Morning Alley 8x10
Commercial St. Rooftops- 5x7
Iconic P'Town-5x7
Dyer and Bradford St.- 8x10
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.
Corn Hill Cottages- 16x20just 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.
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.
Breakwater View
here's a link to an article about last years show in Wicked Local. dont you love that name.
SOLD
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
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.
