My years on Martha’s Vineyard provided many opportunities to observe the unique light you find there. Being an Island, and therefore at sea level, light is unobstructed by landscape. Looking out from shore, especially early morning and early evening, the light plays with the atmosphere, clouds, moisture, and creates beautiful, unique patterns and textures. This location, on East Chop, a favorite spot to visit and paint, overlooks Nantucket Sound, and at these times of day, never disappointed. “Island Light” 20 x 16
My neighbor’s farm sits across a meadow and stone wall, on a slope that descends to a treeline that marks the line between woods and the farm’s meadows. As the sun sets, its light streams through the trees and casts long shadows across the meadow and onto the west side of the barn. It gives the scene a zebra-like sense, where the shadows paint the contours of the land, and then abruptly climb the vertical of the structure. It’s amazing how this one place can look so different at different times of day. Soft and hazy in the morning, and bright, bold and dramatic in late afternoon. “Westwoods” 24 x 30
The Outer Cape town of Wellfleet is one of the most scenic places on Cape Cod. At the north end of Wellfleet Harbor, an old abandoned railroad line, and now-gone trestle, mark the transition from harbor to creek. From the north end of the this briny salt marsh, looking towards the harbor, you can see the remnants of the old rail line via a line of cedars that have grown on what’s left of the railroad bed. This commissioned piece was done for a couple who have enjoyed Wellfleet summers for years, and were looking for a larger piece for their new Connecticut home. “Duck Creek” 70 x 30
One of my favorite locations and scenes is the flats in Grantham, NH, just off Route 89, on old Route 10, which cuts under the highway and then takes a sharp left towards Eastman. At that intersection sits the “twin barns”… two identical structures sitting side by side. I’ve painted them often..both together, and individually. In this piece, the focus was obviously on one of the two, but also on the roads that lead to it. “Valley Road” 34 x 30
I drove past this old homestead a week or so ago. It’s in Yarmouth Port, on Cape Cod, and has been the subject of quite a few pieces. It’s one of those old Cape Cod homes that, for some reason, stands long abandoned along Route 28. Over the years it has looked progressively neglected. Broken windows, slipping clapboards, and consumed by overgrowth. But passing it the other day, it looked different. The overgrowth had been trimmed back, the tall grasses looked like they’d been cut, and somehow it just looked a lot healthier. Maybe it’s being prepared for razing, or prepared for renovation, but seeing it looking in better shape than it has in years, inspired me to paint it again, with the hope that as summer approaches, it will be on its way to become something closer to what it once was. “Summertime” 24 x 20
We moved to our town over 20 years ago, and since that time, it has changed and grown. This barn, two decades ago, sat in the middle of a meadow that served as a small Christmas tree farm. Over the years, the trees were harvested (and not replanted), until only a few remained. The barn is in much worse shape today than it was 20 years ago, and most of the meadow was purchased and developed, replacing the treeline with rooflines. Picasso’s quote, “every act of creation is first an act of destruction” seems appropriate, though I doubt he was thinking of residential neighborhoods. Nonetheless, despite the reality of time changing our landscape, we can on occasion see relics from our past that just seem to be hanging on. “Vestige” 40 x 30
Certain things that happen to you tend to stick with you…like that day a few years ago, while mowing the meadow next to my house, I accidentally set it on fire. The mower hit a rock, sparks ignited a few dry grasses, and within minutes there was an inferno. That moment stuck with me…and I did a piece around that time titled “Meadowfire.” Finishing this piece made me think of that exciting day again, and this is pretty much what it looked like…”Aflame” 12 x 12
Came across this complex of barns somewhere in Vermont, years ago, and have painted it a few times. Love coming back to this scene, as the location at the top of a hill, with a slightly rising ridgeline beyond it, creates the right environment for that perfect late afternoon light that skims the surface of the landscape. “Long Barn” 28 x 14
Distance makes things blue. It’s got something to do with the wavelengths of color. Years ago, when my son was 5 or 6, he and I went to hike in the Monadnocks of New Hampshire…a half hour west of here. As we drove the winding Route 101 up into the hill country, he saw Pack Monadnock (our destination) in the distance, and said “I wanna hike the blue mountain!” I said that’s where we’re going. When we got there, he excitedly hiked the trail, always a few steps ahead of me. At the top, he looked around disappointedly and said “it’s not blue!” Bringing up wavelengths wasn’t going to appease, so I pointed to the landscape back towards our neck of the woods and said see how it’s blue over there? That’s where we live, and you know it’s not blue where we live, right? He said right and appeared to accept my grownup logic as an answer, but I could tell he didn’t buy it. The color of nature is a mystery at times, the way light and atmosphere distort the reality of what we think the color of a thing is. “Lavender Ridge” 18 x 18.
Put the finishing touches on this 10-foot wide canvas…heading to a contemporary Connecticut beach house with very large walls. Working large is both liberating and constraining (believe it or not)…everything has to be bigger…bigger brushes, bigger brush strokes, more paint. Those are the liberties. The constraints…once the piece is underway, it stays underway until it’s done. “Southeast” 120 x 54
