The Space Between - new daily oil painting of Lake Mineral Wells

The Space Between
Mark Nesmith
Oil on Canvas
6" x 6"
2016

Click here to buy this painting.

I'm still dreaming of spring and the lake. This is another recent painting inspired by my memories of vacationing at Lake Mineral Wells with my kids. We stayed in one of the little screened cabins at the waters edge. Across the inlet from us was an outcropping of trees and boulders, and in the distance a small island set against the distant shore. The mornings were bathed in a brilliant bright and warm light. I really need to get back there again soon! This is an 6" x 6" oil painting on 1 1/2" deep gallery wrapped canvas. The sides are finished in black and the canvas comes wired and ready to hang.

New daily painting "Daybreak" (morning on the lake)

Daybreak
by Mark Nesmith
Oil on Canvas
6" x 6"
2016

Click here to bid in the Ebay auction.

Finished and looking for a good home! "Daybreak" is a 6" x 6" oil painting on 1 1/2" deep gallery wrapped canvas. It was inspired by my memories of camping at Lake Mineral Wells with my kids several years ago. I had to fight the urge to do to much to this one. I love the freshness and spontaneity and all the texture. These little paintings are listing for $200 - 250 at my gallery, but I'm starting this with a low bid of $40. Here's a great chance to start or add to your collection. I'll be posting several paintings over the next few weeks that just haven't found their place yet so check back for more auctions.

"Bolivar Rising" 15" x 30" oil painting of a Gulf Coast sunrise by Mark Nesmith

Bolivar Rising
Mark Nesmith
Oil on Canvas
15" x 30"
2014

Click here to purchase this painting.

When we were packing up to move I stumbled upon this forgotten beach painting I started 4 or 5 years ago. I wasn't happy with it and never finished it but I kept it around thinking I'd get back to it someday. A while back I starting playing around on it again. After two or three afternoons at the easel, I'm finally happy with it. The sky now casts a warm, radiant glow and I think I've managed to catch a bit of the calm rhythm of the waves I feel when sunrise wakes the coast. This painting really has me dreaming of warmer weather and salty breezes. Sometimes digging up the past yields new treasure.

This painting was recently featured in the artist showcase at Le Grand Bal at the Dishman Museum in Beaumont, TX and as part of the art walk at Third Coast Gallery in Galveston.  It had a buyer at Le Grand Bal but the sale fell through, so it's time to find this beach a new home. It's on a deep gallery wrapped style canvas. The edges are painted a neutral grey and the canvas is wired and ready to hang.

"Mudbugs" oil painting and the joys of a Southeast Texas crawfish boil

Mudbugs
Mark Nesmith
Oil on canvas
24" x 30"
2014

Click here to buy this painting.

I grew up in Beaumont, TX, but after graduating from Lamar University with my BFA in 1998 I moved to Dallas. Over the years trips back home to SE Texas became less frequent as I wound up working more and more to support my growing family, but the people, places, and culture of SE Texas and the Gulf Coast was always in my heart and my mind.

 

When my marriage was coming to an end in 2011-12 I moved back to my hometown where most of my family still lives as a much needed reboot for myself. Beaumont had changed a lot in the years I'd been gone. There were still lots of familiar places, but most of the friends I'd had growing up had moved away. I reconnected with a few people from my past, fell in love with my beautiful muse Elizabeth, and have been working on my happily ever after ever since.

 

One of the things I did after moving back was to start painting and drawing my new (old?) surroundings, and one of the ways I started meeting new people and making new friends was at the crawfish boils at The Pacesetter Lounge which my girlfriend was managing at the time. I like crawfish ok (never liked all the work it takes to peel them though,) but what really makes a crawfish boil special is sitting around with everyone sharing stories and laughs over a cold beer and some spicy crawfish. This painting is kind of a still life, but for me it's a reminder of all those evenings spent with good friends making new memories for a new life. This painting was originally exhibited as part of my one man show at The Art Studio, Inc. entitled "The Way Back Home" and recently was on display at Third Coast Gallery in Galveston. I think it's time to find these mudbugs a good home.

New forest oil painting "Against the Sky" by Mark Nesmith

Against the Sky
Mark Nesmith
Oil on Canvas
10" x 8"
Click here to purchase this painting.

