THE FOREST EDGE (Stevens Mill 4)

 

6 x 11.25 inches, watercolor, 2022

The framed original painting is for sale at the 

Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

framed original painting $359

giclee print $50

 

Obviously Stevens Mill is one of my favorite places to paint.  In the 1950's, 60's, and 70's it had a picnic shelter and a pavilion over the water's edge, a diving board, was open to the public, and was locally popular for picnics, fishing, etc.  Our 1960 school yearbook contained photos of the senior "superlatives" artfully posed at Stevens Mill.  The place is still inspiring me to paint, and I have a few photographs left.

PAIR OF MOURNING DOVES

 

4 x 5 inches, watercolor, 2022

The framed original is for sale at the Water + Color Gallery, Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

framed original painting $155

 

The pencil sketch for this very tiny painting was for composing the painting below, called Bird Sanctuary  (Look at the tiny black window high up on the silo).  I loved the mood and simplicity of the sketch so much that I decided to paint it.  Although the original painting is tiny, it has a nice mat and frame, which give it more presence.  The gray border shown above is purely for the blog.

BIRD SANCTUARY

 

10 x 17 inches, watercolor, 2022

The framed original painting is for sale at the Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

framed original painting $528

giclee print $100

The silo in this painting is based on a real, existing silo in Goldsboro, North Carolina.  Goldsboro used to be a "bird sanctuary", which I know because of the official proclamation to that effect on the city limits signs remembered from my childhood.  Seeing the signs on car trips into town with my father, I thought they were specifically intended for little boys like me, who had received BB guns from Santa Claus;  Funny now, but I believe I may have been right all along.

The painting was first completed as a lone silo in the middle of a field, which was later re-imagined as you see it here (much more interesting, I think).  The other buildings and most of the birds were added later.  The laurel blossoms are gouache (opaque paint), but the white parts of the birds and the window were scratched in with a knife. If you're not a watercolorist, these techniques are more common than you might think.

HELEN & SPOOTY (CHRISTMAS)

 

 11 x 15 inches, Watercolor, 2021

framed original painting $438

giclee print ($100)

 

The framed original painting is for sale at the 

Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

This was our Rockwell-inspired Christmas card for 2021.  Helen and Spooty (mare and colt) were Belgian Draft Horses.  They were owned around 1990 by dear friends we know. 

FEDERAL POINT

 

 

8 3/4 x 6 inches, watercolor, 2021
framed original painting $295
giclee print ($40)

A view of the Cape Fear River, south of Fort Fisher, 

near the ferry landing at Federal Point.

MILL & DAM (Stevens Mill 2)

 

9 x 9 inches, watercolor 2019 (rev. 2021)

The framed original painting is for sale at the 

Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393
framed original painting $424
giclée print $65

This location below the falls at Stevens Mill is private now, but in 1975, more or less, I had about 5 minutes to sketch this view, which I have finally painted more than 40 years later.

 

The foamy water was painted with pieces of celluloid sponge dipped in liquid latex, removed later to expose the white paper.

S'MORES

 

6 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches, watercolor, 2021

original painting not for sale
giclée print $43

This painting recalls a 1987 car-camping trip in the Great Smoky Mountains, in a tree-scented, birdsong-filled, naturally beautiful setting, surrounded by a scary unknown that begins just over there in the woods.  Making s'mores as the twilight fades.  A good life.  A simpler time.

MORNING FISHING (Stevens Mill 3)

6 1/2 x 9 inches, watercolor 2021

framed original painting $295

giclée print $50

Based on a photo taken from Stevens Mill Bridge, around 1975.   

CAROLYN'S CRANES

 

5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

original painting SOLD

giclée print $54

This painting is called "Carolyn's Cranes" after my cousin Carolyn, who thought the Florida sandhill cranes were "so beautiful", and who asked me to put them into a painting for her, to become a Christmas present to herself.  I am grateful that the painting gave us a chance to become re-acquainted.  We shared many memories and revived some great family stories.  That's how she was, always bringing family together, and keeping memories alive.  May her memory last a long time in our family.  

BIRD DOG CHRISTMAS

 

5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

framed original painting $284

giclee print $42

Our boy Oscar, sitting on a frozen pond, contemplating his next move.  This watercolor was our Christmas card in December, 2020.  Oscar is a German short-haired pointer/ French Brittany spaniel mix.  

THE LITTLE TRACTOR

11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, watercolor, 2020

original painting SOLD

giclee print $75

The "little tractor" was owned by my grandfather, who lived in the red-roofed house.  My family lived farther up the sandy road beyond the cornfield and my cousins lived where the tractor is headed.  We all loved the little tractor, and Granddaddy allowed us to use it for getting up corn, and vegetables, or to help him around his farm. The little tractor had a loveable personality, like an old farm dog.  My cousin Gordy and my sister JoAnn are pictured on the tractor and trailer, and Gordy's muddy-footed dog Ginger is running alongside. Ginger has apparently found a muddy way to cool off. The sandy dirt road is hot in the bright sun, but there is promise of cool refreshment in the load of watermelons.  Granddaddy also had a "big tractor", which was the subject of one of my earlier paintings, posted June 18, 2018 on this blog.

 

CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE

16 1/2 x 9 3/4 x 7/8 inches, 

watercolor, 2018 (rev. 2020)

original painting $350 

giclee print with mat $107 

(Original painting is sealed with Dorland's Wax Medium, 

mounted on archival gesso board with cradled frame).  

