7 7/8″x5 7/8″ oil on gesso-coated board

AVAILABLE, email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price

“Courage is being scared to death – and saddling up anyway.”  -John Wayne, 1907-1979

This is my first post in over a week, mostly due to blog problems with my server. But as I have already stated, I’ve been painting a lot, both on fine art projects and some commercial. You know, trying to make a living. I guess that makes them all commercial. But that’s another subject for another day. I finished a painting for a friend, a really large yellow lily. Yes, I paint flowers too. It came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Lynn liked it, so that’s what is most important. Ah yes, another satisfied customer.

As I am writing this post, it is a beautiful, sunny day, mid fifties and there are two tiny finches outside my studio window carrying on like there’s no tomorrow. What a beautiful sound. Last week, I walked out my front door one morning and a red-tailed hawk swooped down right in front of me, six feet from my door! It was amazing. I heard the swoosh of his feathers as he flew by within feet of me. I think he was as surprised as I was. I’m sure he didn’t expect to come that close to a human that morning. It was a memorable experience, one that I will never forget. They are one of my favorite birds.

So, about this painting I am posting. As is my habit with these small pieces, I rarely know what I’m going to paint when I sit down. I had been working on a Western art piece, another side of my oeuvre,  a modern-day cowboy working a two-year old horse, so I guess my heart was in the West (wait, my heart is always in the West!). This Cattle Baron sort of showed up. He represents those crusty, ruthlessly powerful men in the late 1800s that laid the foundation for cattle operations in the modern West as we know it. I guess he could have been a New York tycoon, or a railroad baron, but somehow he became a cattle baron before my very eyes. Kind of bullied his way on in.  Enjoy!

Hey everybody. I thought I would let y’all know that no, I haven’t killed the blog! I have been having problems with my server. You know, the one that begins with a big ole “Y”,  for the last several days, a most frustrating experience. But the good news (well, for some) is that I’ve been painting like a fiend and will post something new tomorrow. Thank you for your patience and I’ll be back shortly!

ArtGuy

17″x14″ pencil on Bienfang paper

AVAILABLE,  email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price

“It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”  -Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

Okay, I couldn’t resist this. I probably should have drawn this a couple of weeks ago after Limbaugh’s noxious remarks about Haiti. But alas, some people insist on exposing their very worst on a consistent basis. Oh well, we caricaturists actually love guys like him because of the fodder they provide for our strange visual musings. I find it amusing that this guy who makes his living spewing forth such divisive rhetoric actually has a tiny mouth! Really, look at a photo of him. How does he get such huge amounts of junk to flow through that little space? It’s even more amazing that he chooses to smoke the largest cigars on the planet. He looks like someone shoved a fence post in his mouth. Hmmm?  Enjoy!

17″x14″ pencil on Bienfang drawing paper

AVAILABLE, email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the hell she is.  -Ellen DeGeneres, 1958-

I thought I would start posting a few drawings from time to time. I try very hard to do at least one a day, but for all my good intentions,  sometimes poo poo gets in the way. I’ve always admired a fine drawing, the draftsmanship, the craftsmanship the mother ship… huh? Maybe they’re about to act on their promise from so long ago and come back and take me away. Okay ArtGuy, slow down, regroup, get back on track. You can do this. Maybe my sons DO get their lack of focus from me? Who knew? I read somewhere that drawings are kind of a road map of the artist’s intent when preparing to do a painting. Not sure who said that, but he obviously never met me, I stay lost all the time. I say with much vibrato and pride, I AM Mr. Fly-By-The-Seat-of-My-Pants!! But I’ve been dazed and confused ever since Taylor Swift, that young, lanky, still 14-awkward at 20, “country” singer won the top Grammy last night! Holy crap, has anyone ever told that child she can’t sing?! In the words of my Pop, God rest his soul, “that girl couldn’t carry a tune in bucket”.  Okay, I’m sure she’s a very sweet, young lady that every 10 to 12 year-old-girl idolizes, but she still can’t sing. Now, where was I..?   Enjoy!

14″x11″ watercolor on 140lb. Arches paper

This piece is AVAILABLE. Please email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price.

“I was given a tremendous amount of credit for having unbelievable insights, more than any known shrink could hope ever to have. I might have stumbled on something, but really wasn’t something you could count on and call ‘insight’.”  -David Levine, 1926-2009

This is a caricature I did back in 2008 of famed caricaturist, David Levine. In my mind he was the best caricaturist that ever lived and influenced my work like no other. I heard a couple of weeks ago that he had died in late December 2009. I was crushed. His work in The New York Review of Books, which numbered 3,800 pieces,  was what introduced me to caricature and gave me the direction my life would take.  I told the story on a previous post, but to recap, I saw an edition of TNYRB laying on the desk of a reporter in the newsroom. I was a lowly copy boy, my first year in the business, 1973. I stopped to peruse the edition and after seeing Mr. Levine’s amazingly deft pen & ink line work in the faces of then, current history makers, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, I knew I had to learn more.

