It’s great to explore a newfound scene, viewing it from every angle, making quick sketches to capture the place. This small canvas, “Low Meadow” 12 x 12, was done to execute an idea sketched out in pastel, and potentially to become a larger canvas.
On a recent early morning walk along one of the Sound-side beaches of Cape Cod, a bank of clouds forming further up Cape, maybe over Buzzards Bay, sat on the horizon as a dark strip of grayish purple. But as the morning progressed, and the breezes pickup up, the sky darkened as the cloud bank expanded northward over Falmouth and Hyannis towards Yarmouth and Dennis.
That unique combination soft early morning light and shadow, with a backdrop of storm-cloud-darkened skies, is especially dramatic on the Cape, with its sea-level landscape and cottages hidden within dunes and seagrass. This pastel study, “Nearing Storm” was done in preparation for a larger oil on canvas.
I was recently introduced to a great non profit in Acton, MA, Household Goods whose mission is to provide free furniture and home furnishings to men, women, and families in need. For these individuals looking to rebuild their lives following any number of setbacks, this organization provides a critical bridge to their starting over.
I was honored to be asked to give a second chance to one of their pieces of donated furniture, as part of their upcoming Artful Goods auction to be held at Powers Gallery October 21 in Acton, Ma.
The piece I am donating in support for this organization, “West of Boston” (oil on bench), will be auctioned off along with many other artist-contributed pieces of repurposed furniture.
The latest addition to the collection of limited edition prints, “Dune Light” is now available through the studio, and can be ordered as a print on paper (unframed), framed (in simple black 1-inch wood frame), or as a gallery wrap canvas. To inquire about framed or gallery wrap canvas prints, please contact the studio here:
More information on “Dune Light” and all available prints on paper can be found here.
There’s a strip of Bay-side beach on Cape Cod that has been a special part of my life since I was a kid. Extending West to East from Chapin to Cold Storage, this sand-bar expanse of beaches are interspersed along their shores with dunes that have, over the years, shifted and reshaped themselves according to the will of tides and wind. In some of these dunes (for better or worse), homes have been built, some many years ago, others more recently. This piece, “Dune Light” (48 x 30) is of one such home, looming over the beach we most often go to in summer. I’ve looked up at this scene many times, deciding this summer to finally paint it.
There is something about old structures that have withstood time and weather, that have remained intact through good times and bad, that transcends there being man made things. I’ve painted barn pairings before, and in this piece, “Alongside” (36 x 36, based on the old Upham Farm barns down the road), that same sense of allegiance to sticking together exists.
Years ago, when living on Martha’s Vineyard, days began, or ended, with walks through the many open land trails the Island offers. This piece, “Island Meadow Afternoon” (40 x 30, oil on canvas) is of a clearing in an up-Island tract of privately owned land in Chilmark, a portion of which has been deeded to one of the Island’s land conservation organizations.
Recently completed 36 x 36, “Rising Sun”
I never mind getting lost. When driving through the rural back roads of New England (or anywhere), GPS shut off, it’s inevitable I’ll end up going the wrong way to wherever I’m going. On a recent trip through rural Central Massachusetts, I found myself lost on an old road, on the outskirts of the town I was headed to, that wound through the woods and eventually led to a clearing at the base of a hill. I came across this scene midway up the ascent.
“The Ascent” 48″ x 48″
While recently on a drive through Harvard, MA–a beautiful small rural town I’d never been to–I came across this old farm with a main barn and an adjacent long barn that disappeared behind a huge expanse of hedge. Raised on slight knoll, the main barn seemed somewhat smaller than it should, due, perhaps, to the bigness of the shrubbery in the foreground. What stuck with me about the scene was the hint of green in the sky that late afternoon. It was that green I wanted as the subject of the piece. Ultimately, though, I don’t think it is, though it did become the title.
