I guess you could say my artist career began with my first one man show in 1984. Charlie Fenton was opening his new cafe/art gallery and performance center under the Shelby bridge In Nashville and invited me. Charlie joked I had come a long way, from sleeping under a bridge in Centennial Park to having an art show under a bridge. Along with the one-man show I organized an adjoining show of 20 artists which included Alan LeQuire, Earl Hooks, Jairo Prado, Rose Bacon,Tim Canady, Phil Carroll, Lou Copeland, Dot Harmon, Peggy Hazel, Patrick Jackson, JoAnnah Mahan, Queenie McEwen, Clive Miller, Joe Montgomery, Greg Ridley, Thurman Rivers, Ann Tiley and Duffy Young. The legendary Werner Wildner showed up the day of the show without his art…but he did drink for free.

I was at an “Artist Trading Card” Christmas a couple of years ago at my friends Mark and Rhonda Parker’s. We all did paintings on itty bitty pieces of paper and then traded to each other. This is the one I did. My friend Valerie just posted it on facebook. I hadn’t seen it since then and had forgotten what it looked like. It was a fun one.

I painted over the drawing I did yesterday. To create the painting the drawing must be covered up and sacrificed. It is no more. A painting has taken it’s place. When I do the drawing I try to remember the colors as they were and often use my imagination. I try the capture the essence of the scene I chose. It doesn’t have to be exact. Whatever it takes to make a satisfactory piece. It’s only 4″ x 6″. In honor of Joe Whalen.

I went to Lockport tonight to pay my respects to Joe Whalen. It was a long line and I was by myself. Plenty of time to think about him and how much he encouraged me and what a great role model he was for me. When I left there I was determined to do some art to honor my friend. I never made it out of the parking lot of the funeral home. I sat in my truck and made this sketch in ink. I only had a small pocket watercolor pad with me. Use what you got. That’s what Joe would do. A lot of this was done in a kind of short hand to help me go over it in watercolor later. That’s how I usually do it. I think Joe would have liked it.

I recently came across an old pastel I hadn’t seen in over 30 years. It’s like seeing an old friend. I painted this front door of an old house in Nashville which was affectionately and simply known as the Cedar Lane house. Many a traveler passed through this door. The 4 bedroom house was a base for many folks who lived out in the country and needed a place to stay for a spell while in the city. I had my studio there for a few years back in the early 80’s. My life drawing teacher Juanita Greene Parks had a studio down the block. I just walked to my classes.

Many years ago I was having a beer with my brother at a tavern called the Walsh. He offered to buy me another one but I declined because I wanted to get some art done before I drank too much. So I went outside and looked around for something to draw and this street light seemed to be calling me. After sketching it I went back into the bar and took up my brother’s offer. I got the itch to paint it right there and then. But you can’t paint in a bar right? It was a small sketch and I figured my watercolors wouldn’t take up too much space. So I got them out and painted this sitting at the bar drinking. It was the first time I ever did that. But not the last.

http://pixels.com/featured/the-calling-arthur-barnes.html

I sat in a bar in Dickson County, Tennessee. Across the dance floor was this old piano that intrigued me. Every time the music would come on people would get up to dance and block my view. I looked through them and sketched in ink. A pretty girl kept smiling at me as I drew the piano. She was certain I was drawing her. She was not pleased when she looked at my old piano drawing.

http://pixels.com/featured/the-old-piano-arthur-barnes.html

I went down to the local bowling lanes tonight to catch some old friends out playing. Two of them I’ve known since third grade. “A Blues Band” is what they go by. I ditched the new pen I got. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a hand full of various pens….none of them the right one. I went with a plain old ball point pen with black ink. Its always a challenge drawing musicians who usually look cool but are poor models who move around too much.  I start drawing somebody facing one way…in ink…then they suddenly turn and face the other way and I am left to try and guess what it should be. I rarely get a good resemblance in these cases. No exception here. But the guys were good sports about it and seemed to like the drawing enough.