Gray Day Beauty

                                           Pasture Trees  11x14 oil on linen board plein air

This is a recent plein air painting done on a day that was supposed to be a beautiful, sunny day.  I love gray days because color is strong and light is the same for longer amounts of time.  I had problems with the color of the road, finally deciding that it was a value problem and lightened it to resolve.  The dark shapes of the trees against the top of the hill and the gray sky helped set up this simple composition. 

Class Demo

One of my students was kind enough to take these photos of my Fall Class demo in progress.  This was done on an 18x24 linen canvas and is still a work in progress.  It helps seeing the stages in my process of the painting and where I can change or improve how I paint.  This painting is still a work in progress, and I will be taking it back to class to complete with our Winter group.  I will post the completed painting when finished. 

New Work

I have been busy this season traveling and painting, striving for simplification.  As artists, we are constantly trying to go beyond the literal and simplification is the best way to move in that direction.  I am painting from life as much as possible, using those studies along with my photos to simplify shapes and values.  I have found that staying with 3 or 4 values and 3 to 5 shapes in a painting keeps me out of too much detail at the beginning.  As a painting progresses I can adjust temperature, color and detail at the end with  fewer marks that say it all thus preserving the basic structure of my painting.  This is my most recently completed painting, Afterglow 24x30, which effectively captures what I wanted to say simply.

As a plein air painter, the arrival of new color and cooler air has taken me out of my studio to paint where I am quickly inspired. The greens of summer have faded and scenes that were previously unexciting take on new possibilities and invite me to set up my easel. My most recent travels took me to Maine and Florida. The power of the Atlantic is amazing anywhere I happen to be. I enjoyed painting the wind evident in grasses and trees as much as I enjoyed painting rough surf and rising tides of the ocean.

Winter Sunset 8x5 oil on linen

I love painting from my studio in the winter. Sunsets are beautiful especially when snow is on the ground. The weather is getting cooler and I painted this from memory in anticipation of another snow covered winter evening.