As a boy I practically lived in the woods. There was a small pine forest behind my home in Beaumont, and I spent my time out of school in the woods building forts, climbing trees, racing, and just losing myself in the sights and sounds of nature. Later hiking trips through the Big Thicket only reinforced my love for the tall and graceful verticals of an East Texas pine. The sight of the towering pines against the sky has always entranced me, and to this day I feel my eyes and thoughts pulled to the shimmering sky seen through the branches of the pines when driving anywhere in SE or East Texas.It's a sight I've always felt compelled to paint and draw, but generally haven't felt much success with. 

Lately I've been wanting to take another stab at the woods and have been planning a few large canvases featuring the Big Thicket area. I've started to do a few small paintings to kind of find my path, so to speak.Here a couple of pines tower above the distant treeline and are silhouetted against the vibrant pink clouds at sunset. True to the form of my recent paintings this canvas has thick impasto with layers of color and textures.

New beach landscape oil paintings "Bolivar Suite" by Mark Nesmith

"Bolivar Suite"

Oil on Four canvases, each 6" x 6"

2014

Been awhile since I've shared anything here, but now that Spring is around the corner i find myself dreaming of the coast more and more. Those dreams are starting to work their way onto my canvases again. I know I posted some of these when I was making them a few months ago, but don't know if I shared the finished series. I call it "Bolivar Suite". Each of the four canvases is 6" x 6" and features the same view of Bolivar Flats with different light. These have been on display as part of my show in Baytown and are now listed on the Daily Paintworks site individually.  Hopefully we'll have warmer temps and some sun soon to enjoy our beautiful coast.  I've attached links to the Paintworks site if you'd like to view more or bid in the auctions.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/335351

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/335352

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/335355

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/335356

New oil painting "The Burning Down" by Mark Nesmith

The Burning Down

Oil on Canvas

12" x 12"

2015 

Click here to purchase this painting. 

I'm often drawn to the tree lined shore of a lake or river. Here the pines at the distant bank are nearly silhouetted against the fiery sunset. It can be a challenge to balance my love for loose, thick paint with the demands of representation on a small canvas. Here thick impasto works hand in hand with thinner veils of color and subtle sgraffito effected by the handle of a brush, a whirl of movement and explosion of color that seems on the verge of burning itself down.

Clouds at Dawn - New Daily Oil Painting

Clouds at Dawn
Mark Nesmith
Oil on canvas on panel
8" x 10"
2014
Click here to buy this painting.

Here are a few shots of this painting in progress.  I started with a loose sketch outlining the major areas of the composition and the strong shadows and contrasts. From there I started laying in the darker parts of the clouds and sky. 

Once I had the sky well underway I started on the dark masses of the woods on the right hand side, then gradually worked my way through the line of trees

in the distance.

With the shadows in the woods established, I focused on the splash of fall reds in the foliage.

Finally I quickly brush in the yellow and orange field before adding a few brighter highlights to the clouds.

The Wee Hours, New Daily Oil Painting

The Wee Hours
Mark Nesmith
Oil on Canvas on Panel
8" x 10"
2014
Click here to purchase this painting 

Hay bales are a common sight in Texas.  Venture outside the city limits on a FM road or highway and you're bound to pass fields and pastures full of them.  They're not at all like the fluffy stacks of Monet's rural France countryside.  Hay bales make an interesting geometric contrast to the organic and free form nature of the Texas landscape.

This is a stretch of pasture I pass often on Hwy 124 near Fannett, Tx.  The night before had seen heavy cloud cover and was pretty much a dreary, overcast and stormy day, but the sun would not be denied its' glory in the morning. 

I love times like this, when the sun comes breaking through the clouds casting its' magical, golden glow across the world.  The greens take on such a unique quality, almost glowing like an emerald.  The light can seem otherworldly and eerie after a storm, and the brilliant sunrise on this day just added to the intensity of the light.

I started this painting Thursday.  I often work on these little paintings throughout the day at work, catching a few minutes here and there between classes or at lunch.  It's my little bit of fresh air during the day of teaching.  I had a pretty good start on this painting, having laid in the clouds and the sky, when we got word of the winter storm and impending school closure the next day.  Needless to say, I didn't get to finish working on this painting until today. 

I usually don't like to have such a delay, particularly on small paintings like this one.  I sometimes find a delay like that causes a disjointed effect in the work.  I'm inevitably in a different frame of mind than before, but for whatever reason I found it quite easy to pick back up on this painting today. 

I really enjoy the contrast of the clouds and the bright sunrise, and the greens are even more intense in person.  I'm pretty happy with this little painting, and think maybe I'll have to try my hand at a few more hay bales before long.  Who knows, maybe they'll even turn into a series like the famous French master.

here

New daily oil painting "Camp Wisdom"




Camp Wisdom
Mark Nesmith
Oil on Canvas
5" x 7"
2013
Click here to bid in the auction for this painting.

