Overcast Day at the coast

 

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 observation of nature, processing it and expressing it on canvas or paper that place/moment in time becomes part of you and you of it.   I urge you to give it a try!

Stormy Day in the Basin

Stormy Day at the Basin

Watercolor on Paper 

18" x 22"

I do find that there is a beauty in every mood of nature.  The movement of mists and fog rolling in, rising from lakes and ponds, and  spilling down mountains is fascinating to me.  Objects partially revealed, never fully, and then they are gone.  This subject was based on an on location painting I completed in Grafton Notch more than 20 years ago.  Still a little more work to do on this but I enjoyed tackling a larger watercolor - it had been awhile.

Below is the painting this subject was based on.  During the course of painting this I had to retreat to my father in law's truck.  I can still hear the rain on the roof when I look at this painting.     

This painting was one of the first times I was able to capture the mood of a place at a specific time.  It's a little rough and unfinished, but still remains one of my favorites.  I emphasized the sky more in the recent watercolor, lowering the mountain height and adding a small tree covered island to help with scale.

I also added the trees to the right as there was a peninsula there that I did not include in the study above.  You can see indications of trees that I'd begun on the right but then I switched my focus to the atmospheric effects and left the peninsula out.

Approaching Storm

Approaching Storm

Acrylic on Canvas Board

18" x 24"

When painting a subject that is imaginary, or half memory and half imagination versus an on location painting, different challenges arise.  However, I find that each choice in painting informs the other.  Thinking quickly about the genesis of this painting - four things come to mind.  

A sketching trip to Cushing Maine, Painting trips to Evans Notch, Dunes on Cape Cod and the fields and forest that I used to play in growing up in Westbrook.  This composition is an amalgam of those experiences and more.

I've submitted this painting for consideration in an upcoming juried exhibition. This painting is one of the first that I've specifically designed for a show.  Generally I've simply matched paintings completed with the themes of juried shows.  I can't really say that I have a preference beyond painting effects and subjects that are of interest to me.

Another different thing that I've done with these past few paintings is prepping the canvas with yellow ochre and raw sienna.  that's part of the effect that you see of the reflections in the water - it is the under-painting being revealed by thinning the surface of paint.

Eastport Maine Afternoon Light

Eastport Maine - Abandoned Cannery, Tides Institute

Charcoal and Gouache on paper

This painting is an elaboration of an on location watercolor sketch that I did in Eastport last summer.  The effect of the light striking the abandoned cannery and the strong shadows was what drew me to this subject.   I'll set this aside and go back to it at a later date.

Its also another example to me that I'm never quite sure where a painting is going to lead me.  When I think of Eastport and the coast of Maine in general - I don't think of barely including the ocean in a scene painted on the coast.  

I plan to do five or six variations of this subject, including increasing the space between the buildings to show more of the harbor and the working coast.

While working, I had a visit from one of my studio assistants (Whisper).  I think he likes the painting - but he's not saying.  The cat has his tongue.  

Exploring Harpswell

I spent Friday morning exploring Harpswell and South Harpswell.

My first stop was at the driveway entrance to the former home and studio of Stephen Etnier.
The land is no longer in family hands , the house and studio are long gone (which is another story all together).  However, the area surrounding the grounds of the studio is striking.  Farmland, spruce forests, wild ponds, and working houses of lobster and fishermen with boats large and small, for working and for pleasure.  The road was serpentine and very narrow.  That, and the fact that I was an uninvited guest, I didn't stay long.

Here is a photograph of "Old Cove" house and studio from the dock (uncredited - StevenEtnier.com)  I could understand why Steven Etnier chose this place to build his home and studio.  I must admit that I imagined seeing his good friend Andrew Wyeth visiting captivated by the endless subjects to paint at every turn.

My second stop was a subtly marked parking area (a Maine tradition) alongside a cove.  There was a picnic table and access to the water a short walk across the street.  It was a low tide with small waves lapping against a beach of tiny rocks - nothing like the cliffs pictured above.  Maine and New England are filled with these unadvertised hidden gems.  They are well worth the effort to find. 

From the parking lot, there was an easy hike, just over a mile, through a spruce forest to another cove with a similar pebbled beach with one large difference.   It was largely covered by snails that hadn't burrowed into the sand yet.  The walk reminded me of childhood days.  Walking along the towpath through the pine forests along the remnants of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal near my childhood home in Westbrook.

Large pines with thick roots snaking across the ground.  Evidence of the wind surrounds you murmuring through the pines.  You can see the treetops swaying, the patterns of light shifting silently on the ground, the creaks and pops of pines swaying in the wind,  yet the air remains very still inside thick stands of pine.  There were numerous deadfalls, trees toppled by the wind, caught by their neighbors before they reached the ground.  Those trees still standing had many gnarled dead branches - unable to reach the shafts of sunlight soon enough to support life -  create abstract patterns on the rust colored floor, low ferns, branches and tree trunks.

