Oxford Pier revisited

6"x18" oil

triptych

Switched up some color to try this piece. I like it more than yesterdays attempt. At least as a pier. I am now okay with yesterdays piece. Overnight I came to a realization. I have had a painting in my head for many years. A painting that I wanted to accomplish but always failed. While going to art school I lived in New Jersey and would spend the months of May and June fishing the jetties for striped bass. The images of fisherman lined up on the rock jetties in various weather conditions are burned in my unconscious. Although while doing that painting I was working from observation, I found myself getting lost in the unconscious. I think that's why I didn't like it at first, but now I think it was inevitable. The piece "for me" reads as 3 masses on a thin structure. Welcome to jetty fishing.

oxford boats

30"x40" oil

This is a view from Oxford MD. at the close of the show. I really enjoy tearing down complicated subjects with paint much more than I enjoy tearing down my booth!

eastport boats

30"x40"

oil/canvas

A view from last years Paint Annapolis.

Eastport is a great place to paint.

Cumulonimbus

30"x40"
oil/canvas

I'm diving into studies of cloud types and formations. Last weekend after setting up my booth in Maryland I got caught in a wicked thunderstorm driving home. The sprinter is a high profile vehicle and 75 mph winds can make it a bit tough to drive. Trees were lying across south bound lanes on rt. 83. Good thing I was heading north! Oh yeah, I sold the grain silos painting to some very nice and appreciative people.

I painted this with Brian Eno's cd "music for airports" playing in the background. Great music that is meant to be calming yet I get a big vibe from it. If you actually watch thunderheads develop, it happens rather rapidly yet appears to be in slow motion. Such a large scale is hard to put into perspective relative to a canvas. This music fits perfectly.

pepacton reservoir

24"x36" oil/canvas



As you drive southwest out of the catskills, it is likely you'll be on county route 30. We were and for what seemed like the first time in a month, the sun was out and no clouds. The road weaves all around the pepacton reservoir making for spectacular views of the frozen lake and catskill mountains. I wish they had more pulloffs to soak in the scenery. It is truly a spectactular east coast drive. And no tolls!!! So here is a rare bluebird day painting from me. No eerie darkness, just glorious sunlight and shadow.

morning light 3

6"x6" oil/panel



Third in the series. I'm heading to upstate New York tomorrow (Otsego County) to collect even more cows in snow material. Believe it or not the snow is so deep here it's hard to see the cows! I'll be there all weekend and maybe get in some skiing. No internet though so no posts. Interesting side note, today got above freezing...The garbage collectors took the week off...everyone put out their garbage last week....garbage cans were placed on uneven snow piled surfaces....snow began to melt albeit not much....enough to change leveling dynamics....garbage cans fell over...the snowscape road scenes are now looking like the leaning tower of pizza boxes roadscapes...not so different than any other garbage day but the cans are all full...make that partially full...I've seen how the crews pick up spilled garbage on a normal day... should be interesting... Maybe Mondays predicted snow will cover the spilled garbage and we'll have another beautiful winterscape...and perhaps collapse a few more roofs. The country side really is fantastic right now!

Capitol Dome view complementary study

16"x20"
oil/canvas



Did this from yesterdays sketch. The sky and water are more yellow than my monitor is showing. I like the color harmony on this one but sure can't see it on my computer. It's about to pour down rain again so it's off to the van and up the river. I'll try to find a new subject.

Susquehanna winter

12"x12"
oil/panel




This morning was cold...real cold... So cold in fact that iguanas are falling from the trees in Florida. Sorry, I couldn't resist. It was on NPR.I think they would be dying here in Pennsylvania. I did this one out of the van again. I had the propane heater going so my right hand was warm my left was numb. That's the difference a foot makes when the wind is blowing directly through the door and it's in the single digits. I do love the river when it's about frozen over. Not sure I quite captured it but the morning sun hitting blue mountain was quite nice also. The house.........well it's chilly....not frozen... just chilly. The space heaters are preventing a disaster from occuring. New furnace tomorrow supposedly. I never count my chickens before they hatch.

persimmon

persimmon 6"x6"
oil/panel




Ok. So what do you do when you feel like you don't even know how to paint anymore? Apparently, I go to the grocery store and buy persimmons.....to paint.....) All jokes aside, I feel like my landscapes are getting haphazard. I strive for loose and believable but they're becoming hard to believe I feel. The weather can make it tough to concentrate as well as many other things. This time of year is tough. I usually turn to still life now and I've finally realized why. It requires total concentration. Granted my studio isn't much warmer than the van(I'm using the same propane heater in studio) but I really enjoy setting up a single object and observing the light. I imagine being an ant and crawling all over the subject noting each color change. It's a far cry from my approach to landscape but a very complementary one. I actually ripped through this one pretty quickly. I will now devote many hours to intense still life study while doing some landscape when appropiate. The next studies should prove a new dedication to observation.

Christmas gifts

"Porsche 356"
6"x6" oil/board






















"Medieval German Church"
6"x6" oil/board








Two impromptu pieces for the inlaws. No fear, they dont have a computer.

Annapolis revisited

16"x20" oil/canvas


A study from materials collected during Paint Annapolis 2009. I am fascinated with the overabundance of subject matter yet the calm, serene sensation that exists while being on location. I've tried to capture that.