If you're thinking of campgrounds in Texas, Dallas probably doesn't come to mind, but tucked away on the south side of the city is Camp Wisdom and it's more than worth the short commute from the city.

Camp Wisdom is the home to Billy Sowell Scout Camp and Cub World. The camp is located 11 miles from downtown Dallas on 371 acres of land. In addition to the camping sites and shooting range, Camp Wisdom has some unique and very cool features including a frontier fort, a life size castle pirate ships, underground tunnel, and more.  My kids and I really enjoyed out campouts here.  You can find out more about this great Circle 10 campground at http://www.circle10.org/camp-wisdom-billy-sowell-scout-camp.

This 5" x 7" oil painting on an oil primed linen panel is from my last campout there with my two boys and my daughter.  Not far from the shooting range we stumbled upon this picturesque scene.  I painted this alla prima in about two hours spread out throughout my day. 

 

New Daily Painting of The Jefferson Theater Marquee in Beaumont

The Jefferson Theater was designed by Emile Weil and built in 1927.  It cost a million dollars and was praised at the time for its Old Spanish style architecture and romantic charm.

After four decades of entertainment splendor, the Jefferson finally closed as a movie theater in 1972.  A few years later the Jefferson Theater Preservation Society formed with the goal of preserving the Beaumont landmark and in 1976 the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation deeded the theater to the JTPS. 

The following decades found many starts and stops and changes and multiple renovation efforts. Altogether more than six million dollars went in to returning the Jefferson to glory.  The theater reopened it's doors in 2003 and serves as a focal point of the performing arts in Beaumont. 

There's a great history of the Jefferson Theater at http://www.beaumont-tx-complex.com/images/Jefferson_Theatre_Restoration.pdf.

This is a 5" x 7" oil painting on oil primed linen board. I didn't get as much time as I wanted on this but it's coming along nicely.  I started with a pretty detailed pencil sketch. Drawing straight lines was never really my thing, but I've always been fascinated with the details of older architecture.  Seems everything had so much more character back then.

On the Rocks

On the Rocks, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

One of the things I love the most about traveling in Texas is the wonderful variety of landscapes. Where else can you go from beaches to pine forests to rolling hills and desert canyons without crossing state lines?  Often a single location offers a multitude of landforms. In the last year I've painted lots of pictures of Lake Mineral Wells. Most have focused on the wooded shores with their rhythmic grasses growing out of the water, but there's much more to see at this state park. One side of the lake is a rock climbers dream. There are caves and cliffs to explore that are an easy to moderate climb. My kids have a wonderful time acting like mountain explorers, and for the skilled climbers there are even permanent anchor spots for ropes at the top of the scenic outlook for repelling. There are many hiking trails that explore this side of the lake, and the shoreline of Lake Mineral Wells is dotted with these wonderful boulder outcrops that make perfect resting places when you're tired or just want to relax and contemplate the view. The inspiration for this painting was an early morning hike when the lake was calm and the sky was just starting to take on a soft glow. At one time I was very into square paintings, and every once in awhile I still enjoy returning to this format. This painting measures 12" x 12" and is an oil painting on canvas. If nothing else, I hope my artwork inspires you to look to the wonderful beauty of Texas and consider exploring some of our state parks for your next vacation.

Along the Beach, Galveston, TX

Along the Beach, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

This is a view along the beach at Galveston State Park. I have spent many wonderful vacations with my family in Galveston, and my wife and I wound up spending part of our short honeymoon there. Painting the beach can be quite a bit of relief from all the greens that tend to dominate the landscape in Texas, especially in Southeast Texas where the abundance of Pine trees offer little change in foliage throughout the year. I'm always interested in depth in the landscape, and I've tried to use subtle shifts from the warmer yellow and orange tints in the foreground to cooler pinks towards the waves to increase the space of the otherwise short expanse of sand. The grasses in the foreground help with that alot, and the overall loose handling of paint is my attempt at relating the light filled, breezy atmosphere of the Gulf Coast. Alot of people bad mouth Texas beaches, but I have always loved the look of the Gulf Coast.

