Buoy #7

Buoy #7 Pink ad Yellow Flag

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Here's another buoy with a flag, pink is apparently a popular color for buoy flags. Sometimes I change the color of the buoys (always risky, because it's easy to miss how the water impacts the various reflections), but this time I loved all the colors the lobsterman choose, and have tried to show you his palette.

Cove Road Mud

Cove Road Mud

5"x7" oil on linen panel

I was back at Cove Road in South Freeport last month, grappling with the mud at low tide. And I had plenty of company, with the clammers out in force. I think what they were doing was harder than what I was doing.

 A clammer, it's hard work! And a long slog back to the grass.

Lobster Buoy 6

 Lobster Buoy 6 Pink and Green

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

This summer we saw several lobster buoys with a flags on their sticks, which certainly makes them easier to see. I particularly liked this one because of the colors.

Buoy #5

Buoy #5, Purple and Yellow

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I decided to go with a complementary color scheme for this buoy. It has a wonderful reflection in the photo, which I couldn't resist. I've still got a few more of these to finish, and I'll intersperse them with other subjects and whatever plein air painting the weather permits.

Lobster Buoy 4

Lobster Buoy 4 - Holiday

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I was asked to make one of the buoys with a holiday theme, so it could be used for marketing holiday events. When the water is reflecting the trees and it's a bit overcast, you get water that looks like this. With a red and white buoy, it's kind of festive, don't you think?

Sandy Point Beach

"Sandy Point Beach"

5"x7" oil on linen panel

This afternoon it was windy, so I painted from the shelter of the path down to Sandy Point Beach on Cousin's Island. I was tempted to put in a few people, but none stayed long enough. A couple of young women headed out to one of the islands in kayaks for a last overnight before it gets too cold. Good for them!

Low Tide at Cove Road

 

Low Tide at Cove Road

5"x7" oil on linen panel

Note: the mud is pinker than I've managed to capture with this photo!

Working on the first version of this painting on Monday afternoon, I was up against a stiff breeze, and wedged myself against the easel to keep things from blowing away. Low back pain followed the next day, so I've been stretching and taking it easy for a bit.

Sadly, I don't a photo of the first pass before I scraped it. But here's the scraped results, which I liked a lot better than the cool mud in the first pass.

Harbor Master

Harbor Master

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel
 SOLD

I painted this one on the Freeport town dock, under the harbor master's office, which is up a flight of stairs. His boat was tied to the dock, but I could still see the bright light hitting the left side. Simplifying the engine was fun.

Passage to Seal Bay

"Passage to Seal Bay"

8"x10"

oil on canvas panel

Seal Bay is a beautiful unspoiled part of Vinalhaven Island in Penobscot Bay. It's a must stop for us on our annual boat trip to the area. At high tide, a small boat can make it through this passage into Vinal Cove, and near the end of the cove there is a reversing tidal falls, which everyone loves to go up and down in their dinghies. This year the tide was a bit high when we went through, so there was no falls action. This painting was done from a photo taken as we headed back through the passage to Seal Bay where our boat was anchored.

Lobster Buoy 2

Orange White and Green Buoy

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Today I did the value under paintings for three more buoy paintings. This is one of my favorites, I love the tricolored stick. I may replace the photo if I can get one with a better color reproduction of the water.

Here's the under painting. I wiped off more of the dark before painting over it, to minimize mixing with the upper paint layer.

Lobster Buoy 1

Lobster Buoy 1 (Orange and Black)

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Now that my workshop with Anne Blair Brown is over, I can focus on the theme for the September 30 Paintings in 30 Days. And that's buoys. In our coastal waters, buoys are often used to mark locations. If you've been out on the water, you've seen the green cans and red nuns that are navigational markers. Mooring balls are also buoys, in that they mark the location of a mooring on the bottom, to which a boat can be tied up. And finally, my favorite, are lobster buoys, also called pots, which mark the location on the bottom of a string of lobster traps, usually one at each end.

Above is my first in the series, Orange and Black.

Owls Head Harbor

 

Owls Head Harbor 

6"x8" oil on canvas panel

My last painting from the Anne Blair Brown class was painted at Owls Head Harbor. Through the class I came to rely more and more on my Notan thumbnails (see below). That was particularly important here, because the boats swung around while I was squeezing out my paint. So I used the Notan for the composition and glances at each boat to grab their dark light patterns as they swung. Then, when I got home, I broke my rule number 1 of plein air painting "Don't muck with it when you get home".  I simplified a few things, and sadly I don't have a picture of the original. Lesson leaned!

The Notan I used for the above painting.

Other Notans of this scene, where I didn't think the composition was as strong.

Blueberry Pie

Blueberry Pie

10"x10" oil on cradled birch panel

$200 at the Taste of Tidewater Event in August

As I’ve said before, I enjoy painting for a cause I believe in. Tidewater Farm in Falmouth Maine and its community garden is one of those causes. Their Taste of Tidewater event is coming up in August 20th, including a sale of over a hundred paintings from local artists. Last year I did well with a food painting, and so I’m continuing that theme this year.

