Only the Good...

This past Friday evening the world lost someone very special.
Sergey Smirnov.



He was 53 years old. One of the finest people I have met in the art world. A kind person and a truly gentle soul.

He left behind a 36 year old wife and a 2 1/2 year old son.

I knew Sergey for 8 years. I watched his painting grow and mature to a world class level. His works hang all over my home.

He touched my life not only as an artist but as a friend. He influenced my own works and encouraged me when I wanted to quit.

Sergey, we will miss you. Rest in Peace





All donations to the "Art Saves Lives" fund for the next 6 months will go to his family.

Blind?

There are some days when I have so much to say that I can not manage to speak a single word.

Sometimes I envy those who can talk endlessly about nothing. You can tell they don't have a single thought in their head. It would come in handy in my business. Turn the mouth on and the mind off.

There are days when my mind will not let go of an image. It is all I can see. When I close my eyes it remains. There is no hiding from it. It comes out in everything I do or say.

Other days I can't focus on anything or anyone.

My mind races faster than I can keep up with. It becomes a blur and makes me spin.
I open my mouth to scream, STOP!
But nothing comes out.

I draw or paint and all I can do is scribble, unable to hold a single vision for long enough to get it out. It all comes out at once.

It is like being lost in a crowd. Surrounded by people and miles from anyone.

*****

Markus Pierson has done it again. I can not get enough of this man's work. Someday I think the world will look at his body of works and hail him as a genius of epic proportion.

He never fails to amaze me. His grasp of the simple beauties and pleasures in life make me feel as though I am blind to the world.

It also drives me to work at my painting and writing more than almost anything else.

"Everything to Me" by Markus Pierson

"Through my spectacles I see everything, and thus I see only you, for you are everything to me."

What is this wet stuff fallin' from the sky?

This past weekend, with the "Stormy Weather" events going on in town, was very busy. We had some great traffic through the gallery.

I was amazed at how many people came to see my work, and want to talk about the "Quick Draw". I ended up selling a couple other of the practice works I painted also.

This morning I was going to spend some quiet time in the gallery boxing a few things up for FedEx, try to clean the gallery up and re-hang the walls.

No such luck. It has been raining here since last Wednesday and has not let up. Right now it is still coming down in sheets. Anyway, the highway between where I live and the gallery is under water and closed. So I am stuck at home.

It makes me wonder how often it rains here. I am being sarcastic of course, because I know for a fact that it rains here a great frickin deal of the time. It's coastal Oregon for crap sake. What I want to know is why, in the last almost 200 F'ing years of this town being here, has NO ONE thought about raising highway 101 about 4 or 5 feet up so it wont flood? Am I the only one who has ever thought of that? Every bloody year the highway has to be closed for an indeterminate amount of time because the river over flows and ends up on the highway.

This is not to mention the fact that the streets flood, the parking lots flood, every building in town leaks. What the hell is wrong with these people?

The best part, is that every year they act surprised that it all floods and leaks.

Duh!

Ok, enough about these local Bozos.

Halloween pics are here! I know, you are excited. Clam down here they are.

The little guy was hard to photograph this year so there are only a few good shots. The one with me is not one of them.





Thank you very much to all of you who commented and emailed with support during my Quick Draw rantings. For something that only lasted and hour. It took about a month of hard work. Your support meant a lot to me. When I start giving away some of the practice works you will all be at the top of that list. Feel free to let me know which one you would like and where to send them. Unframed of course. Sorry, framing is expensive.

Lets hope I can get to the gallery some time this week. Looks like more rain.

I Survived!

I am just getting home from the "Quick Draw". I went to set up my area at around 5pm Friday evening. Made sure my iPod was working, set-up my laptop to run a slide show of my web site, put paint on my pallet, had the bar tender make me a double vodka, I was ready. At about 6:30 pm the crowd started to roll in. I was a good boy and politely talked and mingled with the crowd answering silly questions over and over. That's Ok, it took my mind off the task at hand.

At 8 pm we were given the word to begin. I cranked my iPod and went to work. I had a back up canvas that I knew I could finish in 20 minutes. After 30 minutes if the first choice was not going well I was going to switch gears.

So I'm painting away, trying hard not to pay any attention to the hundreds of people parading past my table. I hear the loud speaker so I remove the ear phones to listen. I hear him say that we have 15 minutes left.

Holy Crap! where did that first 45 minutes go?

I through my self into over drive. There was no time to switch paintings, I had to finish the one I had going.

With about 5 minutes left I decided that it was over. Sign it and be done.

I took the head phones off, people instantly started asking questions and talking to me.

It was amazingly nerve-racking. But I survived.

At the auction my work sold for $450. Not the high of the night, but not the low either.

Here is the finished work. 13 x 20 inches plus the frame. 55 minutes.



In about 7 hours I have two interviews with local news papers and about two dozen people want to come to the gallery and look at my work.

All in all I was pleased with the out come.

I am not going to paint a thing for at least a week.

I did try to video the night, but some where along, my recorder stopped working so I wont know what I recorded for a day or two.

Now I need sleep! IT'S OVER

Last Day of Practice...

Halloween photos will be up soon.

"Stormy Weather" is upon us. That is what they call the events that will begin on Friday the 3rd. This has been going on for about 35 years now. And, on schedule, it is raining something fierce.

Practice is over. No more time to work out any potential problems. Tonight Precious and I will make our final choices and then it is up to me.

Tomorrow is the "Quick Draw". Last night I worked on three more designs trying to decide what I was going to paint. One is 14 x 18, one 16 x 20 and one 12 x 24. The first two took about 40 minutes each. The third took about 15 minutes. I was pleased with the outcome of all three. So now I just have to decide which of the works to paint.

The contest starts at 7 with drinks and a reception. At 8 we start painting. At 9 the auction begins.

Precious cannot go because she will be at the gallery. Mr.Man will be with my parents who are here for the week end to visit. I am on my own. I will try to take some photos and video of the event and me working. We'll see.


I wont be getting much sleep tonight. Nervous is an understatement.

Here are the last three finalists.