Somerville Rd. 4-6pm

This plein air piece was done on a clear cold evening when the setting sun turned everything orange/green. This is my favorite time of the day. I am attracted to the bands of orangish light that travel up the tree and eventually disappear when the sun finally sets. I had to paint quickly. I also wanted to show the sun hitting the tree limb in the gap between the trees. It's a little suprise "moment of light" that I like to seek out.

9x12in oil on panel

McLhinney Building-Havre de Grace, MD

oil pastel study 8x101n

I have always admired this old building on the corner of Washington St. I think it would be a cool place to live and have a studio on the top tower. 10x10in. oil

Dinghy

At dawn while I was out on Main Pier ,down in Sherwood Forest, I was attracted to the blue shadows cast on the white dinghy. My work seems to be about what happens to colors when they go in and out of shadow. Whether its rocks,or white houses, or cups and saucers I find the effect beautiful and I like catching these quiet moments.

oil on panel 10x 22 in SOLD

Brewers Pond

After I spent a full afternoon in the early fall painting at my favorite spot in Sherwood Forest on the Severn River I had a full palette of paint and a little panel left over. I turned to the left and dashed off this little painting in about 15 minutes. My aim was to react quickly and leave out ALL detail. The resulting painting has a freshness and vitality that sustained longer paintings sometimes lack. I worked on it a little last night from memory to clarify the trees in the center a bit but left it alone for the most part as a record of a magic moment. 8x10 in oil on panel

Along Castleton Road.

I started this painting on site at a plein air gathering with painter John Saurs last summer. I was really attracted to the golden light on the house. I finished up last night using some photo references. That's when I added the figure walking down the street.

Fort McHenry II

I discovered Fort McHenry as a painting destination at the end of the summer and did a few on site paintings there. The fort is surrounded by rows of sycamore trees that line a walkway along the water. At around 7 pm the setting sun lit these trees up. I did this pastel from some photo references, taking out some fencing and scaffolding. 18 x 26 pastel

Playing Fields

I have my studio in the former convent on the school grounds where I teach. My window looks out over the playing fields where I can watch the kids play soccer and track from my window. One evening the sunset was so clear that I did a pastel watching the shadows reach across the grass. 18x24 in

Marcy Field

The Farmer's Market in Keene Valley, NY is on a grass airstrip outside the town. I watched this brilliant orange plane sail over our heads and land just a few yards away. I dashed it off very quickly. 10x10in. oil

Farmers Market II

When the pumpkins are placed out on the parking lot at the Bel Air Farmers Market great colors and shadows abound. 8 1/2 x13 1/2 oil I did a substantial re-working of this painting with oil pastel.

Pennsylvania Farmhouse

On the way home from Harrisburg PA, driving back roads, I came across this farmhouse. It was around 5pm and the low sun was creating the shadows I look for. I had to pull over immediately. I will never be able to find this house again. 10x10in. oil

SOLD

Fall on the Peninsula

Here is Sunday's plein air painting of the Main Pier and Peninsula. It is essentially the same view I painted earlier in the Summer. I was lucky in that a very grey day turned into a beautiful sun filled evening. The sun does interesting things to this beautiful land form. As I was painting the owner of the sailboat rowed out to his boat, raised the sail and sailed away. I'm glad I painted it in first. oil 13.5 x 19

Painting with Maggie

Got busy last Sunday on another painting of the penninsula. I happend to catch a splended clear afternoon with just a little fall color.Will show when complete. Here is my set up in my Honda Element. I took the seats out and use bunjies to strap stuff to the sides. Maggie is very content to hunker down as I spend the day painting behind the truck. I sometimes use the tailgate as a seat and when I put a windshield cover over the back window which pops up, it creates a great sunshield. I prefer to paint on birch plywood panels called "elephant board."I prime them red as an underlayer for landscape because it can make the greens pop. Sometimes I use a light sienna. My wet boxes are pizza boxes. Light, fit 10-12in panels and they're free.

