Boreas Sanctus
Plein Air Painting 2014
Loon at Sunset
July 19th, 2014
(Painted in MA as a value study using a photo I took at the Lake of the Woods)
Oil on Gessoboard, 8 x 10 in
(sold)
This is my second uncharacteristically small painting. Although I could not get all the details as effectively as I wanted to, I felt pretty good about the effect of light on water at that time of day which was the aim of this value study.
July 11th 2014 PM
North Shore Arts Association, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
Well this was a better day and I was charmed by the skeleton of the old pier, their reflections in the lazily waving water and the cormorants that perched atop them (not pictured.) I was perfectly willing to leave out all the buildings of Gloucester harbor but I suppose as the day wore on and my stubborn brain grew more and more addled by continuous sunlight I decided to drop a few in. I enjoyed the water as always and trying to recreate the clumps of seaweed floating just below the surface. As much as I loved the cormorants in life, in art they just were not working for me. I suppose I could add one or two after it dries, but I doubt I will. I think it works as it is.
July 11th, 2014 AM
North Shore Art Association, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 9 x 12 in
(sold)
Day three of the boats and buildings workshops, my eye is arrested by a white morning glory blooming quietly in the lush shade. I set up and jumped in. The story lay in the play of warm against cool – the leaves reflecting the cool morning sky color, and the few all lit up by the strong summer sun.
July 10th, 2014
Rocky Neck, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
Well, there were many more boats moored in the harbor than are here pictured, but it was only by a late afternoon spark of optimism that I put any in at all. First thing that morning, as I was setting up, I met an older woman who was walking an older dog. The dog walked with difficulty and I knelt down to greet it. She put her forehead to mine and stood there, letting me shower her with all my affection (which for dogs in general, and her in particular, is sky high.) While I hugged and pet her, I noticed she had a tumor on the back of her left hind leg the size (shape and color) of a cherry. The skin on the front of the same foot had been scratched or gnawed off – as if she were trying to get rid of the pain by chewing off her own foot. Then I noticed she had another tumor on the back of her neck. She continued to stand leaning into me, soaking up everything I had to give her. I asked her walker about the sores, and she told me the dog isn’t hers, it belongs to her neighbor who doesn’t take good care of her. The neighbor is strange, and the walker is afraid if she confronts them about the dog’s health, they will stop letting her walk the dog – and the daily walks she gives her are all the dog has to look forward to in life.
They passed on. I was so bewildered at the story that it didn’t occur to me until later that I could have tried to do something to help. I felt that poor, beautiful dog’s quiet long-suffering yearning for relief and affection all day long and I do still. My painting – I stared at the water and tried to paint it because I love water and looking at/painting it usually soothes my mind. The very last thing I added was that orange buoy, after a suggestion from David to try and relieve the big bare swath of water on the right. It was his opinion, after I had, that it didn’t work. In my opinion, it did – completed the story of what had sent my mind to water in the first place – a glaring, throbbing round and cancerous sore that should not be there – but is.
July 9th, 2014 PM
St Peter’s Square, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
(sold)
Already feeling more like myself in this one, though everything is not strictly perfect, I like the way this one turned out.
July 9th, 2014 AM
St. Peter’s Square, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
(sold)
I ought to retake this photo in milder light – this was middday and the shadows from the texture along with the glare do it no favors – but don’t really lie, either. This was the first morning of a three day workshop on Buildings and Boats – and although I desperately wanted to knock each of these out of the park, the truth is, I was still working out the rust & kinks.
July 5th, 2014
Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30 in
Well, at the island a combination of bad weather and flooding high waters kept me from my initial plan of doing tons of painting. Three days drive there and back and all the business that needs attending to when you’ve been away a month have also kept me from my preferred mode of work. So I was anxious to paint, and I figured the Open Studio (which I had heard is pretty dead in the summer) would be a nice long stretch of time I could use for that purpose, even if it meant painting indoors and not out. Tons of pictures from Canada I would love to work from. So I decided to do this giant cloud, and my dock with a boat I pulled onto it and filled up with water, to prevent it from floating away.
I do not have the ability to tune things out, and there were several conversations going on in several studios around me that in spite of my lack of interest therein – oh well I’ll curtail my excuses. Wasn’t very focused, and was working out the rust.
June 9th, 2014
Kenora, Ontario
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)
When I look at this photo, what I see is the difference in tone in the real clouds and the painted clouds. I can account for it partly by the photo having been taken about 2hrs after the clouds were painted, and by the fact that I was wearing sunglasses. The amount of light bouncing all around me rendered painting without protection for my eyes unfeasible. It was a glorious day to be out and painting. Even my sunglasses can attest to that.
June 8th, 2014
Kenora, Ontario
Oil on Canvasboard, 12 x 9 in
While in my previous post I may have been whining somewhat about all the variables that arise that can occasionally make painting outdoors pretty damn infuriating, I neglected to mention that in reality, I like the chaos. Maybe not as much as I had yesterday and today, but in general, working alongside all these things that are completely out of my control – the wind, the clouds, the light, the blanketing swarms of mosquitos… you have to hit the ground running and never look back. Sometimes you get someplace magical, sometimes you slip, but you are never, never bored. And you are learning ALL-THE-TIME
June 7th, 2014
Kenora, Ontario
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
Conditions were not ideal. The number of times it blew off the canvas, got splashed by a rogue wave, became the final resting place of dozens of unfortunate insects, got scraped by twigs – etc – was excessive and even a less fiery nature than mine would have revolted. There are drops of water in the sky as you can see. Plein Air up here is just a notch or two more intense, and I’d say this is a decent start to what I hope will be a good few weeks of work.