Hi I am Derek McCrea. A new artist represented by Loxly Gallery.
I am a US Army Infantry Combat Soldier with two tours in Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division, and this is my stress relief. I have always loved to paint; it allows me to express emotions on paper and relax. I paint in a whimsical impressionistic style in plein air settings.

In 1985 to 1986 I painted under the instruction of Jimmy Peterson, a well known artist from Georgia. In 1986 I won 1st place in the Georgia Arts Exhibition. I joined the United States Army in 1987 and continued self study and painting on landscape subjects in France, Holland, Germany, Italy and Hungary, painting in the plein air style. I won the artist of the week in August for Art Gallery Online while competing against 11 other artists. I have completed over 20 commissions in the past couple of years. My art was selected for the cover of The Eclipse. The Eclipse is a publication where poets write about the artwork of a selected artist once per
quarter. 6 of my works were selected for this publication.

My works can be found in Fayetteville, NC in PJ’s Fine Art Gallery and the Graphic Design Firm. My works were most recently placed in B’zzzzz Expressions in Douglas, Georgia, in The Market Square Gallery in Varnville, SC, and in “Just What I Like” in Lawrenceville, GA. My works were featured in LIA Life is Art Magazine in Aug 02. My last exhibition was in October 2002 at the Chateau Elan Vineyard in North Georgia. Publications that have featured my works most recently are Lighthouse Magazine (June 04), Skyline Magazine (May 04), Shadow Poetry Quill (March 04), and New Works Review (March 08).

I have donated several artworks to non-profit and charitable organizations in the past, the most previous being in February 2007 to Christian Mission Hospital in the ward for HIV children run by Joyce Meyer Ministries in India.

Derek is a member of the following societies:

Watercolour Gazette, Issue 16, Nov/Dec 2007, Magazine Published in Canada
ATC Quarterly, Issue 8, Winter 2007, Art Trading Cards Magazine Published in Canada
Watercolour Gazette, Sept/Oct 2007, Issue 15, Magazine Published in Canada
The Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, October 2007, Volume 3, Issue 2
The Artists Bluebook, 2005, AskART.com Inc. - Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson (Editor, 479 pages)
The Eclipse, Poetry about Art, USA, 2002
LIA, Life is Art Magazine, USA, Aug 02
Lighthouse Magazine, United Kingdom (June 04)
Skyline Magazine (May 04)

Shadow Poetry Quill (March 04)
New Works Review 3 issues (March 04, July 07, and Oct 07)
Ken Again Literary Magazine 4 issues (May 2002, Winter 2003, Fall 2005, and Fall 2007)
Painted Poetry - Poetry about Art (2002)
Voices (Spring 2002)
Perpetual Magazine, Featured Artist, March 2008
Earth Stories, Pachamama Press, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Summer 2004)
Contributing author, TOC in Combat, Infantry Magazine, 2003
Contributing author, Prepare a Mechanized Infantry Task Force for Combat, Infantry Magazine, 2004
Decorating a Room Around a Piece of Art - (Article) by Rhonda Morin, The Decorating Bible

Derek has won the following awards

The Gallery Grand Champion 2007, No. 1 Artist Online
Digital Consciousness Digital Color Artist of the Month OCT 2007

Digital Bits Artist of the Month AUG 07

1st Place GA Arts Exhibition - 1985
Artist of the Week in August 2001 for Art Gallery Online

Derek McCrea
US Army by Profession…
Visual Artist by Choice.

This closeup portrait of a cygnet swan from my collection of swan images includes some subtle brown tones.

This unusual composition will convey a sense of calm in any location, and its gentle colouring should blend well with many themes of decor.

To purchase this image of a cygnet swan click here.

My photographic interests are wide and varied, I will in fact take pictures of almost anything if I have a camera to hand. Most of my photography is of the landscape variety and often includes images of ancient stone circles, historic cathedrals or churches or just an image that has caught my eye whilst out walking throughout the UK. Being located in central England it allows me to visit locations as diverse as the rugged coastline of Cornwall, the valleys and ancient rock formations of the Peak district in Derbyshire or to the often bleak landscape of the North Yorkshire moors. In addition to these more accessible locations I also like to explore Wales and Scotland when time and the weather permits.

Recently I have began to broaden my photographic interests and have taken on the challenge of motor sports and aircraft photography and hope, in time, to display some of these images in addition to my more usual material. During inclement weather, if I am not able to capture the drama that nature provides us with I can often be found to be concentrating my efforts on making close-up or macro images of plants and flowers.

When visiting Loxly Galleries please drop in and check out for updates and new images on my page.

The images when viewed on screen at the Loxly Gallery do not always show the desired effect at the available viewable resolution. In order to give a clearer picture, I am including samples from four of my images here to display the effect at a close up resolution of 100%.

The digital painting effects are obtained using a mixture several software packages and various image manipulation techniques together with tools such as a graphics tablets and scanners. All finished images are developed from original photographs taken by myself.

The butterfly flew to Deborah on a recent visit to the Bronx Zoo, which has a lovely Butterfly Conservatory, photos and art from which will be gracing the Gallery shortly.

So watch for the butterfly and even request where you would like to see her.  And she doesn’t have a name, so feel free to post comments with suggestions for her name

I’ve lived in quite a few places but mostly in San Diego county. Started out in Ocean Beach, moved to Idylwild and then down the mountain to Hemet… went from there to Oak Park, to La Mesa and up to Vista… I’ve lived in North Park and a short while in National City… I also went to Florida for a short period of time (if you can consider Pensacola part of FL. hehe) and now I’m living in Oceanside

I dabble in websites, affiliate sales and online shops but my “real job” is building display ads for The Village News (Fallbrook/Bonsall) and Valley News (Temecula/Murrieta valley).
I take pictures of things (current camera is a Canon PowerShot A640), paint sometimes and doodle a bit also but I don’t really call myself an artist. I’m a defective dabbler, thats just something I made up right now, I’m a defective dabbler because I do make sales of my “art”. hehe

I have turtles, fish, a Leopard Gecko, a dart frog and freshwater aquarium shrimp! I’ve had many reptile pets in the past few years and I really prefer them, fish and aquatic things like fiddler crabs.

Also, I’m a total music addict

Nice to meet’cha!

To give you an idea, here are just a few of my pieces:

You can click any of the above images to visit that print’s page. You can also click here to view my entire selection of art at Loxly Gallery. And I look forward to sharing much more of my art in the future too!

Digital painting effect of a mute swan. Pictured in profile with water droplets on head and neck.
This particular image is from a photograph which was taken at a local wildlife reserve. The swan has just emerged from dipping its head under the water whist searching for food and the droplets of moisture are reflecting in the light. I quite like the way that water is dripping from the end of the swans bill.

An enlarged portion of the image is below to demonstrate the digital painting effect.

Click here to view size and price options.

As always, please leave a comment if you enjoyed this image.
Thanks for looking.