July 16th, 2012
The Breezeway at Rocky Neck, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
(sold)
July 16th, 2012
Plein Air Painting 2012
July 14th, 2012
July 14th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 12 in
(sold)
July 7th, 2012
July 7th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 22 in
(sold)
I painted this while sadly contemplating Ray Allen’s decision to leave Boston (Celtics) for the Miami Heat. Now every time I see it I see Ray in that tree, standing alone, trying to make the right choice… I do wish him the best of everything but championship titles.
July 3rd & 4th, 2012
July 3rd & 4th, 2012
Oil on Wood, 20¾ x 31½ in
(sold)
Although this was done out doors, thus could be called “Plein Air,” I was working from a photo and memory and whim. Well whim is too light a word for it, my spirits had sunk as I was pondering how my once pristine, quiet paradise of the Island has become overrun with loud boats, loud people, cabins where there were only trees, docks where there were only deer runs. I know the universe trends to destruction and I know I’m as much a cause of it as anyone. I hope that there is a heaven where all the ideal and perfect remain and grow better, the inverse of this system. In the meantime, I love to contemplate the storms that make us all alone and equally vulnerable to a nature that is bigger and stronger than anyone likes to consider. I love the chaos of clouds and water and the order that ricochets through them. And as much as saying so may convict me by a jury of my peers, I like painting water and sky from photographs. Studying a single moment in time, a snap shot of water and atmosphere stilled, is so invaluable to understanding the behavior and pattern of reflection, refraction, buoyancy and motion. Although I am converted to believe painting outdoors in the moment is the only and best way to paint a landscape, I am not a fundamentalist who eschews our technical capacities as unworthy. If we are able to isolate a moment in time to study water, I will undertake the education.
“There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”
“There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”
June 30th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 12 x 16 in,
(sold)
This one is a few tweaks shy of being done if not overdone. The weather was beautiful and although the fields would have been gorgeous to paint, I have been trying to use my Saturdays to struggle with subject I find difficult. A few months back I declared war on all deciduous trees, but shortly thereafter recanted, realizing that “tout comprendre, c’est tout pardonner.” In other words, because I find them so difficult, I should be that much more vested in trying to paint them. As I said before, painting a tree is not a study in painting an object, but a study in observing a relationship, and rendering it as sincerely as possible – which is difficult when you have to grapple with so many different value scales in one place. Anyway, this was an attempt I’ll call 3/4 successful.
June 28th & 29th, 2012
June 28th & 29th, 2012
Halibut Point Seaward
Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30 in
Halibut Point State Park, Rockport MA
(sold)
A Conclave of Cormonrants
A Conclave of Cormorants
June 28th, 2012
Bass Rocks, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)
What I like about this painting is the vibrancy of the sky at the horizon, which I think matches well the sky I was looking at. I also like the rocks. I want to make the birds darker and maybe more birdlike, and fuss with the spray and the water in the foreground, but the week has been so hot that it dried before I could. Just as well, because when I start fussing, I find it hard to stop.
June 26th, 2012
In Progress
June 26th, 2012
Halibut Point Quarry, Rockport MA
Oil on Plywood, 18 x 24 in
(sold)
I love rocks, I love granite, and I really enjoyed painting them today. My struggle was / is the water, which is normally my “comfort zone” but the strange angles of the quarry borders threw me off for some reason. Will replace this image when I have finished, might not change much.
June 23rd, 2012
June 23rd, 2012
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 inches
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
(There’s glare on the bottom of painting in the photo, esp. left hand side, that I’ll need to retake to correct.) It was a beautiful day in Essex and I had brought three new knives to try out. None were exactly like the late great one, but one was very close, and that’s what I ended up using. It wasn’t long before I stopped noticing a difference, which I suppose is a good sign. I found this bush which for some reason was turning already (to fall colours). It’s reddish pinkish organge was really striking against the trees in the distance, which looked inky blue. All colours were ablaze; which is why I chose this view to paint.
Logan
Logan
June 18th & 19th, 2012
Tewksbury, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(nfs)
I decided to try a new brush that I have while waiting for my knives to arrive. I also thought I might like to try painting a dog or cat, in real time, as a precursor to trying a live portrait sometime. I set everything up and followed the dogs to a spot they seemed liable to stay in for a while. I gave them each a long-chewing bone, which I figured would keep them immobile for at least an hour. I began to mix up my colors, and by the time I was ready to go, the dogs were choking down the last bits of their chews and off to examine the world. So I thought I’d try painting the grass, and wait for them to come back. Painting the grass with a brush wasn’t fun. I kept at it but kept failing. Then the dogs came back, and about 5 times, I got their bodies blocked in, about to inflict some detail, when they got up and left. Eventually it all got so frustrating, and the canvas so ugly, that I got angry and let fly – abandoning the brush and using an old knife, and using a dog picture I had on my phone for structure and the dogs themselves for colour and inference.