#249 Eric's Morning

6"x 6" oil on masonite $75
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

Painted from a photo from our trip to Thailand. Eric was bathed in some nice light, the next morning after the world's longest hike.

#248 Couple of Drinks

2.5"x 3.5"(ACEO) oil on artboard $35
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

Drinks are fun. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If there's one thing I could paint til the end of time it would be a glass of something to drink. Somehow I imagine that statement coming back to bite me in the ass in my underworld afterlife.

#247 Celery

2.5"x 3.5"(ACEO) oil on artboard $35
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

This was some color fun. Just a little joy to paint. It's amazing the temperature shifts that exist in reflected light.
I'm a big fan of the scanner (vs. camera) but I had to battle the image in photoshop just to get the colors close to being right. I realize it appears different on each different monitor, but I'd at least like to get it right on my mine. Seriously, I have no idea how you can getclose to what your painting looks like without photoshop. Off the top of my head, here are the tendencies of my scanner: In general images come out colder, Yellow-greens come out waaaay to cold and saturated and reds tend to saturate out and it often won't show the color variations(toward warm or cool).
Ok, enough bitchin about modern technology. Bottom line is I'm highly suggest photoshop training in an area like color correction (maybe at lynda.com) for anyone frustrated with what's coming out of their camera or scanner.

#246 Blue Back Door

5"x 7" oil on masonite $75
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

Found this pretty backdoor porch scene in downtown durham.

#245 On Main Street

6"x 6"(ACEO) oil on artboard $75
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

This is a scene I liked from downtown Durham, walkin down main street.

#244 Herb Pot

2.5"x 3.5"(ACEO) oil on artboard $35
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

I don't remember (of course) what the herb is but I love this little potted plant.

#243 Mug Noir

2.5"x 3.5"(ACEO) oil on artboard Sold

I love me some backlighting eh? I can't help it. Some of the most beautiful color variations happen in the shadowside. The shock of sunlight is so strong, colors get bleached by it's might. In the shadow there's more diversity, dialog and play between the colors that weren't washed away in the sun's wake.

#242 Mr. McShiny

2.5"x 3.5"(ACEO) oil on artboard $35
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

This was fun! He had such colorful skin and his face really had this luminous violet in the shadows. His bald head and ear made for great highlights. It's like finding a beautiful flesh colored apple to paint. Feel like I was really able to get inside the sensitive temperature shifts in the light and dark sides, the color shapes fell in place and his head/face started to make itself.

#241 Dark Apple No2

2.5"x 3.5"(ACEO) oil on artboard $35
to purchase, email jeffmahorney@gmail.com or

Sometimes it's still surprising to me how dark red really is, especially the cold red of a darker apple. Time to get painting again...

#240 Lucky Strike

oil on gessoed bowling pin

Happy 240th painting to me! Swear I'm going to write a "what I've learned" section again soon. :)

Well, I've finally moved on to my final medium: the bowling pin. Ha! ok actually this was a fun piece for the Pin Projekt of the Troika Music Festival. The painting is kind of a panoramicn view of the american tobacco skyline featuring the lucky strike water tower and smoke stack. Fun stuff. Tonight at 6:30 is the auction at Pinhook were many cool pins for local artists will be auctioned off. More info:

May 29th, 6:30 pm $5.00 cover

5th Annual Pin Projekt Art Auction scheduled at the Pinhook

Durham, N.C. 2009 – The 5th annual Pin Projekt fund raiser for the Troika Music Festival will take place on May 29^th, 2009 at the Pinhook on 117 W. Main Street in Durham. The event features an auction of used bowling pins that local artists, musicians, and craftspeople have turned into painted or carved pieces of decorative and functional art. This year’s event features the work of over a dozen artists, including Tom Buhrman, Wendy Spitzer and Triangle favorite Jodi Hoover (www.jodihoover.com).

Viewing and cocktails begin at 6:30 p.m. with the auction at 8:00 p.m. There is a $5 cover charge that will be collected at the door.

Music will be provided by Cool John Ferguson beginning at 10:00 pm. Cool John and his band will be among the first blues acts to play at the Pinhook, which is one of Durham’s newest venues. Cool John has collaborated with many well-known artists, including Taj Mahal, Kenny Wayne Shepard, and BB King.

All proceeds from the Pin Projekt benefit the Troika Music Festival, which is a three-day, Durham-based festival featuring local and regional bands happening November 5^th-7^th, 2009.

“We're lucky to host this one of a kind event in its 5^th year. The auction is an important fundraiser for us, but more than that, it's an opportunity to host an art event affordable for many. If you have not attended a Pin Projekt, make this your year!” says Chair Melissa Thomas.

More information is available at http://www.troikamusicfestival.org .

# # #

The Troika Music Festival

In 2002, the Durham Association for Downtown Arts, Inc. (DADA), having successfully hosted a showcase series since 2001, decided to organize the first Durham Music Festival, a one-day event featuring musicians and bands from Durham, North Carolina. The event was a success, so DADA held the following year's festival over the course of three nights at multiple venues in downtown Durham. In 2004, festival organizers invited independent bands from all over the Triangle and beyond. Plus, several well respected independent record labels participated by showcasing some of their bands and themselves.

In 2005, organizers made an effort for the festival to better serve and represent the whole Triangle area. During the festival's five day span, there were events at locations in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh. Additionally, organizers changed the name to Troika Music Festival, so that, although the bulk of the events were still in Durham, the whole area could celebrate its vibrant music scene together.

In subsequent years, organizers resumed efforts to concentrate the activity in the burgeoning, culturally rich downtown area of Durham, consistently featuring the area's brightest musical acts as well as critically acclaimed acts visiting from elsewhere.

More info about the event can be found at www.troikamusicfestival.org/