Marsh Reflections

"Marsh Reflections"

6" x 6" Acrylic on Archival Canvas Panel

$75 unframed, $150 Framed

Email me at justin@justinholdren.com to purchase. I accept Paypal if you prefer to pay with debit or credit card.

I really have been working, jut not posting like I should! This is a small painting I did recently to work out a composition for a larger work. This marsh near Calabash, NC was breathtaking when I was there and I snapped a photo and did a pencil sketch. It was too hot and mosquitos the size of small birds were all around, so I didn't paint it on site! The day was real hazy and you could hardly see the distant treeline in the background. The trees reflecting in the water were real dark and not getting much sunlight either.

I'm working on a bunch of coastal paintings and also playing around with some still life work as my wife seems to think those that I have done are good and I should do more. I have also had positive feedback on the still life work from buyers.

I am also currently trying to work out a place to sell my work near the coast, more about that later!

Sunshine Lavender Farm Harvest Celebration

"Lavender Farm In June"

10" x 10" Acrylic on Canvas

$200 unframed, $250 Framed

Email me at paintinglandscapes@yahoo.com if interested. This is one of the plein air pieces I painted on site during the festival.

Artist Thomas Heggie of Greensboro, NC. Great person and a fantastic artist!


Artist Brenda Behr from Goldsboro, NC paints a portrait of the musician on the front porch! You can see more of Brenda's work at http://www.brendabehr.com/ .




A beautiful sunflower in the garden behind the farmhouse. Annie has a great garden! Always beautiful things to paint....and eat!

People gather near the field to take a tour given by farm owner Annie Baggett, one of the nicest people you will ever meet! She is also so supportive of local and regional artists which I appreciate!


This past weekend I attended the annual Harvest celebration at Sunshine Lavender Farm in Hurdle Mills, NC. Annie, the owner of the farm always invites the artists to come and paint during the celebration. She also has some of the artists work in her art collection, which is great!

She gives tours of the farm throughout the day, and they also have lots of lavender items and great food by local vendors for sale at the event.

To see an entire album of photos from the event go to my Facebook art page HERE and click on photos.

Germanton Gallery & SCAC ART Auction

My painting getting ready to make the viewing rounds as it is auctioned off

"Afternoon on Town Fork Creek "

7" x 5" Acrylic on Canvas

My finished painting done on site. It was auctioned off to a buyer to raise money for the Arts Council of Stokes County.

Well known Stokes County artist Frank Duncan blocking in his painting "Friendship Bridge"

Artists Addren Doss and Julie Hayes of the Piedmont Outdoor Painting Society get their paintings started

I returned late Saturday night after attending the Stokes County Arts Council's annual art auction held near Germanton Gallery on Town Fork Creek in Stokes County.

I was invited by artist Frank Duncan (http://www.artworkoffrankduncan.com/ ) to come and plein air paint during the auction. Frank, myself and a few other artists did plein air paintings on site that were then auctioned at the end of the day to benefit the arts council.

I had a blast and was able to see paintings from the gallery done by artists I have admired since art school. All in all it was a great day!

Staycation - Lazy 5, Bob Timberlake Gallery, Zoo

Feeding the Llamas at Lazy 5 Ranch

Shot of the waterway near the Asheboro NC Zoo

The huge Bob Timberlake Gallery in Lexington

Well, we took a short 4 day Staycation last week. My 4 year old daughter had to have outpatient surgery for some dental fillings, and she was pretty tired, so we did some things near home. We went to the Asheboro Zoo and she fed the giraffes and I took lots of pictures, some to paint from later in the studio.

On our last day, we headed to Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC but stopped off in Lexington, NC and had some great barbecue, which was out of this world! I also stopped in the Bob Timberlake Gallery and it is an awesome display of a lifetime of his artwork and furniture designs. Find out more at http://www.bobtimberlake.com/ .

Tomorrow I head to King, NC for an event at Germanton Gallery that I will be painting on site for. I will have pictures of the event on the blog here in my next post.

Summer schedule is heating up!

As many of you know, I still hold a full time job with a local rescue mission in addition to my slowly growing job of painter. The Piedmont Rescue Mission held a craft and vendor fair this past weekend that I took part in. Since there were also yard sale items and food for sale, most craft or art items had slow sales. But having these vendors and taking part helped the rescue mission raise some much needed cash.

There is a quick pic at the bottom of this post of my setup. I just brought a simple display for originals and some bins with matted prints as well. I also met and networked with some other artists and might be taking part in a street festival thay told me about later in June.

Some upcoming events:

Saturday, June 4th - Stokes County Arts Council Wine, Bid, and Boogie festival and art auction. I will be painting on location behind Germanton Gallery in King, NC and paintings will be auctioned off later in the day. This is a great chance for me to see work at the gallery there by nationally known artists and I can't wait!

