I was honored to be selected as the 2023 Thanksgiving Artist for Amica Insurance’s annual Thanksgiving Card, which will be mailed to all Amica customers, as a gesture of their appreciation.
As a gesture of my appreciation, this 18″ x 18″ signed, limited edition print of “Meadow Oak” is available at a discounted price.
The coastal areas along Cape Cod’s shoreline are filled with marshes and rivers where the sea snakes it’s way inland, carving zigzags as the tides rise and fall. These wetland areas are beautiful and peaceful places, as their protected status keeps development away. “Creekside” 40x 30 o/c
There’s a trail nearby that winds its way through a hardwood forest, out to a clearing. A small pond there is surrounded by marsh grasses, cattails and trees, and the whole place is fairly well hidden. Because the trail that leads to it ends there, forcing hikers to hike back the same way they came (which hikers seem to not like to do…me included), it’s a fairly unvisited place, which makes it, for me, an appealing destination.
There is always a color that, at the beginning of a piece, emerges as the primary color around which the palette is determined. In this case, I blocked in a yellowish gold with the slightest tint of green for the sky, but wasn’t sure it would remain that way to the end. But as the other colors came along, and seemed to work alongside it, I opted to leave it as is. “Flaxen Sky” 36 x 36 o/c.
This is the second in a series of pieces inspired by a decaying, abandoned farm a few miles from here. The property is marked with very visible “No Trespassing” signs, but there are so many different views, perspectives, and angles created by the barns and farmhouse positions to each other, I had to take the risk. Loved the old road bisecting the property, and disappearing to nowhere as it enters the back meadow. “Divergence” 48 x 24 o/c
Love that time of late day, in certain conditions, when the landscape looks like an old yellowed photo. There’s a warm yellowish tint to everything, like the amber filters used in movies to create a sense of being back in time. “Amber Light” 24 x 24 o/c
This old farmhouse is a few miles down the road, slowly decaying on a coveted piece of land along one of our state routes that runs east/west from Keene, to the Monadnocks, ending at the Seacoast. A growing retail highway. It’s classification as a working farm is likely to soon be re-zoned commercial. I recently drove past the “no trespassing” signs on two huge oaks that flank the dirt driveway to snap a few photos. It’s a beautiful property, lined with stone walls, an old barn a few feet away, and another smaller one set back in the overgrown meadow behind the house. Remnants of it’s former life scattered here and there, covered in brush and weeds. Progress is good, I guess, but it can be the enemy of history. “Farm’s End” 48 x 30.
This piece is a good example of the importance of not falling in love with your first idea for a composition, like I did. I climbed over this dune a few months ago, and to the East there were three summer cottages peeking over the dune grass. Thought it would make a nice composition, but what really struck me was the huge expanse of dune running along the shore. After getting well into the composition…and not liking it, I took out everything but the one thing that should have been the only thing there all along. “Duneland” 48 x 48 o/c.
Sometimes a painting comes along simply based on the desire to use a particular color. I have a tube of quinacridone violet… very intense when mixed with white. I started this piece with that color in mind for the sky…and that alone seemed sufficient to name the piece with color as the starting point. “Violet Sky” 48 x 48
This is the time of year the local farms mow their meadows, and bale the hay. The dry grasses are cut and layed flat, exposing some remaining green where the grass meets the soil. You see these swirling, curving patterns everwhere, but only for a few days, as the hay needs to be baled soon after it’s mowed. “Last Mowing” 20 x 20 o/c.
