Blog

Into The Woods

This is probably the last painting I will complete for 2012 as holiday activities with family and friends will fill much of my time for the next week or so. This 20" x 20" oil painting, "Into the Woods", was inspired by a small group of trees, not really large enough to be called a woods, near where I was exhibiting some paintings.  As I walked to my car I saw the light through the trees and remembered the woods at the edge of my grandparents farm. My sister and I were always warned not to go "into the woods". There were "wild dogs" and hunters and all kinds of dangers I am sure were invented to keep small children from exploring too far and getting lost. I remember we would walk to the end of the pasture and stand there for awhile and try to decide if we were brave enough to go any further. The call of the forest and the unknown is just as mesmerizing and compelling now as it was then.

Evening Tracks

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for railroad tracks. In one of my last paintings for 2012 I pay homage to those tracks trailing off in the distance. When I was very small there was a train that ran near our house. I would hear the whistle blow at night when I should have been sleeping. I would wonder where the train was headed and who was on it.  I still hear the train on occasion now and then on it's way to far away locations, full of possibilities.

Art de Cure Exhibit

I have two paintings - "Willow" and "Maple Sugar Country" - in the show  Primary Factors - Line, Shape, and Color which is part of Art de Cure at The Endocrine Group, 1365 Washington Ave. Suite 300 in Albany NY. The exhibit runs from December 3rd  through March 15th 2013. This show "Primary Colors" explores how these attributes are present in every work of art and how the way they are used by the artist makes each piece unique.

Art de Cure, a 501 (c) 3 formed in 2010, is a collaboration between art and medicine. Art de Cure is a unique concept which brings art to an audience not likely to explore art galleries. Galleries are housed in medical practices and the work of regional artists is on display. The host practice chooses the charity that will benefit and Art de Cure curates the shows. The charity chosen for this show is the American Diabetes Association. The galleries are permanent with multiple shows and receptions scheduled each year. The Art de Cure Galleries are open to the public, and to the practice’s patients during regular office hours.

Half-Light

The setting sun softens the features of the landscape. A solitary horse basks in the last golden light of the day.

Half-Light, my most recent painting, will join my other works on exhibit at the Fenimore Art on the Lake event this Saturday August 4th.

Summer Evening on the Mohawk

The Mohawk River is a majestic presence in the Capital Region.
It links our villages and towns and adds a fluid and graceful beauty to our seasons.

I was trying to capture the humidity of the summer air near the river.

This painting was inspired by a view of the Mohawk looking Southwest

under the bridge near Jumping Jacks Drive-In, another summer staple in the area.

Feast or Famine

The Tailored Tea, Latham NY

In the studio things had slowed down a bit. My holiday commissions were behind me and I had no new deadlines ahead. I have been taking my time working each day on improving my oil painting techniques and have completed a few new paintings since 2012 began. There haven't been many new exhibits and not much has been happening locally in the art world. Recently all that changed and the past week or so has begun a very exciting time for me. I have been involved in putting my artwork together for two very different exhibitions in the Capital District. I am a guest exhibitor through June at The Tailored Tea a newly renovated historic tea house cafe in Latham NY and I have artwork chosen for display by designers of the 2012 Vanguard Albany Designer Showcase in Albany NY. I have been busy printing price lists, ordering updated promotional materials and adding the details of each exhibit to my bookkeeping records. (Check the events page of my website for more complete exhibit details). My studio seems empty now and I need to get busy on some new paintings. Spring has sprung and there is new life in the art world.

Evening's Promise

I recently finished Evening's Promise, a 16 inch x 12 inch oil painting. There is a story behind it's inspration. For several weeks after the devastating floods in our area last summer, nightfall brought a series of spectacular evening skies. It was almost as if nature were reminding us of the beauty in the world in the midst of all the damage. I saved a number of reference photos from the evening selections and chose one to use in this painting. The field was inspired by numerous rural farms I have passed in travels along NY Route 5S westbound. I wanted the completed painting to have a spiritual quality in addition to paying homage to the splendor of the sunset. The barn cat was added as a witness to the sunset that promises a new and hopefully better day to come.

Round and Round

Fuzzy, exhuasted but content

A month or so ago we added a new feline to the household. She is a rescue cat named Penny (although I call her Fuzzy). At ten months she is not really a kitten but not yet a cat. One of her favorite activities is to chase her tail. She spins round and round like a whirling derivsh (whatever that it) until completely exhausted and then drops to the floor with a contented look on her puss and takes a nice nap.

I kind of know how she feels.

I just spent the day at the studio working on a new painting. So much to think about! I am working in oils so my comfort zone of handling acrylics is gone. I also have to think about composition and design, values, keeping the lighting consistent, color harmony, edges - a hard edge here, a softer one there- variety of brushstrokes, etc. The more I learn, the more I need to learn. By the end of the day after going round and round I had messed things up a bit. I scrape away some of the mess and head home to rest up for tomorrow.  I am content. I had fun. I think I even learned some things. What better way to spend the day than working on a painting even though it seems I didn't get anywhere. Hey Fuzzy, I completely understand the attraction.

The Lewis Farm

My newest painting was a labor of love. As you drive out of the small village of Scotia NY where I live, there is a sprawling farm on Route 5 connecting east to west. It sits down a hill overlooking fields that stretch down to Lock 8 and the Mohawk River. This past summer the river flooded during Hurricane Irene and tropical storm Lee. The fields of corn were drowning in mud and water jumped the river's banks and formed new channels around the concrete locks. Luckily the farm sits just far enough from the river to survive the worst of the flood damage. I was compelled to paint this beautiful farm that is within walking distance of my house. I am hoping to do a series of paintings showcasing the natural beauty of this farm as it passes through the seasons and in the future not take for granted the beauty so close to home.

Fun With Watersoluble Oils

This past year I have taken advantage of having my own studio space to explore oil painting techniques as well as acrylics. I am using water soluble oils to try to maintain a green studio environment as much as possible. The nice thing about using these type oils is the ease of clean up. I keep a large glass jar with about an inch or so of Dawn dish detergent mixed with a little water near my palette. When it comes time to clean my brush/change colors, I just swish it around in the detergent mixture (much the way you would use turp/solvents with regular oils) and then in water and they are ready to wipe dry with a paper towel or cloth and use again. The end of my painting session I clean my brushes with Masterson cleaner or Murphys Oil Soap. Cleaning up my palette is just as easy. A quick spray with water and then wipe clean. I use water with these paints only in the beginning of the painting process when I block in my shapes. After the initial block-in I use the paint directly from the tube ( I prefer Holbein Duo Aqua brand- I found the Winsor and Newton to be a bit too sticky) or thinned with water soluble linseed oil for detail work. I find that the drying time is the same as the Gamblin regular oils I tried at first. Basically the difference is in using water as the solvent rather than turp. Numerous mediums are available for use including quick drying and regular painting mediums. There is a definite learning curve for me after using acrylics for the last few years. Oils of course dry slower, but the ability to control blends and the luminosity of the colors make these unique paints a definite pleasure to work with. I'm hooked!