The value of waiting....

This is a piece that I started many months ago. It wasn't going well...the colors were more blues and violets and it just wasn't working. The painting didn't speak to me. Then a few weeks ago I decided to just attack it in a whole new way, simply responding to the marks that were there with new marks, shapes and a whole new pallette—no real intention. There is a lot of paint on that canvas now, but it takes me to an imaginary place that I would love.
Fern Wood.  Oil on canvas.  20 X 16"

7 February 2010 - Now Showing

These two pieces are currently exhibiting at the Bangor Art Society's Members' Show, at Bangor Public Library through February. The result of several very loose gouache sketches that I did this past autumn at a friend's farm. Working on canvas this time, the work feels very different from those I've been doing on panel. Looser and lighter, with a more conservative use of paint. Leaf Peeping Time I and II. Oil on gallery wrap canvas. 18 X 18"

5 February 2010 - Small and bold

Another unintentional work in the continued series. A landscape suggestion but mostly just about bold rich color. I'm calling it Velvet Ground. 9 X 8" oil on masonite panel.

27 January 2010

My small daily paintings serve as kind of a warm-up exercise for me when I start in on my painting day. Most of what I have posted on my blog have been these little paintings which provide a very nice little cash flow for me while I work on a new body of work. In this new collection of work I have been focusing on abstracting the landscape. Working with less intention and allowing myself to respond to the marks, colors, and shapes as they appear on the canvas or panel. I have found this simplification of the landscape makes a much more powerful statement, and the experience of being in the moment with the painting has a spiritual quality to it. The painting here is one of my first successes, in that I achieved that experiential purity for which I strive.  I title it Dream Work, as it really feels as though I created it outside of myself.

Oil on panel, 18" X 24"

December 8, 2009 - Sketches yield surprises

I was going through a pile of little gouache sketches I did back in October while visiting a friends farm. My intention was to use them as inspiration for larger paintings, which I will still do...but after not seeing them for a couple months, I found some of them really intriguing on their own. The color is quite vibrant...not like my pastels or oils, and the total abandon with which I did them yields a fresh, abstract expression. I am going to mat and frame these three for sure. The first two I may mat and frame as a diptych.

And, I have know clue as to why the images won't line up. Never had the problem before. Annoying but I'll keep on trying.

October 20, 2009

I've put my small daily paintings on hold the last couple weeks to work on three commissioned pieces which I would like to have done by November. In the meantime, I am wading through a collection of monotypes and other mixed media pieces that have been accumulating to load to my Etsy site. Hoping to have a variety of pieces to gear up for holiday gift giving. Here's one that I had forgotten about and kind of like. Any thoughts?

Lakeside Birches. Monotype on paper. 5 X 7"

October 7, 2009 - Leaf Peeping

The rains this week will surely finish off the brilliance of the foliage here in Maine. Fortunately, I've been out and about sketching and painting, and also taking lots of photos to reference for ongoing pieces. I spent a couple different days hanging around the farm of a friend which provided some wonderful colors and compositions. I am doing a series of small daily paintings - Maine Farm series - to post as they are completed. The Lower Field (bottom) is the first, accompanied by another that came from my general wonderings about. I just love the lusciousness of this season.




Foliage 1 (top): 6 X 6" oil on panel
The Lower Field (bottom): 6 X 6" oil on canvas
Both available at http://mainepainter.etsy.com

October 2 - Tidal Falls

This is a place that I used to frequent back when my son was a lobster cooker at the little shore-side restaurant there...a real Maine summer job. We used to enjoy our lobster at the picnic tables that sat near the shore and watch and listen to the tidal whitewater and marvel at the reversing falls. Lots of shore birds too. This is a 6 X 6" oil on panel.

September 25 - In the fog, sometimes

Months have passed since my foggy week residency at Great Spruce Head Island, and the experience still affects me in some way, every day. For my small daily paintings I try to plan out my subjects for the week. Some days either my planned painting doesn't feel right, or I just go into the studio without a plan. On those days I find myself going back to that week, and drawing on those images...the spruce, the fog, the subtle but powerful colors. This was one of those days. Fogged-in. 6 X 6 oil on panel. Sold.

September 15, 2009 - Seeing the same landscapes in a new way

At a recent art talk by Connie Imboden, she talked about her creative process over the decades. She's a photographer but her process and thoughts on creativity cross all disciplines and media. I felt she was speaking to me and my endeavors, and I'm sure every artist in the room felt the same way. She said that in our process we don't need to find new landscapes (for example), but find new ways to see the same landscapes. That is exactly what I strive for in developing my new work. I had just completed these little pieces before attending the talk, so I felt really great! These are small pastels of familiar places reduced to large shapes of bold vibrant color.