Baileys Island #2

Have spent the last couple of evenings/sunsets at Lands End on Bailey's Island.  It's amazing how different the sea is every day.  The first day the water was as smooth as glass and the reflection of the sunset was breathtaking.  Even got to watch a seal for awhile just off shore.

This sketch was completed from the parking lot.  It combines different elements that are present at Bailey Island, but not in the composition rendered below.  This composition combines the gnarled pine trees with rocks which dominate much of the landscape and on the horizon line is the lighthouse thats visible to the right of the island directly opposite the end of the road.

A sailboat happened by while I was sketching so I did a quick sketch of it, the outline of the memorial for those to who were lost at sea and the edge of the island with the lighthouse in the distance.

My wife laughed at me because, although I was at the seacoast I was sketching the pine trees in the parking lot - but that is sometimes how it works.  I found them to be so interesting visually that thatis what I was drawn to initially.

Am looking forward to painting some seascapes this fall and winter.

Portland Rooftops1

This is a sketch of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland ME, from Marginal Way.  I've always been fascinated by city skylines and rooftops.  This cathederal is also where my sister got married which is why I chose this subject to sketch.

The day itself had some incredibly dramatic lighting - clear skys one minute, rain the next and ultimately a thick sea fog which obscured the top half of the steeple.  I didn't have the time to try some of those different lighting patterns, but will another time.  As we say, if you don't like the weather in New England, wait a minute.

This was also a subject to work on how to indicate the substantial nature of the construction of the Cathederal without indicating every little detail (It couldn't be seen at this distance anyway - at least not with my eyes).  A few seagulls showed up and further illustrated the scale of the building.  They can barely be seen around the steeple on the left.

I'll adjust the building lines as necessary in any future subjects from this sketch but its enough for me to work on later.

Georgetown and Tenants Harbor, Maine

Here are a few working sketches that I completed while picking up some of my paintings from the Plein Air Painters of Maine show at the Georgetown Library.  It is such a beautiful area.

The sketchpad I use is a simple 11" by 14" Acid Free medium weight paper. This first page represents some quick sketches I made sitting on a granite bench right alongside an inlet.  I generally make a few quick compositional sketches of scenes I am considering as well as local sights that could turn into additional paintings or elements that I might add into the composition later.  In other words real local buildings or natural scenes that you wouldn't see from this point of view but that anyone familiar with the area would be recognized.

This was a grey day and quite windy, but enjoyable.  Two ducks kept me company the entire time I sketched.  One black, one white.  Both very busy fishing.  I'm going to change the mostly hidden modern car port for a lobster shack that I remember (or imagine I remember) from Higgins Beach.

I plan to adjust the patterns of the lobster traps in the final painting as I've begun at the bottom of the page.

The sketch below is of a working wharf in Georgetown.  I happened to stop by as the days catch was being brought up to the wharf and then loaded onto the waiting truck.  I'm going to move the boat unloading to the near side of the wharf in the final picture.

To the right in the margin is a sketch of some fascinating reflections in a small building next to me on the location of the sketch above.  I could see reflections as well as into the building and out the other side.  It reminded me of something that Andrew Wyeth might paint ( no pressure there :)  

I recently purchased the book Wyeth and Kuhners.  It was filled with many of working sketches leading up to the final paintings.   It was very interesting to "see" his thought process behind some of his finished paintings.  The older I get and the longer I paint, the more my appreciation of his work grows.