Block Studies at Acadia Workshop Center

i did a demo of a block study to show the technique, a la cape school.

what a great bunch of folks ive got this week. they are so stoked on learning how to take their color perception and mixing to the next level. they hail from as far away as england, chicago, hingham mass, and orlando florida.

 

 today was day three of a five day. it rained most of the day as the remnants of isaac went over maine, so we painted in the plush Acadia WSC studios. tomorrow we'll hit a place called Seawall, a nice stretch of maine coastline and put into practice what was learned today about how to paint fast, and mix accurate color on the fly!

 

my orleans (cape cod) workshop next weekend has one spot left. let me know if you'd like to sign up. 

Menace to Society

photo courtesy of john clayton

 

here i am accused of being a menace to society as i paint provincetown, cape cod, a city where nothing is a crime, except painting on the streets apparantly. no, really the cop was called and he responded but told me that i wasnt breaking the law, and could proceed with my painting. all the while john c. is snapping cell phone pix and snickering at me!

 

it all started with a man complaining and cursing, that i was too close to his fence and to leave my spot, which happened to be on public property, to which i less than politely declined to do. enter the law, who responded twice asking for my i.d. and asking me a bunch of questions. luckily the motorbike cop was originally from alabama and hadnt heard a southern accent like mine (and his) in ptown in ages, so he didnt hassle me any further and i finished the painting.

 

my current crime spree is in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island Maine, enjoying my intimate class of 5 students as we menaced the island with brushes and paints on day one of a five day workshop for Acadia Workshop Center.

SOLD-Sailing Away-6x8

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 i'm in northern maine tonite getting ready for my workshop at Acadia Workshop Center on Mt. Desert Island. got in last night from the cape and got to work finding a harbor to paint in. then today i got aquainted with the island so i'd know where to take the class this week. found breathtaking cliffs, beaches, harbors, and tidal marshes all over the place. cant wait to get started.

 

above is from cape cod atop High Hill (as it was known back in the day). thats marthas vineyard way off on the horizon.

SOLD-Sheila's Door

 Sheila's Door-6x8

Summer Toys-8x10

available at Rowley Gallery

 

have driven by these beach stuff stores for weeks, attracted to the beautiful colors of brightly colored floats glistening in the sun. finally broke down and painted it.

 

you gotta click on the image and check out the swan on the roof and the pink noodles under it. wish i could lay down paint like this ALL over the painting. i get shivers thinking of what a painting would like like if i could!

SOLD-Boatyard Corner-6x8

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got into a boatyard very early one morning and saw this striking scene. my favorite part of the painting is the warm beautiful color note of reflected light on the shade side of the hull.

 

the trick to reflected light is to make sure that the reflected color is not too light in value and that it reads warmer (or cooler) than the surrounding color without breaking up the mass. thats something hawthorne and hensche always stressed at the cape school. another one that said it all the time was charles sovek.

 

this blog has been going on for years now and when you blather on as much as i do you forget what you wrote, but check this out. dont get frustrated with all the things you have to remember to do when youre painting! ive had a very successful trial lawyer, and then later a surgery wiz, tell me that they thought  painting was really tough! so take heart! anything worth doing is worth whatever you have to do, to do it well.

SOLD-Morning Mist-6x8

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another painted in r.i. The morning i did this, it was sorta foggy and the light was really diffused. its really fun to play with the middleground (and background) to capture the atmosphere on this type of day.

SOLD-Little Rhody Lighthouse-6x8

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done over in east providence, rhode island on my way up to the cape. theyve got one tuff security guard on the hill we painted this from. seems folks can buy the land around these beautiful scenes and then they can keep you out. or they can try, right Kathy?   :D

$100-Fort Hill Hillside-6x8

email me to purchase

there's a subtle beauty thats hard to capture on a day like this. the values are much closer together from shadow to light on each object and the saturated colors of a sunny clear day drop out into beautiful muted versions. this is a cool area of Eastham called Fort Hill. home to a whaling capt back in the early 1800's, who was the richest man on cape cod at that time.

