"From Douarnenez Harbor"

"From Douarnenez Harbor"

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel
SOLD

I was putting together some paintings today to take to Yarmouth Frame and Gallery, and found one that I hadn't posted from my trip to Brittany this summer with the Wapping Group, one of the highlights of my painting year. This was painted from the coastal village of Douarnenez in one of the rare moments of sunshine we had on that trip. And now for sale at the gallery. It was such a fun trip and I met some wonderful UK painters. What a nice thought on which to end the year.

Happy Holidays!

Winter Stream

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I apologize for showing a painting that has already been on the blog, but when I think about the holidays this one keeps coming back to me. And I keep searching for similar views when the snow flies, like it has done the last few days here in New England.

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday week, and wish you a joyous new year!

Before closing, I'd like to point you to Katherine Tyrrell's Making a Mark blog. Katherine has gathered 16 paintings divided into 4 categories: still life, nature, portrait, and landscape, from paintings nominated by her readers. We are all invited to vote for one in each category. I've made my votes, and in some categories this was a very difficult choice. I hope you will take a look and do some voting yourself.

Life Drawing

Lounging at Concord Art - maybe a minute

On the Pillow at BFAC - 5 minutes

Seated at Concord Art - 15 minutes

Last week I had the pleasure of attending two life drawing sessions, one at the Boston Figurative Art Center in Somerville, MA, and the other at the Concord Art Association. At both sessions, we started with short poses (3 minutes at the BFAC, 5 at Concord Art), and gradually moved up to 15 or 20 minutes). The BFAC session was on Monday night, and I started with a pen, and moved to pencil for the 10 minute and longer poses. On Tuesday, inspired by the work of Rob Adams, who I met on the Wapping trip I took in June I did a little experimenting at home, and was ready to try water color on Wednesday at Concord Art. That was really fun, though I will bring more suitable paper next time!

Both of these groups have life drawing all winter long. The BFAC announcements are done through www.meetup.com, the price is $25 for a 3 hour session, and a reservation is required. At the Concord Art Association you just walk in, and it's $10 for a 2 hour session. Both start at 7PM, BFAC on Mondays, Concord Art on Wednesdays. Check to see when the next session is scheduled.

Yarmouth Frame and Gallery Holiday Show

Ornaments - SOLD

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Acadia - SOLD
6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

From Meadow Pond Bridge
6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Nauset Marsh
8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

These are my paintings for the holiday show at Yarmouth Frame and Gallery, which is opening tomorrow (Saturday) from 4-7. The gallery is overflowing with paintings (300 at last count) so you may just find that special something for your gift or wish list. I'll be there and would love to see you and to wish you a very happy holiday season.

4-7PM December 8th

Yarmouth Frame and Gallery

Route 1

Yarmouth, ME

Concord Art Association Holiday Originals Show

 Apple Versus Orange

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

$200

Farm Pond Pines

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel - SOLD

$200

I've put two paintings in the Concord Art Association Holiday Originals Show, which will be open
November 29-December 20, 2012. The open house is on Sunday, December 2, 2:00-4:00p. I'm not going to be able to be at the open house, but do stop by if you are in the area. They have wonderful paintings, jewelry, and other art related gifts. I'll be checking it out on the 29th.

Concord Art Association

37 Lexington Road, Concord MA 01742

978-369-2578

gallery@concordart.org

Nauset Marsh

"Nauset Marsh"

8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

Last month I visited Cape Cod with my dear friend Mary. We went gallery hopping and also managed to get out for a beautiful painting session at Fort Hill in Eastham. This is the view from the parking lot across the marsh to Nauset Beach and the old Coast Guard Station.

I've also included a photo of the painting at the end of that session. You can see that I had some adjustments to make, pulling in the marsh in the foreground and adjusting the values of the marsh grass (lighter) and water (darker). I don't usually modify my plein air paintings, but this one needed it. And if I showed you my original thumbnail, the composition would look a lot more like the finished painting...

Also wonderful on this trip, were the painters that we met. Our first morning, as we headed up Commercial St. in Wellfleet, we saw a fellow painting on the side of the road near Uncle Tim's Bridge. Of course we had to stop and admire his work, and it was well worth admiring. It was Michael Davis, and he very kindly answered our questions about the painting, and told us which galleries to visit to view more of his work. I don't think he has a website, so take a look at his work on the Kiley Court Gallery site (Provincetown) and the Left Bank Gallery site (Wellfleet). What a great painter and nice man!

