7″x5″ Watercolor on 140lb Arches paper

Click here to bid on painting

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.”  -D.H. Lawrence, 1885-1930

I can’t believe it’s November and Thanksgiving is two days away!  I’ve been very busy since my last post,  painting,  working a part-time job,  becoming a grandfather for the first time,  exhibiting in shows and winning a couple of awards.  Our first grandchild, Jacob Brian Anderson, was born in July to my daughter Lindsay and her hubby, Brian Anderson!  What a joy he has been!  I’m so in love with that little guy. Okay, so he’s not THAT little, actually.  He was 9lbs, 6 ounces at birth!  My daughter is tiny!  Jacob has added a whole new dimension to our lives and brought so much joy to us all.

I had the pleasure of exhibiting in a group show, The d’Vine Palette, with several artist friends from my area that I have known my whole career, including Bucky Bowles, Joe Belt, Len Jagoda, Cheryl Mann Hardin, Charles Willis and Booth Malone, to name a few.  It was an enjoyable day, visiting and catching up with them, plus, it was a benefit for a local chapter of the Humaine Society.  I had five pieces excepted into the Georgia National Fair in October.  I won a second place in miniatures with my oil on canvas “Confederate Colonel”, below, and a third place in fine art with my watercolor, “Heritage” also below.  I also exhibited two pieces in The Columbus Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens recently.  Currently, I have some work in another group show at Two Sisters Gallery benefiting Trees Columbus, an organization protecting the trees and the natural environment here in my hometown.  Like I said, it’s been busy!

So, this post is a small watercolor of D. H. Lawrence, the British novelist and poet, among other things.  He was also a painter.  A most interesting man, but in his day, misunderstood and criticized, to the point that he spent most of the second half of his life in voluntary exile which he called “savage pilgrimage”.  Today, his work is more respected and accepted.  Strange how that happens to so many creative souls.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  -Enjoy!

16″x20″ oil on canvas

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

“My father, being extremely fond of machinery, was the one who first acquainted me with trains. He would often take me to the small wooden depot in Boligee when a Southern local was switching in town or a passenger train was making a brief stop.”  - J. Parker Lamb, Railroad photographer, educator and author

That seems to be the way with guys like myself that love trains.  Like Mr. Lamb, my dad sparked my interest in trains by doing one simple thing, stopping to watch them.  If we were riding along in our ’57 Oldsmobile and he saw a Central of Georgia train switching cars full of cotton bales at Bibb Mill or the Man ‘O War passenger train crossing 2nd Avenue on her afternoon return to my hometown from Atlanta, he would stop, or pause and point out the activity to me as if this were something worth noting.  My dad was not a railfan, (that’s what they call people who love trains these days) but I suppose he thought they were pretty cool,  just as many father’s think so today.  What’s not to like!?  They are huge, loud, powerful behemoths that scream testosterone!  I know there are “girl” railfans, plenty of them, but this seems to be a “guy” activity for the most part, not unlike baseball, football or auto racing.

This oil painting, “10th Street Blues”, is more impressionistic than I normally work, but as the painting progressed, so did the brush strokes!  I am drawn to the night, the nocturne.  There’s something particularly satisfying to me about railroading at night.  I have several nocturnes in progress in my studio as we speak.  There’s a certain mystery, a depth of feeling I get that simply isn’t there by day.  Maybe it taps into my need to ramble, which I have had all of my adult life.  I blame it on my years as an “Army brat”. We would pick up and move about every three years or so.  It took me a long time (and three children) to settle down.  But I digress.

This piece was most satisfying.  I really enjoyed working the sky and the diesel smoke.  The man-made lights of the locomotives and the city created a wonderful array of colors.  The colors of the night; muted earth tones, deep blues and greens and the pinkish color of lights in the modern city all combined to cry out for the impressionist in me.  The fact that this lash up was a former Chicago & Northwestern locomotive teamed with  a Union Pacific unit, both yellow, didn’t hurt any!  Plus, the summer heat of Georgia contributed to the atmosphere with a classic dose of night time “pea soup”, atmosphere that could almost be cut with a knife.  London, England has nothing on the deep South on a hot summer’s night, folks!

