HELEN & SPOOTY (CHRISTMAS)

 

 

 

10 3/4 x 13 inches, Watercolor, 2021

framed original painting $438

giclee print (tbd)

This was our Christmas card for 2021.  The big Horse "Helen" and her colt "Spooty" were owned by one of my friends, maybe 30 years ago.  I think they are properly called Belgian Draft Horses. 

FEDERAL POINT

 8 x 5 1/2 inches, watercolor, 2021

framed original painting $295

giclee print (contact artist)

STEVENS MILL 2: MILL & DAM

 

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

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.  The good life.  A simpler time.

STEVENS MILL 3: MORNING FISHING

6 1/2 x 9 inches, watercolor 2021

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

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

framed original painting $295

giclée print $50

I started this painting in 2019, but I recently made some major changes:  I cropped the edges to improve the composition, darkened the values, and added texture to the trees with a palette knife.   

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 passed away peacefully on December 6, 2020.  Carolyn thought the Florida cranes were "so beautiful", and she was proud of how common they are in her Florida neighborhood, so she asked me to put them into a painting for her, to become a Christmas present to herself.  I wish she could have seen the final painting (she saw it about half complete) but 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

The framed original painting is for sale at the Art Market in the Wayne County Arts Council Gallery, Goldsboro, NC   Phone:  919-736-3300

original painting $210

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 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 ready to hang

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

mounted on archival gesso board with cradled frame).

full size giclée print $75

This the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, from near the Cotton Exchange, just before a winter sunrise.

THE APPROACHING STORM

 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, 2020/2021

The framed original painting is for sale at the Art Market in the Wayne County Arts Council Gallery, Goldsboro, NC   Phone:  919-736-3300

original painting $197

framed original painting $280

giclée print $42

Sea waves crash on sunlit boulders,

Nacreous curtains flying high.

Out across the shining ocean,

Clouds are gray, a storm is nigh.

We love the ocean wind and water,

Playing in the surf and sun.

But the laughing gull cries "Fun is over!

Let's 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 1/4 x 13 inches, watercolor, 2020

original painting SOLD
full size giclée print $110
3/4 size print (9 5/8 x 12 inches) $81

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

The framed original painting is for sale at the Art Market in the Wayne County Arts Council Gallery, Goldsboro, NC   Phone:  919-736-3300

original painting $200

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

12 1/2 x 20 inches, watercolor, 2018
original painting - SOLD
limited edition giclée print $116

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.