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.

The Poor Carpenter

A poor carpenter blames his tools. Everyone has heard that old axiom and I know I have used it often when a fellow artist or a student complains that they can’t get the brush stroke they want because the brush “won’t behave” or that they had a difficult time getting their drawing down correctly because of a rickety easel, etc. I’ve never had too much patience with these claims, in part, because I was taught and make every effort to keep my equipment in as close to new condition as possible. I am very diligent about washing my brushes and “training” them to keep their original shape. I have a checklist taped inside my easel which I go through before I go out to paint to make certain that I have everything I need. I am compulsive to the point of wiping off the threaded ends of my paint tubes before I screw the tops back on!

However…(and I can hear you thinking “here we go!”) I got stuck with some bad gesso! I can also hear you now saying “Hey Paul, a bad carpenter…” but it is true! Really! For those of you who don’t know, gesso is one of a number of a “grounds” that are applied to the surface that an artist works on. In my case it is the material that makes my canvas white. I have used the same brand of gesso for as long as I can remember and, for this reason, never look at the jar when I pick it up off of the shelf at the art supply store. However, this particular jar was of a different formula and consistency than my usual. It seemed a lot thicker when I was applying it to my canvases but I didn’t think much of it.

My troubles began when I started painting on these panels. I just could not get the paint to move the way I usually like it to move. It seemed as though when I applied a stroke it would just sit there like a dull lump and I couldn’t get it to move. Being of a self critical nature I began to wonder and then to really fret about what I was doing wrong. I had suddenly parted with my hard earned skills! I was a hack who could no longer paint!

After a fitful night sleep I arose the next morning, got out of bed and immediately went down to see if the painting was as bad as I had thought it was the night before. I’m sorry to report that it was even worse. I dropped into my chair and started to wonder what other profession might suit me when something about the canvas caught my eye. I noticed that all of the paint I had applied only the day before was already dry! This is highly unusual for oil paint which normally takes a few days to start to set up. I reached out with a finger and started trying to smear some of the paint around but it would not budge. Immediately it dawned on me what the problem might be…the new “formula” thicker gesso had leeched all of the oil out of the paint leaving a dead, immoveable, dried crust behind!

Hope began to swell in my bosom and I excitedly grabbed my gear and a few older panels and went out to paint the two paintings that follow.

The Old Sentry12 X 12 oil on canvas. Click on the link to view purchasing details for this painting.

Sunday Morning~Locust Valley12 X 9 oil on canvas. Click on the link to view purchasing details for this painting.

I felt as though a bad dream had ended, that I had been paroled from crappy painter prison! Suddenly my skills had been returned to me, all was right with the world and I began to wonder if a good carpenter ever blames his tools?

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.

Change and the Stobart Palette

I believe it is a good idea to shake things up every now and then. Unfortunately what I believe and what I practice are sometimes two different things. What I should say is that I think change is a good idea but I rarely, if ever, practice it! I am what you would call a “set in my way” kind of guy. I think it is a family gene or maybe just a “German thing”? I am way too regimented and I’ve tried to figure it out and break away from it but this old dog isn’t usually interested in any new tricks.

The great English painter John Stobart has been a hero of mine ever since Mr. Stevenson introduced me to his work way back when I first began to study in the mid 70’s. Much to my delight Stobart self-financed and produced a series of programs that were broadcast on PBS in the early 90’s. Entitled “John Stobart’s Worldscape”, the series followed him around the world, usually in the company of a guest artist, painting on site wherever they ended up. What a treat and a gift it was for me to be able to learn directly from the man himself how he produces a painting from start to finish.

Stobart’s palette consists of only five colors and white. For the artists out there the palette is as follows; Windsor Red, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Green. He uses a titanium white. His style of brush is a bright of which he only uses one size which is about ¾” wide.

Now, as Stobart has long been my idol, my palette is not much different than his. In fact, the core of my palette is his palette with some additions I have made over the years…a different red, a pair of extra yellows and a different green, etc.

Recently I again watched every episode (as if I had never seen them before!) and immediately started thinking about how his palette makes so much sense…three primaries and a pair of convenience colors…nice, simple and direct. Following is one of Stobart’s magnificent harbor paintings for which he is justifiably famous. As you can see…quite a bit can be accomplished with only five colors!

I decided, as a kind of tribute to my hero, that I would spend some time using only his palette and his style of brush. As mentioned above, I don’t much care for change, and to suddenly be standing out in the field without my usual palette, to which I have grown very accustomed and fond, was a bit off-putting. Imagine a piano player suddenly confronted with a keyboard with no black keys. Why did I think this was a good idea!?

In the end I found that I had to get back to thinking about how color works instead of simply relying on old dogmas I had come to rely on over the years. I think the simpler palette had the virtue of giving the paintings an overall color harmony that had been missing of late. While I did not care for painting with the brights, I think I might just stay with the palette for a while. If it’s good enough for Stobart it is good enough for me!

Fall Crocuses11 X 14 oil on canvas. Click the link to view purchasing details.

