Reynolda House Visit

This past weekend I took another sojourn to what has become my favorite day-trip destination, Reynolda House, located in Winston-Salem, NC. On this trip I viewed their current exhibit "Trains that Passed in the Night: The Photographs of O. Winston Link." While I was familiar with Link's railroad-themed photographic work, I had only seen an image or two in past exhibits at other museums. This show pulled together a huge collection from his 1950s project that captured images of steam-powered locomotives of the Norfolk & Western Railroad. It was absolutely captivating and surprisingly relevant to my own work and visual art interests. Unfortunately, the exhibit closes this coming weekend, but I am already looking forward to Reynolda House's next exhibition, "Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," which opens in October.

Upon returning from Reynolda House, I finally did something I should have done years ago: I became a member of the museum. It truly is a North Carolina treasure, and each visit seems more rewarding than the last. I always add lunch at the Village Tavern as part of the experience, and the only sad news was the discovery that the ice cream parlor in the Reynolda Barn had closed. If you love American art, or historic homes, Reynolda House should be at the top of your list to explore and enjoy.

Night Study III: Savannah Theater

This is the third night study I have completed this year. Depicting the Savannah Theater, this painting was quickly executed as an exercise in lighting. Like the others, I was not concerned about the final product as much as I was interested in the light and mood.

"Night Study III: Savannah Theater." Oil on stretched canvas, 12 x 16 inches. Completed January 2011.

Night Study II: Broughton and Bull

This is the second in a series of night scenes I have been working on this year. Once again, I used a Savannah street for inspiration. I improvised some of the color palette in this work, and edited out pedestrians and automobiles to focus on the structures and the lighting effects.

I received another rejection this week, this time from the Visual Art Exchange's annual "SCOPE: The North Carolina Landscape" for my two entries. I haven't made the final cut in this show for three years, but I won't let that discourage me from continuing to work hard. Rejection is a major part of a visual artist's experience -- you just have to get used to it and move on.

"Night Study II: Broughton and Bull." Oil on stretched canvas, 9 x 12 inches. Completed January 2011.

Night Study I: Broughton Street

Earlier this year I began a short series of night studies based on imagery from Savannah, Georgia. I completed these exercises on small canvases and worked very quickly. I used the experience to loosen up a bit and to experiment with lighting at night. These aren't meant to be considered "finished" pieces, but serve as oil sketches - essentially warm-up routines for extended painting periods.

"Night Study I: Broughton Street." Oil on stretched canvas, 11 x 14 inches. Completed January 2011.

On the Easel: Biltmore at Dusk

This large painting is the most recent work I've completed. It depicts a section of Biltmore House at sunset. I used my own source photographs, taken on previous visits to Biltmore, to sketch out the composition, and then I improvised the lighting to create this particular time of day.

This is the third full-scale painting I've produced based on Biltmore, and I've also created several smaller studies using source imagery from the house. This past week I entered this and another Biltmore painting into the Visual Art Exchange's annual juried competition "SCOPE: The NC Landscape."

"Biltmore at Dusk." Oil on stretched canvas, 40 x 30 inches. Completed March 2011.

From the Archives: Approaching Storm

Today's weather forecast for Raleigh is an ominous one, with a major storm front racing across the state and set to hit this afternoon. It has inspired me to dig back into my archive of works and post this small study. I completed this painting in an hour one evening completely from memory. I have a distinct childhood memory of an approaching storm that caused my mother to put us kids in the car and head for shelter at my grandmother's house. As we loaded into the car, a huge bolt of lightning struck in the distance where our neighbor's house stood. This canvas conjures up the image I have stored in my memory from that afternoon, albeit without the bolt of lightning.

"Approaching Storm." Oil on canvas paper, 16 x 20 inches. Completed August 2006.

Route 30 Eastern Idaho

Since it's been a quiet time for studio production, I thought I'd post some archival works to the blog. This canvas dates back to 1997. It was inspired by a vacation trip to the Pacific Northwest in 1992 that took me to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Washington and Oregon. I traveled to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks during the trip, seeing spectacular scenery unlike any other places on Earth.

This stretch of roadway came during a long drive from Pocatello, Idaho to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I saw miles of barren, sparsely-populated country and decided to register the memory to canvas.

"Route 30 Eastern Idaho." Oil on stretched canvas, 32 x 48 inches. Completed 1997.

Rejections and Garden Season

It's been too long since my last blog post, and my apologies. A combination of factors have made it a quiet period in my studio. I've hosted (and thoroughly enjoyed) visits from three sets of out-of-town relatives in March. As much fun as these visits are, though, they do take time away from studio work.

