Chasing Bernard Mattox. (Or How I Finally Bought a Great Painting!)

When my wife Cindy, our son Ryan and I moved to Covington, La. from Monroe, La. back in 2001, one of the first things I wanted to do was explore the wonderful art scene Covington had to offer. Within a few months, we hit every gallery and shop we could and encountered wonderful pieces of art by Allan Flattman, James Micholopolous, Gretchen Armbruster, Tanya Dischler, Rollen Golden, Linda Dautreuil, Peggy Hesse, and many more talented artists from the area. I made trips to New Orleans to view the numerous galleries there as well and tried to learn more about the art scene in the metro area. There was a lot of great art, a lot of good art, tons of average art and an even larger amount of really bad art. But I soldiered on through all of it in an effort to educate myself.

Then one Saturday morning as I was visiting the Brunner Gallery in Covington, I came across an artist whose work really grabbed me by the throat. The images, the symbolism, the detail and variety of textures in the paint hypnotized me. It was modern, primitive, expressionist, abstract, constructivist and contemporary all at once. The pieces overwhelmed me with their colors and structure, the bits of ceramics attached to some, collage on others and bits of raw canvas or board visible on still others. It was art that spoke to me more than any other art I had ever seen. It fired my senses and  held me captive. I wanted to own a piece, I wanted to live with this amazing artwork. This was a totally new experience for me. Never before had a painting captured my imagination like these.

Who was this artist? Why was I so attracted to what I saw? I had never liked this type of art before. I was usually drawn to impressionism, post-impressionism, realism and figurative paintings. These paintings were nothing like that. Quite frankly, they were like nothing I had seen before. At first I thought they were abstracts, but I quickly realized that wasn't the case. There were figures, crosses, plants, stars, pottery, animals, windows, boats, doors, flowers and many other things scattered throughout that I had not even begun to recognize yet. There was thick paint, thin paint and in spots, no paint, There were scratches in the paint, lightly painted areas and some area's were filled with thick impasto. Some works even had words painted on them. Who was this mad genius painter?

Artist Bernard Mattox

As I began to ask more about the paintings at the gallery, the salesperson began to tell me about Bernard Mattox and his unique style. I was more than impressed. But when she told me the prices of the paintings were $3000 to $3500. I realized, even though I was enthralled with the paintings, I wasn't ready to pay that amount for paintings by an artist I didn't know much about. So I didn't buy. It was a mistake then, but the long chase was on.

I began to look for his work in other places. I would see some from time to time, but the prices had gone even higher. The gallery where I saw Mr. Mattox's work first, moved locations and had a big solo show of his works. I attended the show and it was fantastic. I fell in love with his work all over again. But still I hesitated and didn't buy.

A year or two later, my wife and I saw and liked a painting by well known New Orleans painter James Michalopoulos, As an anniversary gift to each other, we purchased a nice large embelished giclee painting that was one of 25 that James painted in Paris. It's a great piece, we like it a lot, but I still couldn't get the Mattox pieces out of my head.

Flash forward to September 2015. My wife comes in from volunteering at The Samaritan Center in Mandeville, La. and tells me I won't believe who volunteers at the center. Well no, I couldn't guess. "It's your favorite artist, Bernard Mattox!" she tells me. Now that was cool news! Then she tells me he's donating a piece of his art to their big fundraiser, Empty Bowl in November and we should bid on it. So when November rolled around, we stepped up and bid on the huge 4'x4' piece he had donated. The work was valued at over $6000! My budget was still limited, but my hope was I could snatch it at this fundraising event for bargain. But alas, I was out of luck. There was a bidder there that already owned two of Bernard's pieces and wanted this one to add to his collection. It was just the two of us at the end, and he countered each bid I made and finally ran me out. That bidder got a great piece for a steal! I was disappointed to say the least.

I had another chance in March of 2016 when two of Bernard's pieces came up for auction in New Orleans at New Orleans Auction Galleries. I headed down to the city the week of the auction and got a close look at the two pieces. One was 4'x4' and the other a 4'x3'. These were about the same size as the one I had bid on back in November. The palate on both were a bit different and I decided, I'd bid on both with the hope of getting one. Once again though the bids soared past my budgeted price. The phone bidders and internet bidders had me out after just two bids. I was disappointed yet again.

Finally in late May, my wife tells me, just go for it, forget your budget and lets get you a Mattox for Fathers Day. Well, that's why I love her! So, she spoke to Bernard and I got an invite to his studio! I looked and looked, and found two different pieces that I really liked. At this point of course, I created yet another delima for myself. Now how in the hell was I going to pick just one of these amazing works of art? It was a hard decision. It took me five days of living with both paintings, staring at them over and over, contemplating the imagery, the patterns, and the nuances each work presented before I finally picked one. I couldn't go wrong either way. So I'm happy with my new acquisition. I stare at it each day and see something new. It makes me smile. It's part of my family now. The chase was a long one, but in the end I think I ended up with the piece that was meant for me. Plus I now have a personal friendship with the artist! It truely was worth the wait!

