Fall Reflections by Elmer Ham

Watercolor by Elmer L Ham

I love the light and the sense of atmosphere captured by Ham in this watercolor painting.  While this is likely a painting executed in studio - it clearly demonstrates to me the lifetime Ham spent studying nature and painting and sketching on location.

This is most likely a Maine or Massachusetts scene by Ham.  I've seen landscapes and florals executed by Ham in Watercolor, Pastel, Oil, and Pencil.  

Working as a sign painter and painting outdoor advertising murals allowed Ham to pursue his love of painting throughout his life.  Ham exhibited paintings in Boston, Provincetown, and Springfield Mass, and Ogunquit and York Maine as well as in competitions and local venues throughout New England and California.

Ammonoosuc River #2

Ammononusuc River #2

Watercolor on Paper 

15" x 22"

This is a painting of the Ammonoosuc River in New Hampshire that I completed yesterday (in my basement - totally observing social distancing).  I will do some more studies from this to capture the water in different moods / speeds et cetera.  It's amazing how much the same "scene" can vary based on water and light reflection.

Below are studies used to work out aspects of this "final" painting and the final painting itself to give you some sense of scale.  Missing are a large (rough) pencil sketch with notes that I completed on location as well as a few pen and ink composition studies.

The top left and right watercolors were completed on location during the same trip as the pencil sketch.  The upper middle watercolor was done at home a few days ago (nearly a year later than the on location studies).    (see link below)

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Now if, like me, you had been told that in order to execute a painting you would need to do upwards of six preparatory works (in this case a pencil sketch, 3 pen and ink composition studies, two on location watercolor paintings, and another color study) my enthusiasm for painting would have taken a nose dive.  I would have just wanted to get started.  I still prefer on location paintings started and completed in one go.

However, over time, I've worked out a method that works for me.  On location studies are what ignites my enthusiasm for painting.  The time spent on location, usually within nature, is time I cherish and that I find to be renewing.  I've written before about how amazing it is to me, that an on location painting can literally bring me back to that day even more than 20 years later.  Those paintings serve as a touchstone for memory and inspiration.

Generally I'll complete two or three on location studies per trip, generally the most detailed first, with each following painting becoming looser in its execution.  This lessening of detail occurs most likely for two reasons.  One - there is always a time pressure as light and attention both fade over time.  Two, simplifying a composition in nature is almost always necessary in order to emphasize the center of interest in the subject.

New England Fall

New England Fall

Acrylic 24" x 36"

I did some touch up work on this painting yesterday.  The bulk of this painting was done long ago, but I had never been happy with the sky.  So I took the painting as far as I could and left it for later consideration.  Sometimes days, months, and in this case years pass before the solution comes to mind.

I've been working on a series of paintings and paying more and more attention to the role of skies in a composition.  I am becoming much more confident and therefore looser with my skies.  The effects of skies are so fleeting and complex that it allows one to paint almost to the point of abstraction in an otherwise realistic style.

One of my artistic inspirations, John Stobart, as well as other experienced Plein Air painters will often wait until the sky strikes them of interest and then they paint it in and adjust the more permanent areas of the painting (shadows etc).  This scene is an imaginary setting based on my own exploration of the Maine landscape.

This painting is one of five that I've entered for consideration at an upcoming juried show.

Winter 4-6

Winter Paintings 4 - 6

These three paintings were not completed on location, but resulted directly from on location observations.  In each case, I went home after visiting a location and completed these drawings and paintings from memory.

Fort Williams and Moonlight, Ice, Androscoggin were competed very rapidly in one setting.  I didn't have my paints with me  at the time, but I wanted to capture my enthusiasm and the excitement of the moments as soon as possible. The bulk of the larger oil was completed in one sitting as well.

I enjoy working through the design process as well, but when producing a finished painting, I like to keep things as spontaneous as possible.  Painting on location helps me to "keep things fresh."

Charcoal on Paper - Fort Williams Winter
8" x 11"

Moonlight Ice Androscoggin
Watercolor 8"x12"
(First Prize, Watercolor 10th annual Joy of Art)

After the Storm - Oil Painting
24" x 36"

Winter Landscapes 1-3

I have a complicated relationship with winter. The older I get , the less I enjoy winter (shoveling and driving really).  Yet there is an undeniable beauty in winter with all its moods.  The morning shadows and the reflection of sunsets in the snow will steal your breath as sure as the frigid air will.

There is a crispness and clarity to the landscape unlike any other season.  The patterns of shadows on the snow and reflections on brooks and rivers   And the blue moonlight nights are truly magical.  I thought I'd completed a handful of winter scenes over the years but in going through my paintings recently to get ready for an exhibition, I found that I'd completed more than a dozen which I will post over the next few weeks while waiting for more fresh snow to paint.

Nor Easter Maine Coast
Charcoal on Tissue Paper

After the Ice Storm, Lisbon ME
Acrylic on Canvas

Watercolor - on location
Ammonoosic River

The Sluice - composition deconstructed

"The Sluice"

Paper Mill Trail

Watercolor on Paper

This painting is an example of how I've taken different elements from an area to create a composition that isn't exactly what exists in nature, but which still honors the landscape and captures the feeling of the landscape that does exist.  My interpretation of the landscape, so to speak.

The basis of this painting was captured with an on location watercolor sketch (which looks little like this final composition)..  The tree covered hill to the left, the "pond" the sluice (right mid-ground) and the rapids are as was.

The stones in the foreground, do exist but would actually be out of sight to the left and below the edge of the field, forming the wall of one of the canals and a foundation for part of the mill..

