The Blog
1/30/2012 2:31:57 PM
I’m finding that the more I read about other landscape painters the more that I learn that we have a number of similarities and one of those “traits” is a common love of painting trees in the winter. After the foliage falls off, the tree is left naked as it were, and we can see its entire structure, its anatomy and its skeletal shape. I think trees are like snowflakes…no two are alike. They each have their own shape, form and character. I feel that painting trees is very similar to doing portraits of people…the only difference is that I always find my tree subject interesting to paint as compared to some of the people portraits I have done!
I happened upon this old gentleman in nearby Brookville. The element which really caught my eye was the lowest branch which seemed to zigzag its way toward me, almost as if it was trying to elude me. There is so much form and character in this one branch; it’s in the light, it’s in the shadow, the snow lying on top of it is in the light, then ducks and twists into the shadows. And there is also the wonderful, warm reflected light which bounces up off of the snow into the underside of the branch. There is enough going on here to keep me excited for a couple of paintings!
Not unlike the paintings themselves, titles for them sometimes come easier than others. I struggled with naming this one (which I do pretty often). I told my wife that I just couldn’t think what to call it. She looked at it for a moment, looked back at me, shrugged her shoulders and said “Old Man Winter”, then turned and walked away with a “that couldn’t have been much easier” lilt to her step!
"Old Man Winter"12 X 12 oil on canvas. Available for purchase. Click on the link below the painting for purchasing details.
Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link below the painting for purchasing details. The price includes shipping costs.
1/23/2012 2:38:48 PM
Snow presents problems. Sure it’s pretty and we all like to have a look at it out of the window from inside our nice warm homes. For me, the problems arise when I have to get bundled up to go outside and try to start moving it off of my walkway and driveway, brushing off the plein air mobile, scraping the windshield and heading off, slipping and sliding to the store to pick op some silly thing I forgot to buy the night before.
From a painting point of view, snow is great! It livens up a rather dull, brown landscape with its warm pinks and oranges in the light and cold blues and violets in the shadows. That is all true if the sun is out. When the storm is raging at its height the painter is confronted with grays, grays and some more grays!
I decided I liked the challenge of trying to bring some life into this cold gray moment. I did have a couple of color notes such as the red in the door and the figure’s coat as well as the green traffic light and yellows in the car headlights but I tried not to make those too chromatic or colorful. I wanted the whole piece to have the feeling of muted color that one sees on this kind of day. Instead, trying to stay true to theory, I attempted to make the grays in the light cool and keep the shadows warm. I study in gray!
"Dusting to a Couple of Inches"14 X 11 oil on canvas. Click the link to view purchaing details.
Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link under the image to view purchasing details for this painting. The price includes shipping costs.
1/18/2012 4:28:11 PM
I just noticed that it’s been two months since my last blog post! Actually more than two months…the last one is dated November 7th 2011! No one can blame me for clogging up their inbox with update after update!
I’d like to begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. I hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays and that, like myself, you haven’t already broken those New Years resolutions?
As the Holidays are over and the studio is back up and running I have a couple of new paintings to share. All of you know that I normally only paint outdoors directly from nature and very rarely paint from reference in the studio. Painting on site as much as I do is a great discipline because you learn so much and can then, hopefully, bring that information back into the studio with you. The on site work “informs” the work done inside. At least that’s the hope! I took the time to set up a computer and a largish monitor right next to my easel so I can work from digital images that I (or others) have shot. Being a confirmed and dedicated on site painter I have to say…I’ve rather been enjoying it! I’m also planning to do larger, more “finished” paintings this year and think this will be a good set up and approach for me.
First is an image that friends of mine took while traveling recently in Venice. They posted some of the pictures on Facebook when they got back home and I was really taken with this one. I loved the way the shadows and the perspective in the buildings seemed all to point at the one moored white boat in the canal and asked them if they’d mind if I “borrowed” the image!
“Venice” 11 X 14 oil on canvas. In the collection of Mr. and Mrs. G. Galluccio.
Next is an 11 X 14 done from reference shot down in Oyster Bay Cove. I was wandering around looking for something to paint when I saw this small skiff tied up just off shore. These small rowboats are used by the working oystermen to get out to where their power boats are moored. I wasn’t too crazy about it when I saw it but I shot it anyway and am really glad I did. I fell in love with its lonely look when I got back home.
“Skiff and Autumn Grasses” 11 X 14 oil on canvas.Available. Click on the link to view purchasing details.
The next painting is also a bit unusual for me. I was teaching my regular Thursday night class at The Art League of Long Island and decided to paint along with my students. One of them was working from a photograph she shot while traveling in Surrey, England. I usually make quite a few rounds during class; offering advice and comments/mild criticism on their work so I didn’t have much time to put into this. I guess I got in a total of about 45 minutes but was quite happy with the result. I’m trying to get a bit looser, a bit more impressionistic with my approach and this little painting is one of my first steps down that road.
“Surrey Snow” 9 X 12 oil on canvas.Available. Click on the link for purchasing details.
Finally, well...I would feel bad if I didn't have at least one on site painting to offer. This one was done a couple of years ago out at Caumsett State Park. Whenever I see these they remind me that warm weather is coming and that I'll soon be packing the Soltek into the plein air mobile and heading out to feel the sun on my back again!
"Summer Color" 11 X 14 oil on canvas.Available. Click on the link for purchasing details.
Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link under each image to view purchasing details. The price includes shipping costs.
