As a teenager living on the Cape, my High School bus wound its way through the country lanes of Sesuit and Quivett Necks. On the Quivett portion of the ride, we passed this place every day. Tucked down a dirt drive, it sits on the edge of a salt marsh that extends to Cape Cod Bay. It was, to me, always a quintessential summer house, on a beautiful piece of Cape Cod. Many years later, painted partly from reference, and largely from memory…”Summerscape” 48 x 24
I came across this scene very recently, on a chilly Spring drive along the National Seashore. It was a pretty nondescript scene…but interesting in that this old shed should be standing randomly along the bluff, with no larger structure nearby to justify it being there. “Pamet Hollow” 20 x 20 o/c.
This piece was a great combination of an idea for a painting I’ve had, coupled with the inclusion of an element the buyers hoped to see in a work. The scene is somewhere in New Hampshire or Vermont, and has been painted before. But this piece also includes a bit of landscape near the buyers home in Concord, MA. The large oak to the right is in their backyard, and like in this piece, sits on the banks of the Assabet River. “Along the Assabet” 28 x 32.
A couple days of warm weather during this fairly drizzly New Hampshire Spring has me thinking, and hoping, for a rapid onset of summer! To nudge it along…”Dune Path” based on a favorite spot in West Dennis, Cape Cod.
This location has been painted several times…previous pieces were more literal depictions, while this one removes all vegetation to reveal the bay which, in reality, is a couple miles in the distance. While painting is mostly an additive process, I find it interesting to see what results if you remove things from the composition while adding elements to the painting.
I’m fortunate to have as my back yard in New Hampshire a large tract of conservation land that provides a quiet buffer from the main roads and other neighborhoods. On the Cape, many of my favorite places are the unpeopled spaces, preserved for humans and animals to enjoy. This setting sits off the busy (in summer) Route 28 on the Harwich/Chatham line. The town of Harwich maintains quite a few parcels of conservation land that assures a continued rural character. If these places are intended for human use, they are often called conservation lands. If for animal preservation, they are sanctuaries. Whatever the name, these preserved spaces are my sanctuaries. “Sanctuary” 36 x 36.
Newly completed 48 x 48, “Summer Hay”, based on a scene I pass in Vermont every time I head towards Woodstock. With summer right around the corner, I felt a hot palette was needed, especially in the field. Having once accidentally set the meadow behind my house on fire, I know the palette well.
While driving through the Berkshires several years ago, I came across this scene, part of an old farm that was still occupied, but pretty run down. It was mid August, hot, and the meadow grasses had begun their transition from a light bluish green to gold. “August” 16 x 16.
I rarely know where a painting’s going to go when I start. That unpredictability, many years ago, would have driven me crazy…as I “knew” what I wanted to paint, and nothing short of that goal would suffice. It got to the point that when I began paintings, I got nervous with the fear of failure.
I knew that with this piece the late afternoon sun, and how it was interrupted by the tree, was likely to be the subject. Maybe it ended not being? Is the subject the shadows? The barn? The tree? Not sure. As the painting progressed, subject didn’t matter, but how things related to each other did. Sometimes you just have to “trust your stuff” and go for it with no goal in sight. “Red Maple” 16 x 20.
I’ve always been fascinated by abandoned places. The nearby rural town around my part of New Hampshire are dotted with abandoned properties, many old farms whose last inhabitants had no heirs…or if they did, they had no use for the inheritance. As time and earth takes back these structures, the slow state of being reclaimed reveals its process. I’ve seen this place several times, in a quiet country town on the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border. It’s almost literally disappearing amidst the vegetation growing around it, and on it, but is still a striking presence when you first encounter it. “Reclamation” 36 x 36 o/c.
