"McRay Kids visit North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores"

This is how you mix business and pleasure. When I wasn't dressed up and hobnobbing with the hobnobbers as the Beaufort Historical Association Fall Fundraiser's featured artist, I carried my little darlings, Erica and Ethan, to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

Genesis 1:21 states, "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good."

Sharing this experience with my children was wondrous! I know those of you who have children understand the magic in their little eyes and the warmth in your heart when sharing these precious moments. They are truly priceless.

Enjoy, Eric McRay

"Beaufort, Baby!"

In October I was the guest and featured artist of the Fall Fundraising Party of the Beaufort Historical Association. The first gathering was a Thursday evening, private opening at the Mattie King Davis Art Gallery on the historic site.

The second event was Saturday night at the home of Doug and Carolyn Brady on Front Street in Beaufort. At both gatherings, sponsors of this year's event viewed and purchased several of my paintings. According to Patricia Suggs and Ann Sloan, the event was a success! I was honored to participate in such a classy and grandiose event.

Yet when I wasn't dressed up and hobnobbing with the hobnobbers, I was dressed down and having fun with my little darlings, Erica and Ethan. From our accommodations, graciously provided by the BHA, we could look out onto the Beaufort waterfront. The view was magnificent!

The true magic moment was when we shared the joy of viewing dolphins porpoising through the water outside our balcony window. It's times like these that I feel like a successful gentleman artist in a pair of sunglasses and the proud father of precious children.

I love my job, Eric McRay

"Adventures & Misadventures"

Well, I'm back in the studio with a little time to address my blog again. It's been a while since I've had the time to put my adventures and misadventures into words and pictures.

I've felt like Jules Verne's ambitious character Phileas Fogg from "Around the World in Eighty Days." I haven't been around the world, but it sure felt like it. At times, it felt like I've been to Hell and back.

Since mid October, I've attended the Beaufort Historical Association Fall Fundraiser parties as the featured artist... Then off to exhibit at the Philadelphia International Art Expo, as a guest of the October Gallery. Unfortunately, making stops in Washington, DC to visit a deathly ill sister and cancer surviving Grandmother... Then returning to NC to participate in the Artspace Collector's Gala and my first solo museum exhibition at the North Carolina Central University Art Museum.

This concludes with the horrific call that my dear sister and only sister, Shirley Gladney, passed away on Friday, November 14th, which was also my birthday. Less than five years ago, I lost my only brother, Arthur Jackson, to a carjacker's bullet.

It is often said, "Life is not fair." True, it's not and never will be. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, "for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." I ask those that know the words of prayer, remember my family and my mother, Marjorie McRay. She is a just woman.