Here you will find art for sale, journals and videos, as well as other sources of inspiration I've discovered along the way. The past 30 years of painting and the people I've met along the way have made an incalculable difference in my life. If you aren't already painting - get out and give it a try. you won't regret it.
Above the Mill Pond
Above the Mill Pond
Mixed Media - Acrylic and Oil
12" x 16"
This painting began on a Sunday afternoon drive. I did some on location Pen and Ink sketches and then explored the area as much as time allowed. The small watercolor sketch below was done in studio and just a quick experiment to see how I might capture different aspects of the area in one painting.
Below is the first pass at the subject with Acrylic paint. I enjoyed the exercise of altering the perspective of the subject. I also wanted to simply suggest the background bank of the mill pond rather than painting it directly. Although this "draft" of the subject did capture some of what I was trying to achieve, it wasn't complete in my mind. I set the painting aside and moved onto other subjects - which is something I do either consciously while I let things simmer in the background of my mind. The more I paint and observe, the more I have to draw on for the next subject.
Robert Kahler Landscape Paintings for Sale!
Tired of hearing about the election? Looking for a unique gift for the holidays? Escape into Art!
I have one watercolor and two charcoal drawings for sale at River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta, ME. Two of the three are pictured below. These are sold without frames which allows a lower price for the holidays!
If you are interested in any additional paintings on my facebook page or blog or if you would like to potentially commission a painting please email me at robert.kahler65@gmail.com
I work in oil, watercolor, charcoal, gouache, acrylic and pencil and I have paintings ranging in size from 4" x 6" to 2' X 3'
Rainy Day at the Basin
Watercolor and Gouache
12" x 18"
$125.00
The Falls, Little River Topsham/Lisbon
Charcoal on Paper
12" x 18"
$100.00If you'd like to learn more about the locations or my creative process, please explore my blog
https://robertkahlerlandscapepaintings.blogspot.com
Enjoy and be well.
#robertkahlerlandscapepainting
#artforsale
#watercolor
#charcoaldrawing
Eastport Shades of the Past
Shades of the Past
Gouache on card stock
I've been experimenting with small painted sketches, working out different ideas for subjects including utilizing differently cropped perspectives which keeps the subject focused yet implies a lot of distance outside of the view.
This scene was taken from an on location watercolor I completed a few summers ago in Eastport, ME. I was struck by the play of shadows on the sunlight face of an abandoned factory just off main street.
As a student of history, I could just imagine the harbor filled with three and four masted schooners in its heyday and I decided to alter the pattern of the shadows on the factory to represent that history.
#robertkahlerlandscapepainting #workingmethods #sketchingwithpaint #eastport #maine
Overcast Day at the coast
Overcast Day at the Coast
Acrylic 3" by 5"
This is another small seascape I painted after doing some detail work on a larger painting. It's an imaginary scene but based on many years of exploring the Maine coast. I find these quick sketches to be very freeing.
I go through different phases of sketching. A few years ago it was a deep exploration of pen and ink. Lately it's been small color sketches in watercolor and acrylic from imagination. I keep being reminded of how each work informs future works. While I was painting this small sketch I had a an unplanned trip. I didn't do it consciously, but when I mixed the paints I flashed back to living over a garage in Westbrook, working on landscape painting with our new arrival (Ari) asleep in the living room.
It was just one brushstroke but as the paint mixed on the canvas I was transported back nearly a quarter of a century. This is also what I love about painting on location. The intense focus and observation of nature, processing it and expressing it on canvas or paper that place/moment in time becomes part of you and you of it. I urge you to give it a try!
Islands Edge
Island's Edge
Acrylic 12"x 16"
I had originally envisioned this painting with a bright clear sky with almost silver reflections off the sea. But as I began to work on it, I wanted to focus on more color in the surf - which would lend itself more to an active storm. I wanted to vary the colors in the sky more than a storm would allow so I decided to focus on after a storm with patches of blue sky and storm clouds breaking up. It would take awhile for the surf to return to normal. I also decided to have the time of year be late fall which would allow us to see through the wind blown scrub brush clinging to the cliffs.
I enjoy the creative process whether it goes exactly as I had planned or, as in this case, it goes in another direction.
Small Seascape
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| Seascape Acrylic 3" x 5" |
While doing some detail work on a larger seascape, I began working on some small paintings for a couple of reasons.