For me, there is an attraction in finding calmness within the darkness.

ominous

36"x48" oil/canvas





The last set of paintings had a purpose. I was very delibrate with the brush strokes, I maintained a minimalist approach, and I paid very close attention on how I mixed the paint. I also knew they were studies for a much larger painting that I wanted to do. I learned alot from those small ones. The main goal was to get the feeling of something big, ie a weather phenomenon, with as little detail as possible. Let the paint do the talking. I had an epiphany while doing the 3rd 6x6. I dont know why it took me so long to figure this out. Mix all the primaries individually with the stand oil first.... THEN mix the desired colors very loosely allowing many color varieties to happen in each brushstroke!!I should note I use only 3 warm red, yellow, and blues and 3 cool red, yellow and blues plus zinc white. As I appproached this big painting and started mixing I felt really good about the new approach. In fact I felt good during the entire session.


As usual, emotional impact is an important element in art for me. I seem to be gravitating towards a real theme. I've always been a weather freak, and the possible metaphors behind the various atmospheric conditions seem to be endless.

clearing skies

6"x6" oil/panels

sold




















sold















sold

As the massive cloud formations build overhead, the strength of breeze and the distant blue sky to the west confirms-a break in the weather.

flow and obstruction

6"x6" oil/board

I've been preoccupied lately with the idea of thought patterns and wellness of being. I attended a seminar years ago that addressed the issue of: our thoughts and the relationships of our thoughts on our health. Most of us have preoccupations of some sort with a particular issue. These preoccuopations manifest within the body. Certain preoccupations manifest at particular spots within the body.

Ok, I digress. The ancient greeks treated health as a lifestyle not a chronic disorder. How many chronic disorders do we all have now? How many people call art a health pursuit? Yes, people died from plague, malaria.... but not everyone was treated for a lifetime disorder in the "old days".

These 3 paintings represent my attempt to confront this issue. There is a current blockage of positive energy flow. The creek represents the flow and the few out croppings are the blockage. I'm working towards a dam break!

Restaurant Row

16"x20" oil/canvas

A view of my city's local attraction. Bars. Yeah, they're down the street a bit. A busy place on the weekends. So they draw a crowd, now to keep the crowd in the city. Urban sprawl is a real issue . No shopping downtown, just bars and traffic.

Longhorn

36"x36" oil/canvas



This is a new studio piece. I painted it over my big silos painting. It never had the feel of the plein air small version so it's gone. Sort of. I'm seeing more and more of these impressive longhorns around and find them incredibly interesting. I have a bunch of material to work with and will do more. I'm most impressed with the heaviness these beasts appear to have. That's what I tried to get. Alot of weight. I used both knife and brush on this big one.

A pinkish white iris

8"x8" oil/ceramic tile



I've done a second iris painting for mom. They have a nice space for a triptyc so I just need to do one more. She started new rounds of chemo yesterday so hopefully the new drugs can hit it. I really want to get out and do some fall paintings but this weather is just nasty. 30s and raining in mid October. It's supposed to warm up next week. I'm off to Charlotte NC. next thursday for a weekend show so may not get much painting in yet again. I feel for my friends at the Bethesda row show this weekend. The weather's just as bad there. Hopefully something good comes of it.

Gallery walk river paintings

3 6x6" panels
plein air

I went back to the river today and did these. Paint Annapolis begins Thursday so I'm heading down tomorrow to check in and find some painting locations. I may or may not post during the competition, but will take the stuff along just in case.









3 6x6" panels

I no more than got home from the Bethany Beach show and found out I had one first place in the Art Association of Harrisburg members show for my painting of the Louvre. Yes, I was excited but I wasn't able to paint everything I wanted to for gallery walk. I attended the awards ceremony and decided to focus on the river for my painting. I taped up 3 little canvases and ended up scraping down 6 versions and ended up with these pieces.

4th and Boas #2

12"x24" oil/panel

I decided to do a second painting of this abandoned structure. I'm fascinated by the building and am trying to find the best way to convey it. I find it to be a haunting structure, so I've gone more with a colorist palette on this one to help convey emotion. I've darkened the value of the building mass and simply massed in 3 shapes then painted wet on wet within the masses. I stayed more loose with this one and tried to simplify all shapes.

I will do a 3rd version en plein air this Sunday. Combining what I've learned thus far, and a bit more research I look forward to seeing what the result will be. Normally I never paint the same thing more than once, but this thing has my interest.

More Rocks

12"x12" oil/panel sold

I did another knife block in, then pulled out the brushes. While knifing in I felt good about the process and the painting was developing loosely and believable. I left the lightest values white and the painting was almost good enough in my eye albeit more as an abstract than a representational piece.

I pulled out the brushes and immediately found myself tightening up. Not good. I found myself trying to paint individual characteristics within the rock formations. I was attempting to use the brushes to draw. Again, not good. I'm better now at getting over these hurdles thanks to so many years of knife work. I quickly adjusted and went to the proper mindset. KILL. keep it loose larry.

Off to the cape soon. The weather there has been horrid so I've delayed my arrival time. Probably only be able to paint 3 days