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.
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“Edgartown Great Pond”
“Edgartown Great Pond”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
Today was a cold breezy one. After choosing this subject, I realized I would have to sit in my car and paint. Although this boat is floating, it has a lot of water in it from last weekend’s rains. It is lower than normal with no waterline showing…
“East To Lucy Vincent Beach”
“East To Lucy Vincent Beach”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
Despite having a cold, I bundled up and stood on the cliff top to captured this view. It was a vibrant day on the waters edge with surf pounding and salt in the air. Just when I thought I was alone, figures appeared in black wetsuits far below catching some wild rides on their surfboards. Directly out from my location, I was surprised to see a few rafts of Harlequin Ducks. They were bobbing and diving in the heavy surf along this rocky point looking for crustaceans and molluscs loosened up by the weekend’s storm…
“Summer Slips”
“Summer Slips”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
It was blowy and rainy. Yet, up tight against the Menemsha gas station, I was in my element and not the elements…
“Dragger Trip”
“Dragger Trip”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
The weather was raw but not rough as this dragger headed out on a fishing trip. I was lucky to find one near shore. They usually are farther away. There is less to paint and thus harder to describe with my brush…
“Where Nighthawks Fly”
“Where Nighthawks Fly”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
At this time of year, standing and observing in one place a few hours in the evenings may be both cold and exciting depending upon weather and location. This eve I was out of the breeze, but bundled in vest, scarf, parka, snow pants and hat with my back against a stonewall with thicket behind. Although I have often come and painted 15 or 20 canvases within 100 feet of here, this view had never caught my eye. Usually I like to set up in front of the large cedar on the left and face the full field to the right where a beautiful, wind-shaped oak tree is silhouetted against pond, dune and sky. About a week ago I did one of those paintings and was serenaded by a Nighthawk as I bundled my gear into the van in near darkness. A friend contacted me from his vacation in Thailand to inquire as to whether it might be a Woodcock I was hearing and not a Common Nighthawk. I love birds and the two most expensive apps on my iPhone are the Audubon Bird Guide and iBird Plus Guide. Both are excellent and also include bird sounds and songs. Having listened to each bird song on both Guides many times, I admit, Roger had stumped me… Woodcock, “peeent” or Nighthawk “peeent”. Just as last time, at 20 minutes after sundown I heard my first “peeent”. I turned my iPhone into a recorder and walked about the field recording ” peeents”. I turned on each bird’s song from the guides and tried to lure “it” in. I lay down on the ground and did it again straining to see one fly over me. I hid behind the cedar then walked down and back the field lane. I could see no bird, but got some great recordings. I am thinking by the rapid movements and changes of location of “peeents” that it might be a Common Nighthawk after all and not a Woodcock, but…
“From Squibnocket Beach”
“From Squibnocket Beach”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The cliffs to the left have eroded so much this past year that I did not try to squeeze them all in. The bit of cliff in the background beyond the point is Lucy Vincent Beach. Two years ago you could not see that cliff from here. Global warming has increased the power of the ocean to claw back the shore line…
“Katama Opening”
“Katama Opening”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
When an opening migrates along the beach to Chappaquiddick, as this one is, it is a sign its cycle is almost over and will soon close. There are long periods of no opening and plus or minus 20 year periods of substantial ones. I have seen 2 of each in my lifetime. Both openings wreaked havoc on the southern most tip of “Chappy”. This last one sliced off cliff and land moving the water’s edge hundreds of feet north. In this painting I am lucky to have found the opening visible from my vantage point…
“Winter Leaves”
“Winter Leaves”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. $750.00 USD
I can never resist painting this tree behind the dunes every so often. This season it has retained a lot more dried leaves than in years past. As I was packing up in the twilight to leave, I heard and barely saw one of my favorite evening birds, a Common Night Hawk, or Nightjar. There might have been two of them. They are exceptionally well camouflaged when sitting still on the ground. They zoom about sometimes low overhead and let out a nasally call: Peeent, Peeent as they circle around…
“Slow on the Creek”
“Slow On The Creek”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
The buoy angle let me know it was just around high tide on Menemsha Creek. When the waters rush in or out, the buoy not only is almost submerged by the push on it, but it lists at more than 45º. (I always wonder how much weight is holding it in place on the bottom of the Creek.) As the rain squall moved in I had to totally close my windows to keep dry. The wet brings out color and more contrast in the landscape, just as the gray of the clouds dulls the blue-green of the Creek and forces the any other colors forward. I was especially needing something red to paint in all the rain at the end of this day and the channel marker was just right…
“Winter Field”
“Winter Field”, this is a small painting, 6″ x 8″, oil on canvas panel. This painting has SOLD.
This view of the Allen Farm, across the field and out to sea, while usually warm and inviting, was today cold and windblown. I stepped out of my vehicle to gather my paints and stepped back in quickly to paint from the warmth of the van. As the shadows of the cedars along the fence line lengthened and finally engulfed the field with blue, I thought about the warmth of summers past, swimming and napping on the distant beach. My daydream collapsed as a car pulled up beside me and Robin jumped out bearing the gift of an unscheduled hot chocolate… Yum!