J. Parker Lamb’s railroad photographs and books are among my favorites and I highly recommend them to anyone who loves good photography, and especially those with a soft spot for trains.  I look at his books of photographs at night and somehow they satisfy that deep need to ramble, or at least hold it at bay for another day.  I’m happy Mr. Parker’s dad took the time to acquaint him with trains.  The  world is a better place because of  it.  Thank you, Pop, for stopping that two-toned Oldsmobile for me when you heard a train horn.  My work is forever indebted.  -Enjoy!

6″x5″ oil on board

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

“The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth, which sweeps you along in his passion”.  -Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1841-1919

This little oil was fun to paint.  Like most people, Renoir looked completely different as a younger man.  His intense gaze reflects the passion in his words about his work.  As an older gentleman he wore large, over-sized French berets, his eyes  sunken deeply into sockets sitting atop high protruding cheek bones.  I plan to paint him as an older man as well, which I will post here in the future.  As with many artists and creative celebrities, I am more fascinated with the way they look than their actual creative process.  Not sure what that says about me.  So many faces, so little time.

I can’t honestly say that Renoir is not one of my favorite painters, but I sure feel his passion for his work through his words.  He was a lover, a lover of women, nature, children and all things beautiful.  I respect that.  But for me his work was too… well, round.  His women were round, very round!  Their bottoms, as he called them, were extremely round and out of proportion.  No, I have no problem with women with round “bottoms”.  I know and love many.  Maybe the women of France were all round in the 19th century.  Maybe not.  I think he just liked painting the figure with overtly round, exaggerated  curves, not unlike the modern master of rotund, Lucien Freud, who passed away last week.  Renoir once said, “When I’ve painted a woman’s bottom so that I want to touch it, then [the painting] is finished.” Everything in his paintings seems to flow in a circle, revolving around an invisible lazy Susan.  Frankly, some of his pieces make me a little drunk.  His heightened impressionistic palette exacerbates the sense of flowing in a circle.  But really, I don’t dislike his work.  No, really, I don’t!  He was a master.  A master of the round…  A master IN the round!  Just sayin’.  -Enjoy!

5″x3 3/4″ oil on canvas

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

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.”  -James McNeill Whistler, 1834-1903

This is my first post for quite some time.  I’ve been consumed by larger pieces for shows and gallery use.  Sorry to be away so long.  I really want to get back to posting regularly, or as often as I can in hopes of keeping it a lively blog.  I promise to try harder.  I am going to post several larger pieces soon to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to.  Thanks for your patience.

I painted this small oil a few days ago, based on an old, grainy photo of a Confederate Colonel by the name of D. H. Hill of North Carolina that I found in a book.  I’m not a Civil War historian by any stretch, but have an interest in it.  It’s difficult to hail from the deep South and not have some sort of interest in that tragic part of American history.  I love old, grainy pictures from all world history, but that era simply produced a lot of characters that appeal to me.  I love to sit down with a small, blank, toned canvas or board and see what I can pull out of that abyss that is my mind or my “no-mind” as it were.  When I find a cool, old photo that appeals to me it sometimes makes the job that much more fun.  Colonel Hill had an interesting face, intense, dedicated, even defiant, not unlike my own feelings about my work.  -Enjoy!

11″x14″ watercolor on Arches 300lb paper

SOLD!

