Dancing Trees

Spring! Is there a more welcome word for someone who paints out doors? While I did do my share of painting out side this past winter, and did enjoy it very much, there really is nothing like the prospect of bright colors and warmer temperatures to get the heart beating a bit faster.

Two weeks ago I was interviewed with regards to a plein air event where I will be participating in Cranford, NJ. We thought it would be nice to get a couple of pictures of me set up outside with my gear while flailing a brush around. We took a two minute drive to Bailey Arboretum which is basically around the corner from my house. The idea wasn’t for me to actually paint but to just get some posed plein air shots.

It was a pretty gray day but I was immediately taken with the fresh bright moss at the base of the trees along the pond and made a mental note to return the following week. I went back late in the afternoon on a bright sunny day and loved not only the bright moss but the shadows moving across the tree trunks. I have already posted this painting to my Facebook page and many people commented that it looked as though the trees were dancing. I like to think that I am always open to suggestion so “Dancing Trees” it is!

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.

Primary Ingredients

A word of warning…never set up to paint the ingredients you plan to use for dinner that night!

I have grown to really love cooking. I love all of the shapes, colors and textures of the ingredients and the feel of the tools. I love all of the preparatory work and the act of cooking and then sitting down to eat what I have made.

It occurred to me that a “food” still life might be just the ticket. Everything is gray and brown out doors and after looking for someplace to paint on Saturday and early Sunday I decided to instead move indoors and set up a still life.

I had already been shopping for what I was going to make Sunday night and had many different ingredients to choose from. I grabbed my cutting board, my old Chicago Cutlery knife, some fresh parsley and a lemon, a tomato and garlic and set it all up in my studio.

The problem was that I had intended to get the painting done “alla prima” or in one sitting thus making my ingredients available later for dinner. Unfortunately this was not the case but I thought this was OK as all I really had to replace was the lemon. I ran to the local food market just as they were getting ready to close, bought my replacement lemon, and headed for home confident that my troubles were over.

Wrong again! I started to get set up when I remembered that my cutting board and favorite knife were still set up downstairs and could not be disturbed. So, no problem, I can improvise. I used the back side of my wooden pizza peel as a cutting board and my less than favorite inexpensive Sabatier knife. Everything was moving along fine until I came up about a tomato short of the required 2 cups of diced tomatoes. As the local market was now closed I had no choice but to raid my still life for the necessary ingredient.

Monday morning found me at the market early to purchase my replacement tomato and the painting was finished without further inconvenience to either my self or any of my “models”.

The title of the painting, “Primary Ingredients”, refers to the fact that the three so called “primary colors” red, yellow and blue are all present here at full strength.

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.

Alone On The Beach

Here I am pushing winter aside again on a day when I hear that some of my FaceBook friends in Vermont are suffering through 2+ feet of snow! There is nothing like that happening here today but it is still not ideal outside painting weather.

This painting was started last summer during a one day trip to the Fire Island National Seashore. It was a great day with an even greater sky and I love a sky full of summer day cumulous clouds. The conditions didn’t allow me to finish it on site that day but I finally had the chance to get a little more paint on it as well as pick out some of the sand particles that had blown into it while on site.

My family and I used to vacation on Fire Island when I was younger and, in some ways, I think I have been painting this particular view in my mind for many years. It’s nice to finally see it on canvas!

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.

Winter Recedes

The winter of 2010/2011 marks the first time I drummed up the courage (and invested in the clothing) which allowed me to get outside and paint in the cold and snow. And we had cold and snow this past winter…plenty of both. All in all it was a great experience and I don’t regret a single moment of it.

But I love to see the grass come through the melting snow! The promise of warmer weather; no more snow shoveling, no more cold, getting the herb garden going and grabbing my gear to head out to paint while feeling the warm sun and the warm breezes and breathing the fresh un-frozen air. Plein air painting is a year round pursuit and I love every aspect of it. I just happen to prefer the warmer weather.

We are not there yet but the accumulated 30+ inches of snow that we received this past winter is melting, leaving wonderfully juxtaposed patterns of cold white and warm fallow orangey greens. It is nature’s annual promise of better things to come.

