5 1/4″x7 1/2″ Oil on gesso-coated board

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“In art as in love, instinct is enough.”  -Anatole France, French poet, journalist and novelist, 1844-1924

I love old cars! Okay, I love most cars, but old cars have always held a special place in my heart.  I’ve owned a few and hope to own another.  Older cars, particularly from the 30s and 40s, with their fat fenders and exposed headlights, ornate, yet functional grills and trim, all made of steel, of course, were rolling works of art in their own right.  Detroit had it going on back then.  It’s no wonder that so many artists, like myself, are drawn to their charm and design.  As a cartoonist/caricaturist, I especially get a kick out of exaggerating these classic features, giving them an almost human feel, not unlike the folks at Disney and Pixar.  So far, I’ve steered clear of putting eyeballs in the windows!  But don’t think I haven’t thought about it!  I actually prefer to give my CARtoons a personality based on distorting the features, accentuating the innate design, animating them, if you will.

This piece is an oil on board of a 1936 Ford Roadster hotrod.  The hardest part of this process is working in the small “daily painting” format for my blog.  I am working on some larger pieces that I will also post here soon.  This painting, as most on my blog, is roughly 5″x7″.  That’s a tiny painting to attempt this amount of detail, especially in oils.  I used my usual process of sketching with a bristol brush loaded with burnt umber and turps, slowly shaping the image while the paint was wet until I got what I was looking for.  I tend to use Liquin as my medium because it quickens the drying time.  Then I shift gears (pardon the pun, snicker…) and use small, synthetic brushes to tighten and render the final details and highlights.  It’s a blast painting these CARtoons, almost as much fun as it would be driving that beast on a beautiful Spring day, going through the gears, listening to the rumble of that sweet flathead!  -Enjoy!

6″x7 1/2″ Oil on gesso-coated board

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“Every single Pixar film, at one time or another, has been the worst movie ever put on film. But we know. We trust our process. We don’t get scared and say, ‘Oh, no, this film isn’t working.’” -John Lasseter 1957-

I believe that John Lasseter’s statement applies to all the arts, especially drawing and painting.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started a painting just to set it aside because it didn’t seem to be working, only to come back to it later, finish it, and realize that sticking it out to the end made all the difference.  You have to believe in your work and know deep down that it is worth the time it takes to finish, if for no other reason, just to see what the heck it will look like in the end!  I’ve mentioned here before the thrill I get in sketching in oils with burnt umber.  I have a couple of artist friends who think everything should be left in that sketchy, loose state.  I agree, for some things.  But the thing of it is, if you don’t take it to the next level,  how will you know how much you have grown as a painter if you never finish anything?  One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Rumi; “Daring enough to finish.”

Today’s post is another CARtoon for lack of any other way to describe them.  This particular piece is a little Porsche Speedster scattin’ through the streets at night.  I love the Pixar film, “Cars”, as well as a wonderful old film short from Disney called “Susie The Little Blue Coupe” from 1952.  Of course, as a “gearhead”, I noticed that Susie actually seems to be a roadster, not a coupe. Just sayin’.  Here’s a link to the Disney short. It’s only 8 minutes long.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYOiVSsr1KM   I wanted this piece to be as animated as possible to pay homage to these films.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have always loved cars and have been drawing and painting them since I was a young man. The last six months or so I have begun many such images and continue to work on them “on the side” while doing other work.  I feel they are worth the time and effort because of the joy they bring me as an artist/cartoonist and a lover of all-things automotive.  I think that’s the basic reason we as artists do what we do, right?  Anyway, I hope you like it and stay tuned for more as I can assure you, I AM “daring enough to finish”!  -Enjoy!

14″x11″ Graphite on 60 lb. Strathmore paper

This drawing is available. Contact me at CokerArt@yahoo.com for price.

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”  -Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

Back during the first week of August my family and I went to Nashville for a long weekend.  You might say it was a much-needed mini vacation.  We go to Nashville a couple of times a year to visit my sister, Loretta and her hubby Chip, a Nashville writer, musician and producer.  My wife, Bernadette, is a songwriter and she and Chip collaborate often. Usually, my sister has the weekend planned pretty well with parties, friends, live music, tours, whatever, to make sure no one is bored.  Like that’s going to happen.  This is Nashville, for crying out loud!  This weekend was a little more free-wheeling, less planned, so I managed to pull out my sketchpad one afternoon.  I always carry at least a sketch pad on trips, just in case!  Loretta has a couple of coffee table art books, one on Rembrandt, the other on Picasso, two very different artists.  While thumbing through the Picasso book I saw this wonderful photo of him as a very young artist.  I was intrigued by his boyish looks and his dark, Spanish eyes. So, I began sketching and after a couple of hours of casual work, drawing, erasing, working and re-working, I came up with what you see above.  Sometimes all the inspiration you need is right there in front of you on the coffee table.  -Enjoy!

