I WORK EN PLEIN AIR, OUT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE… Welcome. I am back to painting again after a sabbatical that included a few pieces done for charitable fund raisers. I am continuing to make small, 6" x 8", landscape oils, but not every day. I am also working on larger pieces. Every time I finish a painting, I will place it here on my website. If you see something you'd like to purchase, email me. Thank you for enjoying my work and keeping me creating new pieces. Your interest stimulates and inspires me and has made me a better painter. Sign up for my emails and I will send you an image of each new painting. I love to paint and am happy to share my painting experience with you. Most of my work is impressionistic landscape oils, inspired by the beauty of the Island of Martha's Vineyard where I live.
You are currently browsing articles tagged marsh.
“Abandoned”
“Abandoned”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
This abandoned boat by the Old Hunt Place has caught my eye for a few months. With the fog coming in and out, then in again, it seemed like a good, overcast day to paint here. I found some bluebirds on the way and otters and a large flock of Canada Geese patrolling along the waterway behind the dunes. All the while I was serenaded by the sounds of surf just over the horizon…
“Sheriff’s Meadow Fog”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Living in town for the winter has its bonuses like walking to the movies or a restaurant. But when I start to miss all the open fields and water views of Chilmark and up-island, I remember I have access to this little sanctuary behind the house. I have done 10 or 20 paintings around Sheriff’s Meadow over the years. Yet, when I think I have “found” the last painting I could ever create here, up pops something new due to weather, season, time of day, light, or in this case pruning and mowing off the path. I left for a walk around the pond a half hour before sunset. Usually I would carry my gear with me. This evening, fog was rolling by, there would be no sunset just a darkening of the daylight. So I walked empty handed. Half way ’round the pond proper is a spillway, bridge and this view of Butler’s Mudhole. Much tree damage had happened due to the last 2 storms. The caretaker’s clean up included brush cutting around and under an old, damaged willow to a dry bit of grass by the property edge. Stepping there to photo this view I knew I had a new painting to do. Having raced back to the house/studio to get my paints, I set up quickly and worked down from the horizon starting with the hedge and little bathhouse with my largest brush. Landscapes are fairly quick to paint, if you think about them for a minute. Most brush movement is horizontal, stopping only to clean brush and mix and change colors. The one thing which stops a quick landscape is a strong vertical item in the scene, requiring cutting in around the object and thus ceasing the flow of brushwork. The bathhouse, the only vertical, was tiny and did not slow me down. I saved the sky until last, in case it caught a blush of color as the sun set off in the fog. Canada Geese arrived in “v” formations looking for a place to bed. I held my ground until last light when geese moved into pond and fog rendered me invisible…
“Winter Marsh, Sengekontacket”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The sign by the parking lot said this was a duck hunting area this month. There were no other vehicles about. I parked and walked the short distance to the boat launch. No sooner was I at the water’s edge than bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang from the opposite shore. I guess either the time was ripe to fire or I had just stirred up a flock of ducks, or someone was really mad that I had appeared upon the scene. Luckily shot gun pellets could not travel that far, but it sure was loud. I walked back to my van as it started to drizzle and proceeded to back up to the water so the driver’s side was facing where I wanted to paint. I got out to put my gear from back seat to front and bang bang bang again. I never did see any ducks take to the air. Maybe they were all dead or the hunter was still mad. I managed to bag this view without further incident except for the on and off rain drops…
“On The Boat”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
While wandering about on the north shore of the island, I came upon a marshy area which was off limits to deer hunting. As I don’t have any hunter orange to wear, I have been exceedingly careful during the 2 weeks of shotgun season to stay in and around any of the town areas. This exile from the larger wooded and open areas and wilder shorelines has helped me reevaluate points of interest I have been to and painted before but have never fully explored. This particular spot looks right out onto the ferry run and into the hole between Naushon Island and Falmouth, known as Woods Hole. It is a treacherous passage for motor and sailing vessels as the tides suck through the narrow channels between Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay, with rock edges and ledges constricting the narrow channel even more. To make it a bit more challenging for a boat, ferries lumber into and out of the port there almost every hour all day and into the evening darkness with little room to maneuver should an errant ship be in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to fight through a tidal surge, foul tide or heavy breeze. The title of this piece is the message most texted, emailed and/or called to one’s island family and friends after a long, white knuckled, car or bus ride racing through all sorts of traffic to get to the ferry on time. Drivers have been known to drive at 90 mph from NYC most of the way to Woods Hole, MA so as not to miss the last boat across, and you know who you are…!
“Always Ready”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
It was a warm, breeze filled day. Down at sea level in the corner of the pond, I found this row boat waiting for me to paint. Sometimes, there is the danger of the boat’s owner appearing and rowing off. Today was not one of those times…
“Dinghy Dock”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
I have been photographing these dinghies all summer, to study them and to remind me to go back and paint them. Now that summer is over, their ranks have been thinning. All of the ugly inflatable ones have been put away, leaving me the more classic types to paint…
“Crabbing Bridge”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
The sun popped through the clouds long enough to illuminate the bridge for my painting. Then it played hide and seek with me until it set…
“Racing Down Creek”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
During gloomy, overcast days it is sometimes hard to find good subject matter to paint. The light is flat. It should be easy to capture since it does not change much, whereas on a sunny day shadows constantly shift or leave altogether. This was a bit harder as there were rents in the fabric of the clouds, allowing sun and/or blue sky in and out of the landscape…
“Hot Summer Day”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
This was the first day of summer. The weather obliged. The skies were blue and the temperature went from the 60’s yesterday to the mid 80’s this day. And did I mention that there was a breeze to keep the bugs at bay!…
“Evening Fog”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I drove right by this tranquil scene, the fog was so thick. When I rounded the bend in the road, I could just make out this boat. I turn about and was able to park and get this painting mostly done. Then I noticed car headlights going past getting brighter and brighter. Or was the evening getting darker and darker…