Catching Up

Tide Pools, 11x14", oil on canvas panel.

Red Boat in Lobster Cove, 5x7", oil on panel.

Here are the pieces I did the last two days. Conditions today were very windy and my subject (Red Boat) on the water meant there was no windbreak anywhere nearby. I still think I managed to capture the values and colors though, even if the boat was swinging back and forth on its mooring the whole time.

Tulips

Tulips, 11x14", oil on canvas panel.

A quick sketch of tulips in the backyard garden.

New Things

Imagined Portrait, 18.75x24", oil on MDF.


Well, today I wanted to do something slightly different, and after seeing this piece by Casey Baugh, had the desire to paint a nice head. No models being on hand, I just made one up out of my head. I think that it turned out alright. I was trying to use very light shadows to give a certain effect without losing too much form, and I think I got that ok...

As for the tree piece, these are two stages of the painting. (I didn't get a shot of the first day, where it was all just reddish lines indicating the forms.) I still have some work to do on the main tree and the secondary tree, and some of the foreground elements need to be resolved. (Or left as is, I haven't decided yet.) Anyway, this is the last you'll hear from me until next week Tuesday. Have a great weekend.

Waring Field

Waring Field, 11x14", oil on canvas panel.

Spring Leaves

Spring Leaves, 11x14", oil on canvas panel.

Well, today is another gorgeous spring day, and I'm lucky enough to be outside painting. I tried to capture the look of the sunlight coming through the young spring leaves on the small trees and bushes in this sketch. I think it worked rather well.

By the way, please feel free to leave critiques in the comments section. Much as I love to watch myself type, I'd like to see your thoughts too. I can take whatever cruel inhumane things you might have to say, so don't worry about my feelings, I've got a thick skin. And what's more, I'll use your comment to make myself faster, stronger...a better painter all around.

Pier House Roof

Pier House Roof, 11x14", oil on canvas panel.

Ted, 11x14", oil on canvas panel, NFS.

Well, we have two paintings today, one a study of a great old building which was just sagging on its pier out into Gloucester Harbor. I liked the look of it so much, I think I might go back and paint it again, to try and get the whole thing in, instead of just a section of the roof. One of the things I liked so much about it was the haphazard collection of windows on the side, and the slight sag to the roof. I had to move my easel a couple of times, because the sun kept climbing over the building I was using for shade.

The other painting is a portrait study of one of my neighbors, who was asked to sit for the Rockport Art Association's portrait sketch session as a substitute last night. He is either naturally very ruddy or got a lot of sun yesterday, when it was near 80 and just perfect, weather-wise.

Along High Street

Along High Street, 5x7", oil on panel.

Another bit of painting, this time a couple of blocks from my house. There are little ponds everywhere around here from rainwater collecting in pits that were dug out by the people quarrying granite.

Salt Marsh, Essex

Salt Marsh, Essex, 5x7", oil on panel.

Thought I would get back to painting some landscapes today. This is a lovely area of salt water marsh at the Essex River delta. The fields of wild reeds and grass are still brown and flattened.

Wave Study

Wave Study, 5x7", oil on panel.

I'm attempting to get a better handle on what makes water look the way it does. Therefore, this is a small study of a tiny section of sloshing waves. Water is much more difficult to paint correctly than I realized.

Quarry Wall

Quarry Wall, 5x7", oil on panel.

...speaks for itself, I think.

Essex Watertower

Essex Watertower, 5x7", oil on panel.

Today I tried to capture some of that dewy fresh morning feel in the landscape.

This afternoon, I will be working on a larger piece and trying some new approaches as well as trying to get a really satisfyingly finished piece. I need scintillation in the colors and some depth to the paint, and plein air alla prima painting doesn't allow much of that, at least not at the size I'm painting at.

Tonight I'm going to check out a portrait paint sketch session at the Rockport Art Association. Should be a good time. Let's hope they have an interesting face for us.

Jones River Landing

Jones River Landing, 5x7", oil on panel.

Well, this painting is a cautionary tale about not letting the sunlight hit your palette and canvas. While this painting looks great in the bright morning sun on an early spring day, it looks miserable under the studio lights used to photograph it. All of the depth and color is sucked out of the blue, and generally it looks poor. Lesson learned.

Tomorrow is another day.

Mud Flats, Annisquam River

Mud Flats, Annisquam River, 5x7", oil on panel.

Well it was a crisp morning today, and the colors were very clean, so that was a nice challenge. These colors looked incredibly garish when I was painting this, mainly because everything looks brighter and more vivid in the direct sunlight, so I was really worried about the piece being a disaster, but I trusted the colors that I mixed in the shade, and it looks pretty nice indoors, under artificial light, which is where it would be seen most often anyway.

