Painting at Eugene Leake's Farm

MAPAPA (Mid Atlantic Plein air Painters Assoc) hosted a very rainy day of painting at Eugene Leake's farm in Baltimore Co.Eugene "Bud" Leake was the much revered president of MICA in the '70's and a formidable landscape painter who sought to tie together both the Impressionist landscape with the  modern Expressionist world. He passed in his 90's a few years ago but his studio and house look like he just stepped out for a coffee. I met Mr. Leake many years ago at a workshop he gave on his farm and he influenced me profoundly. His brushwork was bold. Details did not exist and he took scenery as it was, leaving street signs, poles and wires. He didn't "pretty them up".   He came at the landscape with a moderinst sensibility but  honoring the traditions of the Barbazon painters (pre- Impressionists) and his hero Corot.  

Eugene Leake (detail) 

Leake's Easel 

                                                                     his studio space 

Eugene Leake

                                                               photo by Robert Stark

                                               the down jacket he always wore in the field

                                                                         living with art

              MAPAPA members Michael Gaudreau, Bruno Baran, David Diaz

My work on the easel during a drenching rainstorm. I kept thinking "What would Bud Leake do?" He would just keep painting away and so I did , thanks to a great Utrecht umbrella.   

                                                                my pallete after the storm 

Trinity Falls

I found this location completely by chance because I was sitting in front of the Keene Valley post office( the only place that has cell phone coverage) when I ran into a fellow artist who needed to phone as well. She told me about the falls and together we searched it out. This magnificent spot is in the backyard of some very generous folks who let Tim and I come back and paint the following day. Thanks , Hedvig for showing us the way. 8x101n oil on panel

Dawn at Chapel Pond

Caught the dawn light as it came over the mountain. I may move the shadow back up a little. It moved so quickly as I painted. This turned out to be a wonderful painting day. I started with this one and later painted on Johns Brook. Three paintings today!

Painting on Johns Brook

Friend and painter Bear Miller took me to one of his favorite painting spots on the Johns Brook yesterday where we painted all day. The first one iI did was of this crooked tree. It was a small 6x6in piece and I had a lot of fun with it. I think the background needs to recede more so I will play with it when I get back to the studio. The rock painting was a no holds barred barrel of fun. It is larger , 11x14in and I used my largest brush. I created a thick impasto of texture and built the painting rock by rock. Once the paint covers the canvas it is great fun to move it around.   SOLD!  AT THE  MAPAPA SHOW at the Subtl Rebellion Gallery , Abingdon MD

revised version. SOLD

Island in a Sea of Grass

It's very challenging to paint Plein air in the Adk's. You can go from overcast to bright sunshine and back in seconds. Sometimes little openings in the clouds will illuminate a hillside and you go "oh, WOW!" and you want to paint it in and then it's gone. Decisions must be made. That's why I like to paint small. This little hump of land is a local landmark in Keene Valley. Some say its an Indian burial ground but I got it from the source(Pat Quinn of Mountain Meadows) that it is a KAME , something the glaciers left on their journey back north some thousands of years ago. This feature has been painted by artists since they've been coming up here in the 1800's. The field was once a farm but being state land now, is gradually reverting to forest and wetlands. There is on old barn nearby that is the most photographed barn in the park . We both chose not to do that. I have to thank my painting buddy Tim for picking the spot and getting me out here to paint early in the morning. We had a very limited time (1hour ) so we had to paint fast and furious, the only way to do it.As much as I like painting as a solitary experience , painting with a friend is like running or hiking. It gets you out there when you might be sleeping late or reading the paper. And it"s great to bounce ideas off each other and see just how differend each persons vision can be. We arrived after 7 and set up our stuff and walked around for a vantage point. We set paint to canvas at 8. From there it was a light show, every second bringing new revelations. What do I paint? What do I leave out? I decided to"break the rules" and place the kame dead center. It works in a square, like an island in a sea of grass. 6x6in oil on birch . SOLD

October Nocturne

Here is another I will be showing up in Keene Valley. I was up there in Mid October staying at the Mountain Meadows B&B in KV and this is the view off the back porch! The small stream flows down to the Ausable River. It was dusk and the sun had just disappeared behind the mountain. It had snowed that afternoon but it all melted away by morning. oil panel 9x12in.
SOLD!

Painter at Hulls Falls

Here is a little painting I did en Plein air last summer of a classic Adirondck waterfalls in Keene Valley. I will be bringing it up to Keene Valley in August for a show. I was out painting with Bear Miller and the seeing reminded me of the landscape paintings of the early 1800's where the painters would include small figures in their landscapes to highten the majestic . Bear just happened to be painting in my foreground so I included him. His painting of the falls is in the Corscaden show. While we were painting we noticed brook trout swimming UP the falls. What I didn't include was the iron bridge directly over the falls just out of the picture frame. That's the romantic in me. Perhaps next time, as a statement. oil on panels Diptych . 6x12 in.