Boreas Sanctus
May 6th, 2014
Wingaersheek Beach, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)
This Saturday was an Open Studio so I had to miss my day of painting, fortunately the “posse” were meeting today so I joined them. The days that one can park at an empty beach with impunity are numbered, and I did my best to make good use of the day. I plan to post a mini slideshow of this day’s work, but not today.
April 28th, 2014
Wingaersheek Beach, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)
When I went to the beach to paint with the posse the plan was to paint the dunes – but as it happens, if I am anywhere near water, I have to be looking at the water. Painting dunes won’t do. Plus, there were two huge Grand Pyrenees and five Huskies and several other dogs – and they were hanging out at the beach. I always want to be where the dogs are. So I painted this – when I arrived the sun was out and the sky was mostly blue – but over the course of the three hours I was there, the clouds came and covered up the blue. When it’s sunny on Cape Ann there’s this rosy light – which is why my sand is pinker than the sand in the photo. Photo sand was after the sun went in. A few things I’ll tweak but on the whole, a much better day than yesterday and I’ll take it.
April 27th, 2014
Haggett’s Pond, Andover MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
I can go about my business thinking all is fine, until I go painting and find myself choosing a subject of such dense, convoluted complexity as this. The weekend at Essex was rained out, so I decided to try a lake I love to visit. I found a nice spot with a great view of the lake, but found my mind arrested by this pond / swamp beside it instead. From the very beginning it was a disaster, but I pushed through for six hours because sometimes you just have to be brave and push through all the ugly to something truly beautiful. I didn’t get there on Sunday by a longshot, but the next few days of rain will be spent trying to make good of this unweeded garden of my mind and painting alike.
Emily
April 20th, 2014
Pencil, 8 x 10 in approx.
My niece is a remarkable artist, and one morning while we were both visiting her grandparents for Easter we decided to draw each other’s portraits. She was working very hard, hence the serious expression and downcast eyes. When not looking so studious, she’s bright eyed and full of spunk.
April 18th, 2014
Class Demo on Sarah’s Birthday
Wilmington
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
I have been teaching an oil painting class in Wilmington Friday mornings and this morning I brought in flowers for my students to paint in still lives. One of them asked if I would be doing a demonstration at some point in the course, and I decided there’s no time like the present – so I got my canvas, easel and paints and got to work. I have never painted for an audience and did not think I would do too well, since I’m such an introvert. Luckily they put up with my “show, don’t tell” philosophy and this was the result. Oh – Sarah is my best friend from childhood who I haven’t seen in too long. I’ve been thinking about her all day, enriched by knowing her most all of my life.
April 14th, 2014
Bass Rocks, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 20 x 30 in
(sold)
I got to spend a glorious day yesterday sitting in the sun and wind at Bass Rocks painting and chatting with David Curtis. I had the canvas covered by the end of the day but a few kinks to work out – such as the curvy horizon – and a few details to add (the rocks in the foreground, the crashing spray of a wave, the glint of the sun on the water, and a building or two up on the rock near the horizon on the right.) Because it was such a lovely warm day, I was not prepared for how quickly my paint would dry – which made working on it today (when it was already tacky, and dry in some spots) imperative. Well, today there’s a very strong and gusty wind blowing rain and water all over the place. Since I’ve accepted the fact I just don’t like painting indoors, I went into the back yard into the gazebo that doesn’t (didn’t used to) leak and got to work. So many disasters, canvas blowing over a few times, paint blowing upside down, – one thing after another. I am hoping the rain that’s intermingled with my paint will keep it wet just one more day, so I can fix the water in the foreground, and quiet just a portion of the highlighted wave. And add the stupid buildings.
* April 17th – Have done most of what I can do while it’s still wet. Will take a better picture though.
April 9th, 2014
Ipswich River at Willowdale, Topsfield MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 18 x 24 in approx.
(sold)
It was another beautiful spring day, and I met up with “the posse” to paint on Wednesday. I couldn’t finish, however, as I had to go do some teaching – and the rest of the week was very hectic. I managed to get a few more hours’ work done on Thursday, but the weather’s so mild that even by then certain parts of the painting were already drying. I managed to finish on Friday, mostly, though as usual I see a few things to tweak. You can’t paint over dried paint with a palette knife though you can with a brush. As usual, I was fixated on the water, and how it went from being reflective, to transparent, to (beyond the shelf of shallows) deep, and green.
April 5th, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 9 x 12 in
(sold)
It was a beautiful day but very windy, and I was not in the mood to paint. I only had an enormous canvas and I spent the first hour and a half just ambling around looking for something that would strike a chord and wake me up to painting. The search was confined to a very small area, because it was so windy most of the area was unfit for painting, especially with a canvas as big as mine, and an easel as light. Ultimately, I decided to give up the hunt – when a kind fellow painter offered to lend me a small board to paint on. I’d sooner ruin a small canvas than a large one, so I focused on the only thing that seemed interesting to me – the tiny blue flowers _ Squill or Scilla – that had valiantly shoved themselves up among all the dead leaves and grasses, and strove towards the sky. Small scale is difficult with the knife, it’s a study / sketch – on to the next.
April 2nd, 2014
Willowdale, on Ipswich River, Topsfield
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
It was a glorious day to be out painting – quite mild, the river was swollen and beautiful, and the sky was just overcast enough for the color of everything to come out. I had a lot of trouble photographing this – truly, it looks awful in this photo but not as much in person – lots of glare and texture shadows – and there are a few little changes I’d like to make, but on the whole, a day well spent.
March 29th, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
(Unfinished)
(sold)
It was one of those early spring days the forecaster suggests could get almost as high as 50 degrees, so you don’t bother to bring a jacket, or wear an underlayer, and go out ecstatic to start soaking in the balmy spring. Except you chose a spot to paint that cleverly exposes you to an icy ocean wind from all sides, and though the temperature in sheltered spots gets as high as 42, where you have chosen to stand might just be cresting 34 – and you, clothed in ill-informed enthusiasm and little else to warm you, do your very best to cover all 482 square inches of canvas, but the amount of shivering and dancing you have to do to try and stay just this side of hypothermic eventually render painting impossible, with about 6 square inches to go.