Beaver Dam Fall 11 X 14 oil on canvas. Sold.

Charlie Clamming8 X 12 oil on canvas. Click the link to view purchasing details. Just a quick word about this painting...I was working down at Centre Island Beach when who should wander into my view but my father in law's life long friend Charle Cressi. Charlie is in his 80's and has been battling prostate cancer for some time. However, he still gets out and goes clamming a couple of days a week! Clamming is hard, hard manual work...we should all have Charlie's stamina when we get to his age!

Sagamore Morning Light14 X 11 oil on canvas. Click the link to view purchasing details.

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

"...and the forecast calls for..."

I guess the lesson here is that one can never trust a weather forecast! I had a one day plein air workshop scheduled for this past Saturday in Smithtown, NY but we cancelled it because the weather forecast called for a 60% chance of rain and cold damp winds for both Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say I never saw a drop of rain and Sunday was one of the loveliest days I can recall since last autumn.

The element which made both days memorable for me was the incredible sky that the passing cold front left in its wake; massive fair weather cumulous clouds moving majestically up from the south. Nothing makes me more excited to get out and paint than the presence of this sort of very busy sky.

I left early on Saturday morning to head over to Centre Island Beach because I know that it is a spot where I can get a bit of water and some distant trees in the foreground yet have my canvas be mostly devoted to a good sky painting. However, I never made it that far because, as Bayville Road makes a sharp right-hand bend, you get a view across Long Island Sound towards Connecticut and I was amazed at how beautiful this sky was. The plein air mobile made what the faint of heart might consider to be a rather treacherous left hand turn into the beach parking lot. I got out of the car and looked to the west and saw the kind of view I normally only see in my dreams, lots of blues and grays in the water and in the tumultuous sky and a wonderful pink beach house which was brightly illuminated and would serve as a wonderful focal point.

"End of Summer~Stehli Beach" is available for sale. Click this link for details.

Idyllic, right? Well, not exactly. If you know the area then you are aware that I was set up just across the street from a somewhat new amusement park which I think is called the Bayville Scream Park. Among their other attractions they apparently have a pirate themed ride. To lend the proper atmosphere to the ride they have a loud recording of a very British sounding sea captain exhorting his crew to fire upon the dreaded enemy. The recording is repeated…over and over and over again! I began to root for the pirates, hoping they would get in just one shot which would send the annoying British flagged frigate to the bottom of the sea!

Not being one to look a gift sky in the mouth, I ate lunch, did a few errands, grabbed my rig and headed out again. I returned to Rottkamp’s Farm where I had painted last week for just the same reason as before…a bit of foreground to act as an anchor for a sky painting. And finally, early on Sunday evening, the clouds lowered, blocked out the sun and any blue sky, and raindrops began to splatter on my palette!

"Early October Sky" is available for sale. Click this link for details.

In truth, conditions would not have been very favorable for some of my less experienced students. Both days felt a considerable cool wind and the clouds intermittently blocked the sun causing subject matter to be illuminated, thrown into shadow and then illuminated again. Variable conditions while painting outdoors can be maddening even to the most experienced painter. But this was one day I will never forget!

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.

Reset The Pieces

I have an old and dear friend who throws a large party every year. A lot of you may not know that I also play music. In fact, I’ve been playing longer than I have been painting…so I’ve been playing for a long time! I bring this up because I have been playing with these friends since we were sophomores in high school and, every year, we get together to play at this party.

Now I do admit to two facts, I am a bit older than I was when we started and, since I have been working hard at painting over the last number of years, I don’t practice my playing as often as I used to. So, when the party annually rolls around, I have to get out me axe and limber up my fingers which takes away from time out painting.

Were we any good you wonder? Surprisingly…not too bad! But I guess that’s what happens when you play with guys you have been playing with for the better part of your life. That’s me on the left in the first picture and all 5 of us in the second.

Sunday morning, thankfully, meant a return to painting and I felt secure in the knowledge that I could safely put my guitar away for another year. And the first painting on Sunday?…a scraper! In fairness to the panel I was painting on I couldn’t get that waste of paint scraped off of the canvas fast enough. I once read that when the great chess genius Bobby Fischer lost a game (which was rare) he would become very agitated and want to reset the pieces immediately for another game. I think I know how Fischer felt and, after lunch and some very unkind words to myself, I set out again late in the afternoon to reset the pieces.

Rottkamp’s Farm is not far from my house. I wanted to head over there because I like rolling farmland and also because we had overcast skies that day and I was in the mood to paint a nice sky. The forecast for the pumpkin crop is grim this year owing to all of the rain we have had…but I managed to find a few which would add a nice note of color in the foreground.

"Pumpkins~Rottkamp's Farm" 9 X 12 oil on canvas. Available for sale. Click the following link:Pumpkins~Rottkamps Farm

To sum up the last four days…a whole weekend with only one painting to show for it. But I am very happy with the result and am happier still that I got to spend some time making music with old friends who are very dear to me.

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.

