September 12th, 2014
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
(sold)

I had gone to The Old Granite Pier in Rockport last Tuesday to paint, but I was not – it was just not working for me that day. I spent hours and used a lot of paint, and at the end of the day I scraped it all off the canvas in disdain. I do not believe in wasting paint, especially not my favorite new paint – so I decided to look for a photo in my midst that would work tonally with the paint I needed to recycle. I came across one from this past summer of a loon, and worked from it. I will retake this photo in better light.

September 7th, 2014
Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30 in
(sold)

On Thursday, without warning, my Uncle’s and my incredibly fit and healthy dog suddenly died. Apparently there had been a large tumor all around his heart, and it burst – and he passed away. He never had to be sick, never had to be old, lived with all his favorite things (water, balls, and affection) in constant supply. I know he had a wonderfully happy life. I’m so grateful to have gotten to share his life, he is deeply missed. Saturday I had an Open Studio. It was hot, I was sad – I decided I would paint, so I wouldn’t need to think or feel too much. I had a photo from the Island this summer I decided I’d work on, and set to it. I left out the buildings, left out the bridge – just set my sights on the warmth and beauty of the light.

Loon at Sunset
July 19th, 2014
(Painted in MA as a value study using a photo I took at the Lake of the Woods)
Oil on Gessoboard, 8 x 10 in
(sold)

This is my second uncharacteristically small painting. Although I could not get all the details as effectively as I wanted to, I felt pretty good about the effect of light on water at that time of day which was the aim of this value study.

Pocket Sunset
May 13th, 2014
Oil on Canvasboard, 8x 6 in
(sold)

I have never painted anything this small in oils. A company marketing their canvasboard gave me a free one in a paint order, and I was going to give it away when I decided “What the hell” and dove in. Technically, this is not plein air – as I worked from a photo and did so inside, because the hot weekend weather has retreated in embarassment after having gotten too carried away this weekend. I thought I was going to have to paint with a brush, in fact I thought I wanted to – but as usual, the knife just did a better job – or I did a better job with the knife than the brush. There’s glare on the left and I might need to level off the horizon a bit but all in all, a good day’s exercise.

May 8th-12th, 2014
Lake of the Woods, Ontario
24 x 30 in, Oil on Canvas
(sold)

I began this on a Thursday afternoon, getting the sky and treeline in I think – then I was too busy with teaching all day Friday to work. Because it’s been so warm, the paint was drying quickly so I had to bring it with me to Essex and work on it there, or waste the canvas. So I brought it and worked there, but had so many little things go wrong that I was seething mad at everything. When a fellow painter came up to make a kind observation about my work, I growled at him. Literally. This is what comes of spending more time with dogs than people. Anyway – Saturday I labored over the water, got the beach in – I worked all day Sunday and again Monday, several portions I had to scrape off and re paint because they had dried (with the knife, you can’t paint over dry paint – at least, I can’t / won’t.) I worked on it Tuesday too, when finally my shipment of paint arrived and I could scrape off the strange, marshmallow-fluff like new-low-standard white paint from Georgian and replace it with quality. Although I believe this is pleasing to the eye, it is not my favorite. I like my work best when in flows in uninterrupted bursts of energy. This one felt way too labored. Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be there in person, and have a whole new slew of reasons to kvetch about the state of my painting!