The colours in this photo are off. Must retake.
April 21st, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
(sold)
April 21st, 2012
Plein Air Painting 2012
April 17th, 2012
April 17th, 2012
(sold)
This is a birch tree, and the funny light that comes in a clearing between two storms. Although I don’t like painting from photos, I was homesick for the lake (Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada) so I painted it.
April 14th, 2012
April 14th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
(sold)
This is an imperfect photo of an imperfect painting.
Marsh Grass and Palm Sunday
Marsh Grass and Palm Sunday
March 31st, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 10 x 12 in
(sold)
Once again, this photo does not do much for the painting. This is actually one of my favorites from this year – there are all sorts of notes and tones in the sky that this picture missed completely. I’ll have to try it again with a better camera.
March 24th, 2012
“It’s not dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there.”
March 24th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
The weather was perfectly attuned to my mood; it made me feel like King Lear (and / or Ophelia).
March 17th, 2012
Birdhouse Inferno
March 17th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
This was a bad day – I had run out of white, so had to use this ancient dry spackle-like “underpainting white” that I had for some reason, which stank to high heaven and dried way too quickly. I started with the sky and worked downwards, and you can see the deterioration of my calm as things steadily got worse (easel broke, etc etc etc.) And I have wanted to paint these birdhouses for months, because the colours in the grasses and stones around them are breathtaking – but when my ire is up, I forget that the colours actually only constitute a small fraction of space in an ocean of grey. I wanted to show them as I saw / felt them, so I did… this may go on the “disasters” page soon
Cedar on a Hot Winter Day
Cedar on a Hot Winter Day
March 12th 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
(sold)
I was so distracted and worried about various things when I began this painting I was prepared to chalk it up to “Good Effort, Poor Result” pile even before starting, but I think it turned out much better than I expected. Painting is the only activity that provides me relief from the various snares in my mind and brain, and I think when I get a foothold into that oasis, I stay in there as long as I can and rejoice – sometimes, as I think in this one, the celebratory mood comes out in the painting. The colours in this photo are off-key, however. Sky is much richer in life.
Snow Meets High Tide
Snow Meets High Tide
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 11 x 14 in
(sold)
I need to re-take this photo with a better camera. When I started the painting, there were acres of snowy marshland in front of me – as I was finishing, there were almost none, just water, everywhere. The full moon this week had pulled the tide higher than I am used to seeing it. Below is a picture I took while just beginning the painting.
March 7th, 2012
March 7th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 24 in
(sold)
Poor photo, sorry – This is the third time I attempted to paint this area / view. It is the thorn in my craw. The view is “backlit,” which is to say, thorugh out the day the light shines consistently upon it, from behind – so what is facing you is in shade below and lit up along the top. The resultant light and colours are stunning, but subtle and complex, and I still haven’t managed to capture what I see. This one turned out fairly pretty anyway, though.
February 28th, 2012
February 28th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
(sold)
What’s funny about this one is that it didn’t occur to me until I had gotten home and seen Saturday’s painting that Tuesday’s was of basically the identical scene. There was this solemn grace in the stand and tangle of branches to the left of the puddle that I didn’t feel I’d captured on Sat and wanted to try again. Like many things in nature, those branches and stems reminded me of a cathedral, the colours, the arches, the lines. I wouldn’t say I did them any justice in this either. Perhaps should have left out the background.