Great commission project with buyers from outside Boston who commissioned a piece for their Jackson, NH home. The residence is located slopeside to one of the area’s ski mountains, and the piece needed to echo the slope of their location. The couple also wanted to capture in the piece the dramatic light of dusk in the White Mountains… and the result is “Highland Dusk.”

Because color is often the true subject of a piece, I like to start a painting with a particular color in mind…which often leads to the title. In this case, Azure was painted with the blueish tint often seen in weathered wood. When you catch a glimpse of weathered clapboard, or barn board, particularly in late afternoon, a bluish hue emerges from what,  at first glance, might appear as gray. With Azure, I amplified that blue, and built the remaining color palette  around that central color.

This piece is available through Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock Vt.

Pastel drawing of barn in Grantham, NH “twin” barns. One of a series of works underway of these structures.

One of Boston’s best resources for designers and architects, the Boston Design Guide, has featured the Powers Gallery’s Fall Show where several new pieces, including “Old Brewster,” are on exhibit. Work in this show can be previewed at the Powers Gallery site. New work at Harrison Gallery can be viewed here:

October marks the influx of “leaf peepers” to our Northern New England states. Before  the buses roll in, I managed a trip to Vermont–partly to drop work off in Woodstock, but also to gather reference material. The twin barns in Grantham, NH (just south of the VT border), are perhaps the most stately old structures around. Beat up by time, but as solid looking as they must have been over 100 years go. Above, “The Granthams” is one of several new pieces based on this scene.

Finished four studies, based on two twin barns just over the VT/NH border, off Rt. 89. Past them many times over the years, most recently on way back from Woodstock. But this time, took the next exit (8 miles further) to double back and grab some references. These barns have seen time. But they’re still standing. Above is “Later Years” a 12 x 12 on canvas/board, heading to Morris & Whiteside Galleries in Hilton Head for upcoming auction, and the source for a larger, 48 x 48 underway.

 

If you’re familiar with Cape Cod, you know the classic architecture that has defined the Cape for centuries. The classic “Cape” house is known well outside of Massachusetts, owing it’s roots to the Cape, built to withstand storms, and named by a former Yale president who visited the peninsula in the 1800s. The name stuck, and the old Cape cottage style home has remained a defining architectural style not only on the Cape, but throughout New England and beyond.

Since then, the Cape and other classic “New England” style architecture has faded from the Cape’s mystique as newer, bigger houses are built over the foundations of the historic homes.

While on the Cape recently, I noticed the abundance of beautiful old architecture in the most unlikely place…along Route 28, the notoriously summer-clogged two-lane “highway” where tourists and residents inch along, on their way up or down Cape. It’s easy to miss, as you’re inclined to be looking for a restaurant, shop, or gas station as you creep along. But on this trip, the slowed traffic gave me time to actually notice what I was passing, and have passed many times.

This painting, “Centenarian,” is one of these old homes I’ve passed many times, but have not noticed before. If you look past the gas station next door, or the parking lot of the pancake restaurant behind it, there are traces of the “old Cape” made famous in the paintings of Edward Hopper. With the removal of the parking lot and any sign of the Mobil Mart, brought the house back to its roots, to a time when even Route 28 was a scenic aspect of the Cape. Despite the disappearance of many of these older, classic, structures, there are many left, sometimes hiding in the open.

So many of the old structures in rural New England exist amongst a tangle of trees, vines, and brush that grows up to and around them over the years. This kind of encroachment isn’t acceptable with our homes…we’d never allow it. But with these often abandoned buildings, this growth adds to their mystique.

A few new pieces under way will attend to give equal value to the structure and to the vegetation growing alongside it. Above is a quick oil study and sketch of “Tangled” based on an abandoned Vermont barn I’ve painted several times.

“Poplar Grove” | 28 x 18 | oil on canvas | Banks Gallery, New London, NH

 

One of four new pieces at Banks Gallery, New London…

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Last weekend’s opening at Left Bank Gallery in Wellfleet was hindered by a bad accident on Route 6 which had the entire Cape from Dennis to Ptown gridlocked. The gallery has kindly organized a second opening, tonight (Aug 23) for those who would have attended, but couldn’t get into town. A preview of the work at the show is below. If you’re in the Outer Cape area, Left Bank is on Commercial Street, which leads to Wellfleet Harbor (a must-see on its own).

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