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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“Squibnocket Point”
“Squibnocket Point”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
There have been recent sunny days, but not always into the late afternoon/evening. Created over multiple visits, this painting has been a slow finish. As the daylight lengthens and the ocean warms, the waters by the point will entice bass and bluefish close enough to catch for dinner…
“South Beach Memory”
“South Beach Memory”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I have painted this beach path from up close before. I found this farther away view more intriguing on a gray day…
“Edgartown Great Pond”
“Edgartown Great Pond”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
Today was a cold breezy one. After choosing this subject, I realized I would have to sit in my car and paint. Although this boat is floating, it has a lot of water in it from last weekend’s rains. It is lower than normal with no waterline showing…
“Where Nighthawks Fly”
“Where Nighthawks Fly”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
At this time of year, standing and observing in one place a few hours in the evenings may be both cold and exciting depending upon weather and location. This eve I was out of the breeze, but bundled in vest, scarf, parka, snow pants and hat with my back against a stonewall with thicket behind. Although I have often come and painted 15 or 20 canvases within 100 feet of here, this view had never caught my eye. Usually I like to set up in front of the large cedar on the left and face the full field to the right where a beautiful, wind-shaped oak tree is silhouetted against pond, dune and sky. About a week ago I did one of those paintings and was serenaded by a Nighthawk as I bundled my gear into the van in near darkness. A friend contacted me from his vacation in Thailand to inquire as to whether it might be a Woodcock I was hearing and not a Common Nighthawk. I love birds and the two most expensive apps on my iPhone are the Audubon Bird Guide and iBird Plus Guide. Both are excellent and also include bird sounds and songs. Having listened to each bird song on both Guides many times, I admit, Roger had stumped me… Woodcock, “peeent” or Nighthawk “peeent”. Just as last time, at 20 minutes after sundown I heard my first “peeent”. I turned my iPhone into a recorder and walked about the field recording ” peeents”. I turned on each bird’s song from the guides and tried to lure “it” in. I lay down on the ground and did it again straining to see one fly over me. I hid behind the cedar then walked down and back the field lane. I could see no bird, but got some great recordings. I am thinking by the rapid movements and changes of location of “peeents” that it might be a Common Nighthawk after all and not a Woodcock, but…
“Katama Opening”
“Katama Opening”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
When an opening migrates along the beach to Chappaquiddick, as this one is, it is a sign its cycle is almost over and will soon close. There are long periods of no opening and plus or minus 20 year periods of substantial ones. I have seen 2 of each in my lifetime. Both openings wreaked havoc on the southern most tip of “Chappy”. This last one sliced off cliff and land moving the water’s edge hundreds of feet north. In this painting I am lucky to have found the opening visible from my vantage point…
“Winter Leaves”
“Winter Leaves”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I can never resist painting this tree behind the dunes every so often. This season it has retained a lot more dried leaves than in years past. As I was packing up in the twilight to leave, I heard and barely saw one of my favorite evening birds, a Common Night Hawk, or Nightjar. There might have been two of them. They are exceptionally well camouflaged when sitting still on the ground. They zoom about sometimes low overhead and let out a nasally call: Peeent, Peeent as they circle around…
“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…
“Snow Fog”
“Snow Fog”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Meanwhile, with the cold snow cover and warm air above, the landscape view softened from the snow fog. Overhead the gray cloud cover gently misted and rained dictating painting be done from inside my van. Though it was warm enough to create without gloves, the 4 inches of slushy wet snow also made me happy to paint from the driver’s seat…
“Light, Snow, Shadows”
“Light, Snow, Shadows”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
After the February storm, the sun came out. It warmed up enough to paint outside without gloves for about an hour before I had to slip them on. The sky was brilliant blue and the snow shadows reflected the blue of space above. It felt great to be out painting in windless winter air…
“Bait Barrels”
“Bait Barrels”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
It was cold and blowing outside. I stayed in my van and painted this scene. Just before, my fisherman friend left his vessel and headed home for the day. The harbor remained quiet. As I worked a detail of US Coast Guardsmen and k-9 marched behind me out to their boat for practice maneuvers…