Brushes with the Landscape

Old Country Church Pen and Ink  I am fascinated by old churches.  The buildings and surrounding graveyards are full of so much history.   This drawing is an amalgamation of many churches and locations seen throughout my years of travel throughout New England. If pressed, I would say the main inspriation for this drawing comes from the Spurwink Congregational Church in Cape Elizabeth, Maine (Built in 1802) and St. John. the Evangelist Church in Pembroke Maine, build circa 1855 by Irish immigrants who had come to work in the Pembroke Ironworks. As I child I explored the church in Pembroke (it was left unlocked and open to any who wished to enter in those days) but at the time I was more fascinated by the surrounding grounds and cemetary.  The ground in front of the tombstones was depressed - where the old caskets had collapsed over time - and the thick woods surrounded the graveyard.  There was a bald eagles nest nearby.  I could never quite find it, but I saw the eagles fo

This charcoal is 12" x 16" with a few highlights of gouache Working in the studio today. The bulk of this drawing was completed years ago and set aside.  That is something I will do from time to time.  Sometimes its because I've reached the point in a subject that I've reached the limit of my technical skills (In other words, I know what I want to achieve but I don't know how to do it yet) ,  More often than not, its because I am most inspired by source material (aka nature) so I'll work on a number of subjects at once leaving studio work for later.    I decided to experiment with this subject, adding to and changing the composition of the clouds, shadows on the mountains and reflections in the pond and some general touch up. I also pursued some experimentation with tracing paper, pen and ink, on an oil composition of an Amish Farmer.  The two sketches below are future projects.  The top sketch is a compositional study for continued work

I've always been fascinated and drawn to the effects of moonlight.  It always seems so mysterious to me.  In particular, in the winter, a full moon and frozen ponds and marshes would expand the world I could explore as a child.  It opened up corners of the woods often closed off in different seasons.  Even very familiar places seem different at night, and moreso in the moonlight. I also vividly remember the brilliance of the moonlight dancing on the ocean - particularly in the cold winter air. Here is a study for the second in the planned series of Androscoggin River paintings.   A night scene.  I've thought about doing painting series of a particular scene for years now and occasionally I've done it but in a time period of years not weeks.  I'm not sure exactly what has motivated me to purposely paint and draw this series, other than the incrdedible contrast of this change of season from Winter to Spring. This scene was done primarily with indigo with a fe

Paint of course! I enjoyed the opening of the show at River Arts last evening.  So many differnt artists, styles, and media.  I spent more time studying abstract works than I think I've ever done before.  I don't know if its because some of my latest subjects (winter / ice) have had an abstract quality about them or not. Had a great dinner with Ari and Julie and when we got home I headed down to the studio and began work on a new watercolor based on earlier studies.   First Pass at compositional study. First pass at larger watercolor last evening. Then I referred back to the sketches made on location and took a quick trip back to the location for a few more details.  I went back to the comp study and indicated the foreground river bank and trees.  As well as some other work on hardwoods on the island.                                  Below is the final painting with those details mentioned above and some ice build up where the current continues

This large charcoal (18" by 24") was done to expand upon the small pen and ink sketch done from on location observations.  I added a few elements such as the additonal open water in the foreground.  The next step was the color compositional study below.                                    This compositional study (9"x 12") was a double experiment for me - one in terms of subject matter.  Had never attempted an ice dominated subject before - am quite excited about the possibilities.  It's a short season but one that, for me, demands more study. This was also an experiment in terms of ground for the painting.  I used a watercolor block for this.  I was pleasantly surprised at how even a lighter weight paper (in this case 140 lb paper) didn't buckle.  I'll definately continue to utilize watercolor blocks, particularly for on location paintings. I decided to leave the foreground as is for now - time will tell.  In some ways I like it bet

This morning started as just one of those mornings.  Got out of bed, stepped on the cat, )(the cat's fine), spilled morning coffee - you know the kind of day.  Nothing major, just irritating. Later I took a short ride to see what was happening at the river bend today.  It was beautiful.  The sun was high, the ice was reflecting the sun, at times making difficult to see, the ice almost silver.  There were dark channels of open water working thier way through the ice pack creating a dramatic contrast to the silver ice and the trees were backlit so strongly they had an almost flat appearance. More striking were the sounds of the day.  The wind blowing some stubburn   brittle brown leaves which had held on all winter.  When the wind held sustained gusts - you could observe the ice rolling ever so slightly, but it was the sound of the ice moving which really was the attention getter. I did a very brief compositional study in Pen and Ink today.  Including a particularly interesting