"Still Life With Apples"

"Still Life with Apples"
16"x12" oil on canvas

The final lesson in our class with Tina Ingraham, was a study of the still life paintings of Cezanne. Then we each set up a Cezanne-like still life of our own, and tried to use all of the previous lessons to paint from it. I particularly liked the calligraphy as a finishing touch, it was lots of fun.

Happy Holidays!

"Ornaments" (from 2009)
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Happy Holidays to all my painting friends. It has been a pleasure getting to know you and painting with you over this last year.

"Lizzy" - NFS

"Lizzy"
7.5"x9" pencil, charcoal, Conte crayon on Canson Mi-Teintes paper

For my friend Suzanne's birthday, I did this drawing of her new kitten, Lizzie.

"Morandi Bottles"

"Morandi Bottles"
8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

In our class with Tina Ingraham this week, after studying the work of Morandi, we tried to paint that way. I particularly enjoyed creating the "Morandi bottles" by covering the inside with acrylic paint mixtures. One of my classmates said mine were Morandi on a happy day, referring to the colors. A classmate contributed the wonderful boxes.

Color and Light Show at River Arts

"Red Boat Christmas Cove"
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel, framed
$200

"Saltmarsh"
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel, framed
$200

"Bend in the River"
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel, framed
$200

The jury is in on the Color and Light Show at River Arts in Damariscotta, ME. These three of my paintings are included. The show opens on Friday, and will be up through mid January.

Holiday Show at the Yarmouth Frame Shop

"Shadow Quartet"
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

"Gilsland Snow Field"
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

"Clouds over Cove Road"
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

"Fall at the Pond"
8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

These are my new paintings for the holiday show at the Yarmouth Frameshop and Gallery. The opening is Saturday from 4-7PM at the gallery on Route 1 in Yarmouth, ME. I'd love to see you there!

Sunday afternoon 2-4PM is the opening for the Concord Art Association show in Concord, MA. If you are in the area, do stop by. My two small sunflower paintings will be there.

"Eclectic Still Life" - NFS

"Eclectic Still Life"

24"x18" charcoal on paper

In addition to the painting class I am taking with Tina Ingraham, I'm also studying drawing with her. This drawing is from our third session. I started by covering the paper with charcoal and then creating the drawing by wiping it off with a rag, a chamois, my finger, and a kneaded eraser. And then adding some back... and taking some off, etc. I made several passes lightening each time. I'm pleased with the results, but found it tough going in the early stages.

"Sunflowers V"

"Sunflowers V"
3"x3" gouache on paper

Another small gouache painting for the Concord Art Association Holiday Show.

"Sunflowers IV"

"Sunflowers IV"
3"x3" gouache on paper

I did this little piece for the Concord (MA) Art Association Holiday Originals Show. It opens in a couple of weeks.

"Blue Pitcher and Orange" - NFS

"Blue Pitcher and Orange"
8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

I'm taking a 10 week class with Tina Ingraham on color. This was my effort for week 4.

"Eggplant and Paper Bag"

"Eggplant and Paper Bag"
6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

Another 5 value study. Who knew paper bags were so much fun to paint?

"Eggplant Bowl and Bag"

"Eggplant Bowl and Bag"

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

A 5 value study of kitchen items.

"Fall at the Pond"

"Fall at the Pond"

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

The scene from my friend Kitty's porch last Friday. It's so great to still be able to paint outside.

"Sparkle"

"Sparkle"

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Another plein air painting from my trip to Acadia. This one was done at the tip of the schoodic Penninsula, looking into the sun. What a beautiful spot!

"Acadia"

"Acadia"

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

Last week I visited Acadia, the part of the park on the Schoodic Penninsula. This is a view of Mount Desert Island. It's a great place to paint plein air, with lots of places to pull off and park the car, and not too many visitors at this time of the year.

Yarmouth Frameshop and Gallery Opening on Saturday

"Sunflowers"

8"x8" oil on Raymar panel

$300 framed

"What is It?"

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

$200 framed

"Girls Looking out to Sea"

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

$200 framed

The fall show at the Yarmouth Frameshop and Gallery begins this week. The opening is on Saturday, from 4-7PM. I'll be there for the first hour or so, and would love to see you. These are a few of my paintings in the show.

"Deblois Woods"

"Deblois Woods"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Just east of Route 193 in Washington County, Maine, are the blueberry barrens famous for their bright red fall color. I was a bit early this year, and painted the woods in Deblois.

"Normandy Fields"

"Normandy Fields"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

This is another of the paintings done on our recent painting trip to Normandy which will be in the show at the Yarmouth Frameshop in February.

"Normandy Sky"

"Normandy Sky"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I've just returned from a painting workshop in Normandy taught by Carolyn Walton, run by my friend Joelle Feldman. What a great time we had! This is my first painting of the field next to the house we rented in Pont L'Eveque. We had the most beautiful skys, accompanied by some rain. Carolyn is a master of clouds, and I learned a lot from her demo and mentoring on this one.

Joelle, Suzanne deLesseps, and I will have a show of the paintings from this trip in February at the Yarmouth Frameshop and Gallery in Yarmouth, ME in February. I'll keep you posted as to the date.

