Boreas Sanctus
March 11, 2017
David Curtis’ Plein Air Saturdays at the Alleyn Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt in Essex, MA
While David P Curtis is recovering from an illness this winter, he has invited me to get his Saturday group going again by having me lead it from time to time. Will post next date once it’s decided! Tentatively March 11, 2017 -always weather permitting.
February 23 & 24, 2017
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24in
Lake of the Woods
“We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Not a Plein Air, technically. I was indoors working with my friend David Curtis, who is recovering from a grave illness. Worked in studio, using as reference photos of a major storm up in Kenora a summer or two back.
December 19th, 2015
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 12 x 16 in
I think it is because I have been so non-plussed by this unseasonal weather that the day I finally get out to paint happens to be one of the coldest ones this season, and again I make the fatal mistake of standing out of the sun and in the wind (in my defense, I was shielded from the wind initially, but not for long.) It was a “I will keep painting until my hand can no longer grip the knife” day. I had wanted to practice clouds – trying to get a softer and more airy weight to them than I generally do with the knife. I feel like I learned something about the subtlety of the value shifts within clouds, thanks to David Curtis who gave me key advice at a key moment.
July 21st, 2014
Damariscotta, ME
Oil on (crumpled) Canvasboard, 20 x 16 in
(sold)
I was fortunate enough to spend a few days on a painting trip to Maine with David Curtis and Tom Heinsohn, where we were joined in painting by Bill Curtis and a few of his artist friends. Inspired by some true but disparaging remarks by David about my work of late, I was determined to get back on track. There is too much glare on the photo to show the painting to its greatest advantage, I will retake as soon as I can. Regardless, in spite of the extremely junky board I was painting on, I was pretty pleased with the result.
November 16th (and counting)
Half Moon Beach, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
Not done yet. On Saturday, I was moving with all the elan and brio of a comatose slug swimming upstream through a sea of frozen molasses. I got to Gloucester late, and once I had set up I realized I had forgotten paper towel – without which I really can’t paint. So rather than return all the way to the car, which seemed like oceans, decades, lightyears away I found a pencil and decided I would just draw. Luckily David Curtis showed up with his generous good nature and brought me some. It was beautiful there as it always is and the colors are always the best part. I focused on the foreground and water while I was there, and mixed the colors for but did not complete the opposite shore and sky. I filled in what I could in the studio the next day.
Finished
October 19th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
When I began this painting, the sky was bright blue and the sun was high – as a result, the bleached log was blue (as in the painting) from reflecting the sky. As the day wore on, the sky changed as did all the colors. I had the same struggle I keep having – I’m painting with the conscious intention of making it look fairly real, but I’ve chosen the scene because I love the rhythm I see in the design. You can’t serve two masters, as they say, and I keep getting torn between the literal and the ornamental – and making a mess. I was happy, though, taking this picture on site, that the color of the leaves (oak) is so well matched you can hardly tell where the painting ends and the ground begins. I’ve decided I may do 10 mins of work on it tomorrow, maximum. The worst thing I can do is overwork these things (see last week’s.)
NB- It is now Sunday, and I’ve decided to leave it as is. Yesterday David Curtis told me it was better than I thought, and that I should go home, get something to eat, get some sleep, and look at it again in the morning. I did, and I like it enough to not want to take the risk of “improving” it.
June 8th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
(sold)
The plein air group (led by my favorite living American artist, David P. Curtis) (favorite living Canadian artist is John Smith) that I normally go out with had cancelled the day’s painting in favor of Sunday, which promised better weather. I work on Sundays, so went out to Essex regardless. It didn’t rain, in spite of the forecast, and I enjoyed a very peaceful day of painting. As you can see, there was a lot of springtime debris in the air that made it onto my canvas. I still have to tweak a few things but on the whole, this one’s done.
Incidentally, this is the same view I painted the day I learned Ray Allen had opted for the Heat over the Celtics. There is a cedar tree that stands at the edge of the cluster of trees on the right. In my earlier painting (July 8th? 2012?) that solitary cedar, sitting at a crossroads between meadow and marsh, represented Ray Allen to me – and it has stuck, I can’t see the tree without thinking of him.
In my mind, Ray Allen’s choice to leave the Celtics was justified when I realized had he been here, he and his kids would very likely have been at the finish line of the Boston Marathon at the time the first bomb went off, cheering on his wife and his mother who would have been running. It’s horrible as it is with the number of victims and devastation we had, to add him and his young family to the list would be awful. So I made my peace with it then. However, this past week Ray was in the news saying that for him, the fact that his team is in the Finals justifies his choice. This just – dropped him in my esteem. Completely irrelevant though it is to him, I’m ignoring Ray. Hence my exclusion of the tree from the picture.
Yes, I know I’m nuts.
Day 2 of Tree Workshop…
August 21st, 2012
Cogswell’s Grant in Essex, MA
Oil on Masonite, 24 x 30 in
David P. Curtis, under whose guidance I’ve had the honor of painting en plein air, very kindly gave me (via a generous student who had paid but could not attend) two days of a 5 day workshop on Trees. I have had my battles with trees as I think is well documented. I was transfixed by the clouds this day, and spent several hours and about 4 gallons of paint just trying to key it right. Then there was only an hour left for the rest of the painting – so I did the treeline first, then started the field, then began on my tree. I hated it from the get go and after 10 mins I realized it simply would not do. So I replaced it with a farmhouse which in reality was on my left. The house was facing me dead on so there were no sides visible – which made the whole painting look like a very affected rendition of a 5yr old’s drawing of Home. I did the best I could but then time ran out and I left. When I came back to it the next day most had dried. I guess this should go in my “Disasters” page, but I kind of like it in spite of everything.
June 9th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Wood, 18 x 24 in
(sold)
It was a hot and bright day when I painted this, and so much staring at the sky and land had really made it hard to see. I felt this was a disaster and I was really struggling, feeling about 3 more hours from its disappointing completion, when David Curtis arrived to give me his critique. To my shock and disbelief, he had only good things to say about this, even as it stood, and advised me to stop working on it; it was done, and among my best yet. I doubted his judgment – he’d been out in the sun all day too, afterall, maybe it had momentarily addled his brain? But as for the suggestion that I stop, I was all for it. I did. The painting is growing on me, like a beneficent fungus.