October is my favorite month. Might be many people’s favorite, as everything about it is perfect. Cool weather, bright color, and the landscape seems calm and still, as if bracing itself for winter. There’s an amazing preserve on Martha’s Vineyard…Felix Neck. It’s a 200-acre parcel, once farmland, now a series of walking paths that lead from the visitor center to several salt ponds, with amazing views of Nantucket Sound, Sengekontacket and Major’s Ponds. But aside from these amazing waterviews, there are hundreds of acres of meadow, some wetland, inland groves of cedar and oak. One of the paths, named “Old Farm Road Trail”, cuts through some of these meadows, which on the day of my walk (a perfect, sunny, warm October day), had just been mowed. Years ago the tractor seemed to have spared what had once been small cedar saplings, which could have easily been taken down with the meadow grass. But year after year, they remained. I came through this meadow at the end of the walk…having just seen some of the most beautiful views the Island offers, and noticed the trees and the dark shadows cast directly below them…and found this view just as beautiful. “October Walk” 20 x 16
On a recent bike ride through Vineyard Haven, scouting for inspiration, I came across an old house, tucked down an alley, and crammed up next to the cinder block construction of the town’s grocery store. The old place looked abandoned, or at least neglected, and would have been easy to bike right on by. But on this morning, the rising sun illuminated the southwest facing exterior, which made the place stand out from it’s weedy, commercial, rather ugly setting. Vineyard Haven Harbor is just a couple hundred yards beyond this place, and glimpses of the blue streak of water could be seen. Beauty can be found once clutter is cleared, and attention is paid to those simple elements that make something beautiful. “Harborside” 34 x 26
This old farm is a few miles from the house. It sits on the bend of the road that I drove daily to drop off or pick up the kids from school. I’ve painted it several times, maybe because I like the place and have seen it so many times…but also because it has become a landmark for the change of seasons. It’s surrounded by maples, and in the fall, it’s pretty much a blaze of autumn color, and in the Spring, the new buds and young leaves present that pale green haze of new foliage. It has become somewhat of a visual marker for the time of year in which winter turns to spring, and summer to fall, which coincide with the opening and closing of the school year. Now that the kids are older and launched, and the trips to school long in the past, I pass this place less often, and recently decided to paint it again, for old times sake. “Equinox” 36 x 36
Commissions are, most often, fun to work on. This recent, smaller piece is an example (of the fun ones), as it was done of an old family farm where the recipient grew up. As with many older structures, time and man adds clutter and modifies architecture to suit a current need. But if you strip that all away, the beauty of the simple classic form of old places can be found. This piece was an exercise in such stripping away, to get to the truth of what this place had once been, and how it might have fit into the landscape. “Ancestral” 24 x 12.
The Cape and Islands are home to many “Necks”…spits of land that poke into the ocean or bay. On a visit to Quivet Neck, in Dennis (Cape Cod), I came across an old farm that had been one of the original homes on this now highly developed plot of seaside property. Before much of the land was sold for development, the vistas out to the Bay were more visible than they are today. While there are now trees and shrubs blocking the view of Cape Cod bay behind this place, I cleared much of the vegetation for the sake of the painting, revealing pretty much how the Neck used to look, years ago. “Quivet Neck” 20 x 20
As a kid, our family had a house on Scraggy Neck…a flounder-shaped piece of land connected to Cataumet by a causeway. Just north of our Neck is Wing’s Neck. Both of these summer-house sections of Cape Cod were home to stately summer “cottages,” beautiful seasonal properties built facing the bay, whose seabreezes cooled hot summer nights. A book was written about one such house, The Big House, by George Colt Howe, a family from Wing’s Neck, who we had known somewhat through our Neck’s proximity to his.
I came across this place on East Chop Drive, in East Chop (Martha’s Vineyard), and saw in it the same qualities of the older summer cottage Howe wrote about in his book, written about his old summer place, and the difficult decision his family made to let it go. I borrowed it’s title for this piece. “The Big House” 30 x 24
I ride by this stand of trees every time I’m on the Cape, biking down the mile-plus stretch of West Dennis Beach. The beach is separated from the lagoon by a thin strip of low dunes and cedars. These trees stand in an incredibly beautiful place, but see the worst of weather…conditions we would never choose to stand out in. They are inspiring in their ability stand strong, to fight off and endure whatever’s thrown at them. David Gray was on loop in the studio during the completion of the piece. The song “Mutineers” inspired the title. “Mutineers” 30 x 20
Color is often as much the subject of certain pieces as is the central element of the composition. In this piece, I knew I wanted the facade to be a light shade of red, not too light, but not too dark. As the painting evolved, the rosy tones of the underpainting seemed just about right, so I left them, and painted over with thicker pigment, but with little modification to the underlying color. The overall palette of the piece came together as the painting progressed, with an effort to keep that initial color front and center, and worthy of becoming the subject. “Rose” 48 x 48
The strip of small cottages that line Old Wharf Road in Dennisport, Cape Cod, and sit close to the shores of Nantucket Sound, are some of the last of the old humble summer places the Cape has always been known for. The simplicity and strength of their construction have allowed them to sit where they are, and survive storms, hurricanes, Nor’easters, and brutal winters. This little place maintains a safe distance from the sea by way of a small strip of dune that shifts, recedes, and expands each year. “Beach Dune” 36 x 36
I’m frequently asked how I choose my palette, subject matter and titling. Love the question, but struggle with the answer. It’s like being a writer, trying to answer how you choose the words you use, the settings you imagine, and the characters you develop. In that sense, my work is pure fiction. Based in reality, but reimagined along the way, to become something recognizable, but not real…and hopefully more interesting.
In this piece, the palette came along as it always does…by on-the-fly choices made with zero color theory in mind (I don’t like the concept of color theories). The scene was based on a real place, but modified to be what I wanted it to be. And the title comes from a marine park on Cape Cod I worked at as a dolphin trainer many years ago…whose name seemed to fit with the finished piece. All real, but all fiction. “Sealand” 16 x 20
