This painting was recently accepted into the Oil Painter’s of America 2009 Eastern Regional Juried Exhibition. It will be available through Corse Gallery in Jacksonville, FL from November 20th through December 23rd. If you live the Jacksonville area, be sure to check out this show – there’s a lot of great artists represented including my good friend Kevin Beilfuss and nashville area plein-air-extraordinaire Kevin Menck.

Ryan Mellody in Southwest Art

Hey everyone. Just a quick note to tip my hat to one of my best friends and fellow artist, Ryan Mellody. His work has recently been selected to appear in the September issue of Southwest Art magazine’s “21 under 31″, on newsstands now. It is an annual feature that, as the name describes, showcases art from the top 21 artists under the age of 31. His portion of the article nicely displays a recent work Katie, seen here. He’s a phenomenal painter, yet he gets better with each new work. Check out his sites.

Ryan Mellody – official website

Ryan Mellody – blog.

In other news, I’m working on a new painting in preparation for the Oil Painter’s of America 2009 Eastern Regional Juried Exhibition. I’ve recently become a member of the OPA and am looking forward to entering the contest. Wish me well. Enough writing. I must paint…

…it’s because I am. My wife and I have moved from our humble appartment, which we will always have a warm fuzzy place for in our hearts…deep, deep in the under-the-fingernail-like crevices of our hearts. Seriously, though, we are extremely grateful and blessed to have had such a nice apartment and ministry there. But we’re also grateful for the blessing of our new home in Gallatin, Tennessee.

These blessings are not worthy to be compared to the greatest blessing we’ve ever experienced save the grace of Jesus Christ – our new baby girl! On July 13th, we welcomed Addison Jane Parsons into this world, and that, I am quite sure, makes us happier than we can say. God is good.

Sorry it’s been a while… Announcing the 2009 Dove Award nominees from the packaging that I was able to judge a while back. *Leave a comment below to cast your vote*

RECORDED MUSIC PACKAGING

Hawk Nelson – Hawk Nelson…Is My Friend
Invisible Creature; Don Clark; Don Clark; Jeremy Cowart, Neil Visel; BEC Recordings

David Crowder*Band – Remedy Club Tour Edition
Shelley Giglio, David Crowder; Gary Dorsey; Brody Harper; Sparrow Records, sixsteps records

Third Day – Revelation
Tim Parker, Beka Blackburn; Tim Parker; David Mcalister, RW Sims; Essential Records

Demon Hunter – Storm the Gates of Hell Deluxe Edition
Invisible Creature; Ryan Clark; Shane McCauley, David Stuart, Greg Lutze, Ethan Luck; Solid State Records

Trenches – The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole
Invisible Creature; Ryan Clark; Solid State Records

Dove Award in the Recorded Music Packaging category given to the art director, graphic artist, illustrator and photographer.

And that’s this year’s nominees. After we judge the packaging, there’s a process that I don’t quite understand by which the nominees are chosen. All I know is that I’m not sure that the nominees necessarily reflect the judges opinions. at least mine. I’ll just leave it at that. But what say you? Leave a comment with your vote before April 18th and if your answer is right, you could win the grand prize of fame and fortune!!! (or just bragging rights).

Earlier this week a friend and I were privileged to be invited downtown to the Gospel Music Association to help judge music packaging for the upcoming Dove Awards. There actually is a Dove Award for best music packaging. We were to judge them based on artistic merit and marketability to their respective genre. There were about 150 to 175 albums representing a variety of styles (both musical and artistic). It was a lot of fun and slightly surreal to be judging the packaging of so many artists (again, both musical and artistic) that I’ve personally come to enjoy so much. The nice part of the gig was afterwards rummaging through boxes and boxes of free CDs. Came away with some good tunes that day. Thanks for the invite, Jeff.

Won’t know who the winner is until the Dove Awards happen. I’ll let you know, though.