As April Fades...

Interior Gold - oil on canvas - 24x24

Old Guardian - oil on board - 8x10

I hope that everyone had a beautiful Spring weekend celebrating however and whatever you choose to celebrate! Easter sunrise here was spent on the Tybee Pier with a group of a few hundred other early risers. Tybee Bar Church band, yes we have a band that holds church services on Sundays at a local bar called the Sand Bar, did a fabulous job of providing Sunrise Service music with their own special touch. The miracle of another sunrise, seabirds and boat tailed grackles encircling the celebration, and the gift of another day is as fascinating and magical to me as anything else could be.

Hopefully in the days left in the month of April those proverbial showers will show up. Tybee's climate is closer to that of an arid desert island than a tropical rain forest island. While we wouldn't have to do a thing to become completely overgrown by the native, and very hardy vegetation, which thrives in the drier climate, a lot of work has gone into holding back those plants and trees that want to bury our house. There has been a lot of planting here, mostly Dottie's doing, little by little she has added beauty surrounding our house. From cuttings from her mother's azaleas, hydrangeas and gardenias, to our attempt at nurturing fig, lemon, lime and grapefruit trees into maturity, all more dependent on rain than what grows without any help at all. But all worth the effort!

The image below is what our yard would look like if we didn't fight the battle continuously...

Sunny Spot - acrylic on canvas - 40x30 Available.

Fortunately for me, I love to try to capture the mumble jumble and chaos of the interior of any woodland. Here in the coastal maritime forests I'm never without a challenger to take on. Whether it's a mature northern hardwood forest, as in the painting 'Interior Gold' at the top above, or a southern tangle of Spanish moss and palmettos, it is always the specific quality of light that causes my painting drool to start running. My challenges are 'What is the color of the light', 'What and how is that affecting the visual sensation of all of the texture and shapes', 'How in the world am I going to even be so bold as to think that I can make any sense of it all and depict it in a way that has personality and not just the facts'? And a lot more. But I'm odd that way in that I'd take that challenge any day of the week over a more open and wide view idea with a pure blue, cloudless sky!

Tenacious Presence - Acrylic on canvas - 48x60

We are headed to Ireland next month without a real idea, other than what has been implanted over a life of hearing about and seeing images of Ireland, what to expect visually. But, I am really looking forward to seeing it as a painter and doing some painting while there. I am guessing that it won't be unlike this painting, Tenacious Presence in it's coolness and the variety of greens that we will encounter. Loving mood in weather and green landscape, I'm already anxious to get busy with the gouache!

On that note, if you are at all interested in obtaining a small painting that I will paint in Ireland, there are still a few left. There will also be follow up paintings painted that are also for sale on my Big Cartel site 'Observations: Ireland Studies'. These are for sale for less than 50% of their retail value as a thank you for helping to support this trip. Thank you for putting your faith in my painting, and for considering doing this.

If you are interested, this link... Ireland Studies... will take you to the page where they are available for sale until noon May 2, 2025.

And don't forget, if you're looking for some Video Instruction, I have a few available for streaming and/or downloading on Gumroad. Click this link to view previews.

These are all full length, no cutting involved, with over dub sound for a full explanation of what I'm doing in each demo. Thanks for checking them out.

Happy Painting,

Marc