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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“Blue Tashmoo”
“Blue Tashmoo”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I can’t say that I have been enjoying all the snow we’ve had recently. However, I did like this snow in the early morning hours. Nature seemed to be trying out every shade of blue to see which fit in correctly…
“Iced Out”
“Iced Out”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I really wanted to paint a snow scene, but the sun was leaving fast. Driving out to a nearby favorite sunset place, I found many of the oystermens’ boats frozen into the pond’s ice field. I became involved and jumped out of the car onto the snowy shore and photographed the play between the light and shadows of this boat. I was resigned to using just my camera, as it was cold at 21º with a slight breeze and minutes before the sun would set. But, the pent up urge of not painting for too many days overtook me. Grabbing my gear I raced to the edge of the snow/water/ice and dashed this piece off until the sun had set. Concentration took over my common sense and, even with gloves on, my fingers got so numb that I could not open the clip on my board to put away my paper towels. With the warm car right there, I didn’t bother, and put stuff away hellter skelter, grateful to still be able to open the door handle and jump inside…
“Tashmoo West”
“Tashmoo West”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Winds were heavy from the SW, but the NW corner of the pond was protected by tall trees and rolling glacial terrain. A bank of cottony air clung to the mainland. Slowly we watched it change. First white then yellow to orange and finally purple as the night gathered strength, subduing the colors of the day…
“Scallop Season”
“Scallop Season”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Rain swept in today on a slow horse. I couldn’t get a gallup on in time to cheat it. I scouted various potentials, but they wouldn’t work for sitting in the van to paint. I was about to give it up, until this boat caught my eye as I spun around to leave the parking area. Dark, damp and dreary, the wet brought out the darks and saturated what color still bedecked the landscape. In a minor key, without shadows nor highlights of sun, the color spoke to me…
(In case you’ve been thinking I’ve been slacking off, I have been locked in my studio for more than a week finishing an 18 painting commission of a local golf club, started plein air in April. I have slipped out near sunset to grab a golf cart and revisit a few locations with canvases to refresh some specific points of interest. It has been a grand experience. First the course owned me, but soon enough I realized I was the master and made the paintings in my own landscape language. I’d like to share with you, but probably can’t until they are published in the members book sometime in the next few months. Sorry. I will be done with them in 5 more days and my painting will get back to a regular pace. Thanks for having patience!)
“Menemsha Out Post”
“Menemsha Outpost”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
At marsh level, this is the expanse towards the beach, parking lot and gas station. On the walk down I turned a bamboo shrouded corner and came face to face with two very young and inexperienced deer. At first they didn’t want to give me the right of way! After a minute of no one moving, they guessed that they might move 3 feet into the under brush and watched me pass. I have to admit that I was a bit more careful walking the rest of the path in case a bow hunter was lurking nearby. The openness at marsh edge as I came out of the closeness of the woods was dramatic. Wandering the verge, scouting a bit, I came upon this view…
“Now We Are Talking”
“Now We Are Talking”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I am so glad to slowly get back to painting. For the past week my routine and studio have been totally disrupted. I have hosted a work crew to put down new floors in my living and working space as well as try to finish a herringbone pattern on the new deck floor. I started this piece over a week ago, but then the crew moved in. Between 7am strategy sessions over coffee on the merits of 6″ mahogany decking over 3″, before picking it up at the lumber yard, to finding a bad section of pre-made and laid flooring at 9pm before dinner, life has been full. Now my painting space and time are almost back to normal. Even though it is colder and darker out, I will be relishing every moment outside at my easel. After my last painting where, you may recall, I hung out my laundry for all to see, I received an invitation to come and create at this location. The conversation quickly left the topic of laundry in the dust as we went on to discussed location and view. I was unprepared for this one as I rounded the corner of house and hill and the totality of this grand vista gripped my imagination. I had only come to scout, but was compelled to whip this view onto my canvas…
“Fresh Air”
“Fresh Air”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The wind has for a few days been strong and from the south. I have found myself working in the lee on the north side of the island. This camp has been a destination quite a few times this spring and summer. I hoped to find someone home to give me permission to create some paintings here. I found it closed for the season on my previous visit. I threw some laundry in the car and drove by for one last try. No one home, so I hung my laundry up and let it dry as I painted the whole scene…
“Cedar Tree to Makoniky”
“Cedar Tree to Makoniky”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I went to the bank to get some cash. All the bankers were dressed up as Red Sox players and were giving away candies. I got back in the car with the money and started to drive about in a day dream. Baseball. Halloween. Candy. Cash. I came out of it and found I had driven to the old farm at Cedar Tree Neck. No other vehicles around, but the barn side door was latched wide open with a decent breeze going directly in the opening. I called and knocked and went to the house and did the same. No one. I left my calling card on my dashboard in case someone should drive up and check to see who was here. I grabbed my stuff and headed up the hill above the beach. It was close to raining, yet held off and I dashed the paint about. I kept thinking I was hearing voices, very distant and indistinct, but, again, no one. I finished. Walked back past house and… a light was on in the house! I went to the kitchen door this time and knocked and hollered. No one came. Maybe, it was automatically timed. The barn door was still wide opened. It was getting dark. I called knocked and hollered in there just for good measure. Perhaps, I thought, as I put my gear back in my van, my friend Joan had made a grocery run and I just missed her. I went back to the open barn and left my calling card inside on the stairs with a pebble upon it. Just in case there was a fearful child hiding in the house until mom or grand mom came back with the groceries to save them. At least there was proof that I had been there, but, was anyone else???.…
“Meadow Munching”
“Meadow Munching”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The view is always there, but, the sheep are another story…
“Quitsa Sunset, Sailboat”
“Quitsa Sunset, Sailboat”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I parked by the boat launch, hoping for inspiration. A boat sailed by in the far distance. A white sail, so far down the white-to-black value scale it appeared mid-gray against the silhouette of a purple-blue hill behind. It was gone before thought could motivate me out the door. I did get out. The sky began to gently shed it’s spectrum. The yellow leaning toward orange got me going. I caught it there, at that spot, on my canvas. But that was nothing. It went on and on into orange, fire, red, hot coals, deeper, darker, exotic red-blue, purple, stellar blue, as star and moonlight opened up the night…