Monday, August 29, 2011

Some New Ones for the Show Opening Saturday




Bend in the Road-16x20




to purchase any of the new pieces headed to the Rowley Gallery show click here



click here to see aug. 17th painting called Breakwater View-8x10


and


here for aug. 18th post image of Morning Has Broken-8x10 (also in the show)

Slinging Paint Left and Right

Morning Alley 8x10




Commercial St. Rooftops- 5x7
SOLD


Iconic P'Town-5x7

SOLD


Dyer and Bradford St.- 8x10

SOLD

And More

From Corn Hill-6x8


Marsh View in Fog- 5x7



Summer Cottage- 16x20 SOLD



Waterfront Dreams- 9x12


to purchase any of these paintings click here to contact Rowley Gallery in Orleans, Cape Cod Mass.

Upcoming show pcs

Curve to the Bay-9x12 SOLDDyer St- 8x10


Sheila's View-12x16
SOLD


Slice of Light-8x10

to purchase any of these click here to contact Rowley Gallery

Friday, August 26, 2011

Old Red-5x7


some small ones in the CapeScapes show opening next saturday at the Rowley Gallery, Orleans Cape Cod Mass.







Old Drawbridge- 6x8



sorry ive been so slack posting but as you'll see ive been soooo slammed trying to get a complete one man show painted in three weeks. the weathers been pretty good but it rained every other day the first week i was here. felt stressed not knowing what the days ahead held in store. plein air painting is so very weather dependant. i love cloudless days to paint on and we all know thats not that frequent.

hurricane irene is poised to hit most of the east coast so if youre reading this from coastal maine to wrightsville beach nc, batten down the hatches and get some supplies in case the power goes out. i went three days without power during Fran a few yrs back. also a good idea to fill up the bathtub in case the water plant is flooded and you dont have fresh water.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Subdued Skiffs-6x6-$75


$75 plus $10 s/h
to purchase with PayPal or credit card click the "buy now" button below






here's another good example of a milky light key. soft-to-no-shadows and values pretty close together, with a blueish-violet light permeating everything.




Corn Hill Cottages- 16x20

recently purchased by N.I. from New York


just got back from doing a demonstration at my orleans gallery. took an 8x10 painting i did of some cottages with the water behind them (with robert and chris- my new painting buds) in Provincetown this morning, and painted one 16x20 from it, as i gave a running commentary on what i was doing to the half dozen or so in the audience.


we were lucky to get any painting done this morning as the clouds rolled in right at dawn when we got there. then they broke just in time to paint and then clouded back up right when we all finished. we are quite the sight, all of us toting huge backpacks full of painting gear down a street full of tourists. we look like those soldiers you see on tv when theyre headed off to afghanistan with packs on their backs as big as they are. we tromp around looking for something that catches our fancy and away we go. in p'town (the oldest continual art colony in the US) the people are are so used to seeing painting on the street that nobody even stops and says anything to you like they do everywhere else i paint. inevitably when they approach you and ask you what youre painting? you hear about some guys cousin or mother who painted such and such. all the while youre trying to maintain your concentration on the painting (but not appear rude) so you grunt at the appropriate times and they sooner or later mosey down the road. i used to put a pair of earplugs in my ears like i was listening to music and the plug end went into my pocket not even hooked up to anything. dont do that anymore. now i just hint to the chatty kathy bystander if theyre interested in purchasing the painting really cheap like $2000 or so?they usually get scared and scurry away as fast as possible. ahhhhh... peace and quiet again. now back to work on the canvas in front of me, as i wrestle it into submission.

Friday, August 19, 2011

House Sketch #0811-8x8-SOLD

high thin clouds cause this one to have soft shadows and a coolish light key. sometime wish it was always sunny and cloudless but then i think, wow, that would get old after a while. the challenge is getting the overcast, milky, or downright gray days and making the painting believable. being true to temperatures in the color mixtures is the key. sensitivity to the chroma (saturation) is also key for nailing any lighting key. henry hensche and charles hawthorne from the cape cod school of art drilled this into their students. wish i had attended the school before it closed in the very early 90's. i had to get what i know about it from books and the internet.its cool that for a few weeks, i'm painting on the streets just yards sometimes from where they taught.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Morning Has Broken-8x10

got the title from a cat stevens song. what a great early morning view of the harbor in chatham. the sun just an hour up in the sky. the lighting effect keeps everything soft and silohuetted.



i found this secluded spot while "crawling" around million dollar homes. there werent any "no parking" signs anywhere near here telling me just how local you gotta be to even find the place. i love catching that sparkle on the water. its made of white bent yellow, and pink, and orange with just a few straight out of the tube white dots for contrast. makes it glittery eh?