Archeology of Solitude. My Mattox painting!

If you'd like to see this artists amazing work in person, you can check it out at Hooks-Epstein Gallery in Houston, TX, and  Carol Robinson Gallery in New Orleans. I promise you, you will enjoy viewing these works. Personally, I think they're works of genius. I hope you will get to make your own decision. Now I just need to build up my "art account" and start chasing down another great painting.

Click here to learn more about Bernard Mattox

Guys trip to Destin was a blast!

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to write again, I guess it's been kind of par for the course with me and this blogging thing. But I took a new job about a year ago, I've been working on a feature length screenplay and numerous other little things that seem to keep me away from here.

But back at the end of October, myself and my good friends Kevin Gunter of Mooresville, NC, Blake Smith of Oxford, MS, Tom Carey of Lafayette, La and Robert McDavitt of The Woodlands, TX took our annual guys trip together.

We started these annual trips way back in 1990! The first couple of trips we took were to major league baseball games. We traveled to Chicago to watch the Cubs and the White Sox. The next year we drove to Dallas to see the Rangers play. The following year we decided to do a golf trip and we played rounds in Hattiesburg, MS, Mobile, Al and our hometown of McComb, MS. That lasted just a year for reason's I won't get into here.

We skipped a few years here and there, but then, for the last sixteen years, we all met in New Orleans to attend a NFL game to watch our beloved Saints team and enjoy the city and its decadence. We would meet, drink and eat all weekend until we all had to depart back to our normal lives.

This past year, we decided to do something a bit different. Kevin suggested we play golf again, this time in the beautiful Florida gulfcoast resort town of Destin. We all love Destin, so it was a no brainer. We rented an amazing four bedroom condo in Baytowne Wharf for the long weekend. It was the perfect abode for our crew. Check it out here: Baytowne Wharf

Then we decided to make it even more fun by including wine! Kevin, Tom and myself have, over the last ten or twelve years began to really enjoy exploring wines. Kevin and Tom even took a trip to Italy together a few years back and learned quite a bit about the multitude of greats wines produced there.

So our goal was for each of us to bring four to five bottles of wine with a price point of of no more than $25 per bottle. (Our buddy Robert doesn't drink, so he wasn't part of the wine consumption.) All in all we ended up with twenty-three bottles of wine. All reds of course, except for one Chardonnay. We tasted Cabernet's, Zinfandel's, Malbec's, Pinot Noir's, Tempranillo's, Spanish Priorat's, and blends from Bordeaux, Langeudoc, Southern Rhone as well as tasty wines from Italy like Brunello's, Chiantis and blends made mostly of Sangiovese.

12 dead soldiers watch as Tom cooks up his stew

The four of us really enjoyed the wines. We drank every day from Thursday night until Sunday! We managed to consume all but two of the bottles. (The Chardonnay suffered the indignation of becoming a cooking wine.) Had we not spent so  much time on the golf courses, we probably would have been able to finish off those two as well!

One thing we also included with our trip was listening to music. We all love music, so we shared our iPod collections all weekend. The play list was eclectic to say the least as we blasted out songs by Counting Crows, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, John Mellencamp, The Foo Fighters, Billy Joel, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jimmy Buffet, Queen, REM, Steely Dan and more. Music and wine are a potent mix.

We tried to make a determination on which two or three wines were the best, but we never managed to get that done. In our minds, they were all winners! Well, maybe we were winners for getting to drink all of those wines! We were also treated to a terrific dinner of Italian stew whipped up by Tom one evening and I grilled up my killer hamburgers another night.

Tom, Blake and Kevin

I'm voting for a return trip to Destin in 2016. Great friends, great wine, terrific music and some below average golf made for a memorable trip! My only request is next year we skip the T-shirts. Thanks guys!

Holiday time already?

I can't believe its November already and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. The holiday season never fails to catch me unprepared! Well, this year I'm determined to get ahead of the game.
The last part of the year is always a busy one for me and my family. My dad starts off the birthday festivities in the first week of September, the wife's birthday is at the very end of September, then Thanksgiving, followed quickly by my birthday, Hayes's birthday, Christmas and my sister's birthday. So as you can see, it gets pretty crazy from the end of November through New Years. I usually find myself rushing around the stores trying to find a few extra gifts before Christmas eve. I'm a terrible shopper, but I love giving gifts! Some of the pressure around Christmas has been reduced in the last few years, because my parents and sister decided to limit the expenses on gifts for each adult at $50. (I hate that) So it's virtually become a evening of trading $50 gift cards. Thankfully, I still get to enjoy buying gifts for my kids and wife.
This year I will expand my online purchases, but I'll continue to shop at brick and mortar stores as well. I'm looking to shop for more artist and craftsman created gifts this year. I'm thinking paintings, jewelry, pottery and such for gifts rather than stupid gift cards. I'm not sure how well this will go over, but that's what I'm going to do. Plus, nobody has to know if I go over my $50 limit right? I'm already planning on attending two art fairs in my area and I'm on the lookout for interesting one of a kind items. I'm even hoping to create a few paintings of my own to give, but I'm not sure I'll have the time for that.