Farmers Market

When I go to the Bel Air farmers market Saturday mornings I marvel at the colors and shapes of the produce the venders place out in front of their stalls. The morning sun in October creates long raking shadows and the vegetables provide that shot of color I enjoy so much. Isolated by the asphalt, the tomatoes and gourds are like sculptures in a gallery. 8x10 oil on panels ROMA TOMATOES-SOLD

Valentine

I am working on another pastel of the Bouquet river. My wife and I walk along rivers ,streams and even the seashore and often find little heart shaped rocks and pick them up. I had no idea there was one hidden in this wash of stones.

work in progress. 18x26in Pastel on sanded paper

Beach Road Boat Rack

Main Pier, Sherwood Forest,MD

This was painted at the end of the day in late September between 3:30 and 5pm. The sun is backlighting the peninsula and the wind has kicked up a froth and taken all reflection away. It was a very satisfying day. In all the years of drawing and painting down here this is my first of the pier. I like how it juts out into the river in straight geometric shapes counterbalanced by (or even nestled in) the arm of the magnificent peninsula. One more site visit should finish it. 10x22in. Oil on panel

West Annapolis Artworks and Fine Framing

West Annapolis is a bright cheerful gallery space on a street filled with antique stores, coffeshops and boutiques away from the madding crouds of Main St.

Annapolis Plein Air Show

Three of my Sherwood Forest painting were accepted for the Annapolis Plein Air Show.

The Address of the Gallery is 4 Annapolis st.

2 blocks east of Navy Stadium.

Plein Air Paint Out

16 local plein air artists have been invited to paint for 16 hours on locations throughout Baltimore city. The artists are able to choose their 16 hours and paint between August 28th and September 11th.

View their results during the opening reception on September 12, 2010, from 4 to 7 PM. Show on display through September 25th

Artists include: Hai-ou Hou, Steward White, John Brandon Sills, Crystal Moll, Murray Taylor, Michael Gaudreau

,

Bill Wilson, Michael Gilbert, Barb Kiwak, Claudia Brooks, Bill Tamburrino, Michael Bare, Joanne Bare, Susan Graeber, Tim Kelly & Marshall Kinsely.

Crystal Moll Gallery 1030 South Charles Street Federal Hill Baltimore Maryland 21230

410-952-2843 fax 410-391-3166

vwww.crystalmoll.com

WET PAINT ! plein air show in Baltimore at the Crystal Moll Gallery

Last week I got a call out of the blue to join in with 15 other plein air artists to paint anywhere in the baltimore city limits for only 16 hours. Two of the sites i discovered were Cylburn Park and Fort McHenry. I was really impressed with the austere beauty of the fort. What an oasis amid industry. I did 5 paintings in 3 days. This was my first "paint out" and way out of my comfort zone but I have to say I enjoyed the challenge and I discovered parts of the city I never would have visited.

noonmark mountain

Here are a couple of photos to show you of the actual mountain to compare with the oil sketches done below.

Noonmark Mountain

These are a series of oil sketches I painted rapidly, one after each other, to capture the fleeting color effects of light and weather as the day passed on Noonmark mountain. Each painting took about 30 min. As the light and clouds changed moment by moment I would pop another panel on the easel. It is truely exciting and challenging to observe and paint while the light and scenery is rapidly moving. You have to make split second decisions as to what stays and what goes, how to simplify, what to leave out, how to match color in minutes making choices without over thinking. It is a race with the light and you lose yourself in the landscape. oil on panels 8x10 to 8x8 in

Painting Noonmark Mt

This summer my wife and I stayed at a B&B (Mountain Meadows) in Keene Valley where we painted right off the back porch. It made it so convienient to leave the easel in place and get right out and paint every day. It was mighty nice when it rained, too. I was told that Constable once defined Plein Air painting as "finding a comfortable place to sit under a tree and when the sun comes up paint what happens" I don't know if that is near to what he actually said but I like it. There is an old Irish folktale where the hero Fionn Macumhail asks his men "What is the greatest music in the world" and the answer is "The Sound of What Happens" Being present and seeing nature unfold and adapting to the constant changes in light, color, shadow is much more challenging than studio painting.