One thing I find is that I very rarely use more than one or two brushes when I'm out doing these little pieces. I guess one, there just doesn't seem to be time to switch brushes constantly, and two, if you find the right size brush, you should be able to make it do all of the rough little shapes you need it to do anyway.

Does anyone else find this to be true?

Oh, and I'm reading John F. Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, which very good reading so far. It was mentioned in a video by Richard Schmid, and it is really an excellent primer on landscape painting.

Old Granite Pier

Old Granite Pier, 5x7", oil on panel.

Another painting of the sea this morning, that's Straitsmouth Island in the distance. I was trying to capture that glow and painfully bright light of the morning sun, and that green line was actually there when I stared right at the area, so I'm pleased that it looked good on the painting.

This afternoon, I'm off to scout around for material for more complex and adventurous studio paintings. I'm looking forward to that. A little walk through the woods and some walking along the seaside trails is in order, I think. I also want to see if I can find some buildings that sit in the land just so, because I have a craving to paint something like that as well.

By the way, if anyone out there knows about an Etsy team for oil painting, let me know. I'd be interested in joining. And so would Sarah Burns.

Low Tide at Goose Cove

Low Tide at Goose Cove, 5x7", oil on panel.

A foggy morning greeted me today, and I was looking forward to the challenge of painting the diffused edges and soft grey colors of the fog-covered landscape. This is one of my favorite places on the cape, where Goose Cove empties into Annisquam River. Low tide causes water to rush out of the cove and creates the turbulence you see in the foreground.

My fingers are still thawing, though.

At Cove Avenue

At Cove Avenue, 5x7", oil on panel.

Here's another small landscape painting. This time, I'm situated on rocks at the end of Cove Avenue. Today I had a nice sunny day, even though the wind was still coming strong off the coast, it livened the colors of the scene dramatically, and I got to play with colors that you wouldn't really consider neutral. That was nice.



Also, last night I went to my first session at the Rockport Art Association's weekly figure drawing group. Unfortunately, the model didn't show up, but on the plus side, it was therefore free and we all took turns sketching each other, so I got to know my classmates' faces, if not their names. These are all 10 minute sketches.

View from Seaside Cemetery

View from Seaside Cemetery, 5x7", oil on panel.

Well, today I needed a change of pace, so instead of staying in my nice warm studio, I went out and froze my fingers to the marrow in the north wind off the Atlantic Ocean to get this little landscape. I'm pleased with the sky, but the land needs some serious work in my opinion. There are some pleasant things about the rocks in the foreground and I like the sea spray effects I managed to get, but there's a lack of focal point that makes it suffer a bit. I think I'll continue to do these landscapes this week and see if I can't get something more interesting by Friday.

Also, an interesting aside. As I was walking home, a nice lady from the town asked if she could see the painting. I said sure, and set down my easel so she could take a look at it. "Oh, it reminds me of California! I know where that is, I have that exact painting on my living room wall!" I really didn't have anything to say to that, but she finished up with, "But it's not like California today, is it?" And no, it most certainly is not. So I agreed with her and shuffled off. Any ideas on how to respond to the normally inane blather you have to deal with when people stop you when they notice that you're a -gasp- Painter?

Pearl Onion

Pearl Onion, 5x7", oil on panel. Purchase here.

Well, here it is, Friday's painting. I think this one is pretty nice. Everything turned out on it the way I'd hoped, so that's good. Also, a friend told me that the reason my pictures were so dark was due to the difference in gamma settings between Windows and Mac machines, so I've set the image to use it's own color profile, so let me know if the image looks better then the previous entries (if you're using a Windows machine, that is.)

I've also been reading some nice books on Velázquez and Rubens. The two that I find most interesting and useful to painters are the one on Rubens called Drawn by the Brush, and the one on Velázquez called Technique of Genius. Great books. A little pricey, but you can get them used on Amazon for pretty cheap, and the information inside is well worth adding them to your library.

Hanko

Hanko, 5x7", oil on panel. Purchase here.

Here's a little piece which I think has a couple of problems. It's a little skewed in the drawing, and the color for the top of the hanko is poorly observed...or just too flat...I'm not exactly sure. I have to think this one over for a while, see what comes to me. I think I'll experiment more with this lighting setup though, as I've obviously gotten used to the two setups I've had until now: a spotlight and the light from the north window. This setup was a pocket LED flashlight on the table.

Dropper Bottle

Dropper Bottle, 5x7", oil on panel. Purchase here.

Good morning. Today's piece is a little green glass dropper bottle I have in my studio, and honestly it's a pretty subtle piece, with the details being very hard to discern in the photo. I veered a bit from the paintings I've done so far in that I put some of the background in. I think it works ok from a distance, (or in a small photo) but something about it bothers me up close...perhaps to takes too much attention from the main item, which is so subtle to begin with? I'm not sure I can place my finger on it just now, but if I do figure out what's bugging me, I'll post an edit for you.