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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“V.H. By The Bridge”
“V.H. By The Bridge”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I have been here many times, but never noticed the summer shadows at this hour before. I had to stop to let someone pass. That is when I knew it was a painting waiting to be plucked…
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“7pm, Here They Come”
“7pm, Here They Come”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I was enjoying the subtle sunset light at Eastville Beach while trying to decide where to go to paint. Well… why go anywhere else! As it was cold and windy, I started work in my van. Still getting use to the time change, I sort of hoped that a ferry might pass into my scene. I was not sure what boat or from which direction it might appear. This is the “Nantucket”, built in 1974. It services the Vineyard in winters and its name sake island in summers. A worthy subject for today’s painting…
“Woods Hole”
“Woods Hole”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I had three location choices for this painting. One required a long walk through woods and maybe snow drifts to arrive at a long beach walk. Two was a short beach walk. Three was possibly traveling down an un-snow-plowed lane and a walk down 5 or 6 stories of beach stairs. I attempted #3 first. The lane was plowed as was the parking lot. Snow on the stairs was almost non existent. I dallied on top taking scouting photos and checking for wind and temperature. Deciding on full winter attire, I returned to my van to gear up. I grabbed the rest of my coffee, a chocolate bite and container of mixed nuts to fuel my furnace as I painted. I descended down the stairs, stopping at each landing for more precision photos of potential views. The last landing was a killer. I was trapped 20 feet above the beach. Winter storms had left only steep, weeping-wet clay between me and the sands below where once was the bottom most set of stairs. I had stepped in clay like that before. Not only is it slippery on an incline, but it sticks to everything it touches like honey, in a bad sort of way. On the beach directly beneath were more boulders at the waters edge casting great, long, blue shadows from the waning sun. I just couldn’t reach them. As I worked, the sun set and lights across the way in Woods Hole slowly flickered on. They were soon followed by the lights of the evening ferryboat chugging into its homeport…
“Winter Boat”
“Winter Boat”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Today I thought I wouldn’t get any painting done. Last night, while doing some demolition on our soon to be home and studio, I accidentally hit my thumb with a hammer and large pry-bar against a wall stud. I had gloves on and no one heard me swear! It was not until I awoke this am that I realized I should see my doctor, and then X-ray at the hospital. It really only hurts when I laugh, I mean, bend my left thumb. At a half hour before dark I left hospital and pulled over before the drawbridge to catch a view of the harbor and over towards Woods Hole before dark. I was very antsy to paint after all the cold weather these last few days and having to stay inside. I took a few requisite photos of the view, ogled some sea ducks bobbing near me and said to myself, “if I just set up my easel, something will appear to paint…”. The foreground spoke to me and a ferryboat came past delivering souls to the other side which made my background! And it was just plain good to be out with my paints again… ( Now, back in the studio, the Dr. just called to alert me to a bone chip by my thumb knuckle seen in the X-ray. Oh, what will they do to me tomorrow. I can’t imagine. To be continued, I hope!).…
“Chappy Ferry”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The weather was cold and windy for this painting. When I went out the next day to finish it was off and on rainy. Had to sit and paint from my car both days, but at least I was warm…
“On The Boat”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
While wandering about on the north shore of the island, I came upon a marshy area which was off limits to deer hunting. As I don’t have any hunter orange to wear, I have been exceedingly careful during the 2 weeks of shotgun season to stay in and around any of the town areas. This exile from the larger wooded and open areas and wilder shorelines has helped me reevaluate points of interest I have been to and painted before but have never fully explored. This particular spot looks right out onto the ferry run and into the hole between Naushon Island and Falmouth, known as Woods Hole. It is a treacherous passage for motor and sailing vessels as the tides suck through the narrow channels between Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay, with rock edges and ledges constricting the narrow channel even more. To make it a bit more challenging for a boat, ferries lumber into and out of the port there almost every hour all day and into the evening darkness with little room to maneuver should an errant ship be in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to fight through a tidal surge, foul tide or heavy breeze. The title of this piece is the message most texted, emailed and/or called to one’s island family and friends after a long, white knuckled, car or bus ride racing through all sorts of traffic to get to the ferry on time. Drivers have been known to drive at 90 mph from NYC most of the way to Woods Hole, MA so as not to miss the last boat across, and you know who you are…!
“In The Autumn”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The temperature has been dropping along with rain and leaves as the color of the land slowly changes from greens, reds, golds, oranges, browns to lavenders and grays. The setting sun, although moved from north of west to south of west still casts its charm upon the unsuspecting evenings. Drab views attain a golden radiance at this hour, mostly unsurpassed in summer months. Sights, unseen in green, now come slowly forth as the backbone of the ridges, hills and vales appear. As we dream about our gardens past, the season shifts and we are thankful, once again…
“Sailing Camp to West Chop”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
While the sunset, one of the ferryboats ventured out of the harbor. The sky glowed as it turned to dark…