barn

“Cranberry Bog”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I painted here in late afternoon light over two years ago. Driving by the other day, I couldn’t resist creating it again in morning light with the tree shadows rippling across the drive…

“Tea Lane Barn”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $550.00 USD

I drive by this barn almost everyday. I alway want to paint it, but… Today was the day and the sun cooperated fully…

“July Barn”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Behind me as I worked on this painting were 2 baby raccoons. They were foraging among the Stuartia blossoms which had fallen from the trees in the grove. They kept a 30 foot distance from me, until I walked around behind the stone wall to try to photograph them. Their ears must be sharp because they were gone when I peeked over the top to where they were. I finally found one frozen behind a Stuartia trunk. I walked up to the tree and poked my camera around the side and got one good shot. Just like baby skunks, they sure are cute when they are little…

“Tea Lane Farm”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

I pass this scene in winter many times during the week. The Little Bluestem Grasses in the field turn a golden orange during the cold months. Sun hitting it late in the day gives it an extra boost of color against the bleaker landscape. Today I stopped to finally paint the view and was excited at how easily it all fell into place. But then I had been composing it in my mind each and everytime as I drove by…

“Red and Ready”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

It was a cool, freezing actually, and windless day this the last day in January. The red boat on a friend’s dock had been a painting in my mind for at least 5 years. I could never find the correct angle to work at until this year. Just having inherited the house, she had cut down all the tall spruce which had protected it from southwest winds, but also had hidden this view. While I painted, a Belted Kingfisher was working the low tide pools around the dock. He seemed to accept my stillness as not a threat. Many times he came within 10 feet of my easel, hovering and then splashing into the water for food…

“In The Shadows”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

This was a quick sketch as the sun darted below the tree line, the field filled full of shadow and the cloud cover warmed from the setting sun. At that moment the cattle came up the field in front of me. This gave opportunity…

“Polly Hill Fall”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

I had other ideas for today’s daily painting, but then again, so did the sun with its late season angle. I had scouted this earlier in the day for a future painting but came back again for today’s. I had been alerted that the 35 year old Magnolia Grandiflora, which Polly, Polly Hill Arboretum , had planted in the corner between the barn and shed in my painting, was taken down to be better able to repair the barn. It had surely outlived it’s place of honor there as it was hard to open the shed door much less the barn door without walking into a branch or two. Polly would have been happy to see the space opened up once more. It had been exceedingly difficult for anyone to do a painting of the barn the way the tree had covered over half of the front…

“Out To Pasture”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

Catching a wind as it cooled down, I wandered the pastures and looked around. I could have been here or there in Texas or New Jersey, Colorado, you name the place. Water, horses, cedars, field, sun playing the end of day… it felt just right…

“Front Yard Hay”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I thought I was finished painting hay for the season, but this was too much to resist. In a small, intimate field surrounded by stone walls/hedgerows with driveway on the side, house and barn in the back, it really felt like I was in the front yard. Yet here were all these fresh bales calling my name. Rare it is that I find hay near a house and I relished this “old” Vineyard feeling of house and hay…

“Summer’s Shadow”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

The hay was so thin and weak in this field that I didn’t think they would do more than cut it. I was surprised when I drove by this afternoon. I waited out the heat and went for a swim before setting up in the shadows of this oak tree. By then a subtle air current had started to make it bearable in the high humidity and 90 plus degree heat. My iced coffee didn’t hurt either…

“In To The Light”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I scouted this area earlier in the day. When I came back with an iced coffee to start work, the long shadows from the trees disrupted my plans. Aimlessly I wandered, wanting some architecture and landscape views until I found this scene, light and dark, near and far, into the light…

“The Pony”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

It was a chance encounter at a dinner party which somehow put me loose it this pasture. After completing most of this painting, including the well mannered and cooperative pony placement, I ventured off to scout the remainder of the property for future plans. Upon my return a half hour later, as the sun was setting, I started to think something was wrong. There were balled up pieces of paper towel all over the ground around my easel! At first I assumed the pony had licked, chewed and spit out my roll of towels one by one. What he had done was tear open my plastic grocery bag which I use for painting garbage. He had sniffed out a rather old apple core as a snack and no paint had gotten on his face…

“June Hay”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

It has been perfect hay cutting weather the last few days. Low humidity, a bit of a breeze and there has been lots of sun. I have been purposely driving past this field to get to the Post Office in the hopes that haying would begin. This is one of the few meadows where the hay is still baled and not rolled up. When rolled, it is then enclosed in white plastic. The bacteria goes to work in the moist environment turning the hay into almost silage and eating up all the oxygen in the process. Thus the nutrients are preserved. However, huge white bags of hay laying about in a field do not a painting make, at least not to me…

“Harborside”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

The fog was rolling in. The harbor is usually the last place to be fogged in. This is due to the configuration of the landmass and the fact that fog generally comes in from the ocean side of the island before the Sound side. The Lagoon was already choking up. Painting here was my best and last hope of beating the fog and darkness…