Eventually, I moved into the art department and never looked back. It took me a couple of years to really get a handle on pen & ink, but it became my bread and butter until newspapers began using color in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s Mr. Levine came to my hometown, Columbus, GA, to lecture at Columbus State University on the occasion of a one-man show of his work. After the lecture I made my way to him and waited patiently, listening to his every word, awaiting the moment I had often dreamed of. When I finally got my chance, I introduced myself and told him I worked for the local paper and that he was the reason I’m not driving a truck. He laughed a shy laugh and said something self-deprecating. He was charming and all that I hoped he would be. He autographed a hand-out card of one of his images for me as we talked and was gracious and encouraging. I will never forget that evening and the feelings I had being in a room surrounded by original Levine’s and in the presence of the man that created them. For me, had I been a young pianist, it would have been like meeting Beethoven. Thank you, Mr. Levine, I’ll be looking for those lines in the sky. Rest well.  Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/arts/design/30levine.html

http://www.nybooks.com/gallery/

17″x13″ watercolor on 140lb Arches paper

This piece is AVAILABLE. Please email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price.

“An artist, by nature of the joy he finds in his work and by constant excitement over everything he sees, keeps him young…forever. “  -Bill Nelson, Artist/Illustrator

This is another of my newspaper illustrations from the 90s. It is Courtney Love, widow of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain. I did the piece for an article in the newspaper about her life after Cobain’s death. She has apparently lived a life so on the edge that most of us can’t comprehend. Mostly sad, mostly tragic. It’s hard as an illustrator sometimes, particularly those of us who do “loaded portraits”, as the Brits once called them, caricatures, as they are referred to in America (a limiting term in my opinion), to portray someone so tortured. Our job is to try and look deeper, maybe pull out more of the personality, or maybe another side of the personality, always probing deeper. It’s a fine line to walk and one that is both exciting and at times perilous and downright strange.

This past weekend I found several of my illustration “heroes” on facebook and was thrilled to “friend” many of them. The above quote was by one of them, Bill Nelson. Bill was a star illustrator in the 70s when I began my career, doing cover work for the likes of  The New Yorker, Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly. He was one of many that I looked up to. Still do. He took the time to write me a long, thoughtful and encouraging message on facebook. Today, he is still very much a vital and productive artist reaching beyond the limits of the struggling publishing industry to produce some of the best work of his life. Check out his website, you won’t be sorry. Thank you, Bill.  Enjoy!

http://www.billnelsonstudios.com/

14″x11″ signed limited edition print published from the original pen & ink drawing, edition of 300

Please email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for a print, $30 plus $8 shipping, unframed

The one-of-kind original art is available matted and framed. Contact me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price.

“You could almost touch the tension in Monticello (GA). For the town waited on the train and not the other way around. Monticello had all day to pack peaches and bale cotton and sort letters and talk about Gone With The Wind and get a haircut- but the mixed train only tarried 20 minutes to a half hour, and if you were riding down the line to Round Oak or picking up the mail and express or meeting your cousin, why, you’d best be down at the depot at half past the hour.”  -David P. Morgan, 1927-1990

I created this pen & ink drawing back in 1994. It was my first limited edition print. I never sold the complete edition, so I thought I would offer the rest of them now. I think there are over 150 prints left in the edition. The image is of the Central of Georgia’s streamliner passenger train,  The Man O’ War, that ran twice daily between Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia. This scene is in the rail yard at Columbus under the viaduct, circa 1947, where the brand new E7 unit, #806, was about to make its maiden voyage to Atlanta. The proud conductor about to board his train is believed to be Mr. B. C. Bennett of the Atlanta area. I debuted this print at a train show in Atlanta and a man walked up to my table and recognized his grandfather (Mr. Bennett) in my drawing. I was amazed! I based the drawing on an old photo I found in the archives at the newspaper at which I worked. I may do an oil painting of the same scene in the future. I’ve been thinking about it for years.

When I found that photo I knew I wanted to do a drawing or painting of it, because it reminded me of when I was a kid how I used to see the Man O’ War every day after school. I was attending Daniel Junior High in 1967 and when that last bell rang in the afternoon, I and a friend or two would head for the Central of Georgia mainline on our way home to see the spectacle that was the Man O’ War. The engineer became quite familiar with our young faces and always blew his horn for us and waved.  Talk about feeling special! I can’t count the number of pennies that the wheels of  that train flattened for me. We would dig in our pockets to see if we could come up with a penny or two to carefully place on the rails. We would then back away across the ditch and await the train. As it approached the 45th Street crossing it would blow it’s piercing horn as if to say, stand back folks, the Man O’ War has returned! It was a proud steed, to say the least. We would begin to fidget with anticipation as we got our first visual. As the beautiful streamliner rolled past us it took all we had to stay focused on where our pennies were. We wanted to see the engineer and get a glimpse of the passengers as they rolled by in the lap of luxury that was this train. After she rolled by we would scramble to the tracks to find our flattened copper prizes and it was always like hunting for gold,  digging around in the chunky, gray ballast looking for that glimmering piece of elongated, flattened copper. I think I may have a couple of those left of the dozens I once had. I hope so. Yes, I know, in this day and time you can’t get near a railroad track without someone thinking you’re a terrorist. Sad. Engineers and conductors will still proudly wave from their big, rolling machines if they see you. Some traditions still live and railroaders proudly cling to them. I’m glad, because at the risk of sounding a lot older than I really am, those were the good ole days!  Enjoy!