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be.”  -Abraham Maslow, 1908-1970

Here is my latest watercolor.  Truth be known, it was another of the paintings I started a year or so ago and just now completed.  I am one of those painters that works on several pieces at one time.  I’m not sure what that says about me,  but there it is.  It has been speculated that I get bored easily.  There is no truth to that.  I don’t get bored.  Never have.  I have the patience of Job, as my Mother would say.  Like so many other realizations or revelations with age, I have come to understand after so many years of painting that for me it is the excitement of the beginnings of a new piece, a new idea, something fresh to contribute to my creative continuum.  I begin a piece and work on it for awhile and often put it aside.  At some point, whether it be that day or a year later, I have to sit down and put in the hours, days, weeks, whatever it takes to bring a piece to fruition.  I do.  But each piece has its time and I allow that to be.  Don’t get me wrong, if there’s a deadline as in a commission or an illustration, I sit down and knock it out.  But with my “speculative” work, I work the time frame according to what I feel.

For those who love trains and are interested in the narrative behind this piece, it is the Clinchfield Railroad in the autumn of 1966 at Erwin, TN at the old diesel shops.  That is now CSX territory.  The painting is based on a photo by my friend, Ron Flanery.  -Enjoy!

17″x12″ watercolor on Arches 140lb paper

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

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”  -Mohandas Gandhi, 1869-1948

I began this piece a few years ago for the newspaper I was working for.  For whatever reason it was never finished or published. I was going through some stuff yesterday and found it and decided to take the time to finish it.  At the time I started this piece I was still experimenting with a lot of color, pushing the boundaries, particularly with its use in watercolor.  I still love to lay a purple next to a yellow or lime green just to watch it vibrate!  As an artist it can be such a joy to experience this kind of “vibration”.  But when it came to this particular subject I was drawn to this collision of color in an attempt at illustrating the evil that vibrates from this man.  It is a caricature, but caricature is not always meant to be funny.  In this case it goes back to the original use by the Brits. They called it a “loaded portrait”.  I think that is more appropriate here.  The painting is still a very timely piece, I’m sad to say.  -Enjoy?

18″x12″ watercolor on 140lb paper

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

“If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.”  -Eminem, 1972-

Here’s my latest piece.  I know, it’s a little different from that last piece.  As I’ve stated here before, I will try to keep it interesting.  I am an illustrator, as well as a fine artist.  I wear both hats comfortably.  I enjoy working in both genres and I continue to try to blur the differences between them.  I understand the differences, but I still believe they can co-exist and that I can do both instead of being forced to do only one by publishing world dictates.  I mean, what happened to diversifying your business?  In essence fine art is somewhat illustrative.  I am working on a commissioned piece of  “fine art” as we speak.  It just happens to be a landscape that someone wanted me to do of a specific scene.  That makes it somewhat illustrative in my humble opin.  Work with me here! I did this watercolor painting of rap artist Eminem on a speculative basis. In other words, no magazine or newspaper commissioned it, but I still hope one may.  I just did it because I wanted to, kinda like fine art. At this moment I have several of my watercolor caricatures in a fine art gallery in California.  They were all published pieces yet they are being sold as “fine art” pieces in a gallery.  Hmmm, a further blurring of the lines?  Maybe it’s just me.  -Enjoy!

14″x11″ signed and numbered prints

PRINTS AVAILABLE, $30 plus $8 shipping, unframed, email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com

“Ofttimes a ride over the common carrier short line, or uncommon private line, could be had for the asking, either in the hot humid cab or back in a “Jim Crow” combine or sidedoor caboose…  if the line owned such a luxury accommodation.”  -Mallory Hope Ferrell, railroad author and historian

Yes, I have posted this piece before, but now I have limited edition prints available of this watercolor.  This is the watercolor version of the same image I did in acrylics back 2002 for the cover of Mal Ferrell’s book, “Slow Trains Down South”.  I wish I had done the cover art in watercolor, it is so much more lively than the acrylic version.  It was a fun project and working with Mal was such a delight.  He is one of the most knowledgeable rail historians on the planet and a fine gentleman of rare character from the state of Virginia.  We are fortunate to have him living among us in the state of Georgia, his adopted home.

