Heron Study II

5"x7" oil on gessoed masonite hardboard

"Man's heart away from nature becomes hard." ~Standing Bear


Yet another study of the marshy area behind Waterford Beach....and some of those wonderful herons that hunt for dinner there!

This painting is available from my DailyPainters.com gallery or send me a message here.

Tropical Collection, Norfolk Botanical Garden

12"x9" oil on Belgian linen mounted on archival panel

This was the last of the 4 paintings done during the paint-out last week. It feels like so long ago. And coming back home after 2 weeks of travel means a lot of catching up to do at home. I still haven't broken out the paint box yet! But I do plan on some painting time today!

For more information about this painting, please contact me here.

Morning, Along The Path; Norfolk Botanical Gardens

9"x12" oil on Belgian linen mounted on archival panel

Here's the 3rd painting I completed at the paint-out last week, on Friday morning at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. During early morning, this little gazebo structure is brilliantly lit by the sun, and boy do the shadows seem to change quickly this time of year. I've gotten in the habit of marking in the shadow shapes first, and anything else interesting. If you get those BIG shapes put down first, everything else seems to fall into place!

For