Liz Wilten Workshop Days 2 and 3

My composition exercise with 4 values - SOLD

Liz's block-in plus 25 strokes demo

I loved doing the 4 value design exercise on day 2 of Liz's workshop. You can see her version on her blogpost. The fly specs you see on mine are the reminders of a very hot day in the blazing sun. Liz always used her umbrella, to shade both the painting and her palette.

The bottom image is a demo that Liz did on day 3. This exercise was the last of the workshop. Preceded by a painting done with only 50 strokes, in this exercise Liz did a basic block-in, and then finished the painting with only 25 strokes. I think she was roughly on stroke 12 when I took this photo.

This was a great workshop, and I enjoyed hosting it. If you can't make the trip to the workshop of your dreams, consider hosting the instructor yourself.

Liz Wilten Workshop Day 1

Barnacle Rocks - my block-in

Liz doing a demo on Cousin's Island

As I sit here with Hurrican Irene raging outside, it's nice to think back on the wonderful plein air workshop we had last weekend with Liz Wiltzen in South Freeport, ME. I asked Liz to travel from her home in Banff, Canada, to work with a dozen of us, and everyone thought it was an amazing workshop.

Liz began by stating categorically, this workshop is not about painting pretty paintings, you aren't going to get anything you'll want to hang on the wall. It's about exercises to build your skill. And they did, organized to build on one another, they pulled us through the basics of blocking in, design and composition, and use of minimal strokes/time boxing to focus on the essentials.

I learned a lot the day before the workshop, when I took Liz to my favorite painting spots so she could select venues for the workshop. Liz was looking for views with a more defined foreground, mid, and backround, than I had done. We had to work hard to find spots with interesting foregrounds, that weren't going to be covered with high tide during the workshop hours. So now, I have some more good places to paint!

Above is my block-in from the first afternoon, I probably took it a bit too far, but you get the idea. And a photo of Liz doing a demo the second morning at the beach on Cousin's Island.

"Blue Boat" - SOLD

"Blue Boat"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I've had a month of too many distractions and too many wipe-offs and so no posts. It's good to be back and to spend some time painting. I painted this one Sunday morning at the Yarmouth town landing. I enjoy weekend mornings there, with all the boat launch action and the occasional lobster boat coming and going.

"Yellow Meadow"

"Yellow Meadow"

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

It's wonderful to be able to paint outdoors. Long live summer!

Sketchbook Girls

Pose 1

Pose 2

Pose 3

Pose 4

On Sunday the kids went down to the dock to get away from the heat. I took four quick photos and chose this young lady to draw from each photo. What a great pose.

"Summer Lupines"

"Summer Lupines"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Summer Lupines in process

The lupines are in bloom at Great Brook State Park and they are gorgeous. I've been struggling this last week, with lots of wipers to my credit. On this one, I wiped off the whole bottom half of the painting and made a second try, which you see here. The bottom photo shows my approach on the second pass, to cover the grass and flower area with blocks of color giving the basic composition. Then I came back in with strokes of color on top, first with the lupines and then using the green to shape the negative space around them. In version one, too much of the orangey-yellow background was showing through.

"Farm Pines Again"

"Farm Pines Again"

8"x6"

oil on Raymar panel

It was wonderful to be out this morning at Great Brook Farm painting this wonderful group of trees above the pond. There was a big bullfrog serenading me and hopefully getting his fill of the mosquitos that my bug dope scared away. I am so glad to see the sun!

Fellow Passengers Sketches

On a tour boat in New York Harbor last weekend, I did a few sketches of my fellow passengers.

Values

"Off the Rim" in black and white

"Off the Rim" in color

mixing the same value as yellow from the tube

black and white version of mixing the same value as yellow from the tube

I really enjoy doing value studies, whether in paint or as a sketch. I think it's a lot harder to translate those values into color though. Take a look at "Off the Rim" above. I was surprised to see the red bowl and blue background have almost the same value after I photoshopped the image of the painting into black and white. In the color version, the blue seems much lighter to me. So I decided to try and improve my ability to see the values in patches of color with the above exercise. Give it a try and see if you find it as challenging as I did: paint a swatch of cad yellow straight from the tube. Then try and mix a gray, red, and blue to match the value of the yellow. It took me a couple of tries to get the red and blue light enough (above is my second try). I've added a value finder to each image above to make it easier to see.

The above swatches were painted in gouache and scanned.

"Drew's Farm Apple Tree"

"Drew's Farm Apple Tree"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

The trees at Drew's Farm Orchard are pruned so that they look almost like sculptures. I was intrigued by the shapes and the clumps of flowers and leaves.

"Apple Orchard"

"Apple Orchard"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I had a great time last week at the local apple orchards, in the few moments of sunshine. This was my second effort, not sure if I can save the first. We'll see. Thanks to Bob and Joelle for the wonderful scenery.

Sunflowers

"Sunflowers"

8"x8" oil on Raymar panel

I couldn't resist these sunflowers at Trader Joe's, they are such fun to paint.