Crashing Surf

I am continuing to experiment with seascapes.  Despite spending many years along the coast, I still have a great deal of study to do to capture the power and movement and color of the sea.  This is a small watercolor with some use of chinese white as well as scaping with a razor blade to achieve some of the whites

This painting is not of an actual location, but is patterned after the rocks along the coast near Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth Maine and Prouts Neck in Scarborogh, Maine.  

I've had the privilige of seeing a number of Winslow Homer's original paintings at the Portland Museum of Art as well as in Boston.  His seascapes are incredibly powerful - and make you feel as though you are really there on the cliffs by the sea.

Winslow Homer's studio is now owned by the Portland Museum of Art and tours are conducted on a regular basis.  The cliff walk around Prouts Neck is also open to the public.  Like many places in Maine, the trick is to find a place to park.  The cliff walk can be accessed from Scarborogh Beach which is an amazing beach by its own right.

Other artists whose work I admire in regard to sea scapes are John Stobart, Carl Evers, and Frederick Waugh to name a few.

As for the handling of water and light, I continue to be drawn to the works of Frank W. Benson, Aiden Lassell Ripley, and Ogden Pleissner.

I don't study other artists work too closely as I do not want to imitate anyone else.  However, there are times if I can not work out a solution to a problem that I will refer to other artists work if it's a situation where I can not physically go  to a location to work something out (for instance, if I'm working on a fall scene in the winter or vice versa).

Copying artists work in museums is also a time honored way of learning from previous masters.  You'll need to check with museums to see their policies and restrictions if you are interested in trying this.  I've never done it, but who knows, perhaps some day I will.  In a nutshell, any painting you do must be of a different dimension than the original so that there could be no danger any copy being confused for the original.

Scarborough Barn

This sketch is an elaboration of an on location watercolor completed in Scarborough Maine more than a decade ago.  This is one example of why I do enjoy the challenges of studio work from on location paintings.  

I hope to be able to take various elements that do exist (though not in this exact composition) in a place and bring them together into a scene that people feel as though they've been there.  In this case, the ocen in the distance with a small peninsula and a barn on a sloping hill tucked amongst elm, spruce, and other hard and softwoods encroaching on what was, at one time, a working farm.

The trees existed, but for the purposes of the picture I reversed them.  I'll do another color study as the original painting was done in the fall.  The Ocean was not viewable in the acutal setting due to the heighth of the surrounding forest but it would have been where I've indicated it in the drawing.

Old Country Church

Old Country Church

Pen and Ink 

I am fascinated by old churches.  The buildings and surrounding graveyards are full of so much history.   This drawing is an amalgamation of many churches and locations seen throughout my years of travel throughout New England.

If pressed, I would say the main inspriation for this drawing comes from the Spurwink Congregational Church in Cape Elizabeth, Maine (Built in 1802) and St. John. the Evangelist Church in Pembroke Maine, build circa 1855 by Irish immigrants who had come to work in the Pembroke Ironworks.

As I child I explored the church in Pembroke (it was left unlocked and open to any who wished to enter in those days) but at the time I was more fascinated by the surrounding grounds and cemetary.  The ground in front of the tombstones was depressed - where the old caskets had collapsed over time - and the thick woods surrounded the graveyard.  There was a bald eagles nest nearby.  I could never quite find it, but I saw the eagles for many many years patrolling the nearby Pennamaquan River which drains into Cobscook Bay.  It was a magical place to explore as a child.