the Hanborough Hulk

Catawaba Falls 3

One more photo of the incredible color- which Brooke took. This was 2/3 of the way up the climb at the Lower Falls. A pic of nancy and I at the base... a photo of Nancy and Brooke beside a cave that had a small waterfall in it- there are little falls everywhere you look at the top. And a pic of nancy and Brooke near the entrance. A great day.

More Catawaba Falls

You know four photos cannot do justic to this place. Actually I've got dozens but I'll stick to the main topics which was the two falls. First one is of Spot and Brooke at the top of the Lower Falls. Again the color is off the charts- but just imagine if the water was up. This is where I accidently dropped my camera in the water-but it still works- WHEW- it didn't go under. Next pic is from the top of the first set of falls just past where Brooke was setting. Next is a pic from the base of the Lower falls before we climbed up- just imagine if the water level was normal- 2x the amount of water you see here. Finally we ended at the Upper Falls which was spectacular. That was as far as we could go that day- but I will return- and the offer is open to anyone who wants to go with us...and Spot.

catawaba falls in Fall

What a great day hiking! The color and the weather was AWESOME!! We even had a guide dog named Spot. There is a house where we park at the end of the road and this dog lives there. So as we hiked up he went with us- which we thought was pretty cool. Spot ran circles around us. Eventually we read his collar which said he was a guide dog. Cool. He constantly went ahead, on and off the trail but he would always return back to us- always kept us on the correct trail. When we returned we spoke to the owner because we figured this dog had a lot of professional training and I thought the state paid this guy to kept the dog. NOT TRUE. Mr Thomas said Spot just "showed up" one day and "took it upon himself" to lead hikers up and down the Falls. Zero training. Said he gets letters daily from people Spot befriended and guided up to the falls. He was a cool dog- posed for photos and everything. Would not sign autographs or do any endorsements. I understand.

This place is gorgeous in the fall- and the photos simply DO NOT COME CLOSE to the real thing. Just a beautiful hike.

It was great to see Brooke climb the trail that takes you to the top. Nancy did awesome. Great exercise- but I figured Brooke wouldn't do the climb- it's quite dangerous in places- but she was a real trooper. I kept looking up at Nancy and she as so proud of her.

2nd Waterfall

Finished this last week and I feel it is my best effort yet. One thing I did this time around was to paint everything and not to overwork one area before I move to another area. That way (for example) I didn't get to the rocks and realize the colors were off with the background- and have to go back and rework the background to make it match the foreground. This time after I did a complete understudy (bottom pic) then I did a complete lay-in of basic colors over the entire painting (middle pic) to insure everything ties in together color wise. Then I finished the painting (top pic). I also painted looser to get a raw "organic" feel, and thicker with the lighter colors to get added dimension. I also took more license in colors and kept the background darker on the left and less intense and with the woods to the right I avoided putting in the highlights to focus attention to the front by creating more contrast and depth of field. In person, the colors look more intense and vibrant and dimensional.

Jake SCORES!

What a difference a year makes. Last year you couldn't get him to kick the ball or stay on the field and this year he scores four times in his first game. His first two goals ( bottom 2 photos) were clean hits, and it was great to see him actually kick the ball and pursue it to the goal. His last two goals ( top two photos) the opposing player grabbed the ball in front of the goal to prevent him from kicking it into the net and in the bottom photo his own player kicked it after he scored. Actually that same kid (Ziggy) also kicked his second score after it crossed the line. Anyway it was fun to see him enjoy playing this year. Actually scoring was a bonus.

a boys first dog

A while back we were at Walmart and they had one of those adopt-a-pet deals going on and we just let the kids go pet a few- and I had made mention that if they ever ran across a full-blooded beagle pup to give me a call. Never thought I'd get that call- until yesterday. So we ran down to the animal shelter to check out the 9 week old pup that they got that morning, and it was a done deal. Cute as a button.

So this is Jake's first dog and like Brooke and Rosie- we allowed Jake to name him. It was between Chopper or Copper and Jake chose Copper from the movie Dog and the Hound. As you can see from the photos and the lease line wrapped around Jake and Copper- the poor mutts in for it. It's a good thing the pups not hyper.

What was really cool tho was we built Copper a little dog house (Jake got to use the nail gun) and strung up a running line and tonight when we came home we went out back to check on him and Jake (flashlight in hand) bent down to tell Copper good-night and the pup climbed up and licked him in the face.

There is nothing like your first dog.

