10 Annual Joy of Art Opening Reception

Julie and I aattended a woderful opening reception at the Crooker Gallery, Thopsham Public Library in Topsham Maine this afternoon.  It's always enjoyable to meet other artists and supporters of the arts and to see the many different expressions from different artists.  This Gallery and event is where I took my first steps to show my work outside the family (four years ago) and the staff was as warm, encouraging, and as welcoming as ever.

I entered two pieces in this juried exhibition.  A watercolor (Moonlight, Ice Out, Androscoggin) and an acrylic (Midcoast Marsh).

My watercolor, "Moonlight, Ice Out, Androscoggin" won first prize in the watercolor division.

I was speaking with another artist about her landscape painting, which I particularly admired, when a couple stopped by to listen to the conversation.  We spoke of the joys and challenges of painting on location and how it informs our work.  

The couple asked me what paintings I had entered in the show.   They then asked me to talk to them about my Midcoast Marsh painting.  I was able to describe to them the location which was the inspiration for the painting and about  my process for choosing and executing a subject.

"Would you consider parting with it?" and with that the painting was sold!  I'll write more about that soon.  It was so rewarding to hear the couple share their memories that my painting had stirred up of growing up in and around marshes and that Midcoast Marsh would have a home in thier cottage.

Thanks again to the Friends of the Topsham Public Library for this wonderful opportunity.

New Hampshire Memories

This painting is an experiment with an old charcoal drawing that I completed after a trip to New Hampshire with my wife and daughter.  Both the trip and drawing were completed many years ago. 

Like many of my drawings, there were things I really liked about it and some things that didn't work the way I wanted them too. What I've learned over time, is that by observing a subject closely,  there is more that I retain / notice from the location than I'm able to capture at the time. So I simply put it aside and moved on to other subjects knowing at some point I'd return to the subject.

This painting is gouache on paper (over the charcoal drawing).  I'm really learning to enjoy gouache, though I must admit that transparent watercolor is still my favorite!

Midcoast Marsh, Brunswick Maine

This painting was started and completed in one session in my studio.  So it took me 51 years and two and half hours to paint!

The inspiration for this painting (Acrylic 12" x 16" on canvas board ) came from trips along the mid coast and an acutal location in Brunswick Maine.

While I often paint on locations that I've never been to before, when I do studio work I try to link it to actual on location sketches.  In this case I'd done an on location pencil sketch and some larger charcoal drawings where I attempted a number of different compositions which both simplified some elements of the landscape and elaborated on other elements of the scene as it existed.

We just returned from a vacation to Pennsylvania where I completed a few quick sketches and attempted one painting on location but, to be frank, the Pennsylvania landscape and conditions kicked my a$%.  More on that for another post.

What I did do differently in this painting was that I painted over the Pennsylvania sketch with burnt sienna which gave me a more fully prepped and smoother surface to work on.  I also liked how that base helped warm the painting up more than simply using a white canvas.  Have seen a number of artists do this, but I'd never tried it before.  Something I definitely will continue to experiment with.

If you've never tried painting outdoors - I encourage you to do so.  Check out John Stobart's  "The Pleasures of Painting Outdoors" and "Worldscape" series one and two.  I had the pleasure of meeting John a number of times on his trips to Maine and he is such an inspiration to so many!