Landscape

You are currently browsing articles tagged Landscape.

"Sheriff's Meadow Fog"

“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"

“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"

“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…

"Signs Of Fall"

“Signs Of Fall”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I almost missed this painting opportunity. I love the views in the fishing village of Menemsha. Concentrating on the boats in port and their respective docks and gear, I almost didn’t see the colors of the far shore. It is full of a patch of rosa rugosa, locally known as beach rose. Usually a full, deep green color with red/pink or white roses, it opens its blooms early in spring. The scent, mixed with the aroma of the sea salty air, is a heady nose full of the summer to come. This particular stand had all turned a rusty yellow orange, stacked one atop the other marching up the hillside. On this bleak cold, almost snowy day, they were a welcome warming sight to behold…

"Distant  Dunes"

“Distant Dunes”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Out of the breeze in a sunny location with Africa just over the far dunes (thousands of miles away), I studied one of my favorite trees. Its leaves, I thought, were brown, in reality were a dark shade of red. As the sun popped in and out between the clouds, the leaves turned on and off from illuminated red to a duller red/brown…

"Along The Way To Squibnocket"

“Along The Way To Squibnocket”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

The glacier left Chilmark a roly-poly landscape full of kettle holes, drumlins and clay and rock. The boulders, rocks and erratics have been put to use as split granite fence posts, foundations and chimney stones. The most visible of all uses are the stonewalls. Some farmers would have fun in the winter months with sticks of dynamite. They would blow up the larger boulders to make more manageable for walls and jetties. Walls like this one, high on a hill, were made with spaces between the stones to accommodate the gales and keep the walls still standing. It also did not hurt that it cost few stones to make the walls. If you were a rabbit, raccoon, otter or muskrat you would also appreciate the porosity of these boundary markers…

"Hanging Out"

“Hanging Out”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

I had to come back to the farm. These pigs were just too exciting not to paint, especially against the old red of the barn. However, I received the cold shoulder this time. They were fed earlier and just couldn’t care less about anything else right now. If I had the remains of a fine catered event to munch on, I probably could care less, too!…

"Holly Farm Barn"

“Holly Farm Barn”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

This is one of my favorite older barns. It is still standing in good shape, not made of corrugated metal, has that barn red doors and trim and matching shingles. An added surprise was finding 2 large pigs living in and around the building. I quickly made new friends. As the painting progressed, they came back from a leisurely acorn jaunt in the woods. They wallowed in the muddy swamp right behind me to better observe my painting technique…

"Summer's Over"

“Summer’s Over”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.

Some fishermens’ shacks are shuttered for the season. Lobstermen begin to pull traps for the fall. Striped bass and bluefish are migrating past as the waters cool from summer’s heat…

"Crabbing Bridge"

“Crabbing Bridge”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD

The sun popped through the clouds long enough to illuminate the bridge for my painting. Then it played hide and seek with me until it set…

« Older entries § Newer entries »