Finally...it came together

Finally...I finish a painting (the third in this series of small paintings) where I feel that I got it right. Everything works. One of the things I really needed to work on was a fluidness and ease of painting that shows in the finished product- and I finally feel that I got the water to look like water. This was an easy painting and it started with a good photo, and I did a lot of work on the underpainting- especially on the details in the water- and the first lay-in of color went extremely well -and it all paid off. Very happy with the end result and I felt that over the course of the three paintings that I learned a lot which carried over to the next painting.

New Paintings -Wood scenes

After that massive painting I finished in April, I've begun working on a series of much smaller outdoor paintings that I can knock out in about two weeks- What I'd like to do is take a step back and teach/retrain myself in order to get a better "feel" for what I am doing- then go back into doing a larger painting. These are simple compositions and less demanding. Also I have so much I want to paint- and smaller/faster is the only way to go. These are also more affordable. The objective of this first one (horizonal) was to play off of the contrast between the hemlocks in the foreground and the new spring growth in the distance. It came out OK. On the second painting (vertical) I wanted to try to add a grey foggy distance between the tall tree in the foreground and blend it into the background. I liked this effort a little better- although the branches on the hemlocks are a little too thick. Also on the first one I went with a brighter green on the hemlock needles and a darker greenish-grey on the second painting- overall I want a "natural" feel and not a polished picture perfect no-leaf-out-of-place look.

And I need to get a ploarizing filter for my camera. The color and brush strokes always look like crap compared to the actual oil paintings.

Student of the Year

This past Friday Brooke performed at her end-of-year piano recital. She played her solo and sang along with Meagan and Abby (which was a first). I just want to congradulate her on winning the Student of the Year award- her mom and I were very very surprised. I had hoped she might get a Most Improved award- because Miss Kathy her piano teacher knows what she is capable of, and I felt that this year she had pushed herself - so we are very proud of her.

This is the first time she has ever won an award that she actually had to earn. I thought last year she was Most Improved but that award went to a younger student- soooo, I really thought she had earned it this year- mainly for a song ( Cristiofori's Dream by David Lantz) which we had worked very hard on that impressed her teacher. Personally I had felt that in the past the songs she was assigned did not challenge her enough and this was simply a beautiful song, but what really put her over was the work her and Kathy did in voice lessons. Kathy knows how shy our daughter is and what it took for her to stand up and sing her solo in front of all those people. My mom cried and we all cried when she got the award. It was so unexpected, and so appreciated. I also need to mention how much I appreciate the Hipps family (Brooke's second home) and how much they supported her- and how happy and tearful they were for her. That meant a lot to me to know what good Christian friends we have. Meagan has won this award, (and deservedly so) for the last 4 or 5 years and she was very happy for Brooke. All three girls won awards that night.

Rosie the Wrabbit Dog

So my advice if you have an outside dog- especially of the hunting bred...as much as you love them, you never know where that mouth has been...or what has been in it. She ate that rabbit. Yuk.

Outter Banks Bon Fire

One of the big treats we had was to build a bon fire on the beach. We ended up driving down to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse- mainly because there is wood and debris everywhere. At first I wasn't too up for the event because it was very windy the entire week- but we had a huge log and a massive pile of wood scraps and it made a great fire- and the cool thing was that we were enjoying this in between the historic lighthouse and the ocean. It was perfect.

Jake really feeling the vacation vibe

I did not teach him this and he doesn't act like this at home, this only happens on vacation.

This is the Ocracoke dunes

This is the Cape Hatteres Lighthouse at sunset

This is the Bodie Lighthouse

Outer Banks Vacation

We had an awesome trip to the Outer banks with our homeschool group- although I missed the first two days because I had a cold- so I wasn't there for these photos- BUT everyone looks like they are having alot of fun without me! Well, Jake looks like he misses me. The waves were kicking.

painting of Rackets Creek

This represents a more serious effort on my part with a painting that took over 6 weeks to complete. This is far more detailed and involved than my past efforts. I like the colors better than my previous landscape, and the only real struggle I had was painting the water because the photos were grainy and I couldn't clearly see the details of the water reflection and the rocks underneath. Overall I'm happy and tired- not used to having the patience that it requires to do something this big and detailed. At the last moment I added the foilage to the bottom left to balance out the composition- and to hide the lack of detail in that area. I also emprovised a lot on this painting and simply used all my "tricks" whereas in the past I had placed certain requirements on how I would paint. Several areas were repainted and this was the first time I have ever added something in after I was done.

