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.