The change in temperatures in Raleigh has also created garden season. Outside of painting, my creative juices are best fulfilled by yard work and gardening, and I've been busy working on some new areas of my yard for planting next month.

Unfortunately, what art news has occurred has been negative: rejection notices. After enjoying the small group show in February at the Visual Art Exchange, I've been rejected in two juried shows as well as a solo exhibit proposal for a local arts council. Rejection is par for the course, and doesn't depress my painting mood, but in a slow period it doesn't exactly help, either.

Currently I am working on a large canvas based on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I hope to have an image shortly to share on this blog.

Human Remains

I just returned from a volunteer shift at the Visual Art Exchange, serving as a gallery-sitter on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The VAE is currently hosting a small group show in its Exchange Gallery that includes two of my own paintings. The show remains on view through next weekend.

This week's featured painting (above) is "Human Remains." Completed last summer, the work is based on an actual house in Columbus, Ohio. I chose to depict it as a derelict ruin, and transplanted it into a moody tropical setting. The concept of painting a demolished house came to me one day while driving on a long trip, but I let the idea ruminate in my creative thoughts for about a year. Finally, I settled upon this composition and chose a title that captured the darkness of the subject matter.

"Human Remains." Oil on stretched canvas, 24 x 30 inches. Completed July 2010.

Morning in America

Despite suffering from a head cold, I have been working on several behind-the-scenes business aspects of my visual art career this week. Last Sunday I spent several hours restyling my visual art web site, www.kennetheugenepeters.com. My site is hosted by Yahoo! Small Business Solutions, and I decided to move to their Sitebuilder web authoring program to maintain the site. It has made web updates much easier, so I restyled all of the main pages within the site. I have also submitted two new solo exhibition proposals to local arts organizations (Durham Arts Council and the Chapel Hill Public Arts Office). While I have not been in front of a canvas, it's been a busy week.

This week's featured canvas is "Morning in America," completed last July. Based on structures I sketched and photographed during my Columbus, Ohio days, I placed the buildings in a dawn setting. The title is a play on Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election theme; the irony seemed to fit this canvas well.

"Morning in America." Oil on stretched canvas, 24 x 36 inches. Completed July 2010.

Exchange Gallery Opening

The trip to Savannah, Georgia last weekend was a refreshing change of pace, and has helped recharge my creative batteries. The weather was spectacular - sunny and mid-70s - and I was able to capture many images that I hope to use as source material for future works.

Last night was the opening reception for the small four-person show I am in this month at the Exchange Gallery, located at the front of the Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh. Included in the exhibit are N. Lee Ball, Emily Lees, LC Neill and Sterling E. Stevens. The weather did not choose to cooperate on this night, however (cold, steady rain) so the First Friday crowd in Downtown Raleigh was sparse. The exhibit will remain on view until February 24. The Visual Art Exchange is located at 325 Blake Street (City Market) and is open Tuesdays-Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Savannah Sojourn

It's time for my annual sojourn to Savannah, Georgia - my favorite city in America. The weather, which has been unseasonably cold for months, is supposed to cooperate with highs in the low 60s and sunny skies. I confess that I look forward to the food as much as the architecture when I travel to the Hostess City of the South. There is no place on the planet like Savannah.

Pictured above: The ruins of the old Candler Hospital, located on East Huntingdon Street.

Homage: Mansions by the Sea

For the past few weeks I've been working on a series of night studies depicting urban scenes based on my many visits to Savannah, Georgia. The canvases are small (ranging in size from 9x12 to 12x16 inches) and have been quickly composed and executed. I'll present some images in future posts.

This work is a large canvas that I began in August 2010 and completed this month. It was to be the last large-scale piece I worked on prior to the ill-fated Somerhill Gallery show planned for October 2010. When I learned in August that the exhibit would be canceled, I ceased working on the painting, only to return to it immediately after the Christmas holiday.

The mansion depicted on the left was based on a photograph I found on the Internet; the one to the right is inspired from a famous work by an artist I admire. I decided to combine the two structures on an imagined bluff overlooking a sea. This work has been a struggle to produce and went through several iterations before I settled on this composition. In fact, I had painted in a different structure on the right only to paint it out a few weeks later.

"Homage: Mansions by the Sea." Oil on stretched canvas, 32 x 48 inches. Begun in August 2010; completed January 2011.

Dark Shadows

Another canvas inspired by architecture in Cumberland, Maryland, this piece was featured in my recent show at the Lee Hansley Gallery in Raleigh, NC. I loved the turret on this particular house, and wanted to create a painting that focused on that feature.

