Johnny Nelson

Johnny Nelson

Johnny Nelson and I became good friends over the 18 years that Sabra was boarded at his stable, and we had many conversations.  We once talked about how we wanted to leave this world.  Johnny had told me he didn't worry about things like that, because they were in God's hands.  I told him I wanted to be carried off by a chariot.  Johnny's chariot was his tractor, which turned over on him as he was removing snow from a manure pile.  He was 85 - I miss him dearly.

This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.

Blind Date

Blind Date

I have known Rick Wells and his wife, Alysia, for several years; we've become good friends in that time.  Rick is a writer.  Alysia is a social worker, who holds a doctorate in sociology.  She is also a writer and a sculptor.

A few years ago I gave Rick a ride home from the veterinary office where Penny worked.  We drove about four miles through Kernersville, making numerous stops and turns.  Just as we passed his street, Rick told me, "Richard, you just missed the turn."

He was right, or course, but I'm sure you're wondering now what was the point of that story.  You see, Rick and Alysia are blind - Rick since he was twenty-nine, and Alysia since she was two.  Since Rick lost his sight as an adult, he still has visual memories, but Alysia has said she dreams only in sentences.  In her recent turn as a sculptor, Alysia creates models by here sense of touch alone.

I can't help but be surprised by how little Rick's and Alysia's blindness interferes with their daily lives.  Rick said to me once, " I wish you could see what I hear."  I wish that, too, because I can't imagine how beautiful the world must sound to someone who has distracted vision.

Rick and Alysia show the courage to face life each day knowing the only images they will see are in their minds and hearts.

 This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.

The Polish Rider

The Polish Rider

A familiar face in downtown Kernersville, NC was Charles Horton, who would often pass by, no on foot, but atop a four-foot-high Shetland pony.  As a young boy, Charles once jumped on the back of my great-uncle's trailer to catch a ride to the store.  When he jumped off, he was hit by a car coming in the opposite direction.  His leg was severely broken and he remained in a coma for over a month.   Since his family was poor, they couldn't afford the best medical attention for Charles.  He never fully recovered and he had trouble walking after that.  He said he made good grades in school before the accident, but afterwards he said they couldn't teach him anything.

Charles couldn't afford a car, and it was too hard for him to climb onto a full-sized horse, so he spent years traveling around Kernersville on his pony, with his feet almost touching the ground.  I'm sure that there were people who gossiped about Charles, or thought him odd, but I thought he looked quite noble atop his miniature steed.  

He reminded me of Rembrandt's The Polish Rider, and so I decided to paint a portrait of Charles with Rembrandt's masterpiece in mind.  Not long after I finished his portrait and hung it in the front window of my shop, a lady stopped in to complain.  She said that her husband trained horses, and that she knew Charles's pony was being abused, because a pony that size was not strong enough to support a grown man.  My answer to that woman was that it had transported him for over twenty years and I know of no other pony in the world that had such an important purpose in life.

One morning when Charles came into my shop and out of the blue, he said to me, "See all those people out there driving big cars and living in big houses?  I'm happier than all of them."  I never worried too much about Charles after that.

This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.

Good Morning Millard

Good Morning Millard

Almost every morning in the late 1970's and early 1980's, an elderly black gentleman named Millard Stafford would pass by my shop.  I remembered Mr. Stafford from my childhood, when he worked at the local Justice movie theater.  America was segregated back then.  He collected tickets at the side of the building for the black patrons who had to sit in the balcony.  He was always well-dressed and well spoken, and no one could pass him on the street without receiving a warm greeting and a tip of the hat.

 This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.

Remembering My Grandmother

Avah's Gift

Our heritage plays a part in each of our lives and the desire to connect with the past was the motivational stimulus for my painting called Avah's Gift.  My grandmother was an artist in her own right, using the materials which she had on hand.  She would take feed sacks and draw her designs on them.  With the scraps of material that she cut in long strips, she would us a stick, punch the different colors into the patterns and create these wonderful rugs.  She made a rug for each of her eight children and fifteen grandchildren.  They seemed to define her far better than the portraits I tried to do of her.

This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.

Sabra's View

Sabra's View

One afternoon as I sat at the barn waiting for my wife Penny, when the horses were fed and the cats were down from the loft awaiting supper, it was a magical time.  The setting sun cast it's light through the barn door, basking its occupants in a soft, warm glow - - and I knew I had a painting.

When I finished that piece a week later, I showed it to Penny, and her response wasn't quite what I expected.  "You've painted every darn horse in that barn except for Sabra," she told me in her most accusing tone.  Thinking fast, I told her the title of the painting was "Sabra's View," since I  had been sitting in front of Sabra's stall looking out at the rest of the stable.  That didn't work - - I ended up having to paint several pictures of Sabra before Penny was satisfied.

This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.

Please remember to responsibly take care of your animals, spaying and neutering when necessary.  There are several organizations that you can find in your own area by simply searching animal adoption and rescue.  One organization that provides solutions in the Piedmont Triad area of NC is http://www.aarfanimals.org/  

Flower Gardens

Flora Ann's Garden

April showers bring May flowers.  This is one of my favorite times of the year with all of the colors erupting from the winter months.  Some people call it a labor of love the amount of effort they put in planting and maintaining flower and vegetable gardens.  For me, I prefer to observe and paint the fruits / flowers of someone else's labor.  This garden was painted in the warm summer months.

Two gigantic oak tress were taken out when a tornado passed by this small piece of property.  Knowing that she would not live long enough to see mature oak trees again, Flora Ann decided to replace them with this lovely flower garden which she and her neighbors could enjoy.

This beautiful garden is located in an area near Kernersville N.C. called Old Salem.  Salem, North Carolina was settled by the Moravians from Germany in the mid 1750's.

This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.

Gallery of Memories

Family Outing

Years ago, I visited an Oriental art museum in Washington D.C.  As I wandered through the images of cranes, trees and warriors.  I couldn't help but notice that many of the paintings had writing on them.  I was curious as to why an artist would mar a perfectly good painting with black ink, so I asked the opinion of a gentleman standing nearby.  He suggested the artist were so intent on conveying the precise meaning of their work that paint alone was sometimees not enough - so they used poetry to complete their stories.

I liked that!  Family Outing, is one of several paintings which I have in my Gallery of Memories of people, places, animals, and commissions.  Most are just average, but it is my hope that the sum of each will prove to be greater than the individual pieces.

This image is available on my Etsy site - 16x20, double matted, giclee for $40 + shipping.  Click here to visit my Etsy site to view this and many of my other paintings.