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

New One for the Upcoming Capescapes Show

Breakwater View
8x10


here's a link to an article about last years show in Wicked Local. dont you love that name.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Port Clyde/Monhegan Island Maine Workshop



This could be you! unless youre a guy and then you'd lose the floppy hat, blouse and chino's for something more masculine.

there's a spot left in my upcoming workshop in port clyde and monhegan island august 29-31. in this one i'll give lots of at- the- easel instruction as well as little teaching modules in the morning. something to chew on and improve your skills on the paintings you do the rest of the day. we'll probably all hang together after class too and talk shop. always a good time!
price is only $300 for all three days.
if youre interested drop me an email or call me at 919-920-9718 and get a spot.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Red House in Chatham-6x8-SOLD

 SOLD
riding around near dusk looking for my final painting of the day, i saw the last bit of warm light on this red house.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Jamestown Light Show-6x8-SOLD


another from the rhode island series. a beautiful place across the bay from newport. the sun was going down and the light/color was changing fast. i stuck with the earlier version. wish i had whipped out another just as the sun slid under those clouds you see in this one. thats what i love about painting. there's always tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

today was the first day of sun since getting to cape cod saturday, so i painted like a madman (making hay while the sunshines-like the farmers like to say). will post the 16x20 street scene i did in Harwich and a 9x12 from Wellfleet when i get em tweaked. also did one for Daily Painters Gallery in the harbor at Harwichport. yesterday i did a cloudy day scene on a 6x8 in stage harbor, chatham. as you can see i'm doing quite a bit of traveling around to do these pc.'s.
to see what i was up to over the weekend check out my new painting buddies blog. its great to paint with people that love to paint plein air. these guys eat and sleep and live it! we hit it off the minute i met em.
chris' blog is http://chrisgillisart.blogspot.com/ also check out robert abele's blog from chris'.

we're heading up to corn hill in truro thursday for another stab at that. hopefully the sun will be out the second time!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Clouds Near Sachuest-6x6


a little ditty from sachuest wildlife reserve near newport rhode island. i was there several days ago teaching one of my Paint Camp workshops.



this one was a challenge. you outdoor painters know what i'm talking about when i say the light was "shifty".



there's a reason the word has a bad connotation as in when somebody says "that guys a little shifty". what they mean is he's unreliable. thats how the light is when these big billowy clouds drift across the sky. there are holes where the sun shines thru down onto the landscape. not the whole landscape mind you, just pieces of it. so the landmass in the background might be lit up and the foreground might be in shade. five minutes later the background landmass is half in shadow and the foreground lit up like times square. can be frustrating while painting.



what can you do on a day like this when you need to make a few dollars to pay the bills? well this is when a lot of outdoor painting in the past will come in handy. the memory is in better shape for the task. you stick with one set of conditions and no matter what happens you dont chase the thing around as its changing. paint the landmass when its lit up. when that goes in shadow and the foreground lights up, paint it. what do you do when its all gone in shadow? clean your palette, clean some brushes, step back and take a break from looking at it. then when the part you want to work on is lit up again work on that section of the painting. dont think this method takes the frustration out of it, it just makes it maneable. i have to paint to eat, making all my dollars from my art, so i cant take "shifty" days off, and my wife frankly wont even let me entertain any such nonsensical ideas! LOL

Monday, August 1, 2011

On the Canals-8x8-SOLD

one from near where i live. this one sold to a collector in norwalk, conn.

Morning Anchorage-16x20


contact me if you'd like to purchase- $790 nicely framed in gold, $850 in really really nice dark frame with gold fillet and small details on the corners


from a recent excursion "crawling" around on the waterfront in sneads ferry. was in the 100's doing this one and i had to put paper towels around the headband of my hat to keep the sweat from dripping into the paint. thats too hot for 10 am when this was done a few days in a row. Crawling is the plein air method of driving and walking very slowly past an area a dozen times looking for just the right scene to strike your painting fancy. normally it looks very suscpicious to the locals in a neighborhood but they know me down here and i dont get the stink eye any more. they know i'm a painter and not a cat burglar.


Leaving for the cape in a few days, with my first stop in Rhode Island. theres room left in the one day Paint Camp i'm doing in Portsmouth R.I. this friday. i supply all the materials and you leave at the end of the day with two completed paintings. class is geared for beginner to intermediate painters. contact me if youre interested.