Planting Fields Workshop

I spent part of the last three days painting at The Planting Fields Arboretum which is only a mile or two from my house. These gorgeous grounds consist of 409 acres of rolling fields, lovely open areas and many, many different species of trees and flowers as well as the lovely, stone Coe Hall. The Planting Fields is one of my default places to paint and I visit there often.

I had scheduled a one day workshop there with my students who wanted to get outside of our usual classroom environment and get a feel for painting on site. The weather forecast looked great for Saturday, iffy for Sunday (the actual day of the workshop) and great, albeit unseasonably hot for today. I went up on Saturday morning to scout around for some good locations to do my demo as well as suitable locations for the students to paint. I had my painting rig with me in the plein air mobile and couldn’t resist having a go at the following lovely vignette. The structure served as a playhouse for the children of the Coe family who once owned this Gold Coast estate. It’s a delightfully charming little pink building with a whimsical curved roof line and faux thatched roof.

"The Children's Playhouse" 9 X 12 Oil on Canvas. Click the link for purchasing details

The forecasted rain never materialized and Sunday turned out to be another near perfect day. I did my demo in the morning, we broke for a great lunch consisting of a shared plate from everyone and then the students set up and had a go at it in the afternoon.

I walked around with each of them to help find and discuss suitable subject matter. While doing just that with one of them, we stumbled upon the next view. I was so taken by the look of this great natural grouping of shapes and colors that I could hardly get to sleep last night! I went back around noon today to have another look and immediately set up and started slashing away. I think of these motifs as a “plein air still life” The only difference is that I let Mother Nature do the set up and I try not to interfere with what she has accomplished!

"Lilacs" 12 X 10 Oil on Canvas. Click the link for purchasing details

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link below the painting for purchasing details. The price includes shipping costs in the continental United States. All others please inquire about shipping rates.

Extremes

This week I have an exercise in extremes to share. Despite the fact that we are just 30 miles east and a suburb of one of the largest cities in the world, there really is a lot of natural beauty here on Long Island and I constantly search it out to paint it. But there is more to the Island than just the coastal beauty and the magnificent variety of trees. There is the infrastructure which, if the artist makes an attempt to handle it properly, can be quite striking as well.

Last Thursday night I was driving home from teaching on the Long Island Expressway. The LIE, Route 495, bisects the Island horizontally all the way from New York City at it’s western end to Riverhead in the east which lies in the crotch of the two forks of the Island, a distance of about 100 miles. It is not always avoidable (though most of us wish it was) and the traffic, especially during the summer Hamptons season can turn it into one long parking lot! However, at night, it is usually not too bad traffic wise and it gets me home from Dix Hills in about a half hour.

For some reason or another I was captivated by the look of it while driving home. The lights are mesmerizing and despite the fact that it was 10PM there did seem to be a lot of notes of color from the brake lights to the exit signs.

So, I decided to paint it. However, this decision brought with it some logistical difficulties. Setting up an easel in the center lane of a 55 MPH highway seemed…risky? And the fact that I wanted to do this at night took away any real possibility of doing it from photographic reference. My solution was to have my wife drive back and forth between a few exits while I studied, tried to get some photographs, and took loads of notes from what I observed. The result was painted largely from memory and very quickly to try to preserve the sense of motion.

"The Long Island Expressway~A Nocturne"12 X 16 oil on panel. Click on the link below the painting for purchasing details.

I spied the next view this past Saturday and thought to head out to do it on Sunday but the weather was bad so I had to wait until this morning. This marked my first trip outdoors, albeit around the corner, to paint this year and it felt good. It struck me when I returned home that the tree looked as jolly, fat, and exuberant as the artist did knowing that spring was finally here!

"Violets and Marsh Marigolds"12 X 9 oil on canvas. Click on the link below the painting for purchasing details.

I am also pleased to announce that I have been juried in to the Wayne Arts Center’s annual plein air event in Wayne, PA. I participated in this event last year and despite the fact that we had non-stop rain really enjoyed it. I hope we have better weather this year.