7″x5″ Oil on canvas

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“I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.”  -Walter Elias “Walt” Disney, 1901-1966

I guess I could say that applies to me as well, not that my successes are anywhere near what Mr. Disney accomplished in his relative short life.  I have always believed that my next piece, whatever the subject matter, will be better than the previous effort.  That’s the motivation that keeps most artists and creative people moving forward.

I have said here before that I am interested in painting a variety of subjects; caricatures, landscapes, trains, portraits, horses, whatever strikes my fancy.  Well, as you can see by today’s post, I’m living up to my own ideal.  Let me explain.  When I was in my teens, back in the 70s, I loved cars.  Yes, I was what they call today, a “Gearhead” (still am at heart) .  I owned and drove a sweet little ’66 Mustang 2+2 Fastback that consumed most of my time, aside from girls and friends, of course. Let me backtrack a bit.  When I first started drawing as a small child, I came to it as most kids do, copying imagery from newspapers and magazines for the fun of it.  I learned to draw cartoons by tracing them from the Sunday newspaper comics.  Now, back to where we were.  As a teen, what time I wasn’t working on my car, or a buddy’s car, I was trying to draw caricatures of them.

About that time I discovered a cool new magazine called “Street Rodder” that had a cartoonist named Dave Bell who drew a strip called “Henry Hirise” for each issue about hotrodding. How cool was that?!  So I began experimenting with auto caricature.  Maybe I’ll post my first self-caricature with my Mustang at some point. Mmmm, maybe not.  Anyway, recently, Dave Bell passed away so I felt the need to do a tribute piece about him.  I will post it soon.  While doing that I began sketching small auto caricatures again and realized how much fun it had been all those years ago, so I decided to roll with it and see what happens.

Today’s post was inspired by a photo I found on the web of one of the old VW Bus utility “trucks”.  I owned a little baby blue bug after I sold my Mustang and drove it and loved it for years.  There’s a movement in the car world these days called “Rat-Rodding” where guys leave the original rusty petina as is, sometimes revealing all kinds of previous paint jobs or whatnot.  Anyway, that’s kind of what I was going for here.  It was great fun painting all the rust and other petina on this tiny piece for the pure joy of it, like back in my childhood, because like Walt, I’m always going on to other things.  -Enjoy!

7″x5″ watercolor on Arches 140lb paper

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

“Humanity is the rich effluvium, it is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts.”  -Ezra Pound, 1885-1972

I am often asked how I choose the faces I want to caricature.  What is my criteria in choosing the faces I want to draw, paint, distort, some say mangle.  I love interesting faces and interesting history.  Basically that is my criteria.  I read periodicals, search the web for artists, politicians, pop culture figures, etc.  I have vast hard copy files from my years as a newspaper illustrator/cartoonist where I clipped magazines and newspapers regularly.  In those days my choices were usually made for me by people of interest making headlines, or by the dictates of my editor.  The first drawing I did for a newspaper was Judge John Sirica who presided over the trial of the Watergate burglars.  I was 18 years old.  It was a straight portrait, not a caricature.  I still have it. Someday maybe I’ll post it.  Maybe not, it’s pretty crude.  I had yet to begin my study of the art of caricature.  Now, as a freelance illustrator and fine artist, I tend to choose people that interest me, people of history or modern people making history.  Sometimes I simply choose a face because I can’t resist it.  Ezra Pound is one such face.

Ezra Pound was an American expatriate poet, controversial in his political views, once hailed as the “Mad poet”, was eventually arrested for treason in Europe by American forces during World War II.  He was confined for months in detention at an American camp in Pisa.  During his incarceration he began work on one of his more famous works, The Cantos.  On the one hand, Time Magazine called him; “A cat that walks by himself, tenaciously unhousebroken and very unsafe for children”.  On the other hand, Ernest Hemingway said of him; “The best of Pound’s writing and it is in The Cantos- will last as long as there is any literature.”  How could I resist that!?  -Enjoy

7″x5″ Oil on gesso-coated board

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

“The thicker you paint, the more it flows.”  -John Singer Sargent 1856-1925

Yeah baby!  I love to paint thick and loose!  Problem is, I love to paint thin and detailed too!  These are the two factions of art that tug at my heart the most.  I awaken every day with the full knowledge that my purpose in this life is to paint and create from my heart, the most meaningful work that I can.  Then I go into my studio and the edges of my resolve become somewhat frayed and gray.  What will I paint today? Better yet, how will I paint it?  If it is a train motif, probably tight and detailed.  But then, not necessarily.  One of my best attempts, in my opinion,  was “10th Street Blues” (see below).  I painted that night sky like butter, full of color and brush work.  It was great!  I got so wrapped up in its creation that I lost all track of time and didn’t want it to end.  That is when art is doing what it was intended to do, at least for me.  The point of creation, that fire, that original intent suddenly realized in a flay of brush strokes, thoughtful design and color that when you back away become something special.  Geez, I’m exhausted!

