done for my sweet mother-in-law, has passed the test. My mother-in law is a true Southern Lady and says that every Southern home should have a painting of a magnolia in it somewhere. So here it is. Happy Mother's day!

Sugar Cane #3

30" x 40" oil on canvas SOLD

My wife requested I do a larger painting of sugar cane because it reminds her of home. This is a larger version of one of my previous sugar cane paintings. It came to me a lot easier the second time around.

Art Class Interrupted

24" x 36" Oil on Canvas SOLD

When I was a sophomore in High School I met a super-rad guy named Matt. On like the fourth day of school he finally showed up to art class and was about 15 minutes late. While our enthusiastic art teacher was in the middle of giving us a lecture, Matt waltzed in reading a Rolling Stone magazine with Slash on the cover. He walked right past her and sat in this antique wicker chair that was placed out as more of a still-life object than a seat for students. The teacher was shocked by the rude interruption and irritably asked, "Can I help you?" To which he looked up and sincerely said, "Oh yea, my name's Matt and I'm suppose to be in this class." He then looked back down at his magazine without missing a beat.
It was pretty cool at the time. We became good friends after that and still are today.

The idea for the painting came after I told this story to Matt's wife. She thought it would make a great painting, so I agreed. It was definitely a challenge to paint this scene from memory without any models, but it was a good test and I am glad the opportunity came up.
Matt is a little older now and not quite the rebel, but is definitely still a cool guy.

Sugar #2

12" x 12" Oil on Wood Panel SOLD

Another sugar cane painting. I think there will be more of these in the future.

Sugar Cane Path

12" x 12" Oil on Wood Panel SOLD

For my real job, I drive around south Louisiana a lot. I am always seeing these wonderful fields of sugar cane that change colors depending on the time of day and season. Pretty magnificent. This is one of them.