Yellow Towel-6x8

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First in Corn Hill Series

Orange and Pink Breeze-SOLD

8x10

This is the first in a series i'm doing around Corn Hill in Truro.

NFS-18x24-Under the Pier at Surf City

Under the Pier at Surf City- SOLD

note: dont know how it works when youre a subscriber to my blog,  but i posted three times today and dont know if only the top one shows up in your mailbox, or not. if you just see one post go to mikerooneystudios.blogspot.com to see the other two (theyre both for sale)

done on a july evening when the sun was just starting to strike under the pier. i love doing this motif so if you'd like one, drop me an email and we'll talk!

Also dont forget i've got a workshop in Bar Harbor Maine at the Acadia Workshop Center Labor Day week. if you'd like to sign up drop me an email and i'll get you up with Gail the sponsor.

SOLD-Marooned on Radio Island-8x8

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Teaching News
i'll be teaching on Martha's Vineyard the third week of August. if youre over there and would like to have some instruction on painting loose and colorfully outdoors, drop me an email and i'll give you the info. the scenery doesnt get much better than the Cape Islands late august.

$100-Shellfish House-6x8

$100 plus $10 s/h

to purchase with PayPal or credit card click the "buy now" button below

really lousy internet connection here on the cape so i wont be writing much until i can find an internet cafe with wifi,

with iphones do they even have that kind of thing anymore?

Conneticut Workshop Added

Just added a one day plein air workshop in Lyme Conn. for the 18th of Sept. Cost will be $100 and i'll most likely do a demo, explain how to simplify complex subjects, a bit on composition, and then how to quickly block in big shapes to capture the light. then you'll paint and i'll work at the easel with each person on their own set of challenges.then a critique at the end of the day.email me to hold your seat.

p.s.- there are some seats left in the Orleans Mass. (cape cod) w/s in late september.

Corn Hill Cottages-16x20

this is one from last year on the cape. its called corn hill and these cottages are up on a cliff 75 ft up looking out over the ocean and Ptown. one of my favorite spots on earth. you feel like you could touch an angels heel when youre up there looking out 10 miles towards the blue horizon. just love the way the colorful beach towels sway in the breeze.

A Subtle Shift

 Here are a few of my newest paintings. i dont know if its just me but i see a slight change in my work lately. more form being described but that doesnt mean more detail. i desperately try to keep my paintings like a dream, void of all detail. just the essential shapes!

you can contact me for location, availability and pricing on these

 Blueman Group-12x16 on gallery wrapped canvas. painted around the edges.  no frame needed

 Dreamy Swan Point-9x12- this one has subtle colors that arent showing online like the real thing. look at the road and you'll get an idea!

Darden and Ocean-18x24-this ones all knife, thick and luscious!

$100-Soundside Demo-6x6

email me to purchase

this was a demonstration for a recent lesson. SB wanted to see how to paint a believable tree. i explained that a tree is grouping of clumps and to render them like roundish organic shapes with the lightest leaves being on the side facing the light source (usually the sun). technique-wise, i first lay in the shadow side in darker green and then lay in the light side with a warmer lighter green. link as many of the dark shapes as you can. in other words dont have them (or the lights) look like polka dots. you want a chunky 'graphic' look. then add two more colors of darks and two more colors in the light. then it should look something like the one above. then i added some subtle temperature changes in the grass, water, and sky. i think this painting took about an hour. i love the cottage on this one! SB did a great painting during her lesson. way to go SB!

She also purchased my new Pochade Box fashioned after the one ive been using for years. it costs $160 without a tripod, and comes with a gray painted glass bottom which is a dream to paint/scrape on. it also comes with a painting panel holder. if you want a tripod, the total cost is only $199 complete. its the only paint box you'll ever need. email me for yours!