This Pen and Ink is an impression of the entrance to the forest path as well as some of the interesting scenery on the way to the beach. 

Insipiration - Bath New Hampshire

Acrylic on Canvas Board 12"x16"

My earliest memories of covered bridges were on family trips to see my Aunt in North Conway, New Hampshire.  I was always fascinated by the construction of the bridges.  I can still hear and feel the car on the wooden planks of the bridge echoing throughout the bridge.  Being surrounded by darkness and large wooden beams was a stark contrast to the sunlight outside.  On stormy trips, the sounds changed from rain on the roof of the car to the muffled sound of rain of the roof of the bridge.  You can still see the foundations of the covered bridge on the way into North Conway on Route 302 - over the Saco River.  I have a vague recollection of the bridge being damaged by a fire.  There was some hope that it would be rebuilt, but that proved to be too steep a financial committment and the bridge was eventually demolished as the route into North Conway was redirected.

I've also been fascinated by the old industrial buildings alongside New England rivers.  I used to play in an old abandoned mill in my hometown.  It stirs my memory more today than it did at the time. The memories may not be fully accurate, but they are mine none the less.   The massive floor boards, frosty windows filled with imperfections of early glass  all combined with the heart pounding  excitement of being somewhere you weren't supposed to be, doing something you weren't supposed to be doing.  So many of these buildings were allowed to fall into disrepair as manufacturing jobs disappeared or moved on to other locations.  It's nice now to see that restaurants and other businesses have been rehabbing these buildings that were once the bedrock of so many communities throughout New England.

This painting is an example of what I've written about in the past.  It's a studio painting based on memories and emotions from my experiences.  The original idea for the painting came from some on location sketches from trips to Bath New Hampshire.  It is one of the largest covered bridges I've ever seen.  It's a beautiful village and a must see if you are travelling to New Hampshire.

Below are a few examples from my trusty sketchpad.  I started with some compositional ideas around the border of the page - pretty much from the upper left - clockwise around the page.  I then sectioned off the remaining center of the paper and once I'd sketched in this new perspective I knew that was the one I wanted to pursue.

Below is the first and second pass at the painting.  I started by toning the canvas with a warm earth tone and then preceeded to put in the sky and then blocked in the bones of the painting (the river bed, walls, and surrounding buildings.  The bridge was then put in next with no windows till the end.  This was a new type of canvas board for me.  It was prepped for watercolor - so I found that working in acrylics, these was very little tooth or bite to the canvas, so I had to adapt my style of paitning until I'd built up enough paint on the canvas.  Below I've shown the (Nearly) finished painting.

Fairly subtle, but important changes I think.  What are your thoughts?

One of my favorite artists, Aldro Hibbard, did at least one painting of this area from up above (to my right looking at the painting) and looking upriver.  It was breathtaking to see.

Charcoal and Tracing Paper Experiments

I occasionally like to experiment with tracing paper.  Not to trace compositions, but I enjoy the feel charcoal on tracing paper.  Using tracing paper and even newsprint was also recommended by noted illustrators Robert Fawcett and Charles La Salle for practice.  I enjoy finding instructional books by artists such as these for inspiration.  Andrew Loomis is another favorite of mine.  The effects that Loomis and La Salle were able to achieve in Charcoal were amazing.  And Fawcett is an acknowleged master of line.  They make it look so easy.  Any expert does.  

I also like to see what the composition looks like in reverse.  While looking at a few of my paintings and drawings in preparation for entering another juried exhibition, I also noticed the difference the colored background makes.  

In this case I imagined a stormy sea where visibility was quite limited.  This was done from imagination, through I do enjoy storm watching along the coast.  The first image is simply with a piece of white paper behind the tracing paper charcoal drawing.

In the second picture, I've simply moved the white paper to the right and left the natural color of the drawing board (brown) to show through.  It does demonstrate a different mood.

The image below is with the image reversed.  Tracing paper makes this quick and easy - of course this can be done even more simply with basic computer software - but for me I prefer to go "old school"

 I'll share another example of working with watercolor on tracing paper in my next post.

I continue to be reminded on a regular basis that in art, and in life, there is no substitute for doing the work.  Reading about drawing or painting does no more to make you an artist than reading about playing the piano makes one a piano player.

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.

Reflections

"Reflections" - Oil 18"x 24"

I've always been humbled by nature.  In particular the oceans and as in this scene - the mountains.  It's always amazes me how quickly the noise and concerns of everyday life disappear when entering the woods and exploring along a river.

I have fond memories of camping with family and friends, but I have equally fond memories of the times spent exploring alone and recharging to the rhythms of nature.

I thought about including other figures in this scene, perhaps a canoe or a cabin in the distance. However, as the painting developed, the emotion and mood I was reaching for was that of a solitary figure.  In terms of scale, the figure is a small portion of the picture, but for me it was a corner piece of the puzzle.

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!