For one, I don't like focusing for a long time on small detail work, so I need to break things up. Also, the yankee in me hates to waste any paint. If I have paint left over I try to do a small painting - like the one above. If the paints do not lend themselves to a monochrome or a painting like above, I will use it to put a first coat on a canvas if I have any about.
Below are a few other examples of smalls. Some of which will be simple studies and abandoned. Others will lead to other painting journeys. All, good or bad, complete or incomplete, do help inform my future paintings. Any day painting is a good day!
Currently on Display
Breaker - Cape Elizabeth
Oil on Canvas Board 12" x 16"
This painting is currently on display in the members show at River Arts Gallery in Damriscotta through August 15th.
Lessons Learned - Is your painting complete or it it finished?
Ammonnoosuc River - Watercolor on Paper
I did some detail work on my large watercolor of the Ammonnoosuc River in Northwestern New Hampshire. On the lower left, was the early pass at the subject. I will, from time to time, revisit a subject. As I had left the picture, it struck me as close to what I was trying to achieve, but overall too dark. It was accurate feel for the day and time, but the river didn't match the sky. I decided to just leave things as they were for the time being to get some distance. Often in Nature - there are times and locations that are quite interesting and moving, but they don't necessarily translate into a strong composition or painting without some artistic license.
There were parts of the picture that seemed flat to me, not enough of a difference in value. I wanted to increase the interest throughout the picture while not confusing the eye with too much detail. I remember vividly my first art show many years ago. I was not really ready to show - but I went for it anyway.
I walked the grounds and viewed the works of other artists and I found myself to be exhausted by the end as I was focusing on every detail I could. I didn't really understand the lessons I was learning at the time. The eye is naturally drawn to detail. How to balance detail with leaving much up to the viewers imagination?
Years later I went to an exhibition of NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Andrew Wyeth at the Farnsworth in Rockland, Maine. It was a breathtaking exhibition and really a master class on both composition and using, or avoiding, detail to draw the viewers eye to the intended center of interest. What I noticed immediately was that these paintings were at once very dramatic and moving, yet very "relaxing" to view. I wasn't searching the center of interest - it was clear in each and every painting. It wasn't really until the second or third pass through the exhibition that I began to notice the areas of a painting that were merely indicated with a minimum of brushstrokes and subdued values.
I brightened the sky to bring it into line with the river in the mid ground and darkened the water in the shadows in the foreground. and I also did some more variances in value throughout all the areas of the picture to add depth and interest.
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Detail Left Detail Center Detail Right
I also added some shadows to the rocks in the foreground and added more variance in the values on the small island. It is a challenge to know when enough is enough with any subject. Sometimes one brushstroke can be just what a painting needs to bring it to life, or it can ruin a subject. As Bob Harris (Robert George Harris (1911-2007) Artist and Illustrator) advised me:
"It's important to know when a painting is done before it is finished!"
None of this is meant in any way to detract from interest or pursuit of highly detailed paintings or Trompe l'oeil paintings. Those types of paintings are simply not an area of interest for me - at this time. I do believe that every type of painting, every attempt, informs my work on my next painting. If you can express what you want to - what moves you, I don't believe that there is a "wrong" way to approach that painting.
Rocks and Wildflowers Round 2
Rocks and Wildflowers - 2nd Pass
Acrylic 12" x 16"
Rocks and Wildflowers Two Lights
The picture above left was the first pass at the painting, the picture on the right is the finished painting.
In addition to adding the wildflowers, I also did a little color work in the rocks, and some slight compositional changes to the water , rocks, and shrubs which I think made the composition a bit more dramatic.
I may even scale this painting up to an 18" by 24" or a 24" x 36" There are so many compositional possibilities let along different seasons.
I've included a link to the previous post which describes a bit more about the genesis of this particular painting below.
http://robertkahlerlandscapepaintings.blogspot.com/2020/07/rocks-and-wildflowers.html
Rocks and Wildflowers
Rocks and Wildflowers
Two lights
Acrylic 12" x 16"
This is my latest Acrylic Painting of a composition that is a common sight in and around Two Lights. I explained the process to this point in another post if you are interested in learning about methods for creating painting. Below I've put the large charcoal drawing (12" x 18") side by side with the Acrylic
When I had reached a stopping point in the main painting, I decided to quickly sketch out some other ideas from my trip with leftover paint on 4" by 6" note cards.