Double Exposure Exhibit - I will be taking part in this exhibit at the Chatham Camera Club Gallery later in the year. It is near the large Arts Incubator Gallery in Siler City. The photographers post photos and the artists have to choose a photo and create their interpretation of it. The art and the photographer's photo are then exhibited side by side. I will post dates when I have them.

My setup for the Craft, Vendor, and Community Yard Sale day

Vendor Fair this weekend

I will be at Piedmont Rescue Mission in Burlington, NC this weekend for their Craft, Vendor, and Community Yard Sale. It is a fundraiser event for them and I work for them but will also have a booth there with items for sale. I will have larger originals for sale, but will also offer some smaller miniatures at an affordable price and I will have some matted prints/reproductions for sale.
The event is from 9-4 this Saturday, May 21. You can find out more at www.piedmontrescuemission.org - Hope to see you there!

Small Ocracoke Oil Study

"Ocracoke Surf"

6" x 6" Oil on archival Raymar panel

Click HERE to view the auction

This is a small oil study of the water near the shoreline of Ocracoke Island in NC. I produce so many of these small paintings because they allow me to work out ideas for larger paintings before I commit to a larger canvas. This one shows a crashing wave and there was a bit of sunlight reflecting in the curves of the wave. Follow the link under the image ot go to Ebay and place your bid.

Some North Carolina Scenes up for auction

Outer Banks Dunes - 6" x 6" Oil on Raymar Panel

Click Here to View Auction

Ocean Isle Marsh - 6" x 6" Oil on Raymar Panel
Click HERE to view auction

Here are a couple small paintings that I have up for auction on Ebay at an extremely affordable price. I have sold many small paintings over the years on Ebay and am going to start putting my smaller work and minatures and prints on Ebay and Etsy again. More about that to come in the next post!

Yes I'm Still Alive

I've been traveling with my smallest paintbox in the car to paint small studies when I have a few minutes - It's been really hectic lately!

Well, I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. Life has been crazy the past month! I had to finish paintings to submit to a juried show, we had to plan my daughter's 4th birthday bash, and I am working on a commission and new paintings for a interior designer's new shop in Southern Pines that will open in June or July.

I am also participating in the Local Color Gallery Paint out this Saturday, April 16th in Raleigh. We will be painting around town on location and we have to turn in two framed and completed pieces by the end of 6-8 hours. The paintings will then be exhibited in May at Local Color Gallery in Raleigh. You can visit their website here .

6 x 6 paintings submitted

Well, I submitted my paintings to the 6"Squared juried exhibition at Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa, California. There were almost 1200 entries into this popular exhibition and they only select a few hundred, so I may not get accepted, but I'm OK with that. I am going up against nationally known artists who have been at this a lot longer than I have, but I can always use these in a local gallery if they don't get accepted. Any time spent painting is a learning experience, so it is not wasted time.

I will know by the end of this week. Fingers crossed!

"Ocean Isle Marsh"

6" x 6" Oil on Raymar Panel

"Outer Banks Dunes"
6" x 6" Oil on Raymar Panel

"Calabash Boats"

6" x 6" Acrylic on Raymar Panel

I'm thinking 6 x 6!

Hello friends. Well I got my shipment of 6 x 6 inch museum quality canvas panels from raymar (www.raymarart.com ) today and I am sketching out ideas for 6 x 6 inch paintings.

Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa California is having its second show of paintings that are all 6 x 6 in size. The first one was hugely successful, so I thought I would submit a few for this show and see if they get juried into the show. There are hundreds of super talented nationally known artists submitting as well so the competition is fierce, but I thought I would at least try.

Randy Higbee is owner of King of Frame - www.kingofframe.com and sells awesome frames as well as being owner of Randy Higbee Gallery - www.randyhigbeegallery.com . Wish me luck and I will post some of the paintings soon.

Small Study and moving the Studio

Tennessee Landscape Study

5" x 7" Acrylic on Canvas

$50 Unframed

email me at paintinglandscapes@yahoo.com if interested

This is a small landscape study I did the other day from some pencil sketches and photos from a Tennessee trip. I have been doing a lot of these small studies lately and am working on some larger pieces, but just haven't completed anything lately. I do these small ones just to keep my brushes moving. Been fighting a cold since last week too which has made me feel like lying around instead of painting.

Also, I just recently moved my home studio from a large spare room downstairs to a smaller common area space upstairs. I am moving so we can make the spare room into a playroom for our daughter. The toys and everything keep growing even though we purge items when we can, so we thought giving her a playroom would help with that. I can paint in a smaller space, I am just having to store items like shipping supplies, frames, and canvas in the closet downstairs as I don't have room to keep a large work table set up anymore.

Anyway, I am all set up in the new space and you should be seeing more new work soon!