The painting is for sale at the 

Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

This is the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, as seen from the river walk near the Cotton Exchange, just before a winter sunrise.

THE APPROACHING STORM

 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, 2020/2021

original painting $197

framed original painting $280

giclée print $42

 

The framed original painting is for sale at the 

Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

Sea waves crash on sunlit boulders,

Nacreous curtains flying high.

Out across the shining ocean,

Clouds are gray, a storm is nigh.

Young gulls love the wind and water,

Playing in the surf and sun, but

Mother Gull cries "Fun is over!

Lets fly home, a storm has come".

by Tom Britt

BEACH COMBER (Pas de Deux)

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, watercolor

original painting SOLD
giclée print $42

Twilight shadows, gulls on sand,

Tiny dancing feet,

Evoking dancers hand in hand,

Smiles from folks they meet.

by Tom Britt

MEETING ON MARKET

16 x 13 inches, watercolor, 2020

original painting SOLD
full size giclée print $110
3/4 size print (9 3/4 x 12 inches) $80

This picture is an Azalea Festival fantasy that features some Wilmington icons.  The beautiful horse is a rescued Percheron draft horse owned by Horse Drawn Tours of Historic Wilmington, NC, and the building in the background is Kilwin's Ice Cream, at 16 Market Street.  

Reference photo credits:

--Children eating ice cream - ID 59148422 © Voyagerix | Dreamstime.com

--Azalea Belle - https://www.drugstoredivas.net/north-carolina-azalea-festival/ courtesy of DrugstoreDivas.net

SMOKEY AND SAMSON

8 x 10 inches, watercolor, 2019

original painting SOLD

giclée print $65

This was commissioned as a Christmas present.  The client seemed pleased, but Smokey and Samson were not impressed.  

ALL MIGHT THE HAMSTER

6 x 6 inches, watercolor 2019

original painting SOLD

giclée print $45

A pet, named for a comic book hero.

WIND, WAVE, WOOD, and CLOTH

6 3/4 x 9 inches, watercolor, 2019

framed original painting $383 
giclée print $50

The boat is a gaff-rigged six-meter canoe yawl, named "Eun Na Mara" (Scottish Gaelic for "Bird of the Sea"), and designed by Iain Oughtred.  I started building her in the '80s - I still have the molds and the lessons she taught me, and the friends I made.  This version was made in Australia (looks kind of like me at the helm).

STAIR TO WATER (Stevens Mill 1)

9 x 12 inches, watercolor, 2019

original painting SOLD

giclée print $90

This is the first of a planned series of four or five paintings called "Steven's Mill", which was an actual mill in Wayne County.  The series will be based on photographs and a sketch that I made around 1975.

LOYALTY

10 x 12.25 inches, watercolor, 2019

Merit Award, 2019 Wilmington Art Association Juried Spring Show

Merit Award, 2019 Associated Artists of Southport Juried Summer Show

original painting SOLD

giclée print $80

This is one of our dogs, and his name is Felix.  He and his brother are German short-hair pointer / French Brittany spaniel mix.  

NATURAL HISTORY

20 x 6 3/4 inches, watercolor, 2018

The framed original painting is for sale at the 

Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

framed original painting $589
giclée print $85

This composition is based on the "Terror of the South" exhibit in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science.  For more about the exhibit, go to https://naturalsciences.org/exhibits/tours/extinct-tour.  The dinosaur skeleton is an Acrocanthosaurus, and the flying reptile is an unidentified pterosaur.

KING OF KURE BEACH

14 x 20 inches, watercolor, 2018

original painting - SOLD
limited edition giclée print $125

In 2018, this brown pelican was a regular attraction at the Kure Beach Fishing Pier.  He liked to sit on the small shelter at the end of the pier, waiting for fishy handouts.  

GRANDDADDY'S TRACTOR

11 x 15 inches, watercolor, 2018

original painting - SOLD
limited edition giclée print $100

My grandfather, Cleon Blackmon, bought this Case tractor brand new in 1951, the year I was born.   As a child, I rode on the fender with him for hours at a time, while he worked the fields.

BFF (Bovine Friends Forever)

19 x 26 3/8 inches, watercolor, 2018

original painting SOLD
full size giclée print $170

It was a hot summer day, and the bovine friends were resting in the cool shadow of the big oak.

WARREN FARM IN WINTER

6 7/8 x 16 1/2 inches, watercolor, 2018

original painting - not available
giclée print $75

The Britt Family Reunion is occasionally held at this wonderful old farm.  Thank you, Dale.  

HOUSE WITH DOVES

7 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches, watercolor, 2018

original painting - SOLD
giclée print $50

This composition is based on a pencil sketch that I made during a dove hunt in 1989, but we saw fewer doves on the hunt than are depicted above.  

BEYOND THE DUNES

8 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches, watercolor, 2018

original painting - SOLD
limited edition giclée print $75

This is at Federal Point, south of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.  

FELIX WITH CANDY CANE

5 3/8 x 7 1/2 inches, watercolor, 2017

original painting - not for sale

giclée print $50

This was our 2017 Christmas card.  Felix is a French Brittany Spaniel / German Shorthair Pointer mix.  

BRITT FARM

11 x 16 inches, watercolor, 1989

original - not available

giclée print $100

This is my childhood home near Mount Olive, NC, as it looked in 1977.  It was my earliest serious attempt at a transparent watercolor.  The scene looks different now - the road has been paved, the barn has been replaced, and the neighbors are closer together.