Josephines Legacy (2)app 3 1/2 x ll 1/2 oil on wood panel

I have already shared with you my experience with these cups. I have a bunch of wood leftover from the square panels I had cut. This is a difficult configuration and I really have to dig for suitable compositions. I did a series of beer bottles and several rows of fruit. They are a good shape for an arrangement on a wall, or in an odd space.E-mail me at artistjohnwlong@live.com

Oklahoma Autumn app 5x5 Oil on wood panel

This view was painted from my Oklahoma days, in Autumn. Not being a really social person I like tranquil spots like this where there isn' t too much civilization and progress going on, but that is never far behind. Even here, on weekends and summer, there are people playing, fishing and swimming. Not a real complaint, I do all that stuff too, but in quiet places and at quiet times.E-mail me at http://artistjohnwlong@live.com/

Stillife With Roses oil on wood panel app 6x6

This is strictly a stillife set-up, one that has no message or symbology. However the book is a purely trashy novel that would embarrass anyone possessing even a touch of of class, should they read the title. E-mail me at http://artistjohnwlong@live.com//

Vase with Obelia 4x9 Oil on wood panel

I have some gall calling this Obelia because I am not all that sure. I looked it up in my flowering hedge book and the picture was as close to what I have in my hedge as I could find. But anyway I didn't have too much hope for it as a painting (partially because the color is a weak lavender) but I think it turned out well.E-mail me at http:/artistjohnwlong@live.com

Peach Basket. app 5x7 oil on panel

This is my second post today due to a computer problem I had to get fixed. The basket is an old one my grandmother kept on the dining table always with fruit or nuts. That seems like light years ago but my grandmother was my favorite person in the world. E-mail me at http://Johnwlong@/live.com

Green Olive Oil Bottle app 3 1/2 x l2 oil on wood panel

I like light glistening through colored glass. This bottle was an especially lush green. I took the label off, as it was ugly and it cut off the beautiful light shimmering through, but it was good olive oil.

radishes. oil on wood panel. 5x7

Radishes are fun to paint, I think because of the red and green color. Most red vegetables are an orangey-red, while radishes are downright alizerin crimson. This painting reminds me of two red (alien?) rodents feasting contentedly on some leafy greens with their white tails wagging.

End of the Day app. 6 1/2x6 1/2 oil on wood panel

This is another of my Ozark landscapes. It began as a water color sketch. I am not really a plein aire painter but I do a lot of outdoor sketches to prepare for studio work later. If time or circumstance don't permit I will take a photo but I don't really care to work from photos. When I was going to art school this was considered verboten. Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish both used photographs in their work but they were put down as mere illustrators. Funny, now they get retrospective shows in museums and galleries, and their prices are through the roof.

butcher's twine 5x5 oil on wood panel

I'm a little vague about the title of this painting. It comes from our kitchen and I think it is used for tying up turkey or chicken legs getting ready to be baked. Whatever. I saw it on the counter and realized it was a painting. I painted the undercoat with acrylics then painted with oil on top of it. It was the pattern of the wrapped twine that interested me but I disliked the hard edges I got with the acrylic . That made me switch to an oil glaze. You cannot put acrylic on top of oil but you can paint with oil on top of acrylic.

Josephines Legacy 5x5 oil on wood

You may infer whatever you wish to the title. You have my permission to re-title it. A set of 6 cups is what my mother forgot as she left ( in a taxi and a huff) . She had lived with us for a year but she disliked my family. She was never a very happy person . She ended up on a hippy commune in southern Tennessee. I think she had some security there at least. I visited her in her last few hours and she left me with something really worthwhile. An apology.

gone to seed 5x5 oil on wood canvas

This is the second of my series on the life of a dandylion. It would seem as if that were enough but I have another up my sleeve. Keep posted.

Dandylions have never figured largely in my life. I have heard of dandylion greens and never wanted to eat them. I have mowed them down, dug them out by the root. They were weeds , you did not want them in your yard. When I went walking yesterday, for the first time, I took a good look at a dandylion plant and saw a painting. Two, as a matter of fact. This is the first.

