Tufted Titmouse 2

One of my favorite birds that frequent my landscape. This little dude makes an otherwise dreary winter landscape happy and full of life... hmmm... I think I am beginning to sound like Bob Ross...happy little tree/bird? Lets ignore that and proceed... Anyway, a constant visitor to my feeder, I have taken many pictures of this guy and his friends to immortalize on canvas.

Tufted Titmouse 2,  5" x 7", oil on linen board,  (click to bid)

Pictured is the morning after an ice/snow storm that went quickly through our area. Any covering of ice or snow makes these guys especially active at the feeder making short work of that expensive seed! But I will keep filling it anyway as the enjoyment and life the birds give make it so worthwhile to me.

"They shall go flying
With musical speeches

High overhead in the 
tops of the beeches.

In spite of our wisdom
And sensible talking,

We on our feet must go
Plodding and walking."
excerpt from a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

Thanks so much for your visit!

Dance 2

The magic of the human body moving well. We either do it or wish we could. Dance, football, ice skating, gymnastics, and the list goes on. We all dream of having a body that can accomplish physical feats of strength, agility, and beauty. Few of us ever attain this type of physical excellence. We are either not blessed with a physique that can transform itself this way, or maybe we are not driven to do what it takes.

Dance 2, 6"x 6", oil on linen board, (click to bid)

So when we see someone who does what we only do in our dreams, we dance with them, we run with the football, we are in the Olympic rink in front of thousands doing the triple flippity-flop. And we think, maybe I could, or maybe I could have... The thing is, even if we cannot achieve those dreams, we can celebrate (in a healthy way) those who do. That they can do those things for us...so we can somehow experience what it is to be set free, even if only in our minds and heart.

Thanks so much for your visit - come back!

Chickadee Study 1

I strive to keep up my avian painting skills by painting small works of the many birds that visit me. I always try to capture a sense of mystery in the subject if I can. This can be accomplished several ways. Lighting is key and the way you handle edges and background also are important. 

Chickadee Study 1, 5" x 7", oil on linen board, (click to bid)

This Carolina Chickadee was in the process of feeding heavily before an approaching ice storm. Birds and other animals always know when weather is coming. Part of this is instinct, but I believe that part is also an ability that we humans also have. The problem is we increasingly do not or maybe cannot pay attention to our surroundings. We have let so much compete for our attention that our senses have become dull and raw. You see, we only have capacity to clearly comprehend so much auditory and visual noise in our life. The question becomes how much and which information and stimuli we choose to entertain. For by the act accepting some we immediately decline others. By accepting too much, we tend not to understand any. The choices we make define who we are. What is important to you? Oh heck, I started off talking about painting - how did i get here?

Thanks so much for your visit - come back if you dare! :-)

Dance Study

I have always loved ballet and other types of dance. When I attended The University North Carolina School of the Arts in high school I played in the ballet orchestra during performances of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and many other classics. Of course, down in the orchestra pit you really cannot see much, but I also managed to experience quite a few practices and performances outside of the pit.

Dance, 6" x 6", oil on linen  (click to bid)

The dancers are really amazing athletes! All of their grace really takes a great deal of strength and agility. Besides the dancers, I have always loved the magic and mystery of the stage lighting. It is instrumental in setting the scene and I love how it falls on the dancers as they move through the atmosphere it creates. My intent with this painting is to study and hopefully reproduce the dancers and their interaction with the lighting. Thanks so much for taking time to visit and I hope you enjoy Dance.

Royal Tern Study

Another of my favorite birds are Terns. This handsome bird is a Royal Tern (Sterna mazima). Terns, unlike gulls, don't often search you out and make a pest of themselves. However, this day was different. He and a couple of his

Royal Tern study, 5" x 7", oil (click to bid)

buddies flew in while fishing and decided to keep me company. Like gulls, they accepted handouts readily but they would not approach as closely as the gulls.

I often find terns in large groups resting and generally hanging out. In fact, they can be found in large, dense colonies when breeding. Usually tending to a single buff, spotted egg in a sand scrape

A photo of a group mainly consisting of terns (Royal, Sandwich, and Forster's). Ocracoke Island, October 2010

on an island or a sheltered peninsula. I have painted several paintings of these birds from photos I have taken at the coast. I especially like to paint the Royal terns because of their red beak which gives a nice spot of color to an otherwise blue background.

Fish for Dinner...again (Royal Tern), 18 x 24, oil on linen, Ralph Grady James

Thanks for your visit - come back again!

Sandpiper study

Sandpiper study, 5 x 7, oil, (click to bid)

As spring progresses I dream more and more of the beach. I can see my wife looking for shells as I dream of the smell of salt, the sound of the waves, and seeing the birds. One of the birds I think about are the multitude of Sandpipers and Sanderlings. They are ever present, working the beach for morsels, chasing the waves and then running as the waves chase them.

That is one of the reasons I paint so many shore birds. It is just a love affair. Something I can't seem to get enough of. As I write this, my iTunes play the sounds of the surf and the life that accompanies that habitat - yeah, those of you who know me knows it plays the same thing every day of the year. Crazy old man... I can't be there now but that's OK. Maybe soon.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sake and Pokeberrys study

Sake and Pokeberrys study, 5 x 7, oil (click to bid)

Pokeberry weed. Pokeberry wine, pokeberry salad, pokeberry for your arthritus, pokeberry ink, pokeberry all over my white t-shirt from running into it when mowing. Even though a weed, I do have a fondness for this plant. I love to see the resident mockingbird in the top of it eating the berries in the summertime. Somehow, the weed also seems to love me as I have it's purple stains on several items of my clothing.

I like to use things like pokeberry weed in my still life paintings. Things like weeds or other common plants seems to me to be a bit unexpected compared to items included in many paintings. That's what I want in my painting, something unexpected, something that makes it real.

Thanks so much for dropping by.