An upside to being an early riser, sometimes before sunrise, is ability to actually see the sunrise. It’s not a time of day for everybody, but I find those first few minutes of light to be the best part of the day. While on a drive along the beach road recently, just after sunrise, I came across two cottages I’ve painted often, both glowing in the low light of sunrise. “Morning Light” 36 x 16
I’ve never been to Italy, but this piece left me feeling like I just spent the last three or four weeks there. The commissioner wanted to capture his family’s ancestral home not far from the Adriatic Coast. The property is now abandoned and overgrown. The land around the house was a bit barren, but decades ago the meadows were filled with olive trees, which were reimagined for the piece. I “drove” past this place many times, via Google Maps and Street View, and worked up several charcoal sketches to bring the place, and composition, back in time. Out on approval with the commissioner…”Olive Grove” 66 x 48
Living on an island, as I did many years ago on Martha’s Vineyard, there are times you feel trapped by island life. It’s often difficult, and expensive, to get a boat back to the mainland. And despite the beauty and uniqueness of the Vineyard, sometimes you just needed to get off-Island. And that wasn’t always easy, or possible. This place is in on the Vineyard, in Tisbury. Painted several times…and in this case the fence reminded me of those days you didn’t have the freedom to go where you wanted. “Fenced In” 48 x 36 o/c.
As a kid who summered on the Cape, days were spent barefoot, walking the sand roads that lead to the local beaches, to a friend’s house, or to the ice cream truck that slowly stalked us as it drove slowly through the beach parking lot. Those roads still exist, and this one, located in Dennisport, reminded me of those similar roads near our summer cottage on Scraggy Neck, on the shores of Buzzard’s Bay. “Beach Road” 14 x 14
Incredible weather here on the Cape this Memorial Day weekend. Being the weekend that marks the start of Cape Cod summers, it can just as easily be a beautiful sunny weekend, as it can be a cold and rainy one. This year we lucked out. And while on a drive back from Chatham, I came across this old property and found the light to be the perfect display of the perfect weather we’re enjoying. “Late May” 20 x 20
Lilacs are one of those trees that are beautiful for a very short period of time, when in full bloom, but after that are just sort of blah. Same with forsythia (all my opinion, of course). But when at their peak bloom, there’s nothing like them. In honor of their very brief moment of glory…”Lilac” 24 x 20
The coastline of the Northeast shares the pure simplicity of where land meets the sea…the horizon line, preceded by a band of sea, with land in the foreground. Three simple shapes. Anything that interrupts the simplicity of those horizontals is instantly in the spotlight. There’s no shortage of old beach houses along the shores of the East Coast, with this one being not too far from the Cape studio. “Seaboard” 24 x 24 o/c.
I can’t remember where I first saw this cluster of barns…could have been Vermont, or New Hampshire, or in one of the rural town in Mass just south of me. Doesn’t really matter, but I like the intersection of angles the structures make, with two at right angles to the dominant front one. These geometric shapes contrast (in a good way) with the very-much-not geometric nature of the landscape. “Red Maples” 48 x 36 o/c
We had some interesting light yesterday, up here in New Hampshire (and probably most of the Northeast) due to forest fires in Canada. The smoke vapor in the atmosphere gave the daylight a golden glow, and at dusk, the sun was red. It was a beautiful light…shadows looked softer, and everything seemed to be a bit less defined. This piece was already finished, but the palette of the sky, and the light, could have been inspired by yesterday. “Lowland Light” 36 x 24 oil on canvas.
This smaller piece is based on farm close to home, in Mont Vernon, NH, which I’ve painted several times. Pretty simple scene, with the barn tucked into the slope of the hill, and a few small saplings growing here and there. Each piece is different, but focuses on some other aspect of the scene, depending on time of day, light, season, etc. This piece is less about the barn, and more about the landscape, and the deep rich red ground cover (not sure what it is) that creeps across the meadow as summer progresses. “Uplands” 14 x 14
