Thursday, August 26, 2021

MILL & DAM (Stevens Mill 2)

9 x 9 inches, watercolor, 2021
framed original painting $424

This location below the falls at Stevens Mill was rarely seen, 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.

Thursday, April 1, 2021

S'MORES

 

 
6 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches, watercolor, 2021
original painting not for sale

This painting recalls a 1987 car-camping trip in the Great Smoky Mountains.  Making s'mores as the twilight fades.

Friday, February 12, 2021

MORNING FISHING (Stevens Mill 3)


6 1/2 x 9 inches, watercolor, 2021
unframed original painting, $200


Based on a photo I took from Stevens Mill Bridge around 1975.

Saturday, January 2, 2021

CAROLYN'S CRANES

 


5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches
original painting SOLD

This painting is called "Carolyn's Cranes" after my cousin Carolyn, who thought the Florida sand hill cranes were "so beautiful", and who asked me to put them into a painting for her as a Christmas present to herself.  We shared many memories and revived some great family stories.  She loved to bring family together, and keep memories alive. 

BIRD DOG CHRISTMAS

 


5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches
original painting not for sale

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.  


Monday, June 29, 2020

THE LITTLE TRACTOR



11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, watercolor, 2020
original painting SOLD

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, but the tractor is headed to my cousins' house.  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 was as memorable as an old family dog.  My cousin Gordy is driving the tractor, and my sister JoAnn is riding the trailer.  The sandy dirt road is hot in the summer sun, but there is promise of cool refreshment in the load of watermelons.  Gordy's muddy-footed dog Ginger has apparently found a wet, muddy way to cool off.
 
 Granddaddy also had a "big tractor", which was the subject of one of my earlier paintings, posted June 18, 2018 on this blog.

 

Friday, March 6, 2020

CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE


16 1/2 x 9 3/4 x 7/8 inches, 
watercolor, 2018 (rev. 2020)
original painting SOLD 

Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington, NC  
As seen from the river walk near the Cotton Exchange, at winter sunrise


Monday, March 2, 2020

THE APPROACHING STORM


 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, 2020/2021
unframed original painting $190


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


Sunday, February 16, 2020

BEACH COMBER (Pas de Deux)


8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, watercolor
original painting SOLD


Twilight shadows, gulls on sand,
Tiny dancing feet,
Evoking dancers hand in hand,
Smiles from folks they meet.

by Tom Britt


Friday, January 31, 2020

MEETING ON MARKET


16 x 13 inches, watercolor, 2020
original painting SOLD

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

Thursday, December 26, 2019

SMOKEY AND SAMSON


8 x 10 inches, watercolor, 2019
original painting SOLD


Tuesday, August 20, 2019

ALL MIGHT THE HAMSTER


6 x 6 inches, watercolor 2019
original painting SOLD

A pet who was named for a comic book hero.

Sunday, June 30, 2019

WIND, WAVE, WOOD, and CLOTH



   6 3/4 x 9 inches, watercolor, 2019
unframed original painting $200

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.  This version was made in Australia (looks kind of like me at the helm).

Sunday, April 21, 2019

STAIR TO WATER (Stevens Mill 1)


9 x 12 inches, watercolor, 2019
original painting SOLD

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.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

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

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

Sunday, October 14, 2018

NATURAL HISTORY

20 x 6 3/4 inches, watercolor, 2018
framed original painting $589

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.

Saturday, July 7, 2018

KING OF KURE BEACH


14 x 20 inches, watercolor, 2018
original painting - SOLD

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.  

Monday, June 18, 2018

GRANDDADDY'S TRACTOR


11 x 15 inches, watercolor, 2018
original painting - SOLD

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.


Sunday, June 3, 2018

BFF (Bovine Friends Forever)


19 x 26 3/8 inches, watercolor, 2018
original painting SOLD

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

Friday, June 1, 2018

WARREN FARM IN WINTER


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

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

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

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


Thursday, May 31, 2018

FELIX WITH CANDY CANE


5 3/8 x 7 1/2 inches, watercolor, 2017
original painting not for sale

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

Sunday, May 27, 2018

BRITT FARM


11 x 16 inches, watercolor, 1989
original - not available

This is my childhood home near Mount Olive, NC, as it looked in 1977.  It was my earliest serious attempt at a transparent watercolor.