Here in New Hampshire (and especially in Vermont), there’s a span of about 10 days where the color of fall foliage is at its peak. Sugar maples (amongst other hardwoods) are on fire, with the bright reds, yellows, and crimsons overtaking the once all-green leaves. Today is just about peak in Southern New Hampshire, and the sugar maples outside my studio window have been inspiring the palette of this piece for a few weeks. As our local foliage progressed to it’s peak this past week, it’s appropriate that this piece should be completed simultaneously. “At Peak” 48 x 48
In Western Massachusetts, between the college towns of Amherst and Northampton, the lowlands of the Pioneer Valley are home to many farms, as the soil along the banks of the Connecticut River are ideal for farming. When I was in college there, I often visited these farms, many of which featured unique-looking barns, whose walls were vented slats, allowing air to freely pass through. These structures were built to allow tobacco leaves to dry after being harvested. Quite a few tobacco farms still exist all up and down the valley, from Hadley down south into Connecticut, and the leaves grown there were generally used for cigar wrappers…not the tobacco itself. It’s been decades since I’ve been to one of these farms, and while I did some quick drawings of a few of them, many years ago, I’ve never painted one. Until recently. “Tobacco Rows” 48 x 30 o/c
I’ve passed this old house countless times. It’s one of those old Cape Cod homes, built a century or two ago, that over the years has slowly fallen into a state of decay as its owners age. Years ago, with fresh paint, solid architecture and beautifully maintained grounds, it was at it’s peak of grandeur. But years of unintentional neglect has taken its toll. A wheelchair ramp has been added for the elderly woman who lives there. The paint is faded down to raw clapboard, trim boards have rotted and fallen off, cardboard has been taped over broken windows, and the lawn is weeds. But this past Spring, while driving by one late morning, the sun illuminated the house like a stage light, and the shrubs planted many years ago glowed with lively color…seeming to have escaped the ravages of time. “Azalea” 48 x 36 o/c
The transition from summer to fall seems to happen overnight. One day you’re on the beach, smell of suntan lotion in the air, next day, in a sweater, smell of smoke from a neighbor’s first fire of the season. I love watching the bright colors of spring and summer move from cool to warm. Meadowgrass slowly changes from bluish green to gold. Shadows shift from dark and cool to warmer and lighter. We’re sort of at that beginning phase up here in New Hampshire today. Yesterday morning had us turning on the heat for the first time…today, it’s beach weather. But days like today will become fewer and fewer pretty quick, as November…the mid-point of Autumn…is just around the corner. “November” 48 x 36 o/c.
Living in coastal New England, particularly on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard, you become well acquainted with yearly changes to the shoreline, and the distance land is from sea. Storms, waves, rain and time all descend on the fragile edges of land, where they turn to beach. The result is, more often than not…erosion and/or shifting dunes. You don’t notice it as much in areas where there is nothing built…but in those areas where seaside homes have resided for years, the structure shows just how much, or little, land has been lost since the previous year. This location is on Cape Cod Bay, and while on the “protected” side of the Cape (the side not facing the Atlantic), some of the most significant sand drifts and dune erosion occurs. “Bluff” 36 x 36
The National Seashore, a long stretch of beach along the Atlantic shores of Cape Cod, is famous for it’s beauty, sandy beaches, and unpredictable surf. From the southern end, in Eastham, upwards to Provincetown, the coast is lined with a remarkable expanse of sand dunes, dotted with weather-beaten trees, shrubs and other vegetation that defy the land’s apparent inability to sustain life. I love the wildness of this place, and the toughness of the things that manage to overcome the obstacles of living there. “Provincelands” 14 x 14 o/c
There’s nothing like the clear, unobstructed light you see in the countryside. No buildings, smog, or other obstacles for it to navigagte around as it illuminates things…especially at higher altitudes, where the atmosphere is a thinner, and even more so in early morning, or late afternoon. “Country Light” 20 x 12 o/c
Came across this scene years ago. Loved the old barn, weathered in a way that gave the thing a bluish green tint. I took a picture of the location and have looked at it many times over the years, but never worked up a composition in preparation for painting. Looking at this reference again the other day, I realized what I like most about the scene were the shadows of trees outside the composition. The dramatic shadows crawling up the barn were the subject, not the barn itself. “Trees” 24 x 20
Our town works hard to maintain it’s rural quality. Nearly every road is lined by stone walls, and paved to accommodate modern life. Wherever possible, preservation efforts have kept several roads unpaved. The selection of certain roads to remain unpaved seems random. The town maintains a “Gravel Road Map”, and every few years it’s updated, as this road or that succumbs to the inevitable asphalting, as new homes are built, and quaint loses out to practicality and convenience. There are two such unpaved roads not far from our house, and when you drive down them, you instantly feel a sense of being back in time, and then just as abruptly, the dirt road ends, and you’re back in the present. “Rural Road” 16 x 16 o/c.
The small fishing village of Menemsha, on Martha’s Vineyard, is one of the most well preserved, quaint villages you’ll find in New England. Sitting tucked in a small harbor, accessed via a dredged channel that enters from Vineyard Sound, and overlooking the Elizabeth Islands (Gosnold), the small weathered cottages and boat houses look much the same as they have for decades. This view is facing north, coming from the Coast Guard Station Menemsha. “Island Harbor” 24 x 30 o/c