5″x5″ oil on gesso-coated board

This piece is AVAILABLE. Please email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price.

“It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”  -Ansel Adams, 1902-1984

I’m often asked how I choose my subjects for caricature. When I was in the newspaper business it was pretty easy. Visual journalism is about the news, the people in the news and presenting those people in such a manner that draws the reader in. All I had to do was follow the daily events of politics or pop culture for my “inspiration”. They provided me with all the fodder I could use. Although I have not been inside a newsroom in 10 months now, I still follow the news and the news makers. Once a journalist, always a journalist.

Now, I read several newspapers online daily as well as weekly and monthly magazines. I believe in staying informed, even when I have to wade through huge daily doses of pop culture crap to get to any real news of substance. You know what I’m talking about, Brad and Angelina cleaned out their garage over the weekend and Brad found two Harleys he forgot he had. Or, Jon and Kate announced today that they are pregnant with quadruplets. Oh, and they plan to divorce after the next batch are born. While perusing said magazines that are loaded with all the latest photos of the “stars”, I am inundated with tons of visual stimuli. Today, I turned the page and saw a great photo of Brad. I was struck by the structure of his face and the cool goatee, topped off with those flashy, star-like shades. I knew I had to paint him. I grabbed a piece of illustration board I had already prepared and began sketching in oils. Three hours later I had the image you see before you. So, it doesn’t always have to be some huge wave of inspiration to create a piece of art. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of flipping a page. Enjoy!

5″x5″ oil on gesso-coated board

This piece is available. Email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price.

“Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.”  -Al Hirschfeld, 1903-2003

It’s been a cold winter here in Georgia so far. Okay, you folks in Chicago or Fargo would beg to differ, I’m sure. Everything is relative. Today, I took my camera and small sketchpad and ventured outside into the surrounding woods. I love the outdoors in winter. It trills me to walk in the woods with leaves, limbs and the cold ground crunching under foot. My deepest emotions are stirred along with a driving need to express them. I love to sit and sketch details of trees and photograph their many shapes and angles, absorbing to memory their very essence. I would much rather paint the bare, sculptural trees of winter than all the clumps of green trees in the summer combined. To me, there’s something intensely emotional about the winter landscape. I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on it. I’ve spent the majority of my life in the South, with the exception of a few years spent in southern Germany, Florida and Montana. There’s a quiet starkness that reaches deep into my soul and makes me want to capture its fleeting imagery. The air smells richer and your lungs have no trouble feeling the impact of the cold air when you inhale. It’s cleansing, ironically, like a summer rain.

I love the way the sunlight trickles over a gray, winter tree, exposing its skin, warts and all. I love to visit the same trees in different times of day to see how the changing light recasts new shadows every little while, altering the personality of the tree. I want to get as close as I can to see the crags and cuts of years of standing against winters and hot, Southern summers, to see the clinging vines of wisteria that have embedded themselves into the body of the tree. As a painter, I try so hard to stay loose and painterly, but when it comes to the detail in those winter trees, it’s all but impossible for me not to paint every nook  and cranny. I never tire of looking at those same trees I have looked at, drawn and painted for the 20 years since we built our home. Andrew Wyeth once put it this way: “You can look at the same object in all times of day or in your imagination with the myriad shifts of tones. It’s like Rembrandt painting his own face as many times as he did. A change of subject is really very unimportant to me, because there are always new revelations coming out of that one subject.” I will share some of my tree friends with you soon. Stay tuned. Enjoy!

16″x12″ watercolor on Arches 140lb. watercolor paper

This painting is AVAILABLE. Please email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price.

“Color does not add a pleasant quality to design – it reinforces it.”  -Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947

I did this piece way back in 1990, almost 20 years ago,  for the newspaper on the release of Tom Cruise’s latest movie at the time, “Days of Thunder”. This was supposed to be a centerpiece illustration for the entertainment page, no frills, no “editorializing”, according to the features editor. Well, caricature is innately about editorializing. It makes a statement on its own merit. The caricaturist has to do very little to get his or her point across. I’m always amazed at the comments I get when I do a caricature. They elicit all manner of thought, which is a good thing. I’ve received hate mail, bomb threats, and love letters about my work. “Why do you make people look so weird?” is one of the most common questions I am asked. How do you respond to that? It’s a caricature.

This piece was one of transition for me. My style was transcending from a very naturally-colored way of painting to a far more colorful approach of expressing my caricatures. I was experimenting a lot back then, trying to find “my style”. I still am, I suppose. I have come to recognize that as growth. I was told as a young illustrator that in order to “make it”, I had to have a definitive style. I was trapped by that statement for many years. I knew that I liked doing different things as an artist, but I tried desperately to stay with one way of expression. After much inward looking and a lot of late nights fighting off frustration and pulling my hair out, I am happy to report that I am still looking!  Enjoy!

Artwork Copyright Columbus Ledger-Enquirer