Brushes with the Landscape

  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 obse

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.   

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!