“Edges of Evening”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

Sometimes I get to a great painting destination, but… The wind is wrong, the sun’s in a bad place, the clouds are there, something just is not right. I end up walking slowly about in large circular patterns. I make frequent, unexpected stops and take iPhone photos of unforeseen, unexpected views. Eventually, I become so spaced out that the perfect scene hits me over the head. I say to myself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” And I feverishly unpack my paints and try to make up for lost time. Life is good, again…

“Off Shore Gear”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Especially this time of year, colors change quickly down in the fishing village of Menemsha. Gear comes out of barns, backyards and vacant lots where it has been stowed for the off fishing season. Stacked up and reoutfitted next to the shacks and boats along the docks, the gear size, shape, and color seems in constant flux on its way out to the ocean deep. This is my favorite time to be down by the waters painting. The fishermen are usually up so early that none are around at the end of the day to disturb any of my newfound “still lifes”. None of the sport fishermen have put their craft to sea yet. So they are not parading past me in car and truck disturbing the peace. The tourists, if any are about, are all inside with their cocktails at this hour of the year. I am left with the ducks, loons and seagulls to squawk at our hearts content…

“Eggs for Easter”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

With everyone talking about eggs this time of year I thought it appropriate to explore this subject in paint. Friends invited me over to their hen house for an up close visit. The flock was not so accommodating. Even though I set up far enough away from food, water and entrance/exit the ladies and their cox were having none of it. It wasn’t until Katherine came back in with bread and corn to feed them that I became just another fly on the wall…

“Boathouse Talk”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

A truly gray day, a few days ago. This is always a nice place to duck into out of the wind, but the mist made it more complicated. Buds slowly starting to swell are incrementally changing their color shade. The wetness only intensifies the color values darker. My kind of drama in the landscape…

“Before Lambs”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I had planned to paint the barn here, but… It was impossible to ignore these Moms, just days away from birthing. They were patiently awaiting dinner in the shade of the hay barn. Luckily the chore person was 2 hours late. They didn’t feel like moving much unless food was involved. This was fine with me…

“Spring Magnolias”, is a Watercolor on Paper, size is 22 3/4″ x 15″, watercolors on Papier D’Arches, unframed. $1900.00 USD

Please note this is a Watercolor on Paper, size is 22 3/4″ x 15″, watercolors on Papier D’Arches, unframed. I have not offered any of my watercolors here before. I was exclusively a watercolor painter for about 2 decades before I switched to oils. I have a few left in my personal collection which I could bear to part with. This was done in the mid 1980′s at my friend Polly Hill’s before it became the Polly Hill Arboretum. I use to come in with my little Maltese, Chardy, and choose a spot to paint and set up camp for the day. Polly would roll by at some point in her golf cart and find us. She would laugh as the little Chardy would jump up and bark at her. Then she’d whisk us off for a tour in the golf cart of all her latest creations. Chardy was the only dog she would ever let in and allow to roam free on her property!

“Honor Guards”, this is a Medium size painting, 18″x 24″, oil on canvas, unframed. $3750.00 USD

Although reworked recently, this medium size painting was created in July, out on location. It was a foggy afternoon/evening. The light source was muted and unchanging. I
was able to work for much more than my 2 hour limit without fear
of losing my initial vision due to shadows moving. I have always
loved to paint tall daylilies and these were as tall as me. I could look
straight at them instead of down upon them, giving me opportunity to put in their landscaped background, the Polly Hill Arboretum…

“Hills of Chilmark”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Today I miscalculated the sun’s now lower angle. I was looking forward to painting a particular boathouse while hunkering down in a hollow out of the 50 mph wind gusts. The sun had already set down there when I went to investigate. Driving around in circles, I ended up back at my friend’s house where I am staying. Patting the happy dogs as I looked out the window wistfully, I realized there was my painting. The best part was I was definitely out of the wind!!!

“Cranberry Boghouse”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Having driven past this dilapidated boghouse innumerable times, I had never stopped to really look at it. For a few years a non-profit group, the Vineyard Open Land Foundation , has been clearing out and rejuvenating the cranberry bog behind the house. Thus the view has been getting more enticing to stop and paint. I photographed it one day last week to study the possibilities. It was the rain today which made me stop. The wetness had caused the whole foreground to intensify in color values. The contrast with the misty background tree row became much more intense than it is on a dry day. It being near today’s almost non existent sunset light pushed the colors that much more…

“Fair Will Be Here” , this is a Medium painting, 16″ x 20″, oil on canvas. $1850.00 USD

This painting is a 16″ x 20″ oil on canvas which I began in August. I had to do a u-turn when I drove by this. I love to paint hay bales out in the fields, but to have not only a tractor, but a red tractor in the field was just way too much for me!!! This was the scene 3 days prior to the set up of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Fair. In a “normal summer” this hay would have been cut and baled in July and this field only mowed at this time. Weather patterns don’t seem to be normal anymore…

