Mark at the Round Barn

Mark at the Round Barn___8x10 oil on linen panel__$450
Dale Nicholls is the great regional painter from this area, who made it big in the art world.
Now deceased, this was his family's home, and this type of barn is rare and unique...It is a treasure in Butler County, NE, and we had to have special permission to bring the workshop here for me to paint this study.
My aim was to NOT get tight and paint every board on the barn, and when I do another version, I will emphasize the scale more with some more people or equipment...see the little man by the door on the left? He is too BIG for this scale...the barn is HUGE!!!
I have a few more things to post from my workshop, but for the past few days, I have been working in some of the high schools here, speaking and demonstrating and introducing them to my Chicken Clinic...Great kids here, and a LOT of fun!
See my entire exhibit Passing America: The Great Plains
Next workshop: Fredericksburg, TX, Nov 9-11...FULL MOON FUN! vvaughan8@yahoo.com

Palomino Corrals

Palomino Corrals___#26 from my Colorado Sketchbook to be auctioned soon
A few days ago I posted some palominos. These are the corrals where they were moving around and trying to escape the summer mosquito swarms of Colorado....I am enjoying the many comments about the excerpts from my sketchbook which I have posted. So many artists seem to enjoy seeing the entire sketchbook. It shows the process of carrying out a theme in a sketchbook...something I really enjoy.
I have been an artist as long as I remember. ALL my early art was drawing and sketch-based works. I was not a painter till I was a young adult. And, only recently have I returned to doing a lot of drawing (I got side-tracked in "camera land" which is so much more convenient!) In the early days I was a very TECHNICAL, accurate renderer, and details were my thing. Thus, I was the s l o w e s t artist in the universe, and an absolute perfectionist. Now, I am one of the fastest sketchers I know. Fast is not necessarily "better", but sketching is like anything else: the more you do it, the more efficiently you CAN do it!
October 21 is my next sketching workshop in Rockport, TX...come if you can!

Night Lights

"Night Lights"____36 x 36 oil on linen___for Cowgirl Up!__Wickenburg, AZ, March 26-28, 2010

Here is one of the big paintings I have been working on for the upcoming western art show called Cowgirl Up! in Wickenburg, Arizona. It was hard to photograph...I do not take good shots of the big ones, and there's no telling how it will look on your monitor!

If you follow my work, this one might look familiar to you! I combined a couple of my favorite themes to create this painting. I have painted this scene in the daytime...and I have recently painted this sky several times, after studies I painted in Colorado last summer.

My 1000th Post_sunrise, city lights, landscape, farm, barns

My 1000th Post___email me if you want to be "in the hat" to win this one!___winner to be determined on Jan. 4, 2010
vvaughan8@yahoo.com.... click image to see larger
Boy have I been thinking about this a lot. This is my 1000th post since I started doing a painting a day. I am giving away this original oil painting - a "THANK YOU" to many friends who have been along on this journey with me. I decided to paint what I MOST LIKE TO PAINT: My farm...I looked through MANY files (I have over 10,000 shots from the farm.... one day, my dream is to produce a BIG BOOK with the farm paintings, lots of these photos,and some writings....) So I chose to paint a NEW DAY...a sunrise...full of color and HOPE! I want the painting to be a reminder and an encouragement to whoever wins it! I want it to be meaningful and as I thought about it I kept remembering something I was taught a long time ago. It is from the ancient writings of a wise King named Solomon, in a book called Ecclesiastes." Even if someone lived a thousand years—make it two thousand!—but didn't enjoy anything, what's the point? Doesn't everyone end up in the same place?"...the book ends with this "solution" to how to spend your life: fear God (revere and worship), do what He tells you, for this is the whole duty of mankind....
Sorry, I tend to think too deep sometimes...this is, after all, just a little bit of color on a canvas! I will take names of those interested until the drawing on January 4...Merry CHRISTmas!