The background of the picture, is actually an expanded view from upriver.  The actual view from this spot, wouldn't allow the viewer to go back into the picture.

Hopefully, this scene will feel familiar to those who are familiar with this Mill Street view in Lisbon.  But furthermore, hopefully this scene will touch the memories of those who have grown up near old industrial sites being reclaimed by nature.  If I've really done my job well, this picture will also appeal to people on its merits as a painting.

Elmer Ham Fishing Boats

Sketch of Fishing Boats - Watercolor by Elmer L. Ham

8.5" x 10" Sight Size

11" x 14" Framed

There is a quality about a sketch that I particularly enjoy.  You get to see the artists thinking and focus as they work.  What the artist finishes and what the artist leaves out is often telling. 

To me, this study is one of light, shadow, and reflection.  Note how the shading on the boats add depth and form.   On the near boat, how the shadow and rust on the way below deck add form and substance.  The shadows on the second boat on the fishing nets the shadows from the fishing nets on the small boat in between the larger boats.

Also, note the reflections in the foreground, they are not static.  They are fluid and evoke the feeling of moving water. This is the result of years of observation.  Whether or not this was done on location, I have no proof, but it is too close to the subject to have been done as an exercise or from a photograph.

The pencil lines for rigging again are not perfectly taut but as one would find on a working boat in harbor.  The lines for the wharf also frame the composition nicely.  If the wharf were added, it might well distract from the ships.  This may have well been why the sketch was not completed - but there could also be a hundred other reasons.  I do know, from the paintings I have in my possession, that Ham would often return to a subject to emphasize a different aspect of the painting or to tighten up the composition.  Another plausible explanation of why this subject was not completed could have been that it had simply served its purpose for Ham and he kept it for further reference.

I decided to mat and frame this sketch.  I'll replace the white mat with a colored mat to bring out more of the colors within the boats to tie everything together.

Sketch of Fishing Boats - Watercolor by Elmer L. Ham

8.5" x 10" Sight Size

11" x 14" Framed

Mountain Brook Summer

This charcoal is an amalgamation of many trips to the mountains.  The most direct sources of inspiration for this drawing was a trip that Julie and I took in Mid Summer to the Swift River in Maine and along the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire, as well as the riverbed often visible when driving through Farmington Maine. 

One of the areas we stopped in was nearly water free.  The low water (almost absent) added a whole new type of interest to the river scene for me.  I find rivers and water in general to be a fascinating subject.  From reflections of sky and trees, to rapids, to the ebbs and flows of river channels, and of course water falls.  Along the river bed were occasional puddles which reflected the trees, clouds, and sky overhead.  That's a subject (or three) for another day.

In this case I've altered the composition somewhat to allow the viewer to see the river bed.  In reality, the growth along the road was so thick, that you couldn't see the river bed which ran to within a few feet of the tote road.  In exploring the riverbed, there were some areas where the trees obscured the sky above, letting only mottled light through to the rocks below.  It was breathtaking.

Georgetown Inlet

This watercolor sketch of an inlet in Georgetown, Maine serves a couple of purposes for me.

One, I'd been so focused on pen and ink drawings I missed painting.  In addition to composition and design, I truly enjoy working with  color and paint- watercolors in particular.  For whatever reason, I find it more enjoyable (and more efficient) to experiment with watercolor than the other mediums I work with (Acrylic, Oil, Goache, Charcoal, Pencil).  The medium of watercolor itself, I find it to be the quickest medium to get ideas to paper.   Some of that is simple physics - water flows quickly and smoothly.  Another reason is the ease of transport and clean up of watercolor.  I also began my artistic journey with watercolor so that is the medium I've worked with the longest.

One piece of advice I would give, is take whatever advice that is given to you for what it is worth for your journey - not as gospel.  One of the most common pieces of advice that I recieved is that watercolor is very difficult to work with.  That once you make a "mistake" you cannot correct it.  If we go into anything convinced that we cannot correct mistakes, that we must be "perfect" - we are unlikely to try in the first place or to persevere when we encounter the inevitiable challenges that go hand and hand with learning.

Don't get me wrong, classes or advice from those more experienced can be incredibly valuable and can save you a lot of learning time.  Just don't be afraid to forge your own path.

This studio sketch (living room actually) was an interpretation of a sketching trip Julie and I took to Georgetown Months ago.  I look forward for going

It was a grey day when I was sketching on location but for the purposes of the watercolor I wanted I experiment with different effects that sunlight would have.  This sketch has also given me some different compositional ideas.

What I've started doing now is storing sketches and paintings (when possible due to size) together for future reference.  For now, my pen and ink sketches are all still in the original sketchbook as I often find when sketching on location I'll find a subject for a quick margin sketch that fits with other subjects (such as one page of reflections) for potential future development.

The Georgetown area is so beautiful, I can not wait to go back.  And talk about having a magnificent "office!"  We are so lucky to live in Maine.

Old Mill Stream

This large watercolor is based on a nearby mill brook in Lisbon Falls, Maine.  The wollen mill was torn down within the past decade.  I'd always said I'd paint it, but I waited too long.

The rock wall in the foreground is part of the old canal system and actually is not visible from this view.  The two rock walls in the mid ground are part of the canal/power system for the old mill.  On this day the water was low but running rapidly over a breach in the dam.

This is one of the few spring paintings I've done.  There are so many colors in the spring as the trees begin to flower.  Not quite fall like, but colorful none the less.  I've simplified the overall composition while trying to stay true to the acutal location.

This location is actually quite a gem.  There is a walking path on the left with a view of the brook which continues along the Androscoggin River.

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!