Watercolor Show TV Interview

So here it is finally. This interview was shown last week on our very local TV station concerning my work for a watercolor show at our Community Arts Council. I've changed this video to a link - because what I had played automatically and that became irritating! So maybe this will work better.

Elizabeth Cotten

Elizabeth Cotten
22x30" watercolor on 300 lb. Arches coldpress.

Elizabeth Cotten was originally from North Carolina and had a remarkable story. She essentially taught herself to play guitar after an older brother left home with his homemade banjo. She was so very important because she remembered the music from her youth - the folk songs of itinerant musicians, community gatherings and "church music" of a time before recordings of this genre, so she became a direct conduit of a music that was transformed and passed down from the earliest of days in the south. The church told Elizabeth that worldly music was sinful, so she quit playing for 40 years.

It wasn't until she got a chance job working as a domestic for the famous Seeger family that she was "discovered" and then promoted. So her professional career started when she was well into her 60's. Her song Freight Train was her most famous, being covered by the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary during the folk revival movement 0f the 50's and 60's. Elizabeth was known for her "upside-down" style of playing a right-handed guitar left-handed, a style that made her music and her "Cotten-picking" fingerings quite unique. By all accounts that I have read Elizabeth was a spirited genius who would warn one to be right with God, but one who would love to play you a song.

Watercolor Show

Well as usual there are last minute things to do for a show that you did not anticipate. This time it was really good though - as I was literally ready to walk out the door to deliver my work to the Jones House - our local Community Arts Center here in Boone, the art director calls and asks to speak to Ann for help! Seems the show scheduled to run concurrent with mine had canceled out at the very last minute. Turns out that Ann had enough pieces (of course) for a show in this person's place. But what it meant was a day and a half of last minute framing. Thank goodness Cheap Joe's had what we needed to pull this off (he is just down the road from us). So, as the sign above says, a Double Nemcosky Exhibits event for the town of Boone.

There was a nice turn out as the weather cooperated for the opening reception (it was postponed from the week before as we were experiencing tundra weather). Everyone present exclaimed how tall my daughter was and enjoyed seeing some new work from Ann and yours truly. I've been holding this post because I did some local TV interviews talking about the work - but have been very impatiently waiting for them to be posted on their web site so I can embed them in a blog post. Eventually they will be there I'm told so I have to wait.

In the mean time I've started a new semester and that always brings the studio to an abrupt halt (rewriting syllabi, too many meetings, making copies and advising students). The first week did go well though - I think I have some good classes this go round. I did manage to finally finish Elizabeth Cotten (Piedmont blues series), and am still fascinated with virtually touring Corsica for Bill Guffey's Virtual Paint Out challenge blog (he got a wonderful plug on Katherine Turrell's Art of the Landscape blog - and she featured one of my pieces too!). So, in many ways I'm back and I plan to resume commenting on your wonderful blogs and Flickr groups I promise - I've have been looking.

One wall in my exhibit. Check out Ann's blog to see her work in her show.

Sea Six Cottage

Sea Six Cottage
11x15" watercolor on 140 lb. Kilamanjaro

This was a piece that I did a year ago this past October - it was one of those paintings that was framed and put into a show before I had the time to take a picture of it. I really liked this little piece so when I was swapping out frames for the next show I photographed it. Just wanted to see it up on the blog.

I love the porch of this rented cottage, and just sitting there watching people bicycle by while listening to the ocean waves a block away. Now that it's winter and the temp hasn't gone above 15 F for a week makes this a more special memory. That and the fact that we went at that time for my daughter's birthday - she has grown to love Edisto Island.

A Young Lady Sketching

A Young Lady Sketching
10x14" watercolor on 140 lb. Kilamanjaro white.

I think I have been thinking about this past summer a lot here lately. Ann took a photo of our daughter sketching next to Bass Lake right outside of Blowing Rock, NC. I always loved this photo and kept a little printout of it pinned to the wall of my studio. So here's a quick little watercolor sketch of her (I've been needing to get back to work!) based on that photo and warm memories of our outing last May or June. Stay warm and happy 2010 everybody.