Workshop and Lesson News

i'll be on cape cod for the month of august and september. i'll be available for private lessons on cape cod during that time. the fee is $35 for the first hour of the day and $25 for every hour after that. i can do one-on-one lessons or teach your small group of friends or at your arts council/league. email me if youre interested in taking your painting to the next level.

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The Acadia Maine Workshop in Bar Harbor the week of Labor Day, is now officially a go! Yeah! There are a few spots left if you want to paint maine, eat lobster, and improve your painting! email me to register

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this was a demo for a private lesson i was teaching last week. one of the lessons was that you dont have to paint everything thats in the scene before you plein air (or in a photo for that matter) you can add, subtract, modify, move stuff around! its all about the painting. the scene in front of you is nothing more than the take-off point for the painting.

its like in music. you make a little three or four note sequence of notes called a "riff". around that riff you improvise and make stuff that enhances the way that riff or little sequence sounds. its the "homebase" that you always come back to. you can go wherever the music takes you long as you enhance that riff.

the scene is then the riff. you do everything you can to enhance the riff. the painting is the "music" created or the end product.

in this one i took out about six houses and gave the homeowners instant waterfront property, tho the actual houses are on what we call "second row". second row is across the street from the beach front cottages. tho' they were much cheaper to buy because they arent ocean front, if they stay around long enough, and the hurricanes keep eating the dunes (and the beach)  they will surely be ocean front at some point!

note: i even changed the direction of the ocean had these houses been waterfront. the ocean would have been running down the left side of these houses!

SOLD-Atlantic Cottage-7x9

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this ones from a few months ago on a painting trip to atlantic. i think.the only thing they do in this very remote downeast coastal town is fish, oyster, fix boats, and raise misquitos.  when i saw that old grill on the side of the house i knew i had to paint  this watery vignette.

note: i could use some help. i 'm trying to get back into my hotmail account and i have to prove who i am. theyre asking for some recent emails as proof. here's what i need. if you emailed me anytime around the end of june or the first two weeks of july could you give me your email address and the subject line of that email? you would be helping me get back into my account that has my 800 favorite email addresses in it. thanks so much!

SOLD-Misty M sideview-6x6

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i had to paint this, just had to. something about the composition and color notes drew be back to this scene of the misty m. she used to be docked around the corner but i love her new home. its great when there are some trees behind a boat. gives a sense of scale and who doesnt love some red/violet on green action? its called a split complement and works great.

Please note that my new email address is mikerooneystudios@hotmail.com and all mail to the old address is NOT being forwarded to this new address. if you'd like to be added back to my mailing list please send me a message to the new email address above.

here's my large painting setup. its a gloucester easel and my custom paintbox. i use it for anything over 9x12 and works great. i've got some of the paintboxes in production as we speak. if youve ever been to one of my workshops or seen me do a demo, you saw it.its the only one i use anymore and ive had em all from soltek to french easels, and this one is the bomb. almost 12x16 mixing area and wings like a french mistress on the sides to hold stuff. this is the only paintbox you'll ever need. if you'd like one email me. the cost will be roughly $150. the box is extremely versatile, lite and has glass already in it. can be rigged like above or you can use a tripod.

BOO HOO!

Well you always think it'll be the other guy but in this case it was me. my email address was hijacked and ive been locked out of my primary email account and it doesnt look like there's any remedy for me and about a thousand irate hotmail users. i got a whole new hotmail account/address, so if you sent me an email from july 4th till today i didnt receive it. please send again. lost all my contacts too OUCH! got the computer screened and thankfully it doesnt have any viruses.
so if you got an email from me suggesting you try some diet pills it wasnt me trying to tell you something LOL.
computer was in the shop for a while so now that ive got it back i'll start posting new paintings ive been working on for the past couple of weeks.

p.s. i'm doing alot of private lessons in the mornings here on topsail island and can schedule them till i leave for the cape in a few weeks. if you'd like a few hours of personal instruction, contact me at my new email address: mikerooneystudios@hotmail.com.

I washed my guitar and it shrunk

"oh what the heck, lets play!"