“Fair Preparing”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

The hay was bad this year due to all the rain. So instead of baling and trailering immediately to the barn, lots of fields had bales hanging around for many days before they were collected for mulch. This field, the site of the Agricultural Society annual fair in 2 weeks, had bales in it for 3 days. I enjoyed 2 of them creating a small painting one evening and a larger one the next afternoon…

“Moments Before Fog”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

A warm sunny afternoon turned into a damp cool evening. The colors were suddenly muted as sunlight gave way to a swirling wet grey blanket which descended over everything. This view was the last gasp of sunlight streaming across the lawn…

“Salut Dad”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

No, its not a typo/spelling mistake. Get your French dictionaries out to get this title right. My Dad loved stone walls and gardens and creating with each. He taught my brothers and me how to do it all from scratch. He would have loved to have this painting…

“Chilmark Spring” , this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

A beautiful day today with great clouds. Time to celebrate late spring in Chilmark, Mass….

“My Arabian Friend” , this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

My friends’ horse, Binty, is living out her last years in a small protected south-facing hillside pasture. I enjoy visiting her a few times every year. She loves visitors and I try to remember to bring a pear or an apple for her when I know I am stopping by. She brings back old memories of our elder horse and donkey from when my brothers and I were young. I have painted Binty 4 or more times in the last few years. She loves to pose and with her white coat she always looks great in the late afternoons against the shadows of the woods behind her. Thank you, Binty!…

“Polly’s for the Birds” , this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

The sun came out for an hour. Then it went back under cover. The only hint that it was still there were these streaks in the clouds near sunset. This was another view painted at the Polly Hill Arboretum …

“Sunset Through The Barn” , this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

Most of today was a frustration. It was beautiful, warm and sunny, but the wind howled at 30 to 40 mph all day. At sunset it became flat calm. I needed a walk and went to check out the barn where the hay had been all winter. The rancher had just fed the last rolls of hay to the cattle. The barn looked naked without the adornment of hay up against it. And then I saw a painting. I ran back to grab my gear. I was thankful I had my winter jacket on as the temperature was heading down as the dusk settled around me…

“Sunset March”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 USD

Today was a day at home. At sunset my cat and I walked out behind my studio and caught the last light as the sun disappeared between the barn and the corn crib. There was enough of a haze for the last half hour of sunup that I could look directly at it and not get retina burn. Kitz gave up way before I did. I found her in the dark by the studio door when I lugged my gear back in…

“At The Vineyard”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I have been dying to do a few paintings at my friends’ Barking Rocks Winery. I have been studying the geography and flora and fauna there for a year or so and felt ready to capture the vines as they go from dormancy to full bloom. Today when I arrived the vines had all just been pruned and the tiny buds were growing large as I painted in the 80 degree sunshine. It didn’t hurt that I was offered a glass or two of the grape as I stroked paint to canvas!…

“Winter’s Stack”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 US

I was out and about counting birds for The Great Backyard Bird Count when I stopped to write some notes. I looked up. Here were the hay rolls all stacked up for the winter feed source. The sun was kissing the edges to give great drama to the hay against the darker shadow side of the old barn. This was a race to the finish as sun slipped in and out of a receeding cloud bank before the final set a half hour later. Working on into the after light I was treated to a most spectacular afterglow from the under bellies of the clouds…

“My Back Yard”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 US

Sunset with the sun to my back in the barnyard at home. The cattle hadn’t seen me painting in their field in 6 months. They all had to huddle around me as I worked. Other wise I would have painted one or two into this scene…

“Something Old Something New”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

An old barn goes up in a new location…

“Rose Hip Moon”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Although I have painted this view recently, I did not have the rose hips in my view from where I stood. This just seemed right to paint the view again but with the hips in the foreground. And then I saw the moon as the clouds started to clear…

“A Pear Aficionado”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Today’s painting is of my friends’ horse who I like to visit every year. The horse has a real sweet tooth for pears and luckily has a pear tree right in the middle of the pasture…

“Backyard Barn”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

An old barn, no longer full of hay and animals, but a carpenter’s lumber storage space…

“Horse Barn”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 US

Early morning out at the horse barn where I used to hang out when I was 16 …

“Still Standing”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 US

I am still pursuing painting antique barns. Here is another old Martha’s Vineyard barn. It has quite a pronounced tilt to it…

“Far Away Barn”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 US

An old barn on a cloudy, then rainy day at the Arboritum…

“T. Lane Locusts”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $500.00 US

I was out blueberry hunting and came upon this late afternoon scene. The barn was a rusty red and the locust trees appeared delicate against the warm yellow-blue sky…

“Run Aground”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel, SOLD

“After Dinner”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″ oil on canvas panel, $500.00 US

“Front Door Sunset”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″ oil on canvas panel, $500.00 US

“Back to the Barn”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″ oil on canvas panel, $500.00 US

“Last Shadows”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″ oil on canvas panel, $500.00 US

“Barnyard Evening”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″ oil on canvas panel, $500.00 US

“Cow and Calf”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″ oil on canvas panel, $500.00 US

“Home Again”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″ oil on canvas panel, $500.00 US