Apple and Pear duo 6x6 oil on wood panel

This is what happens when two objects get near one another.They begin to have an effect on one another. In this case, the color of the pear is reflected in the apple and the apple's color is reflected in the pear. This may be some sort of statement, but I painted it just because it caught my eye.

ozarks oil on wood panel 6x6 1/2

This painting came from a photo I took several years ago. I was impressed by the tranquil beauty of the scene but it was ironic that just around the bend in the creek a big new motel project was going up. The big new motel project was a success and it was followed by a newer project - success begets success- and now the whole scene has been leveled and replaced by several acres of a new motel, parking lot and strip center. I'm confused by the term 'progress'.

still Life with butterflyoil on wood panel app51/2x71/2

pear 2 -nocturne - oil on wood panel 5x5

Once upon a time there was a pear left on a porch rail by a child who had forgotten about it. The pear was still there that evening when an artist who lived in the area saw it. The artist thought the pear was waiting there , wanting to be painted in the moonlight. The artist painted the pear and then he ate it, and lived happily ever after.

blue calico cups app. 3 1/2 x 11 1/2 oil on wood panel

Cobalt blue pottery came from China . It is supposed to represent spring with tree blossoms falling on cracked ice. Sounds contrived. When I decided to paint these cups I had this peculiarly shaped wood panel ready to go .. I wanted the surface to be covered with these cups so in order to accomplish what I had envisioned , I had to adjust the proportions of the to pieces to fit the space. It can't possibly matter much , as a number factories produced it and I sincerely doubt there is any rigid requirement as to shapes and sizes. Artists get to use poetic license anyway to interpret what they are painting, because they probably can't get it just quite right.

red votives oil on wood panel 6x7

When I was in the army, I had a layover in Des Moines, where Grant Wood's masterpiece, "American Gothic" was on display. At that same time they had a two-man show of I. Rice Peira and Loren MacIver. This was 1952 and I had never heard of MacIver. What I remember of that show was a remarkable semi-abstract, "Green Votives". It was one of those moments... 55 years later when I began doing Daily Paintings I decided to do a series of votives in my own style. I hope the flicker and glimmer evoke some sort of serenity or mystery.

A pear mirror'd oil on wood panel 6x6

I originally painted two pears, one slightly behind the other. When I completed them it really looked like two sides of the same pear, so I painted in a mirror frame and it was the same pear, mirror'd.

longneck app 3 1/2 x ll oil on wood panel

What can be said about beer bottles? This bottle intrigued me because of the light showing through it, and I think that it is the effect of light on surfaces that makes a painting come alive. I 've read that we have been using beer bottles for over three hundred years. Different societies developed brewing, unbeknownst to one another, but everyone seemed to do it. They called it liquid bread. Beer bottles were simply developed for ease of transporting and the brownish color helped impede the effect of light on the beer. Now most beer is sold in cans and the manufacturers tell us that taste is not affected by the metal. Sure.

Gallery

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peaches oil on wood panel app 4x12

Peaches apparently started in China (how could anyone really know?) then went to Persia where Alexander the Great found them and brought them to Europe. The Spaniards brought them to America and the Indians planted them across America. I'm glad they did. I painted them and ate them.

lakeside oil on panel 6 1/2 x 6 3/4

I used to teach in Oklahoma where they have big weather and big lakes. Lake Eufala is so huge it has an undertow. I liked to sketch there in the early morning when the water was low and I would see these big cat tracks where they had come to get a drink. The tracks were very fresh but I never got to see what they were. I asked and got different answers. Some said panthers. Others said mountain lions. Mostly the said wildcats. I never really knew but they were awfully big for wildcats.

basket of eggs oil on wood 6x6 1/2

By the time we had begun recording history we were eating hens eggs. All kinds of eggs - in times of emergencies, even alligator eggs. My doctor recommends only two a week but I eat seven, one a day for breakfast with coffee because I need it. Lots of artists use eggs for painting - egg tempera, which was used before oil paints were invented. Actually there is a lot to be said for egg tempera paintings because they are virtually indestructible. Thomas Hart Benton, Paul Cadmus, Robert Vickrey, and Andrew Wyeth paint with egg tempera.