"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.