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.
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“Thunderstorm Aweigh”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The open sky over the harbor had so many different surprises in it today. Multiple thunderheads floated by during the afternoon with dark gray clouds. Then dark-blue purple clouds and even some on the warm yellow side of the spectrum. And do sailors like to sail on Saturdays! Countless different rigs floated or motored past my vantage point…
“Power Boat”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
This part of the Island was not fogged in at 6 p.m. as most of the rest was. The skies behind the light were dramatic and fleeting as arms of fog swept in and out before it settled on me just before sunset. Things started to get moist as I packed up my gear in the muffled evening light…
“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. $750.00 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…
“Hey, Hay!”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
This is one of the fastest cut, raked, baled and moved on out fields where I like to paint. This year the family out did themselves. There were at least 15 stackers and movers on the field. Five o’clock to 6:57, 650 bales disappeared into various conveyances and then into barns. I started painting and all of a sudden I was alone in a totally empty field… Ah, but what a beautiful day!
“Anchorage”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
My priority today was to be out of the wind. This was an ideal spot to paint from. The sun kept me warm the whole time, and what small breeze there was kept bugs away…
“Sunset Oyster Boats”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
The other day in the fog I found a small fleet of flat-bottomed pond skiffs around the bend in a cove by the Ospray’s nest. It was drippy wet that day, no wind and flocks of mosquitos, not a painting day. Today was much better including a good breeze to keep mosquitos at bay until darkness, when I packed up and had to run!
“1st Launch”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I watched as John put his freshly painted boat in the water. He went off fishing for an hour. Came back and hauled his boat back out. Slowly, he drove off down the beach, pulling, by accident, someone else’s anchor line attached to 3 other boats. The line went taught. I yelled “STOP” and he did! Just before the other boats would have dislodged his from it’s trailer. Bad boat manners by the other boaters…
“Sand Bar”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I missed the best part of this view. The catboat with the dark sail which is cruising in to the the dock got stuck on the sand bar, just after I looked up and saw them. I didn’t look up again for a few minutes as I stooped to clean my brush and mix some new color. When I next paid attention they were under sail heading toward the dock to my right. One sailor had jumped overboard and pull-pushed the boat off the sand bar and climbed back aboard between my glances…