Saturday, December 20, 2008

Reflections of Hawaii


This is a small 8x10 painting of what started out as the Road to Hana in Maui, but I took creative license and sort of put in elements from several of the islands. The Road to Hana with its waterfalls, the clouds coming over the mountain from the famous pass in Waikiki and if you drove around Diamond Head in Waikiki you come upon an outcropping off the coast in the Pacific.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Check Out My Account at Fine Art America

If you would like to see a lot more artwork or possibly interested in purchasing fine reproductions of many of my works, you can check out my account at Fine Art America.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ned-stacey.html

Visit my MySpace

http://www.myspace.com/nstacey

Evening Star, Indian Rocks Beach Florida


This painting of the evening star started out as just extra paint on my pallet. There are a few problems especially where the sea oats meet the horizon. This created a line of paint, which I'm not too happy about.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Warning Gators


The great thing about Florida is you can drive down around the gulf coast and look out for alligators sunning themselves or floating with just their eyes above the water. The challenge with this painting was the fence wire. I ended up taking a business card and placing the edge in paint, then bending to the proper shape and placing on the canvas. Seems to have worked pretty well.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Duck NC in This Show...

20th Anniversary

Art in Gadsden

Juried Exhibition of Fine Art

Come celebrate the 20th anniversary of this exciting annual exhibition. This year, Art in Gadsden celebrates the work of 111 fine artists working in all mediums.

November 14, 2008 - December 28, 2008

(850) 875-4866 • www.gadsdenarts.org

Hours: Tuesdays–Saturdays 10am–5pm, Sundays 1–5pm

13 N. Madison Street, Quincy, FL 32351

LoLiTa CoNuNdRuM




Above is my subject. A friend of mine on Myspace. I knew she posted a lot of photographs and I was searching for a photo of someone in the woods. This fit perfectly. so special thanks to Ashleigh for letting me use her photo. My intention was just a study to learn some techniques and try something with the trees. It turned though into a finished painting.
I really like several things in this painting. The trees and background work incredibly well and these are brought together by the colorful leaves on the ground. Even though I am not thrilled with how I painted her face, for the time and my skill, I accepted it. What I really like though, is her shoe and lower leg. Go figure.

Study


Sometimes we do large paintings that end the end look like crap. This part of a much larger painting, I was pleased with. The impressionistic palm tree just sort of works for me blending in with the clouds and the background, pond and near foliage. 80% of the painting deserves to be painted over.

This is a small 8x10 acrylic on canvas painting. Was just trying to do some simple techniques and they actually worked out quite well.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Florida Burn


Right now this is my favorite, so I will start out with this. It is named Florida Burn because in Florida they like to burn the forests to clear the underbrush and allow the pines to grow better. If you travel the back roads at night, you may drive past small fires off into the woods. It may freak you out if you do not know this is normal for Florida and can be very eerie. This is rather large, 18 x 24 acrylic on canvas.

Coffee and Paint Do Not Mix


The memory of one of my college art classes came back to me today. Way back when as I attended the University of Georgia School of Fine Arts, one of my drawing courses was in the morning, so I worked and drank crappy machine dispensed coffee. Everyone in the class was working diligently on whatever, and I just so happened to be inking a work. I reached down without paying attention and proceeded to drink my ink rinse water. I knew what I did pretty quick becuase it was cold, but just not quick enough. So spitting out a mouthful of black ink I quickly but calmly, not wanting anyone to notice black ink dripping down my chin onto the front of my shirt, I went to the restroom where I attempted to rinse out as much black ink as possible from my mouth. Of course I went back to class with a black tongue and black ink spots on my shirt.

Well today as I painted not paying much attention, I again was drinking coffee and proceeded to rinse my brush out in my coffee cup. Luckily I realised what I did, but I still had this desire to just keep drinking my coffee. I thought better and fixed another cup. I guess the moral of the story is keep your rinse water on one side, and your drink on the other.

12/04/2008 Never to Be Finished Lighthouse



This painting will never be finished, because it was actually painted over to paint something totally different. Maybe someday I will paint this Great Lakes lighthouse.

120/04/2008 St Marks Lighthouse


While on the subject of lighthouses. This was completed in early summer 2008. Overall I am very pleased with this lighthouse. Depth of the trees and bushes, the hint of the keepers home and the beach front I was happy with. Plus the lighthouse actually looks correct with the shadowing, etc. More than likely, the water would not be that blue.

Unfinished on the easel

12/03/2008 Ocracoke Lighthouse NC


This was actually done in the summer of 2008. Rough draft was done prior to going on vacation in Duck NC, where I continued to work on this painting. This painting has a real primitive feel to it. I finally just pretty much gave up on it even though it is framed here.

12/03/2008 Florida Light


I figured that while I posted the Jupiter Lighthouse, I would go ahead and post this painting I did a while back. Again 8x10 Acrylic on canvas.

12/03/2008 Jupiter Lighthouse


I had started this painting several months ago, but set it aside. I was very unhappy with the foliage, but went back today and simplified it. The top of the lighthouse still needs some finishing and I am going to go in to reshape the clouds. The style of the clouds is too primative for my current tastes.

12/03/2008 Sandcastle
















Simple quickly done 8x10 Acrylic on canvas. Most of my paintings have extensive cloudscapes, and this is no exception.