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.

Clouds Over Mountan Pond

This charcoal is 12" x 16" with a few highlights of gouache

Working in the studio today.

The bulk of this drawing was completed years ago and set aside.  That is something I will do from time to time.  Sometimes its because I've reached the point in a subject that I've reached the limit of my technical skills (In other words, I know what I want to achieve but I don't know how to do it yet) ,  More often than not, its because I am most inspired by source material (aka nature) so I'll work on a number of subjects at once leaving studio work for later.  

 I decided to experiment with this subject, adding to and changing the composition of the clouds, shadows on the mountains and reflections in the pond and some general touch up.

I also pursued some experimentation with tracing paper, pen and ink, on an oil composition of an Amish Farmer.  The two sketches below are future projects.  The top sketch is a compositional study for continued work on the oil of an Amish Farmer.  More on that subject in different posts.

The drawing below was also completed years ago.  A snowy hillside in Lewiston.  My next studio day of experiementation will involve this subject. 

Find your own way, study with moonlight

I've always been fascinated and drawn to the effects of moonlight.  It always seems so mysterious to me.  In particular, in the winter, a full moon and frozen ponds and marshes would expand the world I could explore as a child.  It opened up corners of the woods often closed off in different seasons.  Even very familiar places seem different at night, and moreso in the moonlight.

I also vividly remember the brilliance of the moonlight dancing on the ocean - particularly in the cold winter air.

Here is a study for the second in the planned series of Androscoggin River paintings.   A night scene.  I've thought about doing painting series of a particular scene for years now and occasionally I've done it but in a time period of years not weeks.  I'm not sure exactly what has motivated me to purposely paint and draw this series, other than the incrdedible contrast of this change of season from Winter to Spring.

This scene was done primarily with indigo with a few highlights/ darklights with prussian blue.  I do enjoy monochrome painting as it really forces me to focus on value and composition - errors in which can sometimes be masked with the use color.  There's still work to do on the composition.

I've also been struck by the varied surface of ice on the river.  Some areas windswept reflecting light like a mirror - others still snow covered. The patterns of darker and lighter cracks in the ice definately lean to the abstract

One of the most common misperceptions about watercolor is that once you touch paint to paper, you cannot undo anything.  I've not found that to be the case - with very few exceptions.   You do have to plan your darkest darks and lightest lights out first but beyond that, I've found watercolor to be very flexible and suited to a wide variety of techniques.  Find your own way.  You certainly can learn from others but be confident and experiment - you will develop a style and method that is all your own.