Sketch " x 6"
I really enjoy these quick sketches. I learn a lot from them with very little time invested. For instance, in the painting above, the ocean seems to "run off" the picture to the left. Through the placement of rocks or shrubs I will reverse that so that it leads the eye into the painting and not out of it. It's a win win. I don't waste paint and I get to explore ideas in a much looser manner.
Surf Sketch 4" x 6"
Scale of Sketches
Two Lights, Cape Elizabeth
Comprehensive Charcoal Drawing
Between the Rocks and Sea
Two Lights Cape Elizabeth
12" x 18"
Although I don't have any single process for creating a painting, this subject has progressed in a fairly typical way of late. Spending time on location is always motivating. I make a number of quick notes and sketches on note cards in addition to simply spending some time walking a location and observing. I've begun using note cards for these sketches as they fit into a travel kit very easily.
Pencil notes from direct observation 4" x 5"
I then review a number of sketches and decide which subject to elaborate. See below.
Pencil Comp Sketch
8" x 11"
Years ago I had a happy accident when looking through some old sketches - they were on top of one another and at times created new and interesting compositions. So I now will intentionally crop drawings to examine other possibilities. When I'm on location, its still easy for me to get caught up in the scene and not seeing things from a perspective of composition.
I plan to execute a number of paintings from this drawing including watercolor, acrylic, and oil. I enjoy exploring different media as the unique qualities of each capture different elements of nature.
Island's Edge
Island's Edge
Charcoal on Paper 12" x 18"
This is my latest piece, inspired by many trips to Long Island, Maine and along the Maine coast in general. The more frequently I draw, the more I approach drawings like a painting. Not just in terms of composition, but also in terms of technique and approach. When my drawing becomes more free, I begin to experience the "happy accidents" that occur in watercolor painting as well. Where the effects of nature, the emotions you are feeling, appear almost unconsciously or accidentally.
I've been paying more and more attention to sky. Each day , each few minutes actually, brings its own abstract painting into being. The ocean, even as a storm approaches or in full storm, has always brought a sense of peace to me. It's vastness and power always serve to put things into perspective for me. Problems that seemed so vast, almost insurmountable, vanish in the spray and thunder of the ocean.
To the Sea Study
To the Sea
Study
Watercolor and Dry Brush
This small preliminary watercolor is drawn from my trips Down East and also to Pemaquid. In this study I decided to simplify, by removing the cemetery from a larger earlier study (see below) and reducing the foreground trees to one large tree on the right. I also was interested in trying to paint the foreground field using the dry brush technique. I also am trying different treatments with skies. It's fun to just let loose with paint from time to time! (okay, actually all the time....).
Maine has so many peninsulas where the view to the ocean is still wild. I find the contrast between the ochres of wild fields in the fall and spring and the blue of the ocean is striking I find the views most interesting in spring, fall, and winter. Summer has a beauty of its own but visually I find that I'm more drawn to the play of light and reflections as the overall range of colors is reduced in the summer.
More and more development, means these views are not as plentiful as before, but the views are there if you take the roads less traveled.
Is it Done or Is it Finished?
These two photos of two of my most recent paintings give a better sense of the size of the water color sketches to the finished work. For these two acrylics, the sketches are about 1/4 the size of the finished work.
With the large watercolor I did of the Amonoosuc River, the ratio was more like 7 1/2 to 1. At this point, I don't do a detailed scale down or up from sketch to finished painting, it is more just a part of the process. Trying to keep this as simple as possible for quick and efficient sketching in an attempt to capture the moments which catch my attention.
I'm quite motivated by the idea of capturing the different moods of a subject, and even imagining them based on earlier observations of nature. Both of these paintings are realistic subjects - they do exist, but in imaginary perspective for the old mill pond, and imaging a winters evening full moon light at a local farm. I really enjoyed these different exercises in the studio. Working on location remains my first joy in painting, but studio work is gaining in its standing and enjoyment for me.
I also try to keep the advice of two well known and highly successful artists front and center as I paint. John Stobart advised putting only as much detail into a sketch as would be needed to execute a finished painting later. This was to avoid "copying" even one's own work and maintaining room for the spark of creativity.
