August 6th, 2013
Bass Rocks, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 22 x 28 in
I need to retake this one when the light is better (I took this today in the rain, so it’s blurry.) Working on rocks, literally and figuratively.
August 6th, 2013
For Sale
First week of August, 2013
First week of August, 2013
Oil (about 30 gallons of it) on Canvas, 24 x 36 in
Sometimes when you try something difficult you are rewarded with spectacular success – but more frequently, you crash and burn. This is a story of the latter. I am posting it regardless.
I need to understand water better. In case it isn’t clear, this painting is of the lake – the foreground is looking in to the water, and from there as you work back gradually the part of the water that you can’t see into, that’s reflecting the sky.
I want to be able to “see” water better. I am stupefied every time I look into it by its incredible beauty, unfathomable complexity, and utterly bewildering symmetry. I am trying to understand translucency – as told through colour, my medium – as opposed to through light, it’s medium. I have a long way to go. But I suppose I’m one step closer to understanding.
July 11th, 2013
July 11th, 2013
Rocky Neck, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
Day two of the workshop on buildings and boats. I painted and scraped off two separate compositions this morning before finally settling on this one. I sat and worked on it through a mild thunderstorm and a decent amount of rain. It was a really lovely boat. I may yet tweak a thing or two on this piece, I may not.
Blackberries
Blackberries
July 6th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
It was a 95 degree in the shade day, and the first day (that I had experienced this year) of Greenfly season. I had a small canvas so wanted to find something I could focus into, also wanted to find something in the shade. It was an exercise not only in painting but in self control – staring at ripe wild blackberries for hours without eating any. That much I succeeded in – maintaining my pacific, live and let live attitude to all living things – that suffered in the onslaught of greenflies who combine their extraordinary nastiness with remarkable stupidity – so a warning swat too easily becomes a mortal blow.
I haven’t touched this, except to scratch my mark into the corner, since painting it, and I won’t.
May 25th, 2013
Backyard, MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
It’s been raining all day and I resent it; Saturday is supposed to be painting day. So I put on my warmest hat and winter coat, and went out back and sat in the rain for three or four hours, painting this. Oil paint, I found, is not adversely affected by water – and in fact, with the knife it can produce some really interesting effects. However the volume of water that accumulated on the canvas, palette, and on my person eventually made it extraordinarily difficult to see what I was doing. So I stopped, will revisit tomorrow. It bothers me that the green of the flowers’ leaves is obviously very different from how it looks in the photo. I’ll have to look into that tomorrow.
May 8th-12th, 2013
May 8th-12th, 2013
My backyard, MA
Oil on Canvas, 22 x 30 in
This is the painting as it stands, about 6/7ths of the way complete. I was captivated earlier this spring by the fresh cool bloom of spring leaves and flowers, as they lit up in the warm glow of sunset. I took pictures, then didn’t get out to paint it quickly enough, and the whole aspect of the plant had changed.
I worked outside on location with the picture in hand to reconstruct what I had seen, and use the real trees and surroundings to inform my coloration. I did not go to Essex today. The weatherman said it would be raining and stormy, and I knew if I went, trusting in my star, it would pour. So I stayed here to finish this, and ensure by my absence the day would be clement for my friends out in the Greenbelt today.
May 4th, 2013
May 4th, 2013
Cox Reservation,
Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
This photo is a little askew, and it doesn’t do the texture justice – will retake. Had a better painting day than the previous few.
April 8th-9th, 2013
April 8th-9th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 22 in
This is the penultimate picture of the painting – I’ve changed a few things since I took this, will re take soon. Yesterday was a beautiful warm day, I had a few hours in the afternoon to paint. I stood by a cluster of trees that caught my eye with their strange, shaggy bark. I have since learned they are Shaggy Bark, or Shagbark Hemlocks. I liked them because they reminded me somehow of the Muppets.
March 30th, 2013
March 30th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
I can’t tell you how angry I was with this stupid painting yesterday. I ducked and tiptoed my way back to the car with it in hand, lest some other painter might ask to see it. When they did – in spite of my precautions – it was only the life-long, iron-clad habit of stifling my impulses that kept me from kicking them in the shins and running away. Today, I can see that some of it is ok. Yesterday was such a stunningly beautiful day, unless I were the angel of John Singer Sargeant and painting with light and not paint could I really have done it justice. I can do a few things to this painting to make it a little better, but I’m pretty sure every time I look at it I’ll still feel the urge to growl and kick people.
March 23rd, 2013
March 23rd, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
It was a very windy day, and the wind was cold – so I chose a painting spot not because of great inspiration from the subject matter but because it was out of the wind and in the sun. Maybe the perfunctory manner with which I settled on a subject prejudiced me against my work – I left after several (comfortable) hours pretty angry with what I’d done. Today I can see some redeeming qualities. In any case I look forward to the next one.