Art Till Morning Comes

"Mabry Mill in Mid-Summer" Acrylic  Living in Virginia, the historic Mabry Mill is an important part of our culture and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have seen this structure in person many times, and I have seen paintings of this historic structure in many homes: however, I have only seen these paintings done in a very realistic ways. I decided to take another approach on Mabry Mill with an impressionistic style, which is something I have never seen until I painted it.  This painting uses the foreground, mid ground, and background to showcase the beautiful Mabry Mill. I love the tree leaves that cover part of the mill and the vague background that does not pull attention away from the mill. I also tried to incorporate some movement with horizontal paint strokes on the roof of the mill and vertical paint strokes in the wooden sides. I also think that the wheel is a point of emphasis in this work.  The Mabry Mill is something Virginians hold dear to...

"Watching Blood Pressure" Acrylic  In "Watching Blood Pressure", my main goal was to combine the cartoon world and the painting world. With a passion for comic strips and illustration, I wanted to find a way to incorporate my cartoons unto the canvas. The idea for this painting came from a memory of my grandmother telling me how my great-grandmother could no longer use salt on her watermelon due to high blood pressure. I personally like watermelon plain, but I always think about salt when I have the sweet fruit during any time in the summer.  I still tried for a realistic look to this cartoon with values in faces and clothing and the use of perspective in the kitchen cabinets. Still, I had fun with the faces, making some noses and ears bigger than what we normally see. There was a lot of freedom in this painting, both in style and in color. This painting takes me back to visits to my great-grandmother's home and how things used to be in a...

"The Collecting Shelf" Acrylic  "The Collecting Shelf" shows how easy it is to collect "treasure" in our homes. The painting was based off a picture of local wooden furniture in my hometown. In the small town of Floyd, the Floyd Historical Society creates a theme for artists to use in their annual scholarship for graduating seniors. At the time, I was unable to enter the scholarship due to my age, but I was fortunate enough to have my painting displayed in the Floyd Historical Society Museum along side the other scholarship paintings depicting furniture in Floyd. Months after completion, I visited the museum and found that my painting was resting on the actual shelf it was based upon; it was amazing to see my art and the real world meet for a short while.   In my painting, I focused mainly on patterns and colors. With many repeating shelves of books, I had to figure out ways to make each shelf different and unique from the other. I painted b...