For those of you looking for hand crafted items, I've listed some of my favorite artist's below:

If you're looking for wonderful glass beads for gifts, check out my good friend Holly Dare's website here: http://hollysfolly.com/

Wonderfully creative art from Mississippi artist Saul Maurer http://www.saulmaurer.com/Home_Page.html

If you like wild and interesting and affordable Outsider art, look no further than Ken Law http://www.kenlawartist.com/

Amazing paintings from New Orleans/Mississippi artist Billy Solitario http://billysolitario.com/

Historic New Orleans paintings from George Schmidt http://georgeschmidt.com/

Cool old fashion hand painted wooden signs for your bar, bathroom or kitchen and everywhere else in between! http://www.etsy.com/shop/signsnstripes

The famous Shearwater Pottery of Ocean Springs, MS http://www.shearwaterpottery.com/default.html

I travel all over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and feel certain I'll be able to find something interesting for each of the recipients on my Christmas list. I'll share some of the best items I find in one of my next few posts. In the meantime, check out the links above and see if you can find some art for your gift giving!

A Little Time to Paint

Well, I haven't been here in a long while, but I thought I'd stop in and drop a few words on the page. As per usual, real life seems to keep me from doing things I really enjoy, like writing screenplays and short stories, riding my motorcycle and playing golf. But strangely enough, over the last couple of months I was able to get in some painting classes with Covington, La. based artist, Gretchen Armbruster. What a blast! 

During my first classes in January, I was able to create a nice colorful marsh landscape. It's based on a painting I saw in a magazine. At 16 x 20, it's much smaller in scale than the original. I thought it turned out fairly good for my first ever oil painting. Actually, this is my first ever painting of any kind! I've drawn all my life and have some decent ability, but mixing colors has always scared the hell out of me, so I avoided it. Gretchen did a wonderful job settling my nerves and keeping my confidence level up. I'm not a big fan or orange, but it sure seemed at times this painting was all orange all the time. 

My experience with Gretchen was so enjoyable, I signed up for a second class in May. I chose to copy a lovely piece by local New Orleans artist Billy Solitario called Rain Over Horn Island. At first glance this seemed like a straight forward cloud painting. I figured I would throw a bunch of blues and whites on the canvas and it would be a rather quick painting. Wrong! This painting was filled with color, movement and a mix of soft and hard edges that made for a difficult piece. (for me, not Mr. Solitario!) I struggled to capture the depth of the massive cloud. Again, I was working on a 16 x 20 canvas and a smaller scale than the original which is 36 x 36 and that may have had something to do with it....no, talent or lack of talent was the real issue, but I pushed through and finished the painting. I was pleased, but see areas I know I could improve upon. I liked it so much I decided to give it to my mother for a late Mothers Day gift.

Now that I have a couple of paintings under my belt, my plan is to paint more. I really like oil's so I think I will concentrate my efforts on learning the medium as best I can. Landscapes interest me, and I'll continue to explore those for awhile. Hopefully real life will give me some time to work on this fun hobby.

To see Gretchen's wonderful artwork and learn how to take classes from her, visit her web site here: http://www.armbrusterartworks.com/index.html

To check out the amazing artwork of Billy Solitario visit his website http://billysolitario.com/ to be inspired!

Ken Law, an artist to watch!

I'm going to take the time today to introduce you to artist Ken Law, who I think is currently producing some very interesting works of art. 


Ken is an American living and working in Taiwan. Mr. Law considers himself an "Outsider" artist. The term Outsider artist basically means someone who has not had serious formal training in the art of painting, or it can refer to art that is outside of the mainstream styles of art.

I found Ken totally by accident as I was cruising through e-bay looking for some original art to buy. Now, my tastes generally lean more towards impressionism and realism, but for some reason Ken's work struck a note with me. There was something about his color palate and strange subjects that drew me in. I looked over his work a few times and after a couple of days I decided on a piece I wanted to buy. But, as luck would have it, by the time I returned to buy the painting, it was gone! (smart buyers out there) But I knew I wanted a piece of his work, so I kept looking and bought a work called "Back to School". I love the colors and textures of the piece. The painting almost glows. 


Ken paints with mixed mediums such as acrylics, watercolors/pencils, charcoal, oil pastels, dermatograph pencils and gelly rolls. He has done his works on paper, canvas and wood. He has recently began to branch out in his style and is adding some excellent abstract work to his portfolio. 


So if any of you that stumble across this blog, and are looking for some interesting modern art to add to your collection, or give as a gift, please go take a look at Ken's work on Facebook Ken Law and then go check out his Etsy Store here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/kenlawartist

.....just don't go buying up the pieces I want!