Art and Jazz and eBay

What fun I’ve had over the past couple of days painting in the beautiful seaside village of Cold Spring Harbor at their annual “Art and Jazz” event. We painted for two days on the site of the CSH Laboratory which has lovely views of the harbor. On Sunday we painted on Main Street in the heart of town and were treated to the sounds of different jazz bands playing up and down the street. There are worse ways to spend your day...beautiful early autumn weather, great views to paint and roaming jazz bands!

First up is my painting from Friday evening. I loved the way the shadows fell across the beach and I had just about gottten the canvas covered when the sun disappeared behind the clouds! I was left having to finish up from memory. As I was just about done a man and a small boy and their dog arrived giving me a perfect focal point for the painting. The Gods took away my sun but rewarded me with the appearance of this small family out enjoying a nice evening on the shore.

"Father, Son and a Buff Lab" 11 X 14 oil on canvas. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing this painting.

I returned to the same spot on Saturday morning but faced in the opposite direction. I have painted this view before but I like it and decided to have another go at it. Again, the light was coming and going and I had a pretty stiff cool breeze at my back but am happy with the result.

I have a friend whose sister is facing some dire health issues. A fund has been set up to help and I am auctioning this painting on eBay with 100% of the proceeds going to help in the effort. Click the link below the painting if you wish to place a bid. A low starting bid means you might be able to get one of my originals at a low price. Bid early and often!

"Windy September Morning" 11 X 14 oil on canvas. The link to the eBay auction is:

The next painting is a bit unusual for me. I wasn’t overly happy with the view but had only 2 ½ hours before the deadline to submit paintings for the auction. Something told me that I might be able to squeeze a nice result out of it so I started slashing away. I’ve written about this before…you forget about your training, what you think the painting should look like, etc. and just mindlessly throw paint at it. I think this is where one’s experience and individual “voice” take over because I am always happy with the result.

"Art and Jazz" 12 X 9 oil on canvas. Sold.

As always, thanks for your interest in my work!

Earthquakes, Irene and Teddy's Home

Wow! We have finally dug out of what can best be described as Old Testament conditions here in the Northeast. First we had a very noticeable earthquake followed about five days later by the arrival of Tropical Storm Irene. Houses shaking, wind blowing, tree limbs down, no electricity for three days and about three inches of water in the basement. It took a while to get everything straightened out, bailed out and dried out but I was finally able to get back outside to paint.

I started this painting the night before the arrival of Irene. I figured I wouldn’t be able to get out the next day and decided I was long overdue for a studio painting. As I mentioned above, we were without electricity for about 3 days so I had to wait a while before I could get back to the easel to get it finished but am happy with the results. Painting outdoors helps to “inform” anything that might be done in the studio…you learn a lot about how nature behaves when painting on site and can use that knowledge with great benefit in the studio.

"Moored For the Evening" 14 X 18 oil on canvas. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing this painting.

There had been a paint out scheduled in Oyster Bay, which is very near to where I live in Locust Valley, for the day that the hurricane was forecast to arrive. The event was to take place on the grounds of the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site which was the home of Theodore Roosevelt. These are lovely grounds with a nice view of the house, the surrounding fields and orchards as well as a short hike to a lovely view of Cold Spring Harbor. I had not painted out there in years and decided to go scout around for possible paintings a week before the scheduled event. This small study was a result of that trip.

"Eel Creek Beach~Sagamore Hill National Historic Site" 8 X 12 oil on canvas. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing this painting.

The Sagamore Hill event finally got underway on the 9^th of September. I had spotted this view the previous week on my way up to the beach and decided to stop this time and have a go at it. This photo was shot before I added some cool red wildflowers in the foreground and in the left hand shadows. Unfortunately I did not re-shoot it after the changes because it worked much nicer…so much so that the painting sold at the opening the following night.

"Up To The Barn" 12 X 12 oil on canvas. Sold

Friday afternoon found me back not far from where I painted in the morning. I was hot and tired but cannot resist great light on the trunk of a tree. This began as a study of the trunk and tree but grew into something that has a nice warm and peaceful feeling to it.

"Sagamore Maples" 11 X 14 oil on canvas. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing this painting.

I planned to paint with my buddy Anthony Davis on Saturday morning. We arrived at the site early and made our way down the lovely wooded path to the beach. I immediately gravitated to the spot I had painted the week before. The overcast was just starting to break up and I was treated to one of the nicest skies I’ve ever had the opportunity to paint on site. In fact, this was somewhat of a backwards painting for me. A sky that active won’t stay still for long and experience told me that I wouldn’t have much time to get it down on the canvas. I laid in a wet line where I knew my horizon would be and then set about laying in and finishing the sky in one shot then moved on to get the distant headland and the near shore.

"Saturday Morning~Sagamore Hill National Historic Site" 12 X 16 oil on canvas. Framed and available for sale from the Oyster Bay Historical Society. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing this painting.

Next week will find me taking part in a paint out in beautiful Cold Spring Harbor. Hopefully there will be no more natural disasters and I will be able to have some nice paintings to share with you then!