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 February 2012.
“Edgartown Stakes”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
This is the view to the north of the last painting I did, “Scallop Boat”. It was a different evening light as well as different wind direction, and colder. With fewer boats left in harbor in winter, it is easier to see into the far corners compared to the madhouse of summer boating…
“Scallop Boat”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I was in the lee of the wind with 45 mph gusts overhead and farther out from shore. It was not a day to be outside of my van painting however. Just as I was finishing, a thunderhead floated over the lighthouse to my left. It became orange on the sunset side of the anvil shape and deep purple on the eastern side. Moving too fast for me to try to paint it, I can only savor it in my memory…
“Atlantic Drive”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Locating this bridge over the Herring Creek, I found the best vantage point and began work. It was a cheery place to paint. A breeze crept in at dusk and the day ended on a raw note. I was cold to the bone even though I had on my winter jacket and hood. I turned the heat way up as I drove back toward town…
“Distant Cabanas”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I went back to the farthest NE corner of Edgartown proper and painted this view looking west. That is State Beach, or, as I’ve always known it, Bend-In-The-Road Beach. I have painted those cabanas from many closer, different angles before, but not from this far away…
“Sheriff’s Pond”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
It was close to sunset when I settled down to paint the pond. A breeze and the cool temperature helped me to work fast as the sun’s rays slowly left the far shore. I had to wear my gloves, which has become unusual this winter. But, it was a good work out for me trying to keep my brushes in constant motion and capturing the softness of the evening view…
“Lambert’s Cove”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
A windless, 42˚ evening, found me on top of the dunes watching the cloud colors change as the sun went down. The vegetation in winter is so soft and different from summer’s greens and blues. It is always exhilarating working out in the evening coolness with a big sky overhead as the light goes out…
“Black Point Beach Path”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I loved the light and color on this tractor path from the barn to the fields near Black Point Beach. I found there were deer, raccoon and bird tracks in and around the mud puddles. I half expected a skunk to walk by while I painted. As I packed to walk back to the parking area, I found the first deer tick of the season crawling up my pants. Oh, no. Winter has been so mild that I’m not sure the ticks even tried to hibernate from the cold. I will have to check myself now every time I go out…
“Sengekontacket Pond Marsh”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Sengekontacket is an American Indian name meaning “at the bursting forth of the tidal stream”. This is a large Great Pond held in check by a long narrow and curved barrier beach between it and the Vineyard Sound. As storms and tides opened and closed this pond to the sea occasionally during a year, two permanent openings were finally dug. They were lined with stone jetties, and bridges were erected. Both bridges, the road and the bike path over them are just out of view to the right. Much more pond is to the left and straight beyond the pines. In waning winter sunlight, these marsh grasses glow among the bushes in the foreground and the dark shapes of the pines beyond…
“Into Nashaquitsa”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
Searching for dried milkweed pods to paint for the foreground in a larger piece, I walked down to the waters edge to uncover today’s subject. It was dead low tide, quiet and still as I began to capture the landscape on my canvas. Three fast flying ducks navigated through the narrows a foot above the water as I worked. They quickly passed within feet of me with whistling feathers and mild peeps as their wings worked overtime…
“Katama Moon”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I planned creating another painting of the flat bottomed pond skiff, “Tidely Idely” (see my work March 30, 2011 on my website), which is moored just to the left of this view. However, as I was exploring the best place to setup my easel, I saw that the moon had just come up from behind the cloud bank. I am a sucker for painting moon rise images, but I had not been paying attention this month to moon phases. Normally I plot a plan of action a day or two before a full moon. This was a very pleasant surprise…