Little Rock Nine

Today is the centennial of the National Park Service. It's no secret that I love National Parks. They humble me and fulfill a need for wilderness that nothing else touches. As much as I love Parks for their incredible views, I often forget that the NPS serves to protect cultural heritage sites as well. On Wednesday I was honored to visit Central Little Rock High School National Historic Site and visit with Thelma Mothershed-Wair, one of the Little Rock Nine. 

Despite the ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education in 1954, the governor of Arkansas prevented 9 African American students from attending Central Little Rock High School in 1957. Central was a public school with an excellent academic record that would afford these excellent students access to athletic programs, extra curricular activities, and college level classes. The school board had unanimously approved a plan to desegregate schools two years prior, yet in 1957 it took over 1,000 soldiers of the 101 Airborne division sent by President Eisenhower to allow these 9 students access to their constitutional right for a quality education. These teenagers could have taken the easy way out and gone back to their previous high schools at any time, yet they stayed.

I have been been sprayed by Old Faithful in Yellowstone, surveyed the Rio Grand in Big Bend, snorkeled with barracudas in the Dry Tortugas, and gazed upon glaciers in Denali, but I have never been so humbled, proud, or grateful than I was reading the accounts of the perseverance displayed by Thelma and the Little Rock Nine.

From left: the most amazing human I'll ever meet, me, intern Leah who is also great.  

Happy birthday, NPS!!

Teddy Roosevelt celebrating his greatest achievement, pen and colored pencil on toned paper.  

Right on track

While I'm here I'm trying to do one oil painting and one watercolor painting per day. So far, so good.  

Oil on board, 11x14 inches.  

More oil in plein air

I'll let this dry and keep working on it in a few days. 

Oil on board, 11x14 inches  

Watercolor and pen

Watercolor and pen painting I did at the mountain lookout tower at Hot Springs yesterday.  

View from the watch tower, watercolor and ink on paper. 11x14 inches.  

First painting

I was really enjoying the negative spaces created by the leaves against the cloudy trees. This photo is only about 30 minutes of painting, I'll update it as it progresses!  

11x14 inches, oil on board.  

And... Done!  

All checked in!

I'm all checked into my little cabin at Hot Springs National Park! They gave me a really nice name tag. I don't get cell service and there's no wifi, so updates will be sporadic. Loving it down here though! Gonna start painting today. 

Little cabin!  

So official!  

On the road again

I left yesterday to travel to Arkansas for my Residency as Artist at Hot Speings National

Park. I left a day early to spend a night in Bentonville, Arkansas to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Museum of Native American History. Last night I checked out Crystal Bridges and it was just spectacular. The collection just floored me. I saw so many paintings by artists who have had profound influences on my work; Audubon, Thomas Moran, Diebenkorn, I could go on and on. But the most important work I saw was by Neil Welliver. 11 years ago I was in a beginning painting class at age 19 at University of Missouri. I didn't know anything about art except that I enjoyed painting. My professor told us to write a report on a living artist who's work I admired. I didn't know any living artists, so I googled "living landscape artist" and came across the work of Neil Welliver. He paints the woods. He makes them look loved, careful, organized, inviting. His paintings are huge, you could step right into them. I wrote my report on him, but he actually passed away in the two weeks before it was due. No longer a living artist, I had to choose someone else. He stuck with me though. His work is something I always go back to. He's not a famous artist by any means, and I had never seen any of his work in real life. But last night I came across a huge snowy woodsy landscape at Crystal Bridges. It was emotional to see. I was an American landscape painter on my way to paint some landscapes during the centennial of the National Park Service, standing in front of an unexpected painting by my biggest influencer. It was his work that took me on this journey. I'm incredibly grateful.

Neil G. Welliver. 1929-2005. Snow on Alden Brook, 1983.  

Remojadas, Late Classic Period

Normally when I take a lunch I go into the beautiful Forest Park, which surrounds Saint Louis Art Museum, where I work. But on this day it was raining so I sat in the Ancient American gallery and sketched this guy in pencil for a few minutes, and filled in the color with my watercolors later. I should do more drawings of sculpture! It's always a fun challenge.

More trees!

I'll never tire of painting you, trees!

Dragon and Thorn

What good names for two huge Maine Coon Cats!

I had never done a double portrait before and I was worried I would mess up on one of the cats and have to start over on both. But I just painted them slowly at the same time and I think they turned out pretty great! My client commissioned them as a wedding present, I hope her friend is surprised!

It's almost here!

I leave next Friday to head to Arkansas for my Artist in Residence Program at Hot Soeings National Park! I'll be there from August 20-September 4. Ivan hardly believe it's almost here! I've been busy cleaning and inventorying all my art supplies. My oil palette hasn't been this semi clean in three years! 

Cleanish.  

Ten year old oil painting mediums, still good! 

Pine tree: new and improved!

Back in June I did a little plein air sketch of a pine tree while I was on my lunch break. I am lucky enough to have a lot of inspiration here in Forest Park so I am never scratching my head with the dreaded "what should I paint?" problem. Anyways, after a few of these lunch time sketches I realized that my paintings look a lot better with some pen drawing in them. So two months later (today) I went back to the same spot and added some detail in pen. The results just look a lot more "me". I will look out for more pine trees to paint because the needles are pretty fun.

New and improved as of 8/10/16!

Before, as it looked in June.

Ned the Terrier

I did this commissioned portrait of Ned the Cairn Terrier last night. My dog is also named Ned so it helped me to love this Ned even more.

Sometimes I do a pet portrait and it comes together really quickly. Angus the golden retriever was one of those. Ned was equally hairy and expressive and his reference photo was perfect, but he was trickier for me. I spent about three hours on him. Every time I thought I was finished, I would snap a picture and then look at it with disappointment and go back and fix something else. I am not sure why some paintings give me more trouble than others. Painting pets on a steady basis has given me a lot of challenges and problem solving opportunities that really help refine my paintings skills when I am out in the field plein air painting. It's been very good for me.

 I swear the best part of doing commissions as a part time job is getting emails with pictures of people's pets in them. I loved Ned's little raccoon face and his hairy tail. I basically have the cutest job in the world.

Gold Finch

Just a few days ago I saw a Gold Finch having a snack in a bunch of purple cone flowers. It's always a special treat to see these little guys.  I have added this little painting to the group of Missouri native animals here.

My new pet.

Recently I received a gift of cacti. I will be making a lot of drawings of it. Here's a quick one in my sketchbook.  

New! Gray fox.

I choose which animals I paint based on the animals I see while I'm hiking and plein air painting. Most people don't realize that gray foxes are native to Missouri and lots of other places. I saw one while hiking at Little Dixie Conservation Area outside of Columbia, MO, around ten years ago. He was just chillin' in the shade. I also saw a TON of them at Channel Islands National Park earlier this year. They are the largest land animal on the island and they act like squirrels or raccoon without fear of humans. They are funny little creatures. I added this guy to my zoo of paintings of wild animals located here.

A path in Forest Park

It turns out I love painting asphalt.  

Some sketches of Sydney

In 2014, my dog Sydney passed away at the ripe old age of 14. I'm really glad I took the time to do some sketches of him while he was still with me.

A little sketch at the lake

A few weekends ago I did a little sketch at the Lake of the Ozarks. It was too rainy to go boating or swimming so I did this sketch while sitting under a pavilion.