Boreas Sanctus
January 18th & 19th, 2014
No painting!
Saturday there was too much snow falling to paint, and Sunday I had to run all the errands I couldn’t get to because I was shut in on Saturday. Hope to paint early this week. (Photo is from a lovely dog walk on Saturday.)
January 13th, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt
Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
(sold)
It was a bright, mild day (though not as mild as I had dressed for – just because it’s above freezing does not necessarily mean you can go without a jacket.) David had been to the Sargent exhibit at the MFA, and noted that only rarely did Sargent paint sky. I was thinking of all the paintings of his I’ve seen, where you know what kind of day it was by the reflections of the sky you see on the leaves, buildings and clothing of people in the painting. The snow is kind of a “painting without sky for dummies” tool – because wherever the yellow light of the sun is cut off by a lump of snow, there lies a nearly perfect reflection of the sky color directly above it. You can achieve balance by including the reflections throughout the piece, which do in fact occur, if less perfectly, in shadows on stone and branches.
I decided not to change much from what I had in the first picture. Was painted with a lot of gusto – decided to keep the energetic feel of it rather than strain to make every detail perfect.
Final
January 11th, 2014
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt
Essex, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
It was a mild but wet day, so much “heavy mist” (or “rain” as most people refer to it) that my paint, liberally imbued with “mist” (i.e., water) would not stick to the board, because the board too was wet and oil and water make a career out of not mixing.
Plus when I got there, the overall impression the fields and marsh gave me was “ick.” All but the filthiest layer of snow had melted, all there was to see was dirty wet snow, dead grass and melting ice.
However, once I started trying to paint it, I started to see so much beauty in all of it – no doubt thanks to the stark contrast between it and the sludgefest that was puking it’s way into being on my canvas. This was clearly going to be one of those paintings where I just have to slog and slog through ugly, trusting in the unlikely possibility that in due course I would come out on the other side (beauty.) I stopped here, due to being cold and wet, when the colors were matched but no details (grasses, birdhouse) or highlights had been laid in. I’ll try to finish it off, one way or another, this afternoon.
p.s: If you look closely, you’ll see my easel is actively, literally falling apart! My teacher has had the same easel for 30 years, I’m lucky if mine last a year. I have a replacement that will hopefully work, I just have to build a shelf into it for my palette before I can use it.
December 21, 2013
Stage Fort Park, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas covered canvasboard, 18 x 24 in
(sold)
Although it was not ideal weather as far as my winter instincts are concerned, it was a great day to be out painting. The overcast sky was pretty ideal, considering it was the shortest day of the year. If it had been sunny the light would have been far too fleeting to paint, but as it was, I had a five hour window to work within. When I arrived the sky was orange like that, though it was gone within an hour. The snow was scarce but I caught what I could and enjoyed a peaceful day of painting.
December 17th, 2013
Backyard, Massachusetts
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
Well there has been so much snow, I really couldn’t stand not painting it. Today there’s a snow storm, which was just beginning as I went out with my palette, canvas and knife to capture the world around me. Well not capture, really; I take no prisoners. ‘Commune with’ is a better way of putting it. The photo above is the painting when I had run out of white and had to stop. All those really artistic and beautifully placed snowflakes are, of course, snowflakes, not paint. There is a finished version that someone is making me feel insecure about so it may or may not really be done – but the exercise, of painting out in the snow and the 14 degree weather, was delightful. I love winter!
November 30th, 2013
Half Moon Beach, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
As usual the day after a painting day, this is a lousy photo taken in low light. Saturday was a cold day, and my perch on top a big granite boulder in the ocean wind did nothing to remedy the fact. I painted until my hands were so cold I could no longer hold my knife. The view that had taken me when I arrived was of the dark shore & boulder offset by a few brilliant twinkles of sunlight on the water, but as the day wore on the sun went in and the colors came out. I decided to try and key it back to when the sun was out and the land was in shadow, but there are a few things I still need to fix. The next two weeks I may not post (though I hope I do) as I’ll be manning my “open studio” all weekend long, Dec 7-8 and Dec 14-15.
This is November 23rd as it stands on the afternoon of the 24th. The difference in tone (between how it looks above and how it looks below) is only due to a lack of sunlight/presence of electric light in the room the photo was taken.
November 23rd, 2013
Stage Fort Park, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
I am still transfixed by the beauty of light shining through dead and dying leaves; they look like jewels to me, much more captivating even than flowers at their peak. I’m still trying to achieve the effect that besots me. In this photo, the canvas is blocking the rocks that explain the blue/greens in the painting. I’m heading out shortly to finish this, I hope it gets better not worse.
November 16th (and counting)
Half Moon Beach, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
Not done yet. On Saturday, I was moving with all the elan and brio of a comatose slug swimming upstream through a sea of frozen molasses. I got to Gloucester late, and once I had set up I realized I had forgotten paper towel – without which I really can’t paint. So rather than return all the way to the car, which seemed like oceans, decades, lightyears away I found a pencil and decided I would just draw. Luckily David Curtis showed up with his generous good nature and brought me some. It was beautiful there as it always is and the colors are always the best part. I focused on the foreground and water while I was there, and mixed the colors for but did not complete the opposite shore and sky. I filled in what I could in the studio the next day.
November 9th, 2013
Stage Fort Park, Gloucester, MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
I keep being dazzled by how the sun shines through the fall leaves making them glow like precious gem stones with an inherent light source. I keep attempting to paint what I see, and I keep not quite getting it. I don’t know if I’ll change this one much or not. I think it’s fairly attractive, as it is, though just doesn’t come close to what I was seeing.
November 6th & 7th, 2013
Between two fronts
Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36 in
Technically, this is not a plein air, as I painted it indoors with reference to a photo, and memory of the day this summer it was taken – on Lake of the Woods. The foreground is volcanic rock. So as not to have my images stolen / used without permission, I keep the files I post small. This is one I wish I could post large enough that you could see the detail of the color and texture. This photo is taken in daylight, and is completely un-doctored.