Brushes with the Landscape

A special thanks to Alex Chester for inviting me to co-author an article on Aiden Lassell Ripley's illustration work. This is our second published effort together.   Also to Dan Zimmer of illustration magazine for his encouragement and his beautiful handling of the artwork and editing our writing for this latest issue of Illustration Magazine. If you've never checked out Illustration magazine it is well worth it.  The artwork is beautifully reproduced and each magazine is loaded with history.  I seem to learn something knew every time I reread the articles.  Then again, anything that combines art and history - I'm hooked. If you are a fan of Aiden Ripley's artwork, there are many reproductions of Aiden's illustrative work as well as of his better known sporting art.  It's a chapter of Aiden's career that has gone largely undocumented. Illustration Magazine featuring the cover art of Coles Phillips

Sunset Runaround Pond Watercolor Study I was reviewing sketches from an old sketchbook today and settled on pencil sketch I'd completed on location years ago along with a few color notes scrawled in the margins of the sketch. This watercolor study was inspired by my memories of a brilliant sunset and reflections on Runaround Pond in Durham, Maine.  I had just pulled in and explored briefly before being struck by the contrast of deep orange of the sunset juxtaposed with the dark greens of blues of the pine and spruce and then lightened again by the reflections in the foreground.  These effects are so very beautiful to witness and so fleeting. For some reason, I had the place to myself that day and enjoyed the stillness and quiet as night fell.  This overall effect likely lasted less than 15 minutes but has never left my mind.

Low Tide - Dennis Mass This large charcoal was an elaboration of a quick on site sketch from last summer on Cape Cod.   I will likely do another sketch based on this but with high tide / storm surf. With this drawing I experimented with applying charcoal and blending with a brush in parts.  There are so many different ways to blend charcoal and the effects of different types of charcoal are also so different.  This drawing was completed with both vine charcoal and compressed charcoal.  Compressed charcoal produces a very rich dark stroke.  For me, vine charcoal also can produce a wide variety of shades, but not as dark as compressed charcoal. I prefer to use vine charcoal - its very thin and fragile, but I enjoy both the visual effects of the vine charcoal as well as the tactile feel of utilizing it.  It may sound kind of strange, but the vibrations of the charcoal over the tooth of the paper is as close to running your fingers directly over unmarked drawing paper as i

Grey Day Eastport Maine Watercolor - 7" x 8.5" This watercolor was completed on location during my recent trip to Eastport.  Overall, the weather was beautiful, but we did have one grey day with showers.  I had to seek shelter in the car and the sky opened up.  I do really enjoy the occasional rainy day.  The sound of rain on the roof and windshield was so soothing. The atmospheric effects during the brief time it took me to complete this painting were amazing.  At one point,  the sea smoke / fog rolled in all but obscuring the building.  At other times, the rain was so heavy and the thickness of the fog varied so that some or most of the building was obscured.   Some of the islands in the harbor seemed to be floating in the air, the horizon was indistinguishable.  All of these changes in effects occurred within a half an hour to 45 minutes.   I could have done a half dozen paintings from this same view and they would all have been different.  I did take some n