Kingston High School

Kingston High School gym.  The "K" is about 20 feet tall.  Kingston is in the process of building a new gym and cafeteria and I will be looking forward to slinging some paint on the new floor.  The school is in the process of coming up with designs and ideas for the floor.  It will be one of the nicest gyms in Southeastern Oklahoma.  Go Redskins.

Latta High School

I am proud that I got to do this floor.  It is the second time I have actually painted it.  The first time I just duplicated the design that was already on the floor.  It was the first gym floor I painted.  I was scared to death to put that first drop of paint down on the floor. Since then, the process has sped up some.  You learn something new on every floor and no floor is the same.  I have painted over a dozen gyms throughout Southeastern Oklahoma and North Texas.  Gym floors never get old.

Panther Pride

Nothing like working in a closed up gym, no fans, no air, 110 degrees outside, 125 degrees inside in the middle of July in Oklahoma.  Our floor was just sanded down to the wood and all lines and art had to be replaced.  Hot, humid and lots of sweat.  Great weight loss program.  This could not have been done without a little help from a friend.  It is nice to know that one of the principals was willing to jump in and help paint between the lines when needed or else I may still be in there painting.  Thanks Mr. Painter.

Gym floor

This is the type of art I like to do.  Some may not call it art, but it is the biggest canvas I get to work on. It is not everyday you get to draw and paint this big.  I hand cut and tape all my letters, no stencils are used.  Each letter is measured with a tape measure and taped out.  This is just one of the many gym floors that I have had the pleasure to leave my mark on.  This floor is from Milburn High School in Milburn, Oklahoma.  Go Eagles.

Study

Quick 6x6 study of an old masters that we studied in a David Chang session at the NAEA Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He is an amazing painter and an even more amazing teacher.  To just work from a palette of two colors, black and white and create all of your other tones was really enjoyable.  Also the only thing we used to clean our brushes was a paper towel.  I had never done that before in my life.  I had always used mineral spirits or some type of thinner.  This was new territory and I liked it.

Coke Mug on cloth backdrop

This is a coke mug that started out as a realistic piece that evolved into something else.  I was working on the drapery behind the mug and was trying to make it flow and then the reflection behind the mug took on a whole new dimension.  Then came all the little lines and colors.  I spent way too many hours on this one. You win some, you lose some.

Reflections

This is the first piece of art that I had painted in about ten years.  There is a lot of rust on the brushes.  I stayed up on night during Christmas break and painted from about 10:30 p.m. until about 3:00 a.m.  It felt good to work and it seemed like only a couple of hours.  I worked on it the next day and finished it up.  This was more like a rough draft than a finished work.  It is 30 x 40 and hangs in my kitchen.  It is two IBC Root Beer bottles broken at the neck.

In the summer, I had gone down to visit Todd Ford at his studio.  It was amazing to see the process that he goes through in setting up his works.  I just wanted to get some tips on his oil painting techniques.  He painted for about an hour and I just sat and quizzed him during that time.  He really makes oil painting look effortless.  I got to go through some of the pictures he works from and selected one to paint during the day. The whole day was great and it meant the world to me that he took a day out of his summer to show me some tips and techniques that he uses in his works.

My three greatest works