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

 

 

Grey Day Eastport Maine

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 notes and photo's of some of the different views and may well give a few of them a shot.

I observed for about 10 minutes and then got a scene that I wanted to paint.  It changed constantly throughout my painting, but I was pleased with the accuracy of the final result.  I decided to paint this scene in Monochrome (indigo) as the patterns of light and dark and muted reflections were what drew me to this scene.  

The tides are also amazing to observe.  This was a rising tide,  At low tide, the pier to the left and much more beach is totally exposed.  The ocean is slowly reclaiming its territory.  Large concrete sections of the pier weighing tons have fallen underneath the pier as erosion defeats human construction.

Going to new or in this case. less familiar places is always so inspiring and reminds me to observe my daily surroundings more carefully.

Peavey's Pasture Eastport ME

Plein Air Watercolor - Peavey's Pasture Eastport Maine

Had a wonderful time in Eastport Maine with family last weekend.  We had beautiful sunny summer days as well as a day of rain showers , clouds, and sea smoke.  So many moods and a painting everywhere you look (Of course I have that problem of seeing paintings everywhere I look all the time - even when driving).

This rolling pasture down to the sea was very striking and had so many different points of interest.

I had decided in advance to bring only watercolor on this trip and completed three paintings on location, observed constantly and took notes for many additional subjects.  Of course, as soon as I saw the harbor and the complex myriad of boats of different shapes and colors with a lot of white, I'd wished Id brought my other mediums as it was too complex for me to attempt that subject in watercolor.  Ahh well.  I suppose I could have done it as a monochrome painting with detailed color notes for later.

Eastport Cliffs

Eastport Cliffs

This drawing was inspired by the view from the outside deck of a restaurant in Eastport.  As I've mentioned before throughout this blog, my love of nature fuels my art, but often requires some adjustments to create a composition for a painting. 

This scene is calm, as the sea was calm.  Still, for me the calm the cliff with the tree creates a tension.  How many more storms will the tree last?  Will it grow too large for its roots to support or will the foundation of rock tumble into the sea taking the tree with it.

In this case while remaining true to the subject:

I've moved the house down the hill toward the cliffs and moved the houses chimney to reduce distraction.  

The islands in the distance did exist, but I've added a channel in between to add distance as a landmass across the picture would stop the eye from moving into the painting.

The cliffs existed, some of the patterns of of the rocks and shadows were altered for composition to lead the eye into the drawing.

The tree existed as well and drew me to the subject in the first place.  I've emphasized and enlarged the tree slightly.

In a conversation with another artist who was readying for a show of abstract art, but who often sketched from nature, we each discussed how our preferred style stretched our creativity.  It was very respectful conversation despite our very different perspectives.  While he saw value in sketching and drawing from life, his view was not to change anything, but to accurately record what was in front of him.  While he found abstract painting to be a far more of a creative exercise.  

For me, trying to capture a moment in time and to interpret nature in two dimensions is far from constraining.   Just the opposite actually.  I find that pulling and rearranging elements that I've experienced first hand into a new composition to be as rewarding as being able to capture those elusive moments in nature that too many of us regularly pass by without noticing. 

I will most likely do a variation of this subject during a storm with a tighter focus on the cliffs, tree, and house.  I've often visited the coast during storms.  I find the ocean to be mesmerizing in all its moods and colors.   This idea occurred to me while working on the cliffs.  Adding the water effects on the rocks during a storm will be an enjoyable stretch.

Too much to paint, too little time - Paris Hill

What do you do when confronted with Artistic Overload?  When every corner hides another dozen scenes to paint?

I suppose there are as many different answers to that question as there are people in the world.  For me, direct observation and sketching and painting from nature are key to my process.  However, there are simply times and circumstances where it is not possible to do either.  In those cases I will try to take a few pictures for later reference.  As soon as possible, I'll record my impressions with a sketch and sometimes a brief written description of what drew my attention to the subject - initially without even referencing the photograph.

The first time I went to Paris Hill was for a wedding at the church on the green.  If you've never been, it's well worth the trip and the effort to find it.  There used to be tours around Christmas of many of the historic houses.  I'm not sure if they still do that, but once again, worth it if they do.

Below are some small (3" by 4")  quick pen and ink sketches to explore different compositions and to develop a bank of historical house sketches for potential use in the future.  These particular sketches are all on a larger sheet of drawing paper sectioned off into 8 grids.

Paris Hill Impressions

               Church with Hannibal Hamblin House                         View from behind church toward

                              Pen and Ink 3" x 5"                                               village Pen and Ink 3" x 5"

                     Sunset and Distant Hills                                            Distant Hills, Sunset

                        Pen and ink 3" X 4"                                                 Pen and Ink 3"x 4"

New Englander - Pen and Ink 3" x 5"

I now really enjoy playing around with these sketches and compositions before launching into a painting.  It is time spent up front, but in the long run it is good practice and saves time from having to make large adjustments to a painting in progress.

Another thought I had while doing these sketches is to later take these sketches as a basis for finished sketches to have a unique momento of a place.  Many small sketches in the space of one larger sketch.

I hope you enjoy these impressions of Paris Hill.  In future posts I will share impressions of recent trips to Eastport and Cape Cod.

The link below will take you to some painting sketches completed in Eastport

https://robertkahlerlandscapepaintings.blogspot.com/2018/08/sea-glass-and-sketches.html

Sea Glass and Sketches

Had a wonderful time with family and friends Down East!  But those are stories for a different blog.

The sketches from left to right top are Acrylic 4" x 6", Acrylic 12" x 16", Watercolor 8" x 10" and Acrylic 4" x 6"

Bottom Left are two quick pencil composition sketches and bottom right is a partial sketch with notes and some small composition sketches which I will work up into larger compositions and paintings.

The 4" by 6" were a first time experiment for me.  The format did make me simplify very complex subjects.  The jury is still out for me regarding this small format.

The 12" by 16" inch painting is really four sketches in one.  Sky, Water, Distant shoreline and Mid ground cliffs.  I wasn't pleased with the overall composition but for study purposes it was a productive exercise.  I really want to focus more on my paint handling with Acrylics.  Need some new bushes, but more than that I just need to focus on it more.

These color sketches, the time spent observing the scenes, and notes will be combined into new subjects with some photos I took for reference.  The sea glass and pottery were all collected in Eastport in one morning.

Between Cape Cod and Eastport I have enough source material to keep me busy throughout the fall and winter.

I have a new idea for some composition sketches when I return from the trip.