Hurricane Sandy relief auction

 "Southport Harbor"

4"x8" watercolor on paper

at auction, startin bid of $40

 Sunflowers IV

3"x3" gouache on paper

at auction, startin bid of $40

 Sunflowers V

3"x3" gouache on paper

at auction, startin bid of $40

I know many of you are as concerned as I am with the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy. You probably have friends who were impacted, as I have. I was pleased when David and Carol Marine put up an auction to collect funds for hurricane relief, just like the very successful auction that they hosted for the tsunami in Japan. And I was remiss in not posting when I put my first painting in the auction, almost two weeks ago. What has surprised me is that only a fraction of the money has been raised in this auction for Sandy relief as was for the tsunami. After looking through hundreds of photos sent to me by a friend in coastal Connecticut, I know that we are far from being done, in helping out the communities that were devastated by this storm. So I've put in a couple of more paintings (the sunflowers), with the hope that they will attract more bidding. My first contribution came from my heart, since it is a painting of one of the harbors hard hit by the storm. The auction on that painting ends in two days. If you are interested at all, please go and take a look. And thank you.

I've also put these images on my facebook page (this is new for me!) in the hopes of getting some interest there. And thanks to all of you who also have paintings in the dailypaintworks auction. Here's to its success.

www.dailypaintworks.com

Art in Maine Exhibit at the BRAF Gallery

 "Diligence"

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

"With Pie"

8"x8" oil on Raymar panel

It's been a while guys, and I'm sorry. It's not that I haven't been painting. I've managed to get out at least once most weeks over the last month or so, I just haven't been happy enough with what I've done to show it to you. I guess it's just one of those things I'll have to paint my way through.

But I wanted to let you know that I've got two paintings in the "Art in Maine" exhibit at the BRAF Gallery in Boothbay Harbor. The show runs through November 2nd. I was particularly exited to have my paintings included in this show, because the juror was Connie Hayes, whose work and encouragement of other artists I very much admire.

And interestingly, in my plein air travels from Maine to Cape Cod, I keep meeting the nicest and most talented artists. I'm even thinking of starting another blog to introduce them. Or would you prefer to meet them here?

Green House, Fruitlands

Green House, Fruitlands

8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

 The painting at the end of my first session, and sun is now behind the house.

Last Friday and again on Tuesday I worked on this painting at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA. Fruitlands is a beautiful park with historic buildings on the site of the unsuccessful utopian community of the 19th century transcendentalists. In addition to the museum exhibits, and a fine restaurant, people come here to walk and to see the wonderful views across to Mount Wachusett and beyond. They have a plein air program, where artists get an annual membership for donating a painting done on the site. Above is the second painting I've done there.

I've been using a new tool that helped me choose this scene and get a good composition. It's called Value Viewer, and I use it on my iphone. My favorite feature is the notan view, which lets you check the composition without the distraction of color or gray-scale nuances. Below is the notan view from Value Viewer of my first composition choice, note how the light lean-to on the right drags your eye out of the picture. A different shot, which includes the shadow side of the lean-to is much better, see bottom image.  Thanks, Haidee-Jo for suggesting this app!

A day on Peaks Island

 "Rocky Shore"

8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

On Monday I took the ferry to Peaks Island from Portland, and what a beautiful day it was. Gorgeous puffy clouds, but still lots of sun, and a nice 65 degrees. After much futzing around checking out locations, learning island history, and finally renting a bike to get to the back side of the island, I set up on a rock overlooking the Atlantic,... and it started to sprinkle. I thought I was back in Brittany with the Wapping guys! I covered everything, took a walk, and it started again. So I just started painting.

 The scene, but of course by this time the tide was much farther in.

 Artist riding the bike with backpack on, tripod and panel carrier in the paniers. Am I sore after all that walking and riding? Yes, but it was a fun day on the island.

  Ocean Point Pine 6"x8" oil on panel

 

Ocean Point Pine Sketch

 

Sketchbook page

Betsy painting

These are more from my day in East Boothbay last week at the OPA paintout. The top image is my first painting of the day, the same tree as in the painting in the previous post. But here, I'm looking into the sun, or at least it started out that way. My preliminary sketch is the second image, and as is often the case, I like it better than the sketch I did on the panel for the painting. Perhaps a notan would be better preparation for the painting, since it's masses rather than lines that matter. Next time!

I had lots of fun with the drawings, particularly of the other painters. And Betsy did not have two umbrellas.

"Ocean Point" - OPA Great Paint Out 2012

 "Ocean Point" 10:x8" oil on Raymar panel

The scene.

