Final as of March 24th, 2014

March 22nd, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in

SUNDAY: The frustration of yesterday has been fruitful and multiplied. I’m posting a detail of a section that I like, though it may no longer look like that. One fusses. Again, I went to work on it outside in the sun, and within half an hour it was overcast again, and everything looks so dank and dingy in the dregs of smothered out sunlight we’re left when clouds decide to assert themselves. I’m in A Mood.

SATURDAY: I posted these two photos (below) from different stages of my painting to illustrate how drastically the color of everything can change when the light changes. In the second (above) photo, I highlighted the area I was focused on to paint. I began by laying in all the dingy undertones and was looking forward to laying in* the warmth and light – but the sky clouded over, a wind came up, and the rain came. I was really miffed when that stupid rain came and stayed. I really felt like this was going to come alive. I’ll try to finish it tomorrow, but I fear it won’t be the same. The more finished painting above is still only about 1/3 done in my eyes.
( *I mean “laying in” like “slapping on” – though I would probably have been amenable to if not an actual nap at least a good read on a dock in the sun if I had the choice which I did not.)

March 8th, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
(sold)

Not only was it a balmy 50 degrees, but the sun was out, there was almost no wind, and there was still lots of snow. An ideal day to paint. I went to a part of the reservation I’d never before been – the area that abuts PT Farnham’s and rt 133. Initially I had chosen to paint the landmark grey farmhouse, but after filling about 1/4 of my canvas with that, I decided I was painting the wrong thing and instead looked north (?) towards the great marsh. (There are a few things to tweak on this but on the whole it’s done – and if you think I’m exaggerating the color of the shadows on the snow, look in the top right hand corner of the photo at the shadows on the snow in the background. Same color. — March 9, 2014 – tweaked, done.)

January 25th, 2014
Cox Reservation Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in

I’m pretty sure I did roughly this exact same view around this same time last year. The reason is not that I am captivated by the scene particularly, so much as that there is a nice wooden bench there, out of the wind. Sitting on a wooden bench is much warmer than standing on ice or a freezing rock for hours at a time. It was cold and there were a lot of branches and there was a lot of wind. If the term “tone poem” weren’t so repugnant, I might suggest this is more in the nature of one of those than an attempt to get all the linear details exactly right. I riffed on the colors and lines, and while I could still walk I called it a day. I’ve changed a little bit since (this photo was taken before last revision) but on the whole, this is what it is.

January 20th, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)

I was fortunate to be able to join up with ‘The Posse’ and paint today. The earlier part of the day (when I did the ice) the sun was much brighter so there was a lot more contrast. As you can see, the atmosphere moved in and make my foreground seem darker than the foreground it’s supposed to resemble. I stopped simply because I was too damn cold. I was standing for a few hours on ice, in a stiff cold wind. I’ll examine my results tomorrow and either fix it or take a proper picture of it and move on. (NB- Jan 21 – have taken a better picture, though still consider it unfinished.)