Homework

Theoretically we on site landscape painters are supposed to be able to bring what we learn out in the field back into the studio. Having spent hour after hour studying the landscape in natural light we should be able to use that knowledge to "inform" our studio work. Nothing about the local landscape has been interesting to me lately as everything is still just different shades of brown and gray. I decided that this would be a good time to try to put to use what I have been trying to learn out in the field.

Last Thursday, one of my ALLI students brought in a photo to work from taken in Provence. I was immediately struck by the subtle light and the bright red of the poppies against the greens of the grass and trees. As part of my teaching responsibilities I roam around the class, from student to student, and offer criticism and help and I wanted to get this painting done in one night. It ended up only taking about an hour to do it but I rather liked the furious application of paint in the foreground flowers.

Poppies en Provence 14 X 11 oil on canvas. Sold

This next painting is one I had begun on site last year somewhere in Connecticut. I say somewhere because I just happened to stumble on this view and probably couldn’t find it again if I tried! I pulled the unfinished sketch out a few days ago and decided to have a go at finishing it from memory. The title was the name of Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson’s catboat. The Stevenson’s were my teachers and I was thinking about them while I finished working on it.

"Little Albie" 11 X 14 oil on panel. Click on the link under the painting for purchasing details.

The building in this next one is at the bottom of the hill that we live on. Every time I pass it, late in the afternoon, I always think “Ooh, that light is very nice”. I decided to finally do something about it!

"Fresh Seafood" 14 X 11 oil on panel. Click on the link under the painting for purchasing details.

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link below the painting for purchasing details. The price includes shipping costs in the continental United States. All others please inquire about shipping rates.

A New Year and a New Approach

I just noticed that it’s been two months since my last blog post! Actually more than two months…the last one is dated November 7^th 2011! No one can blame me for clogging up their inbox with update after update!

I’d like to begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. I hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays and that, like myself, you haven’t already broken those New Years resolutions?

As the Holidays are over and the studio is back up and running I have a couple of new paintings to share. All of you know that I normally only paint outdoors directly from nature and very rarely paint from reference in the studio. Painting on site as much as I do is a great discipline because you learn so much and can then, hopefully, bring that information back into the studio with you. The on site work “informs” the work done inside. At least that’s the hope! I took the time to set up a computer and a largish monitor right next to my easel so I can work from digital images that I (or others) have shot. Being a confirmed and dedicated on site painter I have to say…I’ve rather been enjoying it! I’m also planning to do larger, more “finished” paintings this year and think this will be a good set up and approach for me.

First is an image that friends of mine took while traveling recently in Venice. They posted some of the pictures on Facebook when they got back home and I was really taken with this one. I loved the way the shadows and the perspective in the buildings seemed all to point at the one moored white boat in the canal and asked them if they’d mind if I “borrowed” the image!

“Venice” 11 X 14 oil on canvas. In the collection of Mr. and Mrs. G. Galluccio.

Next is an 11 X 14 done from reference shot down in Oyster Bay Cove. I was wandering around looking for something to paint when I saw this small skiff tied up just off shore. These small rowboats are used by the working oystermen to get out to where their power boats are moored. I wasn’t too crazy about it when I saw it but I shot it anyway and am really glad I did. I fell in love with its lonely look when I got back home.

“Skiff and Autumn Grasses” 11 X 14 oil on canvas.Available. Click on the link to view purchasing details.

The next painting is also a bit unusual for me. I was teaching my regular Thursday night class at The Art League of Long Island and decided to paint along with my students. One of them was working from a photograph she shot while traveling in Surrey, England. I usually make quite a few rounds during class; offering advice and comments/mild criticism on their work so I didn’t have much time to put into this. I guess I got in a total of about 45 minutes but was quite happy with the result. I’m trying to get a bit looser, a bit more impressionistic with my approach and this little painting is one of my first steps down that road.

“Surrey Snow” 9 X 12 oil on canvas.Available. Click on the link for purchasing details.

Finally, well...I would feel bad if I didn't have at least one on site painting to offer. This one was done a couple of years ago out at Caumsett State Park. Whenever I see these they remind me that warm weather is coming and that I'll soon be packing the Soltek into the plein air mobile and heading out to feel the sun on my back again!

"Summer Color" 11 X 14 oil on canvas.Available. Click on the link for purchasing details.

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link under each image to view purchasing details. The price includes shipping costs.