This wonderful view is not a bucolic farm field in upstate NY. In fact it is far from it. This is just off of the South Service Road and within sight of Route 495 better known to us locals as the Long Island Expressway. The LIE bisects Long Island horizontally and runs straight from the Queens end of the Midtown Tunnel (which runs under the East River straight into New York City) all the way out to Riverhead which sits in the crotch of the North and South forks of the Island. One of those little jewels of old Long Island farmland which now overlooks one of the busiest highways in the country.

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.

Moonrise

40F! On the last day of January! Painting weather, so, naturally, I headed out to Caumsett State Park on Lloyd Neck to paint with a couple of my painting buddies. I even left my heavy insulated coat at home because I just didn’t think I’d need it which turned out to be true.

The hard part was getting to where I wanted to paint which is about a mile, or halfway to the beach, up what’s called the Fisherman’s Road. However, the Fisherman’s Road had not been plowed which is great news to the many, many cross country skiers and snow shoe enthusiasts but not welcome news to a somewhat overweight ex-smoker of over 30 years further bogged down with an easel a backpack and wet panel carrier.

We followed the tracks left by the snow shoes which were somewhat packed down but every ten feet or so one or the other of my legs broke through the packed snow and I sank in to about knee depth. Believe me when I tell you that it doesn’t take long before you get tired of this happening. I feel like I pulled the muscles in both legs!

If you read my blog often then you know that I don’t mind exerting unusual effort to get to a good painting spot and yesterday’s location did not disappoint. Great color and composition awaited me as did those wonderful two hours of painting in the muffled silence of a winter’s day.

However, there then loomed the prospect of the walk back…

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.

Clear Creek

This was fun for me to do. It was painted from a photograph taken by my friend Jack Sasson who lives in Colorado. Our families have been friends since before I was born. In fact I still call his folks Aunt Hilda and Uncle Jack. Jack shoots great images out in Colorado and he and I recently hooked up on Facebook where we get the chance to mutually admire each others work.

I am also friends with a number of plein air painters who live near where Jack lives. Because of the way Facebook works the painters were able to see Jack’s photos and have taken to inviting him along when they go out to paint. I am thrilled to know that they have all gotten together but just a bit frustrated that I can’t join in! I was in Colorado once and remember it being one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I look forward to the day, hopefully soon, when I can join them.

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.

Plein Air Still Life

I would like to be a better still life painter but find that I suffer from one major drawback in this area…I hate setting them up! I hate finding elements that I think will look nice: perhaps tell a story, getting everything arranged, getting the light just right, etc. It all feels phony and contrived. I much prefer to stumble on elements that are in their natural setting, that have a perfect light upon them and that do tell a story simply because they are where they are supposed to be and at the precise time when they are supposed to be there.

I wondered if the fact that I can’t really be bothered to take the time to compose and set up the elements to make a perfect still life suggested that I had a streak of laziness running through me. But I have decided that this cannot be the case as I am willing, instead, to wrap myself in every warm garment I can lay my hands on (including my father’s old sailing coat which is a USCG approved personal flotation device and, as such, is the most wonderfully insulated coat ever conceived!) and head out into cold temperatures and even colder wind chills in the hopes of stumbling upon my perfect plein air still life.

I think this is why I have been doing all the tree paintings of late. The primary reason is that I love trees, I love their character and the way light hits them and how they all have such stories to tell. I have also decided that I am tired of always looking off into the distance for a wide panoramic view when there might be something just as beautiful right at my feet.

I set out a bit late in the day this past Saturday to do some painting. As I drove to my location there was a nice warm sun throwing great light and shadow on the trees and the snow. However one glance at the sky was enough to tell me that the sun wouldn’t last long, that it was just a temporary break through some gathering clouds. I had to get off of the plowed road and hike through some knee deep snow to get to the location that I felt offered good prospects for a nice painting. I had just about finished setting up when I noticed this wonderful warm glow in the sky beyond my horizon trees and I worked very quickly to get that established before it disappeared. I only had about an hour on this small painting as when the light started to diminish so did the temperature!

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the “Paintings and Prints” tab and then on “Available Paintings”. The price includes shipping costs.