Idle River ll

A nice plein air experience on a hot afternoon in late August. 10x10in oil on panel

The Peninsula -Severn River

Here is a finished version, done on site , of my favorite spot on the Severn River. Oil on birch 12x25in.

Hulls Falls

Painted on site just before a deluge of rain

8x8 on birch

Corscaden Barn Show 2010

LANDSCAPE

PAINTINGS

NEAR AND FAR

August 5 - October 12

Samina Quareshi

Marjorie Morrow

Robert Stark

Stephanie DeManuelle

Michael Gaudreau

Bear Miller

July 1st to October 12th

Open Friday, Saturday, Sunday10 a.m. to 5 p.m.& by Appointment

1.5 miles South of Keene Valleyon Rt. 73 518-576-9850

marthac@kvvi.net KVARTBARN.COM

Art Show at the Corscaden Gallery

The Corscaden Gallery is located just outside the town of Keene Valley, NY in the heart of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mts. It is owned and run by Martha Corscaden. The show she put together is not a room of separate artists doing their own thing. It seemed more like a unified installation of a much deeper exploration of what the Adirondacks is to the people who encounter this magnificent part of the world. As I tell Bear Miller (see his blog on the right) his paintings express how I FEEL about being at the base of Giant in the snow even though I have never been there. And that is what the artists all do in their very different ways. They are much more than pretty pictures of the High Peaks suitable for framing. Martha put together a show that goes right to the essence of the stunningly beautiful, hard, sometimes dark, spiritually nourishing, and always changing landscape of the Adirondacks. I was honored and very grateful to be included with such a gathering of fine artists.

6pm Severn

The evening sun created deep shadows. I painted quickly, on site, in around 1-2 hours. I will now take it back to the studio and sharpen it up some when it dries. The day was hot but pleasant in the shade.

The Penninsula -detail

Painted this yesterday and still consider it a work in progress.
It takes awhile to see the jumble of trees and leaves as distinct shapes. I had started this picture in the Spring and put it away as "what was I thinking?" Then, on a whim, took it back to the site looked at the "skyholes" and tried to paint them individually on top of the previous jumbled mess. I approached it like I painted rocks, one at a time,working from the middle to the left. I have great admiration for those artists that can bang out a complicated plein air piece in one sitting and call it finished. Me, I seem to have better results revisiting pictures either on site or in the studio. This painting will still need another day to get the water right. This site has great emotional significance for me. I camped here as a kid and grew up being mesmerized by it as one of the last wild places on the Severn.

Rocks on Chapel Pond

To get to the water at Chapel Pond you have to walk down a rocky hill so you look out on the water from above. I started this painting from the top of the hill on site and finished it off from memory with very soft Sennelier oil pastels. 8x8in. oil paint and oil pastel on birch panel

Rapids on Deer Creek

I went back to a spot I have painted before back in the Spring. It was a very hot day but painting next to fast water seems to keep one cool. I was not pleased with the colors. What appeared to be a warm tan in the sunshine became a cool greenish grey when I brought it indoors. But I think I saved it by waiting until it was dry and working into it later with thick applications of Sennilier oil pastels. I painted on a rigid panel so the pastels went on quite nicely. I then sprayed it lightly with an oil pastel fixitive that really brought out the colors. 8x101n oil paint and pastel on birchpanel SOLD

Arcadia Farm

Here is the finished painting.

8x10 1n oil on birch panel

Painting at Arcadia Farm

A beautiful day at Arcadia, the Von Paris farm, where I am painting a wedding present for a friends daughter who will be married there on the 3rd of July. It was a beautiful wedding.