“Mist and Fiddleheads”, this is a small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
The day was rain. Then mist. A small break before six… I took it. 45 minutes of dry. The mist came back with a vengeance. Spit… Packed up quickly. Made it….
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“Another Day”, this is not quite so small a painting, 9″x 12″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Note: I ran out of my usual small panels. This is a 9″ x 12″ painting (larger than my normal 6″ x 8″)… A beautiful evening to be painting above a cliff as the sun settles over the horizon. Waves lap against the sand below. A Northern Harrier swoops low overhead on a flight across to Nomans Island in front of me. I stayed even after I could see no more to paint. The water colors at this time of evening against a fading sky have been spectacular for the past few nights. I am preparing myself to do a piece this late in the day, but the light gives me no chance to mix the colors I want. It is just too dark to see color, only values on a gray scale…
“Sunset Squall”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I had no ideas of painting the ferry when I pulled up to the dock to check the harbor, weather and wind direction. But, there it was, begging for a portrait. Knowing it was halfway unloaded and I would only have it for 10 more minutes before departure I worked at fever pitch. Looking up I saw this slight glow on the belly of the squall line coming in. The next minute it was a full blown glow made more so by the dark of the impending squall. The boat set off as rain began sprinkling down. I moved to a nearby porch to finish up in the quickly fading light…
“Edges of Evening”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 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…
“Old Chilmark Quince”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I have been chicken sitting for some friends. This house actually is part of the chicken sitting job. Inside lives a very sweet Maine Coon Cat, who, coincidently, needed some sitting, too. My marching orders were: feed everybody and leave them in their respective domiciles. Yesterday was my first day “on the job”. Today, when I returned (and it was a beautiful day in case no one noticed) I just couldn’t find it in me to again leave the chickens crowded up in their small chicken coop. Neither could I leave the cat locked up in an empty house all day and night. So I liberated everybody. And then I realized I would have to hang around until dark because you just can’t tell a chicken what to do and when to do it. And a cat? Are you kidding! So I got out my gear and set up shop and did this painting of the quince in bloom with the house behind. And, yes, the kitty stayed right near me the whole time and no red tail hawks swooped in for the kill. I packed up my paints at dusk and cat and I couldn’t find the chicks. But there they were, all ready for bed on their roosts in the coop. I think I was lucky…
“Walking the Dogs”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
It is hard to tell this was started half an hour before sunset. The light was so unusual. The south shore was already socked in with pea soup fog as it came north on its way to envelope the entire Island. This north shore beach was not engulfed until after I had finished painting and hiked back to my car. At that point everything suddenly had a thick, damp blanket laid over it. Not unlike how a glassful of icewater on a warm summer’s day has minute water droplets all over the outside. Everything became immediately moist and muffled. Driving home, next to a south beach, was wipers on, lights on low and driving very slowly. Any deer could have walked out in front of me and only as it was hit would I have known it was there. I was grateful my gear and I made it back home safe and dry…
“Mates for Life”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $595.00 USD
These swans found me as I was wandering along this shore line contemplating what to paint . They floated from around the corner and seemed unconcerned with my activities of setting up. Of course it did help that I, well, we were in the lee of an ESE 6 mph breeze. The sun was cutting through the light cloud-cover and I felt toasty warm in just hat and vest for overclothes. As soon as I had the swans painted in position on my canvas the breeze swung to the NE, heading right at us. The birds swam on to another cove. I was grateful for my hooded parka in amongst my gear to get me through to the finish…
“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…
“A Little Bit Of Heaven”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
It felt like completion to paint a spring scene in the same place I had painted an autumn one just months ago.The garden was waking up on it’s own. Daffodils were arising in and out of beds. A pair of Canada geese appeared to be housekeeping on the far side of the home. They kept giving dirty looks and wouldn’t budge an inch. Crows were not so secretly preparing hidden nests in the tops of pines. The squirrels were constantly scolding for the interruption of their safe foraging routes across the lawn. Amidst honks and quacks ducks kept landing and taking off on the pond below. A little bit of heaven right here in our midst…
“Fair Winds Ahead”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Architecture is more demanding to master than landscapes and I had two beautiful sunny mornings to work on this piece. For some reason, these compass points revolve about in the winds. It has always irked me that they are never correct each time I have painted this cupola. I got my ladder out and gingerly climbed up and over lattice and rose thorns to get to the set screws. A lot of good that did me as the rod the whale and all are supported on revolves mysteriously about with no set screws in sight. I had to quickly step back down and draw the points correctly before a gust moved them…