ANIMAL PAINTINGS AVAILABLE FOR SALE

From left to right - titles: MYSTERY WOLF, BISON 1, RED WOLF 8"X 8"acrylic, RED SKULL 8"X 8" acrylic

From left to right: ONE DOG NIGHT, MY BOWL, SHOWING OFF, RED DOG (all these oil on panels), 6" x 6"

ALL 6" X 6" OIL PAINTINGS ARE $95.00 buy now.

THE 8" X 8" ACRYLIC PAINTINGS ARE $145.00 buy now.

TO PURCHASE AND ANY QUESTIONS, EMAIL ME AT: jholderfineart@gmail.com

Polo Series

"The Blur" 6" x 6" x 1.5" oil on canvas

"Almost a Goal" 6" x 6" x 1.5" oil on canvas

"Going for It" 6" x 6" x 1.5" oil on canvas

 These paintings are based on drawings and photographs I took when attending polo games in Newport, RI and Saratoga Springs, NY.

Bluff Point

4" x 2" oil on board

Bluff Point

Sold

This is a recent landscape magnet that sold at the Hygienic Art=Gift Show. The painting was inspired by a sunset I saw while hiking at Bluff Point Park in Groton, CT. The show is on until December 20 in New London.

Bluff Point Sunset and On The Way Home

Landscape Magnets

4" x 2" oil on board

"Bluff Point Sunset"

4" x 2" Oil on board

"On The Way Home"

These two paintings are part of a series of landscapes done as magnets. They were a lot of fun and a challenge to paint since they were so small, but this size required me to simplify their shapes of color and value.

To see all these small oil paintings, this series will be exhibited in the Holiday Art Show at the Hygenic Gallery in New London CT. The reception is November 21, 2009 from 7 - 10 pm. And if you cannot make this reception, the art by me and other artists will be exhibited thru December 20, 2009.

The address is 79-83 Bank St in New london.

Dates open: Thursday 11-3. Friday 11 - 6. Saturday 11 -6 and Sunday 12 - 3,

phone 860- 443-8001 http://www.hygienic.org/

Lets Go, Red Dog

6 x 6" oil on board

I met this dog and its owner in New Haven, CT while they were both getting exercise on a sunny day. He was a muscular, healthy looking animal with a very regal carriage. When I asked the owner what breed he was, she said, "Just dog, adopted from a local pound." I really enjoyed creating an oil painting of him and capturing his spirit and strength.

Update: to purchase this painting go to my auction on ebay:

http://myworld.ebay.com/jholderartworks/

Building a Pochade Box

bottom of box with t-nut inset for tripod attachment

hinge detail

This is a pochade painting box I started building two years ago, and just recently finished after reading and viewing Jim Serrett's blog. His blog http://www.pochadeboxpaintings.com/2009/02/how-to-build-your-own-pochade-box.html gives detailed directions with great photos of how to build the pochade box and panel carrier. I also constructed a carrier which looks pretty much like his so I did not photograph mine. I have a small $100.00 table saw that I use but one can go to a real lumber yard if possible and pay to have the major pieces cut if you do not have a table saw. Since I made my box over a period of time, I do not know how much time it took and I did not keep track of the cost. I enjoyed making it and Jim's cost seems fairly accurate. (Scavenged materials probably helped keep the cost of mine down.) Thank you Jim for your great directions.

I put my hinge together about two years ago from brass pieces I found after looking at a lot of photos of ready-made pochade boxes. . It actually seems to hold if I make sure to tighten it well. I will probably use a small bungee sometimes to hold a painting instead of the two wood pieces in the photo. If I paint a small 4 x 6" painting I cannot use the bungee, as it is too big to hold the panel tight. I then have to use the two pieces of 1/4" thich wood pieces that slide up tight to the 4 x 6 painting. I am gradually fine tuning the box.

Chicken Little

5" x 7" monotype print

This is a recent monotype print that I did from a sketch done at the Groton Family Farm in Groton CT., www.grotonfamilyfarm.com. 

