As the year ends, I would like to make one final posting of one of my paintings. We are at our second home now in New Mexico for the winter, and our two eldest granddaughters (and most of the rest of the kids) will be with us for New Year's. In honor of their coming, and the fact that they are very close, I wanted to post this painting from the year 2006. My wife just happened to include it with all the paintings she brought with us to New Mexico. It is called: "Two Sisters" and is oil on linen from November, of 2006. It is not a portrait of them, per se, rather a representation of sisterly closeness.

While rummaging through the stacks of my stored paintings recently at Stone Lion Studio, I unearthed the portrait (below) of my mentor, the late, great Marvin Triguba of Lancaster, Ohio. This painting already dates back to the end of last century.  As I like to tell people: "This is a portrait of the guy who taught me how to paint like this." I had the good fortune to be able to study with this gentleman for about 10 years.  He had a wonderful painting pedagogy, and I think if one followed his advice precisely, the chances of painting successfully were very good, indeed. I still attend a weekly painting group in Lancaster which is a legacy of what Marvin (and his wife, Anne) started,  with many of the painters present also being Marvin's former students.

I just returned from Hayes Arboretum where I delivered 12 framed photographic prints of various works I have done over the years to display in the Nature Center. In honor of the arboretum's new auto tour program "Witch in the Woods". (See Hayesarboretum.org for more information), I included the portrait below I did in 2001. The subject was decked out in a sorceress's costume probably for Halloween. The original acrylic painting is 24" x 36", and this photo may well crop off the top and part of the bottom, but you get the idea! I recall it was fun doing this style, but in order for it to work, it seems that the subject necessarily needs to be 95% covered by their costume!

This is a recent painting I call: "Beijing Alleyway, 2015". Although it does not really truly convey the notion of the Chinese "hutong", a modern Beijing alleyway was nonetheless the inspiration for this painting. I was hoping it might convey a sense of "aloneness". You might think the same, or not think anything at all about this painting. Thank you for looking, anyway. I had originally intended to add shaded areas, light effects, etc., but I kind of like it in this simple, uncomplicated form. (oil and acrylic on canvas.)

This painting, below, executed in June and July of 2015 is called the "Puce House". Puce is a color that is sort of brownish purple. Like the "Green House", it is supposed to convey a sense of loneliness or aloneness. At any rate, both pictures are empty houses. You may feel what you want about it, or , of course, nothing at all! This painting is also mixed media and is 22 x 28 inches in a black metal sectional frame. It currently resides at the Stone Lion Studio. Thanks for viewing my blog and artwork.

By the way, the above mentioned "Green House" painting (pictured in an earlier blog post) is now on view at the Four Reasons Restaurant on Main Street in downtown Lancaster, Ohio. If you are in the area, please come to the annual "ArtWalk" and view that picture for this year's Lancaster Festival. The ArtWalk will be this coming July 24th from 6-9 PM in downtown Lancaster.

"Daisies in a Bowl" (#2) will be a featured painting at the opening of the Mohican Valley Artists at the Stonewall Gallery in Loudonville, Ohio, this weekend (Saturday, June 27th). If you are in the area, please stop out and visit!

If you are in the area of Loudonville, Ohio, Friday and Saturday June 5th and 6th, please come out and attend the annual "International Winefest" at the Wolf Creek Grist Mill, three miles south of town. Once again, in cooperation with the Mohican Valley Artists, I have been selected to show my work at this event in the mill. This time, I have decided to show work in two of my favorite dry media, colored pencils and Conté crayon. There will be both new work and old work, such as the following painting done in Conté crayon some years ago now:  "Scottish Castle".

Below is a picture of "The Green House" that I took this morning in my studio. This house is kind of typical of houses that you might see in central Ohio. I am not sure that the painting is totally finished yet; there may be some editing yet, but I wanted to put this version out there. The original is sized at 22 x 28 inches, and it is "multi-media" on canvas. Just created in March, 2015

A new acrylic painting is featured below. I call it: "Villagescape". The idea for the painting came from a nice small picture of Stuttgart, Germany, that my wife inherited some years ago. Somehow, at the beginning, this painting took on more of a "cityscape" look about it, complete with a skyscraper or two.  I worked very hard to obliterate that image and finally got the "village" that I was looking for. The dimensions of this canvas are 18"x 28". I was hoping to achieve a standard size, but the picture also needed considerable "cropping" from its original form.

I have been working on a couple of new bird paintings. The first one, below, is a barred owl, and it is acrylic on linen canvas. The dimensions are: 13"x 17". I had wanted to get it at 12" x 16" so it would be a standard size, but sometimes, these things don't work out the way you want.

The second new painting is from a photograph I took aboard a ferry in the Norwegian fjords, I believe, several years ago. I call this painting "Flight" and it is also acrylic, but this time on cotton canvas.

Don't forget to come visit us at the Mohican Valley Artists' "Gallery on Main" in downtown, Loudonville, Ohio. Friday and Saturday hours available this winter. 

I know my friend and colleague in the Mohican Valley Artists, Bob Walker, is a renowned wildlife artist. His work speaks for itself, and is even better in person. You can see much of it at the “Gallery on Main” in Loudonville.

Prior to the “Wildlife Weekend” at the Wolf Creek Grist Mill in Loudonville last April, I was inspired to do some wildlife portraits, myself. I do not consider myself a wildlife artist, but I have always been impressed by the work of some famous wildlife artists such as Robert Bateman, Carl Brenders, Ray Harris-Ching, and the Canadian great, George McLean.

Several of my wildlife portraits currently hang in the Gallery on Main in Loudonville, to include: “Polar Bear”, “Cougar”, “Gray Wolf” and “Fox”. There is always something exciting about trying to get the fur and texture and look of these wonderful animals just right. I have also done portraits of a grizzly bear, a moose and Dall and Bighorn sheep that can be seen on the Mohican Valley Website.

In order for you all to get a chance to see these, and other paintings in person, we are making every effort to stay open with weekend hours through the cold winter (weather permitting). We figure if our friend below can stand it, maybe we can too! Looking forward to your visit!

Ed Hayes, Mohican Valley Artists