Mudder's 86th Celebration

Spent the day with Mudder on her 86th b'day and got these fun shots

Something New...

Keeping the paint flowing and enjoying the beautiful weather here in south Georgia.

These ladies are for a client in Virginia. They are 20" x 24" and will appear on either side of a dining room cradenza... They ship out next week so I'll get to enjoy them for a little while longer... Now they have to tell me what their names are!

Into the Morning Light...

Am back in the studio for the next few weeks....got an order of canvases and frames and have even planned some of the images I hope to do. Had such a great response to the new pieces at Stockley it is making me a little nervous about warming up again... can I do more and better images? We'll see. This is just a minor thing that happens right before I plunge back into the "zone." Even with all the success, I wonder if I will still have the inspiration when I pick the brush back up again... It is a challenge to remember where I left off! Have three commissions to generate and that always helps; I can start with something I know and work out from there. This new piece is the first "under glass" piece I have done for some time. It was about three days in the making as I came to it, left it, and came back again. I have another one started, a landscape, and I'll take them to Marlboro MA November 15. The process is wonderful: I don't know of any work I could be engaged in that has such soul gratifying capacity! I am blest and thankful today, right now...

Great Weekend! For more art see www.tombarnesfineart.com

What a fantastic weekend... Gail and I made it to Norfolk VA on Thursday nite to sit down to a wonderful meal done by our dear hosts Barbara and Jim Reynolds. Barbara is always trying new recipes and this one was an Alfredo Concreto... so named because she was disappointed in the cream sauce... I had three helpings before I could decide just how good it was! On Friday Ben Crumrine and Walt Kelley came to help set up the show in Stockley Gardens and we were done in record time. Walt especially made the heroic effort of driving from NC up to Norfolk just to put together the tent. (How do I get such wonderful friends?) Ben is one of Tyler's buddies from way back and he is one of those totally Zen creatures who brings peace where ever he goes. Friday night we actually just sat around the kitchen table and played Dominoes! Saturday AM we were at the show and started selling immeditely. Lots of collectors came by and they were happy to take the new pieces off the walls and into their homes. Continual amazement on all our parts! Jim Reynolds worked the crowd and Barbara worked the charge machine and Gail acted as hostess for the multitudes! Talk about team work... Judy Hautala came in from Washington DC for the 36th time in our 18 year history of doing this show. On Saturday nite we were treated to a fine feast at the No Frill Grill even though Jerry and Deborah were in Ashville for vacation. Got to see him Saturday when he came by the show, straight out of the travel mist.... So many great friends came by to say "Hello," encourage me about the new images, and share a few lines about thier lives. New buddy John took this clown shot for posterity! In the wrap up: I took 34 pieces and sold 17! Great show! I am in the studio this AM, ordering more canvas, frames, paint and planning the display for Marlboro MA Paradise City Show Novemeber 19, 20 and 21st. Check out www.paradisecityarts.com . Am so looking forward to painting more. Am so blest to have an appreciative public and so humbled by my friends' love!

New Images for Your Approval

Small but powerful, eh? These are all watercolor on canvas and have been finished in the last couple of weeks... They are a few of the many I am getting ready for Stockley show October 16-17 in Norfolk VA....

Simple and pure watercolor

No drawing, sketching...just splatters

My retro-look

One of my favorites, new techniques of underpainting

Kandinsky inspired...

Classic look, new palate

Tyler likes this one and wants me to do BIG like it...

Toulouse influences everywhere

Bright new look of loose drawing

Larger version of a popular image inspired by Marsden Hartley

My Cezanne look with Savannah overtones...

Studio shots and Friends I love...

Settling In To New Spaces

So for those who may not know yet... Gail and I have moved from Chesapeake VA to Guyton GA... That's a small town of about 1000 people just 23 miles from Savannah GA. I have a new studio and have been painting in it like a crazy man. Had two wonderfully successful shows in Alexandria VA and Philly PA recently and sold all but 7 of my entire inventory pieces. Sooo... I came back with a vengence and midst the turmoil of new electricity, water, gas, dirst walls, etc. I began painting and the new works have been exciting for me. Others may not be able to tell the difference, but for me the way of wokring and planning and executing has changed and grown. I hope the new images are pleasing... a few of them are included here. The studio shots are random...

It's A New Day!

Okay, I had to leave this in... (I can't find the delete key) This morning about 5 AM, went outside to feed the HeatherCat and look what was staring down at me from the water oak at the garage door! This is Black Bart, an Eastern King snake and friendly too. He eats vermin and is the only snake that can eat rattlesnakes, corals, and moccasins... however, he may have just dined on a sparrow egg but I think I'll keep him.

Three beautiful ladies inspired this new setting and pose. I am really pleased with the extra care I took on this piece. It is a commission for a Norfolk patron. It's a 24 x 24 canvas.