Clouds over Galveston

Clouds over Galveston 300, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

This week was supposed to be a vacation week for me. My wife and I had planned to take our kids down to my brother's home near Winnie, TX. My wife just graduated with her Bachelor's Degree from UNT (yeah Tammy!), and my family was going to have kind of a get together for her. We were planning to end up in Galveston for a few days at the beach with the kids. But as often happens, plans changed. I accepted a position with Thriving Minds to serve as the Arts Integration Specialist for one of their summer camps, and I had to attend training in the middle of the week. I also wound up with a couple of shows to perform with one of my bands, so my wife took the kids and went on vacation without me. I've spent part of my time at the easel having myself a virtual Galveston vacation. Growing up in Beaumont, the Gulf Coast beaches were one of our main vacation spots.  I usually made several trips a year to Crystal Beach, Sea Rim State Park (wiped out by recent storms), and Galveston. I have lots of reference photos and sketches from my many beach vacations, and the images are always in the back of my mind. The salty air and the sounds of the waves lapping against the shore are something I've really missed since living in Dallas. Standing on the beach truly gives you a sense of infinity, watching the land disappear and the horizon so far off in the distance. It kind of makes you understand how early explorers might have thought the world was flat and you could fall right off the edge if you sailed far enough.

Frosted Fields and Snowy Delights

Frosted Field, Malloy Bridge Road, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine who's recently taken up pastel painting for the first time asked me about how to handle snow. Here in North Texas snow is a rare event. I've lived all my life in Texas, and I've only seen it snow a half-dozen times, and only 3 or 4 of those times would count as real snow (the rest being mostly slush.) Well, miracles do happen and as luck would have it, we had a little bit of snow last week. Some parts had six inches or more, which is a major snow event here, but where I live we only had a couple of inches. It rained all night and into mid-morning, and then finally turned to sleet and then snow around lunch time. It took a couple of hours to start sticking, but late that afternoon I headed out to do a bit of sketching and snap some reference photos. Most of the afternoon was completely gray and overcast, but shortly before sunset the cloud cover broke and we had a brilliant display that night.

This is a scene along Malloy Bridge Road just out of Seagoville, TX. I had seen these freshly plowed fields a few days before and thought I might return to paint the rich, black soil, but today the top soil had a light frosting of snow. The clouds and dramatic light breaking through almost made the world look like it was turned upside down. I painted this scene rather quickly, with loose brush strokes and a bit more paint than I've been using lately.

The first thing to know about snow is it isn't white. I know to some of you I'm stating the obvious, but snow (like anything that appears to be white) is very reflective and bounces back the colors around it. As I gazed at the snow covered field, I saw bits of bluish white, very light pinks and purples, and some parts that were warmer, even approaching a light tint of yellow. The trick is to balance all of these tints with enough contrast to make them appear to be white. I first learned about painting whites by putting a roll of toilet tissue in a colored box covered in different colors of construction paper. With a spotlight on the roll of tissue, the reflected colors are easy to spot. It's a little more difficult out in the open in a field, but the different colors are still there. Monet painted a series of snow covered fields and haystacks that have wonderful variations in light tints, and I highly recommend studying his works. The other part of making snow stand out is to balance all of those light tints with contrasting darks. The line of trees in the distance and the muddy water holes in the foreground make the snow appear lighter to the eye, and the deep blues and reds in the sky add midtones to round out the values. The object doesn't provide the color, the light does, and if you judge your values well you can use just about any color you want. It's all about balance.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more snow this year, but it's getting back into the fifties this week so there's not much chance of it here. Maybe you'll have better luck!

Dusk

Dusk, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

This is a 16" x 20" oil on canvas painting of night fall on Lake Mineral Wells. It was completed in two long sessions of painting (early morning and late at night) on the same day. I was just having so much fun I couldn't stop, so it's a little more impasto than most of my recent paintings. It's a view I very much enjoy with the contrast between the dark masses of the shore and the cloud line above, and I'm thinking of making another version (perhaps larger next time.)

Sunrise Hwy 175

Sunrise Hwy 175, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

I pass by these fields often on my way to Kaufman. There's open fields, ponds, and a river all in the same general vicinity, and you get a wonderful view right from the road, although for this vantage point I parked the car and walked down to the service road. I love the dramatic contrast between the darker foreground and the colorful sky, and the wonderful thing about early morning light (and late evening light too) is how it unifies the scene in warm tones.

Through the Reeds

Through the Reeds, originally uploaded by Mark Nesmith.

This is another view though the tall reeds along the shore at Lake Mineral Wells State Park in Texas. This is an oil on canvas and measures 8" x 10". I tried to capture the softer light of mid morning in this painting, with slightly subdued hues.