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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“Boat Repair Shack”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
This was a nice sunny, out of the wind spot to paint from, until the owner drove up and parked his truck right in front of the buoy. Two hours later he finally went home and I was able to paint the channel and buoy. The clouds were great all day long, so the waiting actually allowed me to catch them with the high lights around each one as the day got later…
“Around the Sound”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I am back after a short break in my painting schedule. I will almost be up to speed with regular postings after about another week or so… Here is a favorite painting spot for capturing the day or evening, the sky, the water and reflections. Not necesarily all happening at once… just a great vantage point… Today I chose to put the sailboats in and left out the many car and passenger ferries which also ply these waters…
“Sky Light”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
In case you noticed, my paintings have not been as regular lately because I have been working on larger paintings for a small show in an intimate space. If you are on Martha’s Vineyard (or know someone who is) please come to my opening, Monday, August 17th from 5 to 7 p.m. at the West Chop Club Inn in West Chop, MA, just opposite the Post Office. My works will be there from August 13th through the 27th. If you cannot come to the opening, please stop in to view the works anytime from 8 am to 8 pm daily.
I was going to be good today and stay in my studio and finish up some larger paintings for a small show I was supposed to hang tomorrow. But… there was this incredible sky out all day with great thunderheads floating by, and the studio was hot and it was very humid and uncomfortable, and, and, I had to go do this new painting of these clouds. Just had to… Does that make me bad? Of course, it is now 3 a.m. and I am still working. And, no matter what, the dog I am sitting for a friend will bark at me asleep in bed at 7 a.m. to be fed… and I will feel, well, bad… There it is, bad. I am bad!…And it feels so good!
“Moon Before Sunset”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
This was a hard juggle. The colors change so quickly at this time of day, but I think I caught it all. I had to block in everything but the moon. Then I had to do the final adjustments. As the moon’s presence was revealed, I was counting on there not being a cloud bank along the eastern horizon to block out the first glimpse…
“Moon Path”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I was floundering about trying to find something to paint this evening. It had been ready to rain all day and finally started to spit an hour before sunset with gusts to 30. I changed locations by about 10 miles and found, to my delight, little wind, no spitting and a few patches of fading blue above me! No time to think… grabbed my gear and raced out into this meadow. It was 10 to 8. Sun sets at 8. The sky just tipped into orange above the cloud banks. Grabbed the biggest brush and zoomed until I couldn’t see what colors were being laid down… 5 flattened mosquitoes on left hand, 4 on right… get that moon in… oh! the orange… the water… the path… the green… the car… done…!
“Fog Settles In”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
It was a warm day, but the fog made it feel cool. Even with the high humidity, the fog had a cooling effect when it touched you. The breeze had something to do with the cooling as well. It was actually pleasant to paint in and seemd to ground all the biting bugs. This was an added bonus around sunset time when this was painted…
“A Panoply of Sky”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
After poking around at a few different painting locations, I settled on this open sky spot. I was ever hopeful the sun would find an entry point in the clouds as it started to set. It got better than this, but then so did the mosquitoes and I hate using repellant…
“Rising Tide, Fog”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I went to the beach to swim and paint in the hot, early afternoon. After the swim and getting set up under an umbrella to paint, the fog started to come in. It was actually great, because it toned down the brilliant scene in front of me and kept me from getting too much sun. I still had to work on this piece back in the studio. The combined, water, sky and sand reflective light bouncing around in my eyes had my pupils shut down quite a bit while choosing colors and values. I was desperately trying to overcompensate for this effect while on the beach, but there is only so much you can do and still make it seem natural. Its when you bring it in and put the painting under the studio lights that the disparities stick out. And, after all, most paintings are viewed for the rest of their lives under unnatural/indoor lighting conditions…
“Dusk, Getting Clear”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Just as the weather may clear and you know that tomorrow will be a grand new day, so, sometimes, does life clear with the same intuitive future sense. And to be able to paint it and feel it on both levels at once makes for a truly wondrous experience. Such was mine on this sultry evening…
“Harbor Entranced”, this is a Small painting, 6″x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
The sky these last two evenings has been so seductive for me. Vaguely blue cloud banks up against subtle yellow/orange back drops before, during and especially after the sun has left the horizon. The blue of the silhouetted clouds becomes an ungodly shade against the yellow/orange glow coalescing from the entire sky sphere above. And the etherealness of it all is so fleeting, almost uncatchable, bewitching me to no end…