Stroudwater Colonial - Opening night

Here is a picutre of my charcoal "Stroudwater Colonial" which was accepted for the River Arts Gallery Exhibition - Black and White - Currently on display in Damriscotta.

My wife, Julie, also had two works accepted for this show - Her first juried exhibition!!  Congratulations honey!  Julie is gifted at avoiding having her picture taken, but that is another story.  It was a wonderful evening with family and new friends!

I'm submitting two paintings for jurying at the Crooker gallery in Topsham later this week.

Adroscoggin River, Ice Breaking by moonlight (watercolor)

Midcoast Marsh - Acrylic on Canvas Board

After the Storm, Lisbon Falls

After the Storm, Lisbon Falls

Acrylic 12" x 16"

This acrylic was painted the same day I completed an on location sketch - while the composition and colors were fresh in my mind.  This was from a winter or two ago.  Big storm coming in, up to another two feet of snow.  Am looking forward to seeing the results of the storm (but not to shoveling out).

I was struck by the color of the ice and the trees all being weighed down by snow and ice.  The scene changed quite quickly once the sun worked its way through the clouds melting the ice and snow.

Another thing that I enjoy about painting on location is that I observe things that I wouldn't know to make up or to include in a purely studio based painting.  For instance, in the painting the lines of snow (cracks in the ice) help compositionaly, but it also indicates how hard the wind had been blowing (snow off the ice) and also that the ice freezes in different locations at different times.

  

Night in Windham

Night in Windham

Acrylic 12" x 16"

This is my first attempt at an on location painting at night.  I learned a lot - the usual mixture of things to do and things not to do next time.  I'm sure I broke pretty much every "rule" about painting night scenes - but I had a blast.  Overall the picture came out too dark.  

I'll definately use this painting as the basis of numerous other subjects - combining elements that were present in the scene or others that I've witnessed in other settings.  I'll do some thumbnail sketches to try different compositions and then perhaps some tonal sketches before developing ideas further.  This type of studio work after doing on location paintings I've grown to enjoy very much.  

Some examples include - a barn with a snow covered roof catching the light of the moon;  The acutal barn is a quanset hut, but I would change that to an old barn (many different styles to choose from);

A scene with the moon rising above the trees, providing dramatic back lighting as I observed throughout the earlier evening.  By the time I painted this, the moon was high in the sky and obscured by clouds.

Other possible iterations could include animals in the moonlight or , as can often be seen at this time of year, skiers or snowmobiles in the far field.

This painting was also done on a canvas I primed with gesso and then a coat of burnt sienna.  It made it easy to quickly cover the canvas - but it also may have contributed to the overall darkness of the painting.  I'll experiment on future paintings with the effects of undercoating color on the overall painting.

Below is a photo of my paintbox with the pallette looking a bit abstract.