The print is one of the works I will be exhibiting and selling at the 2009 Autumn Art Trail Weekend in Clinton CT on Oct. 10-11.  I will have a tent at the Outdoor Art Festival on the Clinton Landing 54 E. Main st., Clinton CT behind the town hall.  The event is sponsored  by http://www.artscenterkillingworth.org. If you are in the area come and see me!

New Haven Water Reflections

14" x 11"  oil on board

I could not resist painting this scene in the New Haven, CT harbor.   The geometric shapes of shadow and light with their contrast to the soft fluid water were definitely a must to paint.

Dusk, water and the empty space

10" x 10" oil on panel

This is a scene I painted which once had a big brick apartment building and other houses near Fort Trumbull in New London, CT.  It is the scene of an eminent domain site where many people once lived.  It is funny how a bulldozed area looks so forlorn and ugly in one kind of light, but is transformed by an evening sunset into a mosaic of color and contrast. 

One Dog Night

6" x 6" oil on board

With painting, I often emphasize the contrast of textures and blocks of color by utilizing a palette knife. I feel the knife becomes a pencil or chisel in my hand and I enjoy the physical pushing and pulling of paint, scraping away and adding. It's a different feeling than when I paint with a brush.

I noticed this regal dog standing guard over the goats and his turf at a local goat farm. The one ear up and one down reminded me of a German Shepherd I once owned and loved.

UPDATED: if you wish to purchase this painting go to my ebay auctions:

http://myworld.ebay.com/jholderartworks/

Red Dog Waiting

8" x  6" oil on board

Dog Drinking

6" x  6" oil on board

Bowl, half full or half empty?  Ready to run, ready to hide, or ready to play?  

No time lately to post or to play but ready to play.

Running Dog

6" x 6" oil on board

Striding out, on a mission, sun and shadow, ripe for a painting

SOLD

Sam

bronze relief  

13" x 12"

Sam is a beautiful boxer show dog I got to sketch and photograph in action and at rest.  

Goal to Be

14" x 11" resin  

A small sketch was the catalyst for this relief of horses and riders playing a game of polo.   Often I use sketching and photography as a way to observe people and animals in action.  I wanted  the patina to imply the warm siennas of leather and horses.  

Wasted Spaces Series - The Old Door

8"x 8" oil on board

The brackets give the effect of an old train station (thankfully, many of these are being preserved across the country) but in fact it's an old loading station.

Wasted Spaces Series - Nailed Shut Again

8" x 8" oil on board

This brick apartment building is gone now, replaced by a landscape of bare, dusty soil, garbage and the crane featured in my previous post.  Even in it's half-wrecked and empty state it was dignified if not beautiful, the way an old man or woman might be - the ones we have forgotten how to listen to, and utterly fail to see.

Wasted Spaces Series - What was

8"x 8" oil on board

This is a section of New London near Fort Trumbull State Park where the city used the powers of "eminent domain" to claim buildings and houses. 

I had not meant to "celebrate" one of the tools by which the city has razed these old buildings, but there was something starkly powerful, something sculptural, about this machine against the empty sky.  The photograph was taken on a weekend, so this crane seemed in that moment as utterly abandoned as the buildings themselves; and yet it bristled with the energy of recent labor and effort that it represented.  

The people who created the Eiffel Tower, the Sears Building, etc would have understood this, I think - and perhaps even those who engineered the first tanks, the first rifles, the first bombs. We are fascinated by the strange beauty of our machines, the things we create in order to destroy.

Wasted Spaces Series - Nailed Shut

8"x 8" oil on board

This is an ongoing series of paintings about wasted spaces.  I see so many empty buildings, just waiting for something or someone.  This is really a record of history because as you read this, most of these buildings in this series have already been demolished.

I find unlikely and forlorn beauty in these abandoned buildings and their neglected landscapes. Their aged textures, forms and patinas are like jewels when light cast its shadows. The questions of what will happen to the places left behind, what happened to the people who once lived and worked in them, is not unlike a more personal question for myself: where will this series take me?  

For me, there is beauty and sadness in decay.