8. Bass Hollow Barn

Brian Smart stands for a portrait with his Bass Bandit, a Camaro set up for the local dirt tracks around North Alabama. His garage is the upper barn on my wife's family farm; the barn, built by Colleen's father and grandfather in the '20s, is now too fragile to serve its original purpose. With this piece, I've done my duty as a Tennessee artist and painted the obligatory barn, and had a good time doing it.

Oil on Canvas  30"X40"  2008

7: Bill and Sally

I just completed this little piece, taken from a sunny day in 1974, Bill and Sally Davis in their MG TA, bowling along through Percy Warner Park. Though a bit grayer and wiser, the trio can still be seen at speed along the Natchez Trace. This oil took only a few days to complete. Funny how some pieces simply leap from the bristles of the brush. Not so easy with my latest painting. More to come.

Oil on Canvas, 36" X 20" May 2008

6: Jag XK 120

Finally back to painting and posting new work on my blog. This close-up is of the car that changed America forever. The Jaguar XK 120 hit the US like a lightning bolt in 1949, showing everyone what a street legal high performance car could do. It also had the most beautiful lines

of any car of the time. Jag did it again in the '60s with the E-type, and then the company sank back to making English Buicks for the doctor / lawyer / broker set.

Oil on canvas, 46" X 18", from photography at the July 2001 Jag meet in Franklin, TN.

5: Hong Kong

1967, Hong Kong. John Roach, Larry Johnson, Mike Beckley and I, in our crisp Navy whites, wandering around the British Crown Colony, Nikons clicking away at every interesting visual. Fresh from H&I fire support off Danang, the Providence crew spread out for a three day R&R in one of Asia's most alluring ports of call. I got lucky with this shot of a typical lorry at dockside, as well as a couple great shots of the MV Wayfoong, a subject for a painting I'm currently creating.

Oil on canvas, 2006~2008, 30" X 36" 

4: Not so still life

A lovely summer day, and here I am, my head buried in the engine bay of an elderly Rolls, drawn by all the polished brass and aluminum. As with the finned manifold of a blown Alfa, or the bewildering complexity of a mighty Merlin, or here with the carb and air cleaner of a Rolls, the beauty of vintage machinery can be as alluring as the exterior. In the case of my little Citroen 2CV, not so much.

Oil on Canvas, 2008 22" X 28"

3: Reclining Nude

Aston Martin Odalisque is an Oil I completed late last year, a DB6 double overhead cam engine, that reminded me of a reclining nude, smooth, powerful, sensual desirability, lounging in one of the sexiest coupes ever built.

This was great fun and started me on a series of automotive detail paintings with the goal of a show here in Nashville, perhaps at Jeff Lane's superb museum.

Oil on canvas, 2007, 48" X 24"

2: Phil Irving

I just completed this painting of Phil Irving, legendary engineer for Phil Vincent's magnificent bikes. I took the reference photo in 1974 at the Wellsboro, PA Vin rally, where the organizers had brought Mr. Irving up from his native Australia. Crusty and brilliant, he was a treat to meet and listen to, and a rare opportunity for us to get the inside view on design decisions and his book, Tuning for Speed. 

Oil on Canvas, 2008, 24" X 36"

1: Learning the ropes

Sara is sitting next to her aged dad-in-law, introducing me to the "blogosphere". So here I go, into the shallow end of the web-pool, spammers circling hungrily. I am loading recent oil paintings onto Flickr, as a test of my newfound "skills". Here's the first addition.

This is the first in a series of automotive paintings, created in 2008, of  images I've collected over the course of my wanderings for the last 40 years. Oil on canvas, 2008 36" X 36".