Moments of abstraction

Androscoggin River Sketch 2

Acrylic on Paper

This sketch was executed rapidly, like most of my paintings.  A pattern in most of my on location work or series studio work is a trend toward abstraction in my third or later paintings in a day.  Sometimes caused by vanishing light.  At other times caused by the beauty of the abstract patterns and color combinations in nature itself.

My preference is toward the impressionistic, but more often than not, I'm simply trying to capture the emotion or mood of a moment in time.  The shadows of the trees on the far shore juxtaposed with the light reflections and color patterns in the water were what drew me to this scene.  I also enjoyed experimenting with different blues to achieve warmer and cooler shadows and greens on the far bank and in the reflections.

Below are two other abstractions - the one immediately below done on location more than twenty years ago.  This was executed at the end of a day of exploring in and around bear notch road in NH.  The mountain was reflected in the water until the gentlest of breezes rippled the surface of the water.  It's a subject and a motif that I will return to.

Bear Notch Reflections

The subject below was born from yankee thrift.  I had some paints left over and I try to never waste or throw out any paint.  Aiden Lassell Ripley, a distant relative of my wife, is an artist I admire so this very pale imitation was born in the studio at the end of a day of painting.  It's rather liberating to simply experiment with different ideas and materials.  This painting is acrylic paint on tracing paper.

Snow Shadows and Spruce

Androscoggin, Ferry Road, Lisbon

Adroscoggin River Color Sketches

These two sketches are Acrylic on Paper.  Done from observation on location and the composition sketches below.  I tend to sort through my composition sketches and on location sketches for ideas for paintings - especially when I don't really have the time to paint.  In this case - I'd actually intended to work on a completely different subject - which I'd taken from small composition sketches like to these to a full sheet charcoal drawing.  But instead the image on the upper right caught my attention and I decided to skip a larger charcoal (for now) and go right into color sketches.

Androscoggin River Comp Sketches

My art critic - Echo accompanies me on my trips to my basement studio.  I paint standing up, and you can tell from the picture that it is probably a good thing that I do so as sitting isn't really an option.

Echo -Art Critic

 Once Echo sees me getting my palette ready, he settles in for a nap.

Ready To Paint

Androscoggin River 1

Acrylic on Paper

The lights and the darks were so impressive on this day creating rich color contrasts and striking shadows.  For this sketch I was also experimenting with different blues throughout the painting and intentionally leaving some of the white of the paper showing to add range to the color palette.  

The sketch below was completed quickly after the first, and was intentionally much more abstract than my normal painting.  This will be the subject of my next post.

Adroscoggin River 2

Acrylic on Paper