This print is of the archaic Sylvania Central Railroad #103, a 4-6-0, otherwise known as a Ten-wheeler, a Baldwin locomotive, pulling a “Jim Crow” combination car through a dusty crossing at Ziegler, Georgia in 1953.  It is based on a classic black and white photo by well-known Georgia rail historian, W. F. Beckum. The signed and numbered prints are available through my studio at $30 each, plus $8 shipping. Please email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com if you are interested. The original watercolor painting is still available, matted and framed. Email me for the price. -Enjoy!

8 1/2″x5 3/8″ watercolor on Arches 140lb paper

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

“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”  -William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

This watercolor is one of an old friend.  I planted this tree, a cheap, “throw away” sugar maple, as it was called at the nursery where we bought it, in our backyard a couple of years after we built this home 21 years ago.  My children grew up with this tree.  Alex, my youngest at 18, climbed her branches all the time, much to the dismay of his mother.  This tree has provided a shady respite from the long, hot summers here in the South and exhibited her intense red-orange glory in the passing of 19 autumns.  She has stood as a backdrop for family photos, everything from Zach’s big bass catch from our lake, to Lindsay and her date’s high school dance.  My late Dad stood in her shade on Saturday afternoons ruminating about the status of the Brave’s season and what a hot summer we were having here in Georgia, like all the one’s he had commented on every year before.

That tree has stood in our backyard as a friend to countless birds of every persuasion in all seasons, from Bluebirds and Cardinals in the winter to summer migrating indigo buntings and the most common of sparrows.  I have studied this tree and all its crags and splits in every season.  Her personalty and her details seem to change from year to year as her branches continue to reach for the heavens.  I find great beauty and excitement in it all.  Yes, I said excitement.  Nature excites me.  Maybe it’s my artistic nature and having those “extra sensitivities” I’ve always heard about.  But, there’s something about a bare-bones winter tree set against a rich, cobalt sky that heightens my artistic sensibilities and fires my creative soul. This is a small painting, but to me it speaks volumes, living history, both of its own and that of my family.  -Enjoy!

10″x8″ watercolor on 140lb Arches paper

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

Swamp Rat- Not a rodent, you see… but a logging railroad. It twisted and turned in the most remote, water-filled, wooded marshes. Unnoticed, unheralded, unincorporated and unadorned, it was unique in many ways.  -Mallory Hope Ferrell, railroad author and historian

This is a watercolor I painted back in 1997, last century, of a small, narrow gauge South Carolina logging railroad called The Argent. As artist Ted Rose once said, “Small ideas deserve small paintings”. I never framed it. It’s been languishing in a drawer in my studio all these years like many other pieces I did back then. When I look at it now I wonder what I might do different today. It seems to have stood the test of time, though. Not a bad little watercolor. It seems like I just finished it, but that was a long time a go, back when I was a full time newspaper art director and painting at night and on weekends, or any other time I could steal away.

I would come home from the office about 7:30 and have dinner with my family. After cleaning the kitchen and helping with homework if needed, many nights I would get down on the living room floor with my kids and a sketchpad and we would draw funny characters and abstract designs on “our” end of the paper as we giggled and work toward the middle, bumping elbows and hips. It was one of our games, a tiny bit of precious time away from TV and the world, focused on unencumbered creativity, fun and the joy of handing down a craft to the next generation without them really realizing it. Sneaky, huh? Yes, all three of my children are very creative as young adults and hold special memories of those evenings as do I. My daughter, Lindsay, is a professional in sales and and marketing and is a very talented interior decorator. My son, Zach, graduated from SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) last May with a degree in Digital Modeling and is an amazing draftsman. He can draw anything. Alex, my youngest son, is a senior in high school and draws a lot and is gifted visually as well. He’s really interested in ancient languages and symbolism. He created two languages when he was 12 that he can fluently write in. He amazes me. They amaze me! Share your creativity with your children. There’s not enough floating around school systems now. Teach them the importance of self expression and creativity. It will come back to you. I am a very proud and lucky father.  -Enjoy!