Framing Away

Well, having survived two winter storms, one with a lot of snow and then there was a lot of ice. My daughter and I spent a lot of time outdoors playing in the snow for days. But the ice storm was other worldly - put our county in a state of emergency because of falling trees and power outages and the like. I hope you all had a great holiday. We did, but was in the dark for a while! Anyway, I've been in the studio framing as opposed to painting (and reading a lot), as I have a show of watercolors going up on Monday (our local Arts Council gallery here in Boone). It gives me the chance to put together a show of new works so I'm psyched. There's always something about seeing the work in frames and up on a wall in a gallery setting that is rewarding in its own right. I've got plenty of ideas for new paintings but they are somewhat on hold - having too much fun otherwise!

Ken Painting

Ken Painting
12x16" watercolor on 300 lb. Arches Aquarelle coldpress.

This is the second Thanksgiving holiday portrait I wanted to do, this being of our friend Ken. As I mentioned below on my wife's portrait, Ken has been our friend for many years and has become my watercolor buddy. Pictured here is what we have been doing over Thanksgiving break for a while now, sitting around the table painting pictures (outside of the usual activities such as parade watching, cooking and hunting down this year's Christmas tree). Actually we've been doing this three times a year, as he meets us on the beach a couple of trips and the routine is much the same. You know you are blessed when you have such a friend - he has been like an uncle to our daughter.

Pte. 73, Mexico City

Pte. 73, Mexico City
12z16" watercolor on 300 lb. Arches coldpress

Ahh, finally finished with this month's Virtual Paintout challenge, Mexico City. This city is so vast that I took a very long time searching. I came up with about six compositions once I decided that my painting would be about color. Mexico City seems to be a lot about color - and people. So many people that that became a secondary decision - trying to find people doing interesting things or in interesting poses on the street. This is just one of several images that I really liked - I think here because of the two dogs that are just interacting with one another. The young person seemed to fit into the overall composition, but I liked the buckets that she was carrying.

A Woman Sketching

A Woman Sketching
12x16 Watercolor on 300 lb. Arches Aquarelle block.

OK, so I took a couple of photos of my wife and a dear friend sketching and painting during the Thanksgiving holiday - for the purpose of doing a painting of each of them painting. Ken is a friend who comes to spend every Thanksgiving with us (a tradition that started in New York many many years ago). I met him when my wife and I got together back in the ole school days (so I married into him). He is a senior interior designer for a major architectural firm in Washington, DC. Besides his day job he is an excellent photographer and thru the years has become my watercolor buddy.

Of the two paintings I wanted to start with doing a portrait of my wife (naturally). At the same time I was looking (lurking) at the challenge blog, Following the Masters (AutumnLeaves participates in that challenge and has a link so it's easy for me to lurk often). Well I decided to try the FTM challenge at the same time (finally). We had this old oriental rug rolled up down in the basement, and I had this coastal South Carolina map up in my studio, so the only real invention was the tile floor in the kitchen (we have oak floors). The biggest challenge to me as I saw it was creating the strong directional light that is associated with much of Vermeer's work. Vermeer has always always been one of my favorite artists. There are not too many of his pieces that exist in this world - that gives them even more a gem-like quality.

Blue Heron, Edisto Island

Blue Heron, Edisto Island
12x16" watercolor on 140 lb. Kilamanjaro block.

This image is based on a photo I took in October down in Edisto. My daughter and I went exploring down the side street our rental was on, knowing that there was a lake before we got to the expansive marshes behind Edisto Beach area. As we walked up to the lake we must have spooked a Great Blue Heron that was hiding in the reeds - so we got to see this majestic bird fly off right in front of us. As many times as I have seen this it always takes my breath. This was a first for my daughter so I was especially exuberant. On the opposite side of the road there was a heavily overgrown feeder canal and in there we immediately saw a second heron - I was able to snap off a shot with the camera.

Lighthouse, Nova Scotia

The Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia
12x16" watercolor on 300 lb. Arches Aquarelle

Well, I'm just not a photographer, although this seems about the best I can do. I usually hire a professional if my work actually appears in something like in print.

Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout took a number of us participants to Nova Scotia in November and I screen-shot a bunch of pictures from Google's Street View function. I figured that this lighthouse would be a popular image and I had to do it too (I think watercolorists are required to do lighthouses - it's somewhere in the rule book). Anyway - I've got a slow collection going of lighthouses I've been doing primarily because we frequent North Carolina's coast whenever we get the chance. Because I still haven't visited Maine (I'm a Winslow Homer freek) this on-going participation in VPO gave me an excuse to do this one.

Sammy on Holiday

Sammy on Holiday
12x16" watercolor on 300 lb. Arches Aquarelle

Just another quick watercolor whilst I do my research on Elizabeth Cotten. Last month we celebrated my daughter's birthday by going down to Edisto Island, South Carolina. Ann and I have always loved that place (Jasper Johns used to own a house down there). My daughter has come to love the place too - so we've been staying there a couple of times a year for a little while now. I had to do this wc of Sammy our Springer. Both dogs love any holiday - where we take three or four walks on the beach per day - big difference from the work-a-day life we have here in the mountains.

Edisto Beach, SC. October 2009

Brownie McGhee

Brownie McGhee
22x30" watercolor on 300 lb. Arches coldpress.

Okay, I'm calling this one finished. I may still try to get a better photo of this one - anybody know how to avoid the "fisheye" effect from a digital camera?

Brownie McGhee is perhaps best known for the 45 years he worked along side of Sonny Terry, a harp player who had worked with Blind Boy Fuller up until Fuller's death. McGhee grew up in Kingsport Tennesee - again, not too far from here - played throughout the southeast and in Durham, NC before recording in Chicago then moving to New York. McGhee and Terry exemplefied the Piedmont Blues sound to many. Like other blues artists they became famous through the folk revival movement in the 50's and 60's. McGhee even had cameo parts in several films (like Steve Martin's "The Jerk") and on Broadway. He passed away in California in 1996.

Acorn Squash

Acorn Squash
12x16" watercolor

A quick watercolor of the acorn squash that Ann so carefully selected from the vegetable area in our supermarket. I had to wait a few days for the sun to come out in order to take a picture of this (12x16 doesn't fit on Ann's scanner). The remnants of T.S. Ida turned into a classic Nor'easter and whacked my sister in Kill Devil Hills and Dad in Va. Beach. So I finally ordered 2 light fixtures and photofloods for picture taking as I should have long ago - the wooly worm says it's going to be a snowy winter!

Ann bought three squash, we ate two and we both did sketches and painting of this third. In this painting I was thinking of color and composition. (That white square thingy in the back ground is a poster my daughter is working on, filling in rivers and other major geographic information as she studies world geography.)

Near Halifax, Nova Scotia

Water Street, Chester, Nova Scotia
12x16" watercolor on 300 lb. Aquarelle Arches block.

This is my November installment for Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout challenge blog. This month the city chosen was Halifax Nova Scotia and and its surrounds. I think all painters I knew back in the day had applied or certainly knew about going to school in Nova Scotia. There's an excellent video documentary,"Rivers and Tides" on Andy Goldsworthy that features work he did there. So - I felt some familiarity with this area even though I have never been there. I did the usual Google street map searching and I really wanted to do this lighthouse and rocky shore, but finally chose this view southwest of Halifax in a town named Chester. I had never seen a boat like this - it looks like it came to a sudden stop rather than floating restfully at dock. The view of the bay with its ferryboat reminded me a lot of Hatteras Island here in NC.

Etta Baker

Etta Baker
22x30"watercolor on 300 lb. Arches

I'm not convinced that this one is really complete - but I have the urge to move on with this series. October was a tough month to keep the studio flowing, with travel and visitors and birthdays - you know the story. So I am posting this as it is now, but may prove to be a WIP after a while, don't know...