The late Bob Harris (Robert George Harris) was very encouraging to me through our correspondence and phone calls. One of my favorite quotes of his is: "It's important to know when a painting is done before it is finished."
I also remember vividly the original illustrations by N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle on display at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine. The paintings were monumental in scale, composition, color, and use of limited detail. They knew how to lead your eye where they wanted it to go. A large area of background scumbled in with virtually no detail in no way diminished these paintings. On the contrary, the contrast made the paintings even more powerful. You really had to be on the lookout to even notice these techniques.
Early Spring Evening
Early Spring Evening
Acrylic on Canvas Board
12" x 16"
This is the first studio evening painting I've attempted. I enjoyed the challenge of muting the colors down, while still capturing the sense of atmosphere on a moonlight night reflecting off the silo, house , and late spring snow.
The inspiration for this painting is a farm I pass by daily on my way to work. The elements of this painting are all there, just not in the location that I've included them. I've included a couple of water color sketches below which were the beginnings of working out ideas for this painting.
The watercolor sketch on the left was impression one of a scene toward dusk. The sketch on the right was a second iteration, which moved the trees behind the house to add emphasis to the house. I was also experimenting with corn in various stages of decay in the foreground.
Just quickly looking at these sketches, I can easily see 4 to six different paintings, including a night scene with the snow - which is what I decided to paint. Below is the first block in, where I was trying to accomplish two things. One, not to waste paint from another painting I'd just finished (The Yankee in me) and to cover the canvas to make it more workable. Two I wanted to rough in the composition.
I didn't attempt to block in the tones of evening in the sky, in part, because my one attempt at painting at night (so far) proved to be too dark when examined in the light of day. I find it's easier to go darker than to lighten up a painting. I did intentionally block in the dull colors as the base for the hay/ field in the finished painting.
I added the building outline in making one significant change I moved the house in toward the center and changed the direction of the house to lead the eye into the picture. I first sketched it in in charcoal as I did in the watercolor sketches - but it instantly struck me as wrong and I changed it to the final composition. I didn't bother to sketch in any more details as I had the sketches and the impressions from observation to go from and I enjoy continuing to compose as I paint. #pushingpaintaround
One painter whose evening painting (nocturnes) I admire is Frank Tenny Johnson. His western nocturne's take my breath away.
Above the Old Mill Pond
Above the Old Mill Pond
Acrylic 12" x 16"
This painting was based on Plein Air sketches in Pen and Ink and the watercolor sketch done later in studio. The perspective is imaginary, as though looking down from a high mill tower. I wanted to find ways to include what was at the scene in one picture that you could see, just not all at once.
The mill is long unused. Part of the building being used for apartments. Part of it collapsing. Part of it long collapsed. The mill pond still exists, though the dam is slowly failing. I broke the edge of the building in the foreground to allow another example of distance as well as the birch tree on the right for the same reason.
I was pleased at how this composition came together and I enjoyed trying to convey a sense of space without having any actual "sky" in the painting. I plan to go back to this location to do an on location painting of the dam itself, before it is gone.
You may have noted that there is no chimney in the finished painting. There wasn't actually one there, I was just experimenting in the watercolor. I also adjusted the angle of the mill building to lead more into the mill pond rather than across it as in the watercolor sketch.
Above the Old Mill Pond Study
Watercolor Sketch - Above the Old Mill Pond
As of late, I've become more and more interested in cropping compositions differently, almost approaching the abstract. This quick watercolor sketch is based on reality, but not exact.
I'd gone out on a Sunday morning sketch trip and revisited on old mill I'd sketched before in pen and ink. I sketched the building from the side of the road from a much lower perspective. The old dam, in the lower right of the composition, was also another subject of interest for me. The mill pond was was also a point of interest that could not be seen from my original vantage point.
These sketches also took place in the winter. I decided to imagine what the scene would look like in the fall with the reflections of trees and then how I could alter the perspective and still be true to the mill and the old dam. So what started as a subject focused on the mill in winter, turned out very differently.
I enjoy the process of when I am working on a painting or even when writing, that I have a clear idea of where I want to go, but the painting develops a will of its own. This was a quick watercolor sketch that I will definitely expand into a larger more finished work.
There was an older mill across the street that I'd hoped to paint and sketch, as there were many interesting angles and designs in the decaying mill, but the last time I went back to sketch, the mill had been torn down.
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