SC STANDS TO LOSE $40 MILLION in annual arts tax REVENUES!! That’s dollars from the cultural industry, all as a result of Mark Sanford’s last gasp grandstanding. Save Our Cultural Institutions! Contact you legislators by Tues 9am!!

The State Museum, SC Arts Commission, ETV, USC, etc are in deep trouble. Great people who are true community assets WILL lose their jobs. $40mil in annual arts tax revenue will drop, too. Kids, though, will be the ones to suffer the most. Help!

Here’s the link, again, to contact the 6 top SC Repub. House reps; call/email em TODAY to override Sanford’s arts veto by tmrw’s Gen. Assembly session: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=124574904246754

This is the 6th in the series of paintings I’ve been doing. The light was fading in the studio when I shot this so I think I’ll have to get another tomorrow.

Each one is based on the one that I did the day before so the composition (sort of) stays the same but the color and mark-making definitely doesn’t. I’m enjoying the exercise! It’s a great way to start the day in the studio and has gotten me over that inevitable hump that happens at the end of a semester when I have to reprogram myself into a different mode.

Dunes VI, 2010, oil on canvas, 8"x8"

I could not leave the 4th painting alone after I photographed it and posted it yesterday. Something just nagged me about the background trees. I worked into it some more first thing today and feel like it’s resolved.

Dunes IV, 2010, oil on canvas, 8"x8"

Dunes V, 2010, oil on canvas, 8"x8"

Dunes III, 2010, oil on canvas, 8"x8"

This is the third painting in the exercise I’m doing to jump-start my summer painting. I don’t normally use a lot of greens…it’s such a hard color to make look right. Just a little too much and it just looks cheesy. This is still not jumping in there with both feet, but I’m getting myself ready to really explore green tomorrow. I really like how this one teeters on the edge of abstraction. My favorite paintings are the ones that become a surface and pattern of marks up close and only really resolve into recognizable imagery from a slight distance.

Dunes I, 2010, oil on canvas, 10"x10"

Well, school’s finally out and grades are in so it’s back to big chunks of daily studio time! To jump back in to a rhythm I’m playing a game with myself. I did a quick painting yesterday based on a sketch from Edisto Island that I had in the studio. What I’m going to be doing for at least a week is to start the day with another quick painting based off of the previous day’s piece, sort of like the game of gossip. Who knows what the final painting is going to look like by next week?! The only one I’m going to have out while I’m working is the one from the day before. Gonna “hide” the others from myself in the office or storage room.

Here’s the first stage of the same painting:

Dunes I, stage 1

Only $690 to go, but less than three days left to make goal!! The reward at the $100 level and above include original artwork. I’m working on a suite of intaglio (etching, drypoint and engraving processes) prints that are the rewards at the $100, $250 and $500 levels. Don’t miss the opportunity to get a great deal on original art!

Three more backers have brought the pledges up to $1210! That means there’s only $690 to go to meet the target. Special thanks to my cousin Jane Thomas, longtime neighbor John Cullum and my college roommate, Kay Hunnicutt Roman for backing the press!!

Thanks to Ken May, Jill Kovernan and Mike Steinhilper I’m up to almost 50% of the funding for the press. I’m working on building a surge here in the last few days remaining on the Kickstarter project. The idea of being able to work on etchings again after a long stretch away from the process is a really exciting prospect. I rough out ideas yesterday in the studio of what I’d like to do. I plan on jumping on printing as soon as the press comes in.

Thanks again everyone!