"Dark Shadows." Oil on stretched canvas, 36 x 24 inches. Completed June 2010.

Urban Sunset II

This week's featured work is a "remake" of sorts. In May 2006 I completed a canvas I titled "Urban Sunset." The 36x24-inch painting was based on the Scottish Rite Temple located on Bull Street in Savannah, Georgia. The temple is one of my favorite structures in Savannah, and I have featured a photo of the building previously on this blog.

In June 2010 I decided to complete a second attempt of the subject. This time I used a much smaller canvas and oriented the composition horizontally instead of vertically. I also stylized the setting and eliminated most of the actual surroundings in order to focus on the structure itself. This was the result.

"Urban Sunset II." Oil on stretched canvas, 18 x 24 inches. Completed June 2010.

Reynolda House Daytrip

Today I took a day trip to my favorite museum of American art, Reynolda House. Located in Winston-Salem, NC, Reynolda House (pictured above) has become a treasured visitation experience for me. I try to go at least once a year, and this was my first visit during the holiday season. The current exhibit (which closes tomorrow) is "Virtue, Vice, Wisdom & Folly: The Moralizing Tradition in American Art." It includes a large canvas by Thomas Cole. In addition to the museum wing, the site also encompasses the home of the R. J. Reynolds family (of tobacco fame). The highlight of this visit was listening to Christmas music played on the mansion's original Aeolian organ. What a treat!

Back in the studio, yesterday I worked for three hours on a large canvas I began in August. The painting depicts two Victorian-era mansions overlooking a seaside cliff. Called "Mansions by the Sea," the painting has been a difficult piece for me. Its large scale and unusual subject matter have proven challenging. I believe it is finished, but will await a final verdict after the paint has dried from this session.

Holiday Glow

Every holiday season I create a visual image, usually an oil painting, to reproduce as a special Christmas card I send to family members. This tradition dates back to 1995, and each year I look forward to making the next edition in the series.

Shown above is this year's Christmas card. It depicts my living room tree lit before the huge, curved bay window in my house. The hardwood floors create a nice reflection, and I always try to fill the tree with as many lights as possible. This canvas also displays a painting within a painting: Tinam Valk's "Stairway I" seen in the distant right-hand side.

"Holiday Glow." Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches. Completed November 2010.

From the Archives: Poinsettia

Continuing the theme from recent weeks, here is another older work created with the holidays in mind. I painted this small canvas from life, using a live poinsettia as my subject. Once completed, I used the piece as the cover of my personalized Christmas cards for 1998.

This work was done while I was living in Columbus, Ohio. Each holiday season I would buy several live poinsettias from the greenhouses at The Ohio State University. The proceeds helped their student groups, and the plants were always inexpensive and spectacular.

"Poinsettia." Oil on canvas paper, 16 x 16 inches. Completed November 1998.

From the Archives: Addie Under the Tree

As the holidays approach, I thought I'd post some works that were completed as studies or created just for fun (and practice). This holiday-themed study was produced one afternoon after I had worked on a very large canvas. I still had quite a bit of paint left on my pallet, so - for personal enjoyment - I pulled out a sheet of canvas paper and quickly sketched out this painting of my cat, Adelaide ("Addie" for short) laying under my family room Christmas tree. I didn't really care how the final product would end up, but simply wanted to enjoy the experience and capture a quick moment in time.

This past week I was the lucky winning eBay bidder on a small gem of a painting by Detroit artist Stephen Magsig. Entitled "Brush Park View II," the painting arrived on Wednesday and is now a prized part of my small but growing collection of works by artists I admire. Please be sure to visit Stephen's great daily painter blog, Postcards From Detroit.

"Addie Under the Tree." Oil on canvas paper, 9 x 12 inches. Completed December 2007.

From the Archives: Deschler Avenue Mansions

I've been busy working on two projects in the studio this past week. First, I completed the painting that I will use as this year's Christmas card to family and friends. Once the card is mailed, I'll post the painting on the blog. Second, I've been working on a new commission that is essentially finished and will be delivered soon to the patron. Both of these have been welcome changes to the normal routine.

This week's featured work is an older painting (created almost five years ago) that I did as an afternoon study for a still-planned larger canvas. It is based on my favorite neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, German Village. The focal point of that neighborhood is Schiller Park. Surrounding the park are spectacular turn-of-the-20th century brick mansions of various styles and sizes. I captured one vantage point of these homes from the park itself. Some day I'll do the full-scale interpretation of these houses.

"Deschler Avenue Mansions (Study)". Oil on stretched canvas, 12 x 16 inches. Completed February 2006.