On Wednesday I painted with the Plein Air Painters of Maine group at Ocean Point in East Boothbay for the Oil Painters of America Great Paint Out 2012. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun. I met some great painters, including one of my heroes, Tony van Hasselt. This kind of day is such a treasure, with winter heading our way.

The painting above was done about 4PM, when everyone else was gone, in the spot where Tony stood in the morning. I was thrilled to have been in his painting. I was closer in at that point, looking into the sun, painting the tree on the right.  I'll post my tree painting and some of my sketches when I get back to my scanner.

Corn and Sunflowers

With a forecast for rain all day, I was happy to see clouds moving out around 10AM. I stopped the car for a better look and couldn't resist painting this scene of rows of corn, trees, and other crops. It took 3 sketches before I got what I wanted, and as often happens, I like the composition of the sketch better than that of the painting. Something to work on!

Laudholm Marsh

Laudholm Marsh 10"x8" oil on Ampersand Panel

 The platform that solidly held my umbrella

Yesterday I painted at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm. It's been years since I painted there, I used to very much enjoy their annual wet paint auction. I wish they'd bring it back.

I wanted to paint the marsh near where it goes into the ocean, and was lucky to have this platform to stand on, with an excellent railing on which to clamp my umbrella. It was sunny and a bit windy, so this was a welcome surprise. Umbrellas clamped to tripods often tip over in a breeze, which I know from experience. With this set-up, it wasn't going anywhere.

My Favorite Model

My Favorite Model

8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

Last week my favorite model (my niece Jessica) was visiting and we managed to grab an hour to do some quick oil sketches. She's very good at holding a pose. I tried to remember all of the Peggi Kroll-Roberts DVDs I've been watching since I took Peggi's class in April. This was the result.

Sketching on the Boat

Last week we got in some sailing, and I used my sketchbook rather than my camera, sketching as we sailed along. The goal was to try and capture the shapes of the sail and lobster boats, particularly while the sailboats were heeling over. I like to use pen for this, going over anything I don't like with something I like better. The extra lines give some depth and movement. What do you think?

Sketching at the beach

Sunbathing Sketch

This week I've been sketching at the beach. In Massachusetts we have beaches on our lakes as well as the ocean, and there are several near my house. I'm pretty sure the sand is imported, but people still love to sunbathe and then run into the water to cool off.

I think this lady was reading a book, which gave me enough time to do a quick sketch. Today I tried some water color and gouache on a similar figure. More experimenting needed there.

Littlejohn, Summer Morning - NFS

"Littlejohn, Summer Morning"

8"x10" oil on Raymar panel

I've sailed by the dock on Littlejohn Island in Casco Bay many times, but July 8th was the first time I'd painted there. Janice Cooper and I had a great time that Sunday morning, and I went back last Friday morning to finish up.

Big Loulou and the artists

Big Loulou (rescued from the rain)

8"x10"

Derek Daniells and Steven Alexander

 Peter Cronin

Rob Adams

Michael Richardson

Haidee-Jo Summers and Richard Bond

Sorry for all the images, but I wanted to introduce you to some of the great painters that I met while on the Wapping Group and friends trip to Brittany. Starting at the top, in Port-en-Bessin, many of us were entranced by the large fishing boats loaded onto cradles on the marine railway. My unfinished painting is at the top. Gros Loulou (Big Loulou) is the boat on the left, and in the second photo you'll see Dereck Daniells and Steven Alexander, members of the Wapping Group, with the same subject. It was a day of swiftly moving clouds and lots of patches of rain. Up and down came the umbrellas, and finally we got clobbered with a torrential downpour. Haidee and I gave up, but Derek and Steven finished their paintings, which were beautiful. Take a look at Derek's website here and an article on Steven here.

Next is Peter Cronin, from Wales, who paints wonderful watercolors. Check out his website and be sure to look at the demo.

I enjoyed Rob Adam's work in both watercolor and acrylic, and bought a watercolor sketchbook like the one he uses at Cornelissens in London. He has a very instructive blog (Brittany post here and in the next post) and a nice website.

Michael Richardson is another Wapping Group member, and with his partner, Kate Borg, organized the trip. Many thanks to them both! They do several painting trips to France each year, so check out Michael's website for both his paintings and the trips (Holidays).

I've mentioned Haidee before, do look at her website, and check out the paintings in her soon to open Exhibition 2012.

Richard Bond paints both in oils and water color, and they are both wonderful. His website is here.

I was fortunate enough to come home with paintings by several of these painters, and hope to complete my collection.

And I promise to finish "Big Loulou".

Thanks for your patience.