I painted this caricature of Sargent back in December. I think it may have been my last piece of 2011.  I worked in front of my computer screen from a grainy black and white photo of the artist from the web.  I clipped the piece of illustration board to my trusty piece of gray foam board and braced it on my lap with my left hand.  I painted it just as Sargent might have.  I didn’t say as good!  I sketched it with a number one bristle round and burnt umber, just as Sargent often did.  He was probably the best ever at sketching this way.  I tried to keep my brush strokes loose while building up the thick strokes of color.  The likeness is not quite where I would have wanted it, but as Sargent once said;  “A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth”.  I couldn’t have said it better myself!  -Enjoy!

5″x7″ Watercolor on 140lb Arches paper

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

“When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing.”  -Jackson Pollock 1912-1956

This watercolor is a caricature of the famed abstract expressionist painter, Jackson Pollock.  He was certainly the most famous of the New York expressionists and it could be argued that he was the most famous American artist of his time.  He’s known for his “drip paintings”.  He is the artist that is most often ridiculed as being “that guy who just throws paint on a canvas”.  He is the artist that most elicits the old adage “why, my kid can paint better’n at!”.  Pollock really brought the separation between the abstract and realistic schools of thought to a head, galvanizing the nation with his drips and spatters.

I became more aware of Pollock’s work back in the mid 1980s when I read the book “Jackson Pollock”, by Ellen G. Landau, published by Abrams.  I was doing a lot of experimenting with my own styles and techniques in my newspaper illustration at that time, much to the chagrin of my managing editor.  “Don, you need to ease up on all that Picasso sh**.”  When I saw Pollock’s early work, his pen & ink and mixed media pieces,  it really opened my heart and mind to different ways of seeing, much the way Picasso and Klee had done in the early 80s for me.  The work really hit me on an emotional level that is hard to explain.  They were so primal and to-the-bone, filled with so much power.  Later, in 1994, I spent four days in NYC with my longtime friend, Mark Strong.  He and I “did” the museums.  When I walked into this gallery at MOMA and saw a room full of huge Pollock “drip paintings”, I was absolutely mesmerized by the beauty of these things.  Yes, all he did was “drip paint on canvas”, but if you get close and see how he weaved the colors and textures, the layering of paint, the depth achieved with house paint in many cases, they’re astounding!  So, if your kid can indeed do better than that, this old world can certainly use more beauty.  Go for it!  -Enjoy!

7″x5″ Watercolor on 140lb Arches paper

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“Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.” -Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

It is spring, at least here in Georgia! What happened to winter?!  It lasted about 10 minutes, it seems.  It feels more like summer with today’s high at 88 degrees! I was hoping for a gradual ease into summer with a long, mild spring; birds singing, flowers blooming, the sweet scent of wisteria wafting about our back stoop with warm breezes gently mussing our hair while  sitting outside in the evenings with a glass of our favorite beverage.  But, alas, this IS Georgia in the deep South.  We do have that breeze and the wonderful scent of wisteria, along with so much pollen that you can hardly breathe.  Between the pollen wafting on said gentle breeze and the humidity that makes that 88 degrees feel like 92, I am inside with the air conditioning on, sitting in my studio painting and posting to my blog with said beverage of my choice.  Ah… springtime in Georgia!

I’ve been painting a lot since my last post, which seems like forever ago.  I’m working on a couple of commissions, doing some landscapes, portraits and “curmudgeon’s”, as well as continuing my work in the industrial landscape. Yes, that translates to the railroad scene.  I can’t escape it!  I can’t explain why I have such an interest in railroading and it as viable subject matter for painting.  But it works for me, so I continue.

Today’s post is not a train, but a watercolor of famed British author, Charles Dickens.  I had started this piece back in December in hopes of publishing it in time for Christmas, but didn’t get it done.  He, of course, is the writer of  “A Christmas Carol”, “Oliver Twist” and “Great Expectations”, to name a few, and is widely known as Britain’s most famous and beloved author from the Victorian period.  I’ve always wanted to do a caricature of him because he exudes character and seems to have a certain mystery in his gaze that appeals to me.  I clipped a 7″x5″ piece of Arches 140lb watercolor paper to a piece of foam board on my lap, sat at my computer, penciled in a sketch and began painting. It’s fun and challenging to get away from your drawing board or easel, “your comfort zone”, to sketch and paint.  It kind of forces you to stay a little loose with your technique, not so stiff and contrived.  Try it some time, I think you’ll like it!  -Enjoy!

7″x5″ Watercolor on 140lb Arches paper

This painting is available for purchase. Please email me at CokerArt@yahoo.com.

“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!