Fishing on Thompson

I must say that the Thompson River absolutely, positively kicked my butt yesterday. By the time I got out of there my feet hurt, my back hurt, my neck hurt, my rear-end hurt and my knees hurt. OK I'm old but that is beside the point. That place is as rough as it is beautiful- and there are no trails by the river- you're on your own. Wayne and I fished from daylight til 2:30 all the way up to the big waterfall, and the farther you go the rougher it gets. By the time you make it to the falls you're doing more climbing than walking- which isn't so bad. The bad part is walking/wading/climbing back out! It took us 1:15 minutes just to walk outta there. Then we took a 30 minute break to eat and drink and we hiked down into the south Carolina side of the river and fished almost til dark. Gluttons for punishment- well I'm paying for it today. But it was a great day for fishing- and was well worth the trip- but I still dread that walk out.

The top group shows the first set of falls in the distance. The middle two photos are from the top of the falls looking back down the river and the last photo is of the big falls. The bottom photo is a section of river somewhere between the two falls. As you can see in the photos the banks are steep and rocky and the water is fast. Occasionally you have to climb some areas your mom or wife wouldn't want to know about- but thats fishing- just make sure you have a friend with you.

20 YEARS OF DESIGNING APPAREL

You heard right, this year marks the 20th year that I will be designing t-shirts. What I have included is a selection that spans those 20 years, beginning with the first two Sea World designs that I did back in 1989. Puff and the torn paper look was very hot...and I am surprised it has never returned. Durning the '90's I moved from Orlando, to Pensacola where I continued to do Theme Park designs. All photos are of printed samples- not the computer renderings. The U of Tenn mascot and the T Rex design were some of the first all computer Photoshop designs that I did and this was after I moved to Tallahassee.

Next are some of the first big selling Christian designs I did after moving home to NC. "Savior" ('97) was a huge success, and "Jesus Reason"('98) sold forever. "JESUS, Because of Him" ('01) is still in print today, as is "Forgiven Chain" ('03) and "One Nation" ('01) is revised and still in print for a specific buyer- but no longer in our line. The bottom row is of recent design from 2006 and 2007, "Faith Cross" ('06) and "Sin Death" ('07) are best sellers. "Dad can fix" is an update of a design that we have sold forever and "Nothing Compares" is new.

I find it hard to believe that I have been doing this for so long- my guess is that over the years I have easily done several thousand designs, had at least 600 in print and probably 20-25 best sellers. In the beginning it was all hand-drawn and we used a darkroom to created the seperations and went completely to computers around 1995.

I want to thank my dear friend and buddy from my college days at Ringling, Dan Mattei who hired me back in '89 and my current business partner and close friend Brian Johnston whom I have been with since the beginning of Verses Wear back in '94 when he started a line of Christian Tees that eventually became the second largest seller of Christian Apparel today known as Red Letter 9. I wonder how many artists in the Christian market today have been around for 14 years? Blessings.

roan mt. painting

My first landscape since college. Began painting last Thursday night and was 70% complete by Sunday night. I like the colors and the oddity of a rock sitting out in the middle of nowhere.

I was just taken in by all that green lumpy grass and the storm rolling in over the top of Roan Mountain and the layers of mountains in the distance.

I stayed pretty true to the photos in regards to mountains and trees although I departed more on color and took more artistic license than in previous paintings. I redid the clouds on the right side three times to try to give the feeling that they are arching over your head as opposed to be very far off- because although you can see the storm in the distance- it was also passing over top of us.

This was the easiest painting I've done so far- although I could have been more detailed- it accomplished what I was after at this point.

Snow Day

This was Jake's first ever sled ride and he got to do it with his cousin Breigh. He was a little scared coming down but you can see his reaction once his feet hit the ground and he wasted no time getting back up the hill. Later he went solo- which I have on dvd. What was funny is when they started taking turns- when Breigh was climbing up with the sled, Jake would lie on his belly at the top of the hill and reach his hand out to help her up, and he kept saying, "Breigh- take my hand, I'll be your hero." I have no idea where he got that from.

build-a-birdhouse

As a family project I took some scrap decking board pieces and cut them down to make a couple of birdhouses. I ended up having enough for three. I then let Brooke and Jake use the nail gun to assemble them (adult supervised) which Jake went to town on. Then they painted them, which I think Brooke enjoyed more- and today we put them up.

I don't know if the pressure treated wood is a problem...or the latex paint...or the wood shavings we used to line the bottoms...well- we'll see how it turns out. The main thing is it was fun to build and paint and install with wood that I was going to throw away. I'm hoping we put it to good use.