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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“Abandoned”
“Abandoned”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
This abandoned boat by the Old Hunt Place has caught my eye for a few months. With the fog coming in and out, then in again, it seemed like a good, overcast day to paint here. I found some bluebirds on the way and otters and a large flock of Canada Geese patrolling along the waterway behind the dunes. All the while I was serenaded by the sounds of surf just over the horizon…
“Short Beach Light”
“Short Beach Light”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
The first sunny evening in a while found me on the shores of Menemsha Pond. These rocks reflected back the last few minutes of the sun’s golden light before it set. Under these conditions at this time of year, the pond has a particular blue sheen as it reflects the evening sky…
“Holiday Light”
“Holiday Light”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Happy New Year! I began this right after Christmas, but family festivities kept from finishing until now…
“East Lucy Vincent Beach”
“East Lucy Vincent Beach”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
On a cool, but windless evening I walked down the beach and around the backside of the cliff. I last painted here in the spring. It was surprising to see how much cliff had eroded in the last few storms since then. The dark hole in the top of the middle cliff is totally hollowed out down to the beach beside the brighter orange cliff. Another storm or two and that forward piece will fall into the sea…
“Menemsha Pond”
“Menemsha Pond”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The gray sky from the last few days and the wet weather have accentuated what colors there are in the winter landscape. Darks are darker and they push the lights to seem lighter. Everything will change once the sun comes back, drying the darks to a lighter value and adding shadows and bright light areas. Right now, I can’t wait…
“Tea Lane Sheep”
“Tea Lane Sheep”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Ownership of this farm has just passed from an old island family to a young farmer and a land-lease to a young farming family. Until last week the barn was half hidden by a large stand of bamboo. The foreground field, idle and uncultivated the past few years, will be transformed by the sheep, and later cattle, from this beautiful meadow of Little Bluestem grass to a more traditional greener, grazing pasture. I feel lucky to have painted this now, as it will probably not have the wonderful, winter orange of Little Bluestem again…
“Cedar Tree Neck Barn”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
This barn and property have intrigued me for many years. An old barn with an ocean view behind it, how delightful. If it had not been raining and I was stuck painting inside my van, I never would have chosen this view. But I’m happy I did…
“Sheriff’s Meadow Fog”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Living in town for the winter has its bonuses like walking to the movies or a restaurant. But when I start to miss all the open fields and water views of Chilmark and up-island, I remember I have access to this little sanctuary behind the house. I have done 10 or 20 paintings around Sheriff’s Meadow over the years. Yet, when I think I have “found” the last painting I could ever create here, up pops something new due to weather, season, time of day, light, or in this case pruning and mowing off the path. I left for a walk around the pond a half hour before sunset. Usually I would carry my gear with me. This evening, fog was rolling by, there would be no sunset just a darkening of the daylight. So I walked empty handed. Half way ’round the pond proper is a spillway, bridge and this view of Butler’s Mudhole. Much tree damage had happened due to the last 2 storms. The caretaker’s clean up included brush cutting around and under an old, damaged willow to a dry bit of grass by the property edge. Stepping there to photo this view I knew I had a new painting to do. Having raced back to the house/studio to get my paints, I set up quickly and worked down from the horizon starting with the hedge and little bathhouse with my largest brush. Landscapes are fairly quick to paint, if you think about them for a minute. Most brush movement is horizontal, stopping only to clean brush and mix and change colors. The one thing which stops a quick landscape is a strong vertical item in the scene, requiring cutting in around the object and thus ceasing the flow of brushwork. The bathhouse, the only vertical, was tiny and did not slow me down. I saved the sky until last, in case it caught a blush of color as the sun set off in the fog. Canada Geese arrived in “v” formations looking for a place to bed. I held my ground until last light when geese moved into pond and fog rendered me invisible…
“Filly In The Field”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
This white horse has been tempting me to paint it for many months. In the mid to late afternoon of a sunny day, its white coat is really illuminated against the darkness of the wood beyond. Today was the perfect time to capture the horse on canvas. Even the deer hunters draped in orange who crept out of the woods behind it could not spoil the scene. (I was positioned at the side of the road and knew they would not shoot in my direction)…
“Winter Marsh, Sengekontacket”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The sign by the parking lot said this was a duck hunting area this month. There were no other vehicles about. I parked and walked the short distance to the boat launch. No sooner was I at the water’s edge than bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang from the opposite shore. I guess either the time was ripe to fire or I had just stirred up a flock of ducks, or someone was really mad that I had appeared upon the scene. Luckily shot gun pellets could not travel that far, but it sure was loud. I walked back to my van as it started to drizzle and proceeded to back up to the water so the driver’s side was facing where I wanted to paint. I got out to put my gear from back seat to front and bang bang bang again. I never did see any ducks take to the air. Maybe they were all dead or the hunter was still mad. I managed to bag this view without further incident except for the on and off rain drops…