Walkin' and Talkin'

I decided to do a gobbling bird today. After all, the best part of any turkey hunt is the gobble. As the sun comes up outside my window, I can see it's filtered brightness like in today's painting. Today the sun really made the bushes glow outside my window. Since those two gobblers visited my yard a few days ago, I find myself looking out the window more. To reach my goal of pre-season paintings, I may have to move to a room without windows!

Greener Pastures

It is Monday and absolutely beautiful out. Every day it gets greener and greener here. It is getting hard not to make excuses to go turkey scouting and skip the painting, but I am pure of heart and dedicated to a fault. It's hard to get self motivated sometimes, so I set goals and I have not yet reached my pre-season number of paintings. I'll keep painting until I reach my goal without fail. (or until I say, ehh that's close enough, I'm outa here!)

Sideline Suitor

Day by day it gets closer to turkey season here in Missouri. After yesterday's backyard visiting gobblers, I've been thinking about some of the exciting hunts I had east of the house in their stomping grounds. I had alot of success down there. I also spent many hours watching turkeys way out in the open field. I'd call and call thinking I could get the gobbler to leave his birds for one in the bush. A few times I got a quiet surprise! That's this painting.

Lovely Lady

I'd like to be able to write about this painting, but wait until you hear this! At about two thirty this afternoon while I was studying what to do next on my painting, I glanced out my window. At less than fifteen yards, there are two ,big adult gobblers. One is a hog. I go for the camera. The battery is dead. Now I've got to decide whether to enjoy watching them or go for batteries. There hasn't been a gobbler in this yard since we built the house twenty two years ago. I'm going to need proof. I got a dozen pictures before they wandered off. My heart rate dropped back down from two hundred. I finished the painting!

Crack of Dawn

This morning it was cold ,rainy and dark so I just wanted to paint something sunny. As an artist my favorite thing to do is capture the look of light. I've done this same idea before so I use different gobblers and different poses to keep it fresh. The sun has just come out and the outside is calling me. The little creek behind the house is really flowing. I think I'll get a lawn chair,go down by the water and research a painting called "Crack of a Cold One".

Two Brothers

I had a great weekend at my oldest son Eric's home about one hundred miles away. My wife ,Debbie, and I got to hug and kiss our granddaughter,Clara Jean, a bunch. Eric, myself and Mary (my turkey/deer slaying daughter-in-law) built a fire pit Saturday, which was great outside, weenie-roasting entertainment that night. Youngest son ,Daniel,and his lovely girlfriend, Amber, were in constant cell communication as they booked a Spring Break trip to Florida. They stayed at Eric's house Sunday night to get an early flight out today.I'm so proud that the boys are good friends as adults and brothers. To make a short story long, that is the inspiration for today's painting.

Road Boss

It's been a long day. You would think as many of these turkey paintings that I've done, they would get easier. If I have learned anything about doing an original painting, it's that there are no shortcuts. You must paint them one brush stroke at a time. So after about seven million strokes, I'm going to call this one done. It's Friday... I don't have to be me 'til Monday!

Morning Sun

This week is really getting away from me. There was no new art for the last two days due to annual yard work. I did get a chance to sketch some new non-strutting gobblers. It was suggested to me to do more non-strutters for variety. It was my oldest brother who told me he didn't like the gobblers as much when they were all poofy. I assured him I'd add some more relaxed positions to my paintings . I also told him to never say the word "poofy" to me again in regard to a turkey!

Morning Moon

I'm starting out this week tired from weekend work and I couldn't sleep last night. I was actually at my table here at two o'clock AM putting this idea together. The last few morning skies have featured a huge full moon. I've stood outside and watched the trees as light goes from dark to dawn. I wanted to see how much detail and light I could show with a bright moon still in the sky. My dog, April, was absolutely sure I'd finally treed something on my own!

Synthetic Seduction

This has been a painting that really gets the old turkey hunting fever up! During the painting, my turkey hunting buddy called to tell me he had new calls and was coming over tonight. I've already heard a gobbler back behind the house this year. We'll get the new calls out tonight and work ourselves into a turkey frenzy. Cool title, don't you think?

Two Trophies

Sunday night I sat here in my painting room and came up with three pretty good ideas. Monday's painting, today's and one more for tomorrow. As it turns out, beer can be a creative catalyst if used under strictly controlled conditions! All three of these ideas are just a little different from what I've painted so far... So far,so good. Tomorrow's painting will be fun. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do it yet. I guess I'll have to make a catalyst run.

Heads or Tails

I have been looking over lots of reference photos and watching turkey videos and I always notice one thing. As gobblers interact they spin around alot. As a hunter I constantly wait for and time the turning of a gobbler to make any necessary moves. The backside of a turkey is a very common position, but I seldom paint it. I'm going to use it more to keep more realistic elements in my turkey art.

Morning Strut

Yesterday was just too warm and pretty out to be inside painting. Actually so is today, but I have to paint sometime. I started this morning with a new sketch. It took me almost two hours to get this really puffed up, head tucked back pose. Some may think a strutting gobbler is a strutting gobbler, but there can be thousands of little, subtle differences. I am going to keep painting until I've done them all.

Mountain Magic

Today is a beautiful springlike day. I will only be in long enough to finish this. I have fun painting the rocks in these Merriams paintings. They start out as white blobs then develop slowly with detail and shadows. I guess everything in my paintings develops slowly with many layers of different colored paint. Watching me paint is like going to a turtle race featuring very old turtles!

Texas Tough

Today I decided to do the Rio Grande in a rough, dry, rocky, Texas background. I'll bet these old gobblers don't have any wing tips left after struttin' on this stuff! It's amazing how Mother Nature has adapted the wild turkey to such a wide spectrum of habitat. Do you think a Texas Rio Grande sounds like he has an accent to a New York Eastern? Probably sounds like he's from Arkansas.

Florida Fine

As it turns out, the "Grand Slam" was a popular idea. I sold all four of them Friday, plus a couple of the others. So... I will spend this week painting another set. This is good news, since I do this for a living! The timing is perfect since I still have all my reference material laid out. It'll be fun to take these four, move the elements around, change lighting and create four new originals.