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.