Etta Baker was this beautiful woman who played the Piedmont blues as long as a person could possibly have. She was learning the guitar from her father at an age when she couldn't even hold the guitar properly. Etta had a life apart from music, working a factory job and raising a family. It wasn't really until her later years that she started performing for larger audiences and the resulting acclaim that followed. She proved to be influential to younger artists such as Dylan and Taj Mahal. Etta lived not too far from here in Morganton, NC, but I never had a chance to see her play. But somehow I have gained a special attachment to this woman, as I'm sure many have.

Edisto Kitchen

Edisto Kitchen
12x16" watercolor

I started this watercolor while at Edisto Beach, SC in a cottage called Foster's Ocean View that we were renting for my daughter's birthday. We only had to cross the street to be at the ocean front. On one of those days it was a dark, windy and wet - and I tried to capture the dark interior of the place which made the outside light seem to glow (without interior lights on), emphasized by the fake stained glass thngy in the window. I had to finish it at home after we got back as usual, because we spent most of out time on the beach. I really do need being at the ocean to recharge, always been that way.

Foster's Ocean View - Edisto Beach, SC.

Virtual Paintout - Belfast, Northern Ireland

Belfast, Northern Ireland - Shankill Road
15x20 watercolor

This is my October effort for the Virtual Paintout. This month was Belfast. I did a lot of web searching about, to find where in Belfast you could get a view of the world famous mural/wall paintings. So I did my Google street viewing and found many murals on many streets but loved this view on Shankill Road with what appears to be some kind of horse and buggy race that was rounding the corner. I was well into painting this when I discovered that someone else had found this very view and posted it on the Virtual Paintout site. I wasn't sure what to do at that point - and being that we were going out of town, (etc., etc.) I chose to go ahead and finish this and post it anyway. I was thinking that I could choose another view and do it before the end of this month - but I'm running out of October and have not even started my next blues musician.

October

October (or Gary's Wheelbarrow)
12x16" watercolor

I felt the need to put something up. We've been celebrating my daughter's birthday, which meant getting ready to travel then spent most of last week at Edisto Island in South Carolina. Now we are getting ready for a birthday party and guests (which means some serious house and yard work). I was able to paint this last week before we left. We left Boone and it was a glorious autumn. We came back to winter - see what can happen when you leave town!

This piece was real hard to photo - I guess because it is dark with some contrasting lights. So here it is, sorta. I had too much fun, which I think is evident here, with the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and an eraser guard. On the one hand I like that you can tell what I used, but on the other I've always felt that technique should be hidden - so I guess you can say I'm undecided. I've been trying to finish my effort for this months Virtual Paintout - I think I can post that one tomorrow.

The Reverend Gary Davis

The Reverend Gary Davis
22x30" Watercolor 300 lb. Arches cold press.

This is the first in a series of paintings I want to do of old blues musicians. The idea came from my discovering You-Tube videos, as I was generally astounded with what I found to be available with music. Artists such as Gary Davis are there to study and listen to without having to seek out specialized music collections or spend anything to purchase the music. Even though Gary Davis is rather famous, and his music is now readily available, I chose to start with him for a number of reasons. First - he was one of the world's greatest guitar players. He was unselfish and taught guitar to many young folks back in the day - the quintessential bluesman. His influence is unquestioned. Finally, along with Blind Boy Fuller and Brownie McGhee, he was considered to be a practitioner of what is known as the Piedmont style of blues and guitar playing - originating in the Carolinas and in south central Virginia.

I'm thinking that the first one in a series like this can take the longest to do. This one took me a good little while - not so much in the actual painting, but in the research (so to speak). My first thought was to do imagery deriving solely from on-line video captures. The real good old ones are over-contrasty, black and white and often out of sharp focus. So I found myself taking screen shots of hands and so on. I found myself researching the kind of guitar Gary Davis played (Gibson SJ-200) and down loaded many guitar reference shots, etc., etc.

So now I'm looking at Blind Boy Fuller - but haven't found any actual video images of him - yet. I do not intend to copy a single photograph (someone elses composition and copyright) - but to create a composite representation in a way that somehow expresses my impression of the artist after reading bios and recording histories and, most importantly, listening to the music itself. I've got lists laying around everywhere of possible blues artists to do - I'm thinking the more obscure the better.