First Sketch

I've checked in at The Arts Council and already started my first painting. It's a nocturne, of course, soon to add candle and lantern lights inside and out of the old Colonial Inn, which dates to 1759. 

This is a 14x11 canvas study, and next I'll sketch in a larger 20x16, covering the entire piece of linen and aligning all the elements. Stay tuned! And please share the link. 

Jack 

St. Croix Paintings

Here's my first St. Croix painting, a view (without houses) from the Columbus Landing Beach, northwest of Christiansted near Salt River. It's oil on linen, about 10" tall by 14.5" wide and is not stretched, so it can be matted and framed with glass or mounted and framed flat, or mounted if preferred.  I'm asking $400 for my first picture--below is the matching piece.
Signed J. H. Anglin St. Croix 2016

N/A

And this is my second St. Croix painting, a view from the Columbus Landing Beach looking east toward the Salt River Inlet and a favorite. It's oil on linen, about 10" tall by 14.5" wide and is not stretched, so it can be matted and framed with glass or mounted and framed flat, or mounted if preferred.
Signed J. H. Anglin St. Croix 2016

SOLD

New Nocturnes from St. Croix

Moon Mill Nocturne oil on linen $200
unframed for framing with a mat & glass, mounting or stretching

One of the interesting things on the island of St. Croix are the many ruins of old windmills that were used in the production of sugar from cane. With the very consistent easterly Tradewinds it made sense to construct these towers to do the work of crushing and squeezing plants. Those who built them were harkening back to European design and specifically Danish style windmills.

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Morning Mill    oil on linen $125 unframed

All that remains today on St. Croix are these amazing stone conical towers, which at the ground floor doorway are 3 feet thick or more and are constructed of a variety of brick, stone and coral. On the walls you might see a piece of coral with fan striation next to colorful stone. It's a very attractive, eclectic kind of masonry. The blades and vanes of the windmill 'fans' are long gone, as are the superstructures that sat atop and housed the upper mechanism or transmission, if you will.

I'm starting to paint scenes and images from TheBuccaneer.com resort near Christiansted and their mill neat their check in point and now used for romantic dinners and as a venue for weddings. I'll paint many daytime paintings of it, to be sure, but I really like imagining the blades or vanes and other parts, for The Buccaneer Mill and others. And I do love my nocturnes.

A gallery visitor recently spotted these and recognized the colors on one as something like a Remington nocturne. I was fortunate to see many of those at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth as well as Remingtons in the Sid Richardson collection and they did have their effect on me. It's amazing how much color one can see in them once you start looking. This windmill and the others are fun things to paint! This is a 16 x 20 inch oil on linen, and in process, and probably will be for sale soon at The Buccaneer.

Highway 70 Barn

This is the well kept old barn on the curve of Highway 70 between Kinston and La Grange in eastern North Carolina. A great produce stand is open just to the west in the summer -by the gas station.

12x18 oil on canvas
$300
plus tax and shipping

Bridge No. 5

Another in my series of bridge images. This is after mybsecond painting session. I'll do a few more things to it. It is oil about 14 inches wide.  

I grew up in Pittsburgh, the land of bridges, so perhaps that explains part of my interest in this nice example at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. 

North Beach / Virginia Beach

This is the larger finished version of the smaller study below (which I love very much). At 24 by 36 inches this oil painting is a very pretty reminder of days gone by and days still to come --once this cold weather is gone for a while. 

Just a few more touches and it will be listed for sale here and then on display and sale at one of the Stravitz Galleries --it is in the Stravitz Laskin Avenue gallery now, framed with a complimentary simple but substantial gold frame.

Night Night Rudee

9 x 12 inch oil on on linen study for a new nocturne

As with the painting below, EVENING SURFERS, this is a nice little study ready for a few more touches when it is dry, and then when all finished I'll consider making a larger painting --maybe at 30 X 40. 

This is a winter harbor with not too much going on these days, but some people like it that way. I like it all seasons. At least this is one of the rhythms of the place.

Evening Surfers

9 x 12 inch oil on canvas study for a new nocturne

A rising moon at Virginia Beach competes with reflected light from the hotels and boardwalk, which sometimes presents a pretty pinkish peach hue on nearby low clouds and the immediate surf and foam.
I'm probably going to do a larger version of this complete with more surfers as observed with peculiar elliptical short waves near the jetty,

Ocean View Bay View

9 x 12 inch oil on linen panel, January 2015

The Ocean View area in the north of Norfolk, Virginia, has a pavilion where the city hosts Sunday night big band dances in the summer. Last year the wind was tough on a few summer nights of the dances. Here was a view noted looking out at the Chesapeake Bay.

North Beach Evening Study

9 x 12 inch oil on linen panel, January 2015

Here to the left side is the mouth of the channel which is the inlet to the Chesapeake Bay and Norfolk and Baltimore ports, etc. Soon after this moment, one of the Navy's aircraft carriers emerged into view heading out to sea. I may do another larger version of this study and include the carrier.

Henry B. Hyde Wreck in Virginia Beach

This is a fresh 5 X 7 oil of what the sailing ship Henry B. Hyde might have looked like after beaching here in Virginia Beach. Imagine what that must have been like!  What weather would confuse a crew to think they were further out to sea. Of course, now the beach is well illuminated here, but a hundred years ago that wasn't the case. The saying was, concerning the coastal lighthouses like the Cape Hatteras light, that if you could see the light --you were too close to shore. Recently one of the Volvo Ocean Race yachts hit a reef off of the eastern coast of Africa. They were running fast at night, with GPS, radar, and all sorts of computer aids and, ..ouch! So what did it feel like and how sickening for the captain and crew of the Henry B. Hyde to know that, OOPS! --this ship was doomed and they might not get away safely?

I've been examining several photos of the wreck and it appears part of the upper foremast fell over the starboard bow. I'm trying to establish what happened. At any rate, though grounded, depending on the surf and storm, this fine cargo ship might have been beat up and turned around before she was scavenged and abandoned. Part of her is probably still there buried in the sand. A future hurricane may temporarily reveal the carcass and timbers some day.