Here's a 30 x 40 canvas done as a commission (accepted with delight); all the right colors, all the right attitude. It was done for a friend of my first framer!

I am back in the studio and painting again: This one is a 24 x 24 canvas and while it seems a little washed out in the digital, it is really a dynamic, rich, deeply colorful piece...(I have got to take time to work out shooting these new pieces; the studio floor is not giving me the best reproduction!)

All in the Past

These shots Gail discovered as she was going through our volumes of photos...

Cindy Casky was one of my first avid supporters. She managed Picture Parts in Virginia Beach back in 1992 as I was first getting started in the art field. Cindy's idea was to throw a party, invite the public and call it "Tom Barnes Unframed." She hung the art on clotheslines across the store, layed out some snacks, and had a cake done with a long neck lady drizzled in icing on top! That show started a lot of things: The guys, Lee and Scott of Blue Hippo fame (after 18 years Scott is still buying my work for his new spa and salon in Newport News VA), came and bought several pieces and asked if they could use my ideas for a restaurant theme which turned out to be fantastic showcase for my work. My then new friend James was a struggling young law student who bought his first painting - on the payment plan - for $75. He later became a successful real estate lawyer, a serious collector of my work (he and wife Lisa own nine originals!), and is now my longtime financial advisor with a biggedy consulting firm in New York!

These have become my "show stories" and I love remembering how it all got started... boy was I in for a wonderful ride!

Paintings in the Process...

These Ladies are 30 x 40 and are just about finished for the upcoming show...
The backgrounds are inspired by G. Klimt

30 x 30 on Canvas, This one is my comfort piece...

Learning to do the reverse background and lifting for visual

"impressionism" with watercolors...

A 30 x 30 Canvas

A 30 x 30 Canvas
Something of the French Poster?

Upcoming Shows!

Many New Pieces to Preview...

Paradise City will host the next show (Memorial Day Weekend 2010) in Northampton MA (see www.paradisecityarts.com) and then we're doing the Rittenhouse Square Arts Festival in downtown Philly PA (see www.rittenhousesquarefineartsshow.org) the first weekend in June. I am bringing many new images and am looking forward to completing this cycle of shows successfully. I am indebted and thanful to all those who came to Stockley Gardens Arts Festival last weekend... It was a huge success... am always amazed at the response. And it was great to have Judy with us, Barbara and Jim to help out too, great to see Jerry and Deborah, great to dine out in my favorite Norfolk restaurant The No Frill Grill (wonder why?)

April 30, 1977

"All I wanted was a history with you,

now all I want is a future with you..."

Recently in Monterey CA for a family visit,

I shot this bayside image

Ty and Grace have a pristine cottage in Monterey...

They got a white picket fence, too!

Birds of a feather...talking about their space requirements no doubt...

This was one of only three shots I got at the San Diego Zoo...

I was so enthralled, I forgot to take pictures!

A commission finished recently, shipped and hanging in West Palm Beach FL... a different interpretation on a universal theme.

Self-taught fine artist Tom Barnes works primarily in watercolors. His florals almost always are abstracted forms with the same intense color rendering of his figures... but the added motion of a passing breeze adds yet another element of excitement. Likewise, his landscapes capture the techniques of the Fauvists and are stylized with mountains, hills, plains and lush foliage. Still life subject matter usually captures a chair, a table, a window, a jar and simple pieces of fruit... moments of repose and reflection, interrupted by something unknown.

Barnes' expressions on paper are observations and tell-tale snippets of his temperament: delight in the earth’s abundant glories, peace with the life process, and excitement over what is yet to come.

'My most coveted response is when someone comes into my display and says, "This stuff makes me happy!"'

Really Wet Paint!

This image is a 30 x 40 canvas, not yet finished, but very close. The colors and saturated hues are just what I was working for!

She's maybe to be called "Moulin Rouge"

A work on paper: a recurring theme now because so many people have taken them home. Notice the unfinished wine glasses and lack of gold pearls...

This one is about 24 x 30

and will be framed under glass for the Northampton MA

Paradise City Show Memorial Day Weekend...

A 30 x 40 Canvas, glazed and lifted, this face has a haunting but familiar look.

Everyone has said she is very pretty.


A landscape and an abstract.
This 30 x 40 canvas is building into a very interesting piece;
modern and yet I still feel the organic quality of the florals...

All in a day's work....

Today I managed to get some painting done, but for the most part spent it with Tyson and Tess Bush who are helping me figure out some ebay sales and blog posting. We had a lot of fun establishing this site. I had some challenges getting the clicks and uploads going but as with many things, practice makes perfect.... or at least progress!

I'm hoping to make it a satisfying communication for my friends and patrons all over our fair globe. In doing the work I found a few mentions of my work in some other places.