I WORK EN PLEIN AIR, OUT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE… Welcome. I am back to painting again after a sabbatical that included a few pieces done for charitable fund raisers. I am continuing to make small, 6" x 8", landscape oils, but not every day. I am also working on larger pieces. Every time I finish a painting, I will place it here on my website. If you see something you'd like to purchase, email me. Thank you for enjoying my work and keeping me creating new pieces. Your interest stimulates and inspires me and has made me a better painter. Sign up for my emails and I will send you an image of each new painting. I love to paint and am happy to share my painting experience with you. Most of my work is impressionistic landscape oils, inspired by the beauty of the Island of Martha's Vineyard where I live.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2009.
“Rock and Glass”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Today’s painting was a hike through the woods to get to, but I had packed a tuna sandwich just in case. It turned out to be a beautiful walk past the extra leafy flora due to all the rains. The tide was low and getting lower as I began to paint right at the edge of land and water. No wind and the sun was still warming me as it slowly curtsied behind another island and let the evening slip away…
“Evening at the Light”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
This is the lighthouse everyone wants to paint because it has such character and demeanor. However, it is not so easy to capture on canvas, as the open area around it is small and hard to give a good perspective on water and tower. I have always liked cropping my lighthouses every once in a while. It makes them a little more mysterious and forces me to concentrate on the volume of the cylinder…
“Whiting Moonshine”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I told everyone at the gallery opening I attended last night that I wouldn’t post any painting today as I planned to work on a larger piece. When I left, there was a crack in the cloud cover along the horizon and the sun popped through. It was my kind of sky drama, but I had left my easel in the studio. Racing home, I grabbed my gear and drove to a back road by the farm and set up shop next to the bee hives with this unobstructed view. It was 20 minutes to sunset and the foggy murk off the ocean had come in and obscured my sunset before I returned. But I am a painting junky and I started to work frantically to lock in the scene, just in case. Sure enough, the murk partially gave way to a warm orange glow as sun slid down to set. The bird were fluffing their feathers in the roost behind me in an old pine. A young skunk ambled by my bags as I worked. An owl glided by as low as the posts in the painting right in front of me. But I just worked on, and that’s when I saw the moon. It was my treat for hanging onto my vision. You just never know unless you are there….
“Evensong”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Another late sunset painting. Paint the water, then the sky and last the landscape. The water and sky color will change the fastest at this time of day. The land will slowly follow suit. Green is the last identifiable color as the light gets darker and darker after sunset, just as I am the last identifiable mosquito candy as it gets darker and darker and I paint faster and faster….
“Storm Strike”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
The weather went from bad to worse, better and finally the darkest it could get without rain. Sunddenly the sky blew a hole in itself. This great lighting on the tops of the thunderheads shown forth and it started to send out thunder bolts. I was able to get it all in as it passed right beside me and it never rained….
“Shadows Lengthen”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I was working on a larger painting today as the sky changed from grey to sunny. As it got near sunset, I packed it in and started to drive down island to home. I got to this view and gave myself the challenge. “You have painted this scene over fifty times in your life, but never with this lighting effect, nor so little time to paint it. YOU can do it!” Forty minutes later, cars with their lights on were passing me packing my paints up. I did have a head start though. I never clean my palette until I am home and the mixed colors from the first painting easily launched me into the middle stage of this painting. And I love sundown challenges!….
“Cross Roads”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I had scouted this location on a sunny day and couldn’t find the joy here. But cloud it up and there was a lot going on to hold my attention…
“Butter Up”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
Today was another rain out day among other things. So I thought a still life appropriate. Except that the still life I wanted to do in day light, had to wait for night lights. A friend visiting the island was rushed to hospital emergency room and I had pick her up when she was finally discharged at 2:30 am. She is ok, thanks for asking!…
“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…
“Off the Boulevard”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Upon reflection I have discovered that I do like to paint on these overcast days. The skies become a real challenge. I have learned that the sky maybe gray or grey. Grey is recognized internationally, whereas gray is only recognized in certain US states. There is a fine line when mixing grey to get it right for a particular sky. Just a bit too much red and it is lost and the same with too much yellow. And to make it worse, no matter what gray I think I have mixed on my palette, when it gets on my canvas it is something else entirely. Leaving me to resample and remix a few more times to get the balance right…