My first painting for this year is of a Maine specialty, blueberry pie. I made the pie using a recipe from our cousin Ann, and was dismayed to find that I’d used the wrong one. Like any good Mainer, Ann has two blueberry pie recipes, one for a topless pie, and one for a pie with a top crust. The scribbled recipe I found stuck in the front of our New York Times Cookbook turned out to be for the more juicy version with a top, not what I had in mind for this composition, where the missing piece of pie is key. I was ready to make a new pie, and then had the idea of putting this one in the freezer on a tilt. It worked! Sorry about the bad photo, I'll replace it with a better one once the painted sides dry and I can stand the painting up for another shot.

And for even more fun, I’m teaching a plein air class at Tidewater farm again this year, It will be on Tuesdays, August 9th, 16th, 23rd and September 6th and 13th, 9am – 12pm. Check it out here.

For those of you who can’t make a class every week, I’m also teaching a plein air workshop for River Arts in Damariscotta on July 13 and 14th. More info on that is here.

Sparkle

Sparkle

8"x10" oil on canvas panel

There are some things that are hard to paint from life, and this is an example. Even if I was able to set my painting gear in a boat running parallel to these guys, they’d surely tack and head off in another direction before I finished the painting. So this one was painted from a photo. And more important, it was painted upside down. Turning a photo upside down is a time-honored approach artists use to paint shapes rather than “things”. And it works.

Here’s a progress shot of my second attempt at this painting, which was done right-side up. At this point, I wiped it off, it just wasn’t good enough. The first attempt had been wiped off at the drawing stage. And the third attempt also. That’s when I turned the whole thing upside down. What a difference, don’t you agree?

Second try at Sparkle

Doubling Point Light House

Doubling Point Lighthouse

8"x8" oil on Raymar panel

Don’t you just love lighthouses? I do. It’s easy to imagine them lighting the way in a storm. And then there's the solitude of the lighthouse keeper’s life. That would probably last about a day for me! Lighthouses can also be fun to paint. They show different faces as the sun moves across the sky and the tide ebbs and flows. When we’re out on our boat, I always have the camera ready when a lighthouse comes into view.

A few years ago my niece and I took a road trip with a goal of visiting as many lighthouses as we could. This little gem, on the Kennebec River, just south of Bath, Maine, was one of our favorites. It was commissioned in 1989, fifteen years after the founding of Bath Ironworks, just upstream. It’s not much taller than a person, and is just exquisite. You can walk out and around it, over the water It’s easy to get to by road, and the lovely people who own the property will likely let you park, but please ask first. Or, you can see it from one of the tour boats that operate out of Boothbay Harbor, along with several other lighthouses. It's a great boat ride. This painting was done from of several photos I took as we went by on our boat a couple of years ago.

Here’s some more information about the lighthouse, and about the boat tours.

And by the way, I painted this one mostly upside down. More about that in a future post.

Sleeping In

"Sleeping In"

12"x12" oil on Raymar panel

The wind on the coast of Maine comes up in the afternoon and generally dies at sunset. Early in the morning it’s usually very calm, and that’s when fisherman (lobstermen included) go out to do their work. But not always. We’ve run into some interesting situations, cruising the coast in our boat over the last 25 years. 

For example, why is no one lobstering on Sunday? I’m always taking pictures of lobster boats, and especially like to see them working. But in the summer they don’t appear on Sundays. Maine state law explains why: 

Closed Period - Title 12, Section 6440

It is against the law to raise or haul any lobster trap during closed periods.

• It is unlawful to haul lobster gear from ½ hour after sunset until ½ hour before sunrise between June 1st and October 31st.
• It is unlawful to haul lobster gear after 4:00 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Saturday until ½ hour before sunrise the following Monday morning from June 1st to August 31st, both days inclusive.

Who knew? Now I know why these boats are sleeping in!

"Stonington Green"

"Stonington Green"

8"x16" oil on Raymar panel

 Under painting for "Stonington Green"

Note that I widened the lobster shack and the pier and added the lobster boat.

There are a number of iconic scenes in Stonington, Maine, at the bottom of Deer Isle. Many painters have enjoyed painting them, and they hang in fortunate houses across our country. It’s a beautiful place to visit, and I feel lucky that my first few visits were by boat. That’s the way life should be.

This house, with its green paint and matching lobster shack on its wharf is one of those scenes. This particular view is from the shore side, and you can see it if you walk from Billings Marine into town as we often do. I have a lovely painting of it by Alec Richardson. He stood out on the rocks a bit to the right of this view. I started this painting over a year ago, toned the canvas and did a pencil drawing. And it sat. And I looked at the view again as I walked by last summer. And the other day it reached out to me and said “It’s my turn! Paint me.” And so I did.

Blue Boat Study

Blue Boat Study

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

You know how much I love this blue lobster boat. It's not in the water yet, so I pulled out a study I started some time ago, and just added the reflection of the cabin and fixed up the mooring ball. I decided to leave the background as it was. It is, after all, a study.

I'm taking this painting and four others to Yarmouth Frame and Gallery tomorrow, for their next show, "Winter Cowers as Spring Empowers". The opening reception will be from 4-7PM on Saturday, May 9th. I'd love to see you there!

Beach Roses

Beach Roses

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Some nice women who attended the Ocean Park "Meet the Artists" event, expressed interest in flowers. I found these near the beach on Porter Road. I'd like to paint more of them, it's quite a challenge!