Boreas Sanctus
For Sale
December 12th, 2016
(In Studio – from a photo I took of my Uncle’s Pond)
Oil on Panel, 16 x 20 in
I’ve been doing more teaching – which means that while my student paints, I can too. It means I do things I’m not used to doing – such as painting from a picture. I lived with this beautiful water garden in my backyard for more than 15 years, never painted it (from life) once. That was dumb of me. I did take good pictures, however, and this one made a decent painting.
October 4th, 2016
Magnolia, Massachusetts
Oil on Canvasboard, 18 x 24 in
Finally got to go painting today, beautiful weather, a new location, good company. At the edge of the beach were a pile of boats, and I thought to myself “I’m going to try something a little different today, I’m going to paint those boats! But first, the background!” Well, when I started the tide was low. I began, as one does, with the sky, then worked my way down to the land and distant water, taking some time to be attentive to the tree. Well, to make a long story short, the heaps of smelly seaweed and the water inadvertently became my subject, because I have a bit of a water fixation, especially if I haven’t painted in a while. The boats weren’t super interesting anyway. Maybe another time. Despite omitting the intended subject of the painting, I’d say it went pretty well.
July 15th, 2016
The Breezeway, Rocky Neck Gloucester
Oil on Masonite, 12 x 16 in
Great thing about the breezeway is it’s 10 – 15 degrees cooler than any other spot in Gloucester on any given day – but the downside is that there’s really only one view I’m interested in trying to paint – to the end that every time I go I paint the same thing. Tends to turn out pretty well, though- no doubt from all the practice!
July 11th, 2016
St Peter’s Square, Gloucester, MA
Oil on Masonite, 16 x 20 in
When I began this painting it was a heavy grey day and I was focusing on a fishing boat in the foreground as the subject of my painting. And then, in one fell swoop, the sky cleared and the boat left. I decided to change the painting to match the day it had become. There are people who see a foreground with nothing but water and think “this painting has no subject or interest in the bottom left!” But I am a person who can stare at water for hours at a time, riveted – so the bottom left works for me. However, as a concession, I scribbled my insignia all big in the “empty space” for those who need an anchor.
May 16th, 2016
Folly Cove, Gloucester, MA
Oil on Gessoboard, 18 x 24 in
Thankfully this spot was full of compact and heavy rocks with which I could weigh down my easel and defy the wild and gusty winds. It was a good day painting!
March 17th, 2016
Half Moon Beach, Stage Fort Park
Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 18 x 24 in
I decided against the trees. The day started out clear and then a front began to move in, I decided to follow the change and I think it was a good decision. The composition bugs me but I think it works all the same. Brought my dog with me for this one, he was very happy to be out and very patient for the four hours I stood there. A nice day.
March 8th, 2016
Half Moon Beach, Stage Fort Park
Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
As you can see by scrolling down a bit, this is the third time in recent history I’ve painted more or less the same view. There is something so magical about that water and I have yet to get every gorgeous element I see quite as I’d wish. However, I’m getting there. It was a glorious day to be out painting. People often ask me how long a painting takes. In this case, it was about three hours. The tide had just reversed from high and was rapidly on its way out so as usual, water first! Ten sky, land, rocks.
February 27th, 2016
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 18 x 24 in
I was still not particularly “inspired” by the landscape, but I wanted to paint. I chose a subject that was of some interest, and jumped in. It’s funny because what I chose to paint was the birdhouse, but for the first three hours of my painting day, though ultimately the canvas was covered, there was no birdhouse in sight. Background comes first! By the time I was ready to lay in the birdhouse, the frigid wind had picked up and was blowing in force. I was freezing and didn’t have much control over my hand or the easel that kept lurching in the wind and threatening to blow away. So I got the gist in, then went home to warm up. Then, on Sunday (the 28th) I spent about 45 mins getting the birdhouse in there and fixing the foreground.
I remembered, in the process, that sometimes work is just work – and regardless of whether you feel “inspired” at the outset, you will always find things to be excited about… be it in the beauty of blending paints, the satisfaction of a color well matched, or a little highlight that ties seemingly disparate planes of color together. Always something worthwhile in the process.
February 22nd, 2016
Half Moon Beach, Stage Fort Park
Gloucester, MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
Began painting just after high tide, stopped just an hour short of low tide. I tried to do the water first, knowing it would soon be gone, and as usual got a little stuck trying to capture an effect I was seeing of light in water. I will probably leave this more or less as is, though I might try to make the division between land and water a little clearer. I can see that the colors of sea and sky in the background differ from those in the painting. The light had changed, which is why I took the picture and packed up at that point.
February 21st, 2016
Lake of the Woods
Painted in Gloucester, MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
I went to Essex to paint today, and according to my phone I walked 1.35 miles with my 30lb paint bag, easel and palette box and found not one thing that was strong enough to pull me out of a storm cloud in my head. This time of year, when there is no snow, is my least favorite time to paint. I don’t like the colors of all the masses of naked deciduous trees huddled against one another in the cold, the pale dead grass, the dirt and sand every where and even the cedars a strange burntout orange-green. The problem with being a painter, or perhaps the problem with being me, is that whatever I am feeling inside is often all I see outside. I have been able to overcome this sort of mood at other times by focusing on the light – because no matter how dreary and dead the husks of exhausted vegetation appear, one stray shaft of light in the right place or moment can make everything come to an almost beatific life. I didn’t find it today outside. So I made my way home in frustration. I made myself paint anyway, choosing a favorite subject (doubly, 1.water 2.Lake of the Woods) and Cracked ON until it was done. Tomorrow when my fog has cleared I might try to straighten the wobbly horizon but in the meantime, it’s a good example of what I’m starting to think of as expressive impressionism, where what I’m looking at is both a reflection of the place and the emotional state of the person painting it at that moment in time.