The process of going from inspiration, to reference, to composition and completed painting is always about simplifying details and exaggerating simplicity. In this work in progress, currently untitled, composition and light are modified during the sketching and painting process to create a hopefully single focal point, but often more than one aspect of the scene needs to stand out. The unique angle and color of early morning light became the subject of this (despite the apparent focus of the dunes and fence).
Came across this scene, years ago, in Brewster, MA, along Route 6a, and only recently did a quick sketch in preparation for a canvas. At first, the shed tucked up against the trees was what stood out, as the sun hit it’s white-painted doors. But as the charcoal sketch came together, the emphasis became the cedars…both the two in the composition, and the two outside it. Just over the treeline is Cape Cod Bay, with an expanse of marsh in between it and this setting.
Recently completed commission for buyer who sought companion piece for another work previously purchased. This piece, “High Meadow Dusk” 48 x 48, is of the same scene in previously purchased painting, but from opposite side, and with a different palette.
Shadows can be taken for granted, as they’re the dark against the more dramatic light. But when considered for what they are, and looked at closely, these unlit areas of everything in light can easily become the subject of a composition. In this piece, “Oak Grove” the trees outside the composition created this multi-angle abstract shape, which became the focus of the piece.
The cottages in Dennisport, along Old Wharf Road, are remnants of an older Cape Cod, where small “summer places” were the norm and massive, rambling summer houses were the exception. Slowly, these small humble places are being razed and replaced, as is the simplicity of the landscape.
This piece evolved from a barn I came across in rural Massachusetts that had years of overgrowth growing up and around it. Initially the focus was to be on this overgrowth, with the green of the foliage that brushed up against the barn exterior casting a greenish tint to what had once been white paint. But early on, the focus changed, and the foliage was edited out, and the emphasis became the color created by sun shining through, and reflecting off the vegetation that had begun to consume the structure.
Rural structures are full of history. Coming across an old barn, farmhouse, or beach cottage, you see it as it is now, either modernized, or dilapidated, surrounded by more modern stuff, or overgrown from disuse. Whatever the condition, there is an underlying beauty to their simplicity, and in how they fit in with their landscape. This piece, “Westerly Shade” (48 x 36), is down the road from the studio, near the top of Walnut Hill, one of the many hills in town, encountered as you climb the road that cuts up and over it.
As beautiful as the grayish monochromatic snowy landscape is outside, it’s always a bit better (in my opinion), once color slowly starts to emerge in the Spring, and then fully explodes in the Fall. My annual winter impatience usually kicks in around now, so the recently completed “Blue Ridge” is perhaps a bit of color therapy to head off the winter blues.
Just returned from delivering a commissioned piece, “Lower Meadow” 42 x 30, to buyer through Powers Gallery. Several months in the making, this piece was a bit of a challenge, but a LOT of fun, starting with use of the four-wheeler this fall to get around the property’s fields and meadows to get initial on-site sketches.
As with most commissions, the challenge is to create the piece the way you (I) normally do, but to incorporate those elements the buyer indicates are key to the composition. In this piece, the uphill view of the barn from the lower meadow was the preferred perspective, and the piece needed to indicate a suggestion of the huge oak that has occupied its place on the farm for a hundred years, but without becoming the focal point.
Recently completed piece, based on an old farm in a rural town west of Boston. The time of day created these huge shadows, made longer by the downward slope of the back meadow. Looking up, the barn, beyond these shadows, and the dramatic backdrop of the treeline, created a situation where the original subject of the piece became secondary to everything else.