Quick post today

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: paintinglandscapes@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:29:40
To: <justinholdren.fineart@blogger.com>
Reply-To: paintinglandscapes@yahoo.com
Subject: Quick post today

Just a quick post from the Blackberry today. I am out sketching and looking for new ideas for paintings. Here is the spot I am at right now.
I'll have some new sketches posted by tomorrow.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Painting boats

"Docked at Calabash"

16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas

*This one headed to Raleigh Street Gallery soon - email if you are interested*

This is a recently finished painting I did from some sketches and photos I had from a trip this past summer to the Calabash and Ocean Isle area of North Carolina. I have been working on a few different boat paintings and will post them when finished. Boats are challenging! I simplified the ropes and surface details quite a bit - it was all a bit distracting.

This is sort of an unusual composition, but I like the "in your face" aspect of the subject. Painting white boats is often harder than colored boats just because there are so few areas that are pure white because of the shadows and reflected light from the nearby objects. This boat was mostly in shadow on the side facing you, but a little sun was hitting the top front of the boat. I should have pushed the values even more to make the lighting more dramatic, but it's not varnished yet, so I may revisit this one and tweak it a bit.

On a side note, one of my gallery reps just emailed me today and told me they sold one of the new paintings I just took them before it was even hung. Wish that happened every day!

Merry Christmas and the beauty of NC

Believe it or not, I am still alive even though I have not done much blogging in the past month. The last few months have been crazy(broken well pump at home, then totaled my car, etc.), but mostly I have been studying in the studio and just trying to really work hard to produce better, more thought out work.

I had a productive meeting with well known artist William Mangum the first week in December. He gave me an honest critique of my work and showed me areas to work on, one of which I knew he was going to say. I often struggle with composition, and how to place the scene, not so much the drawing and such, but the placement of the elements and lines and values that draw people into the scene. He also suggested that I take more risks, which could lead to better structured paintings. To find out more about him visit http://www.williammangum.com/ .

So, I have been painting a lot, but not posting every little thing that comes off the easel since lately they are mostly studies. I will be posting more often in 2011 as I am working on some new projects that I am excited about. Today I will leave you with some photos I took while painting on a private NC property. North Carolina is an artist's dream to paint.

New paintings

"Marsh Near Calabash"

6" x 6" Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas

Wired to hang unframed

"Table for Two"

6" x 6" Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas

Wired and ready to hang unframed

"Winter Pond"

8" x 10" oil on canvas

Framed in Hand carved metal leaf frame

These are some new ones I just finished for the Christmas Invitational Show at the Alamance Arts Council. The bottom one was painted last winter on location in freezing temps. I touched it up some before framing it, and I wanted to refine the frozen pond and grasses even more, but ran out of time. if you are interested in any of these contact the Alamance County Arts Council at 336-226-4495.

I paint water very often in my work, but this frozen pond was quite a challenge as the frozen ice didn't have much reflection like water normally does. I am at that stage lately in my work where I am more critical of every work I do and really have not been happy with the last few paintings, but seasoned professionals tell me this means I am learning more and growing as a painter. It just makes me want to press on even harder to learn more and keep improving my observation skills.

Stokes County Plein Air Piece

"Stokes County View"

8" x 10" Oil on Linen Panel

Unframed

This is a piece I posted before that was done on location but just wanted to let Ebay buyers know that is available as a fixed price Ebay listing. you can view the auction by clicking here.

Back to my Ebay roots - Outer Banks NC Painting

"Ocracoke Beach"

5" x 7" Acrylic on Raymar Canvas Panel

Click here to view on Ebay or place a bid

As many of you know, a few years back I used to sell my really small paintings on Ebay. I have sold to buyers across the country this way and I have many small ones lying around since I paint so many studies, so I am going to list some of them on Ebay again from time to time.

These will be mostly small paintings that I usually don't sell in galleries, so they will be a great way for someone to start collecting original art at an affordable price.

A whirlwind month

So far November is turning out to be one hectic month! This past Saturday I attended well known NC artist William Mangum's Open house at his gallery in Greensboro, NC. Got to talk with him and received a signed complimentary print. You can find out more about him at www.williammangum.com .

Sunday afternoon I headed to the Art Link Gallery at the Historic Chinqua Penn Plantation in Reidsville, NC to switch out some paintings of mine. There are some shots of the gallery below.

Now I am finishing a deadline this week for the Alamance Arts Council's Christmas Invitational show amidst my full time job and other responsibilities. One busy month so far!

Be looking at the blog here to find out about a solo exhibition I am planning for 2011. Stay tuned!

Main Exhibition room at Art Link Gallery

Another shot of the gallery - can you see the still life painting on the right in the gold leafed frame? That is one of mine.

Life's little problems

Well I am posting from the Blackberry tonight so this will be brief.
I have new paintings to show you soon but life has thrown some problems my way this week that have kept me from posting.
We live in the country and have well water and came home Monday to a broken well pump. After manually pulling 350 feet of line we replaced the pump only to discover after lowering it that the wire has a short also.
So out comes the pump again. Hope to have the wire replaced tomorrow and have water again. I hope so because I have show deadlines next week and I need to get back in our house!