Happy Thanksgiving!

2018 Louisiana and Texas Summer Painting Adventure!

  

This was a busy summer!  We traveled to Louisiana, Texas and Maine.  The trips were all great….seeing friends and relatives in all locations, as well as productive in producing field studies and studio paintings.  This was probably my most productive summer as far as painting on location goes! 

Many of the studies will hopefully translate into larger studio works.  I have already painted several!  Here are a few of the smaller 6x8 oil studies as well as a couple of the larger format paintings!

I haven’t posted on my blog in some time….mainly because of busy schedule….I apologize for the neglect and hope you enjoy these images I’m posting.  I will post more as I produce some additional larger images based on the summer trips!

 

These first studies below are from the first leg of our summer trips, around the Beautiful B&B where we stayed, “Le Village”, in Eunice, La.  A dear friend owns the place, and our stays are always a great memorable experiences!

The Prairie Barn 11x14 oil on linen

American Beauty 6x8 oil study

Country Evening 8x6 oil study

In the Garden 6x8 oil study

This second set of studies and paintings below are from the Texas part of our trip in Austin, Tex.  We visited Barton Creek, a great spot to paint and collect painting reference.  My old friend Ed Acuna, a great artist and expert on snakes and lizards was our guide….thank you Ed!

Exploring the Creek 18x24 oil on linen

Secluded Spot 16x20 oil on linen

Cooling off 16x12 oil on linen

Woodland Stream 6x8 oil study

Until next time, thanks for listening to my Cajun ramblings!

Hodges Soileau OPA

"My Purgatory Pile"

     All artists have piles of work that are not quite complete to satisfaction, or aren’t quite working, or should probably be painted over…or destroyed.  Well, mine has grown to a proportion that is no longer acceptable.  I am making a New Year’s resolution to cull it down….by either reworking the ones that are close to acceptable, or sanding down, and resizing the surfaces to reuse these good pieces of linen.  Some of it is just not worth the effort and should just be discarded.

      The violinist never reached completion....can't remember why!

     The nature of a pack rat, like myself, is to not throw anything away that I like, or think has any possible hope or merit.  This all started when an illustrator friend back in the Houston days took a little study out of my trash can and had it framed….brought it in a couple of weeks later and said to me….don’t throw these away.  Thanks, Bob Lapsley, for creating the saver that I am!

      Her favorite place, was exhibited once...there was little interest

        Hard to decide what to do with some of these...getting another look!

     There’s always a positive side to these things.  I go through my baskets of sketches and small studies, and on critique day at Ringling College of art and Design I have what we call artist choice.  Students vote for the most impressive body of work at each critique (they can‘t vote for their own), and the student with the most votes gets to dig into a few of the baskets of my saved studies.  They are mostly small….preliminary studies, and by accomplished artists standards not much to write home about.  The students seem to enjoy this.  I hope it creates some incentive to have their work rise to the level of a vote.

 This was never finished to my satisfaction....getting another look!
 

This is one I painted in 2005 was briefly exhibited in a gallery show!

This is one that's getting another look!

Well, here are a few that I’m giving consideration to as possible candidates for resurrection from the “Purgatory Pile”.  Again, thanks for listening to my Ramblings!….and, Happy New Year to all of you!

Hodges Soileau OPA