Insider573 magazine is the best read, best supporter and best thing that has happened to the area in which we live. So, unexpectedly being selected by them as this year's Person of the Year, I am greatly honored. Thank you, Insider573, for all that you do for us.

I am painting for my show opening February 26 at Studio de Michel during the monthly Art Walk. Please come and visit and enjoy the other 14 art spaces downtown. The next Art Walk is Friday, January 22. CLICK HERE for more Art Walk information.

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Ste Genevieve

This is a 16" x 20" oil on canvas board painted in April 2009 from a photo shot by the artist in 2008. This is the quintessential Ste Genevieve scene viewing west on Merchant Street with the Felix Valle Historic Site and the Mammy Shaw house and the Church steeple. SOLD. This painting now hangs in the new Inn Ste Gemme Beauvais B & B.

Hotel Ste Genevieve

This is a 16" X 20" oil on canvas board painted in April 2009 from a photo by artist from 2008. SOLD

Previews of works in progress

These are all 16" x 20" oils, the largest pieces of the new work, as they stand today. The exhibit is a week from this Friday, and I still have these to finish, plus 9 more new ones and 6 older ones that are being updated and reworked.

Fourth Friday Art Walk in April in Ste Genevieve

Mark your calendars for April 24 from 6 - 9 PM when the Ste Genevieve art community will host it's tenth monthly art walk! Three local artists will be featured in three different spaces. Ali Cavanaugh and her "Milly paintings" will be featured at Merchant Street Gallery (see http://alicavanaugh.com ). Juanita Wyman will be featured at Galleria Ste Genevieve. Mike Devaney will be featured at Studio de Michel (see previous post) with over 12 new paintings and 6 older paintings updated. Also, for the first time the Welcome / Visitor's Center will be open with the Art Colony paintings and the Misselhorn Collection. There are eleven art venues on the Art Walk this month. For more information go to http://stegenartwalk.blogspot.com

Paintings in progress

04/09/09

6" x 12" Zell Scene - Oils 04/09/09
10" x 10" Concrete Pots - Oils

04/09/09

6" x 12" Street Scene - Oils

16" x 20" Street Scene - Oils

12" x 16" Reagan - Oils

16" x 20" Hotel - Oils

6" x 12" Citizen's Electric - Oils

04/09/09

10" x 10" Whitecliff - Oils
04/09/09

16" x 20" Ste Genevieve - Oils
04/09/09

16" x 20" Ironton 1864 - Oils

This week I began to pull together the photo ideas that I have been saving for future paintings. Then, I picked out the canvases on which I wanted to make those paintings, made some preliminary outline sketches on the canvas and threw some paint on. Below are some of the works in progress. Next Sunday, or sooner, I plan to update with these as they have progressed.

LaPorte House

This is a painting I have had in the Studio for a long time. The first time I showed the piece was at the Ste Genevieve Christmas Art Show in 2007. This is a 24" x 20" oil painting. The top picture shows the piece unfinished just before the 2007 show in the palette I had originally used. I have gotten a lot of positive comments on the finished painting over the months, however, I have never been quite happy with it, nor has it sold. In the first place, the painting was started as a plein air painting with the summer sun directly overhead. I have never liked that kind of lighting for a painting, and most painters agree. So, I snapped some pictures of the same house in the late afternoon sun. As I rework the painting, I am considering that lighting.