digdougsart blog

I spent a good portion of Saturday drivingaround Austin, TX on a Modern Home Tour.  We probably looked at about 16 homes in all.  Neutral colors and elements of nature were infused with most homes along with lots of natural light. While most homes were interesting very few struck a chord with me or so I thought.   In the middle of the night I awoke to images of lines and colors flowing through my head.   One of the colors that really stood out was a sort of key lime pie color.  Not quite lime green but close.  As far as color on the walls most were a very basic subdued tones.  What did provide color was the art hanging on the walls.  It just goes to show how much a piece of art can do to  liven up one’s home.  Which makes me happy when I think how my work can really make a room come together.  I took a few pics of some of the homes and the furniture and accessories in some of the homes.  One of the coolest pieces of furniture was this sort of bean bag coffee table.

Last night I stayed up late working on a new painting  where I am incorporating my many methods into one painting.  It has a chaotic patterns and structured lines that will fuse together when its complete.   This progress is about after 3 hours of  work. 

I have done some more detail in the canopy section of the tree but I have not taken any pics of that portion yet.   Stayed tuned for more photos at the end of the day after I have worked on it some more.

Today I kicked off the new year staying home from work to work on my ART.  It was so nice to have a full day when all I had to worry about was  which painting was I going to work on.  I ended up working on several canvases but,  spent the good part of the day working on one of my cityscape’s which will be part of a series for the new year.   Here’s a pic of the current progress on the city scape (no title for it yet.)  

I am still tying to figure out my New Years resolutions but am happy when I think about 2009 as it was  a good year.  My second daughter was born and I had a successful year with my art.

A  few of the highlights were as follows:
An exhibit at Bass Concert Hall, Painting in the juried 32 nd annualAustin Visual Arts Alliance show, East End Gallery exhibition,  displayed numerous works in various locations throughout the Central Tx area.  I also found a printer(Winberg Gallery in Georgetown)  to produce my fine art reproductions(Giclees).  Started this blog, learned how to tweet and book da face..lol…Facebook which was a challenge for me.  Hell 10 years ago I didn’t know how to turn on  a computer let alone surf the web.  Now I am riding the crest of the wave and hanging 10 fingers on the keyboards. 

 So when I think about how far I have come and where I am headed I get excited!  I think 2010 will be an even better year than ‘09.  I hope  you will follow my blog and my journey to being a full time artist.  Thanks to all who read these words and taking the time to view my artwork.  I am honored and blessed to have such great fans, friends,  and family.

(At the end of the month my second daughter will be one year old.  A couple of nights ago I was looking at baby pictures from over the course of the year.  It’s hard to believe just how much has happened in a years time.  That reminded me of this post that I wrote earlier in the year.  Therefore I thought I would re-post Art without Stop lights because I am always thinking about my free time! )

So the other day when I left work I managed to not hit any traffic lights. And no I don’t mean “crash into”. You know, I flowed right on through without having to stop. And no I am not color blind nor did I run the traffic lights. Ok so with that said, it got me thinking. “What would my ART life be like with no stop lights?” I think it would be mean no interruptions when I’m painting.  No getting up to let the dog out and then back in. No shooing the cats off the dinner table. No answering the phone only to find out that ” this is your 23rd second notice that you car warranty is about to expire.” No daddy I need to go potty. No second child crying because she loves to be held. Or at least no spitting up on canvas while I paint with her in tow. No honey can you please get me some water. No cleaning up the mess from the cat being on the dinner table knocking over a glass of water(insert eldest daughter into this category as well). No having to get up and go pee due to drinking heavily to reduce stress from having to daddy this honey that. No having to fix i-pod after deleting all songs except the same 22 songs that kept repeating over and over again. No having to go to bed because I have to go to work the next day and pay the bills!  No being lazy or worn out from day job and whining about being tired.  Life with without stop lights would be less stressful but, then again would I be living in a real world or just a fantasy land that I created. Sometimes we need the stop lights to keep us grounded to this earth and learn to appreciate them. As I typed the proceeding line, my daughter of 3 1/2 yrs came up and gave me a hug and told me that she liked my shirt. Wow, I think someone above is listening to my thoughts and the words that I am typing. Did I mention that as she walked away she told me “I love you forever daddy.” So with that said, thank you God and thanks to my family who is allowing me to pursue my dreams of being an ARTIST with or without stop lights.

I just watched an episode of CBS Sunday morning.  They had a story about an aritst whouses push pins to create massive portraits.  Using only five colors might I add.  While they look really cool I am not sure how I feel about it.  I say this because he uses some sort of photo-shop to break down his digital images into pixels.   Let me back up a bit, he takes a digital pic of a family member or friend and then pixelizes the image to break it down into colors.  Then using that image he prints colored dots onto paper upon which he places onto a wood background.  Then by pushing thousands of pins into the wood, you have an interesting piece of art.   It’s almost more science than art when you think about it.  It caught my interest but I’m not sure how I feel about it overall.  I know one thing I’m getting carpal tunnel just by typing this I can’t imagine putting thousands of little push pins all day long, then again I have been known to paint small lines for hours on end.  Now whos crazy?   Here is his website!  http://daigh.com/

Heres a few pics from the Vineyard.

Doug Naugle--Artist---The Vineyard at Florence Winery

Went to the Vineyard at Florence Winery today for their Nouveau party. 

The Vineyard at Florence

Today they launched their new wines.  I even had a glass myself. 

Wine glass(The Vineyard at Florence)...photo by Doug Naugle

 I could have hung out all day and drank but thought it would be wise to come home and paint.  However I did take some pics of the winery and my art which is currently on display.   If you want to get away for the day or weekend I highly recommend the winery.  It’s beautiful and you feel like you in a another place and time.   Hard to believe its just eight miles off of I-35 and about 40 minutes from Austin.

I’m listening to my best of Bob Marley  CD which makes me feel grounded and calm. It also makes me think about something a friend posted on Facebook about Bob Marley  in which I replied quoting one of my favorite sayings which is “The only way to free ones mind is to emancipate yourself from mental slavery.”…Bob Marley.  Today I was talking to a good friend of mine about how one’s mind is usually what is standing in the way of someone trying to achieve one’s goals or the progress of moving forward.  I feel a lot of times that I have a personal struggle in my mind with each painting that I am tyring to create.  But when I free my mind and just try to be in that creative moment I find that the paintbrush will be my guide.  So tonight as I listen to Bob Marley I let the paintbrush and the paint

work in progress

 do the talking.  This is the current painting I am working on.

The other day while I was washing dishes I accidentally dropped a grape vine stem into a glass on the counter.  Instantly I was fascinated by the image it produced.  The colors along with the clear glass just really struck a chord with me.  So I decided to take a picture of my new found discovery.  This is that image.  Now I know how they got Reece’s Peanut-butter cups, pure accident.

Today my horoscope read as follows: Stop dreaming about what you want to do and make it happen.  I’m thinking the horoscope folks must have been following my around today watching me work.  It was a very long, long, day as anything and everything went wrong.  It was one of those days when  you know you probably should have stayed in bed.  I do know it was Veterans day and many are saying hey stop your whining and be appreciative of what you have and what others have done for us.  True very true, but this is not a bitch session as much as it is a day of reflection.  A day to figure out how to make my dreams a reality much quicker.  After all if I have many more days like today,  I don’t think I can physically or mentally handle it.  I can’t wait to read what my horoscope says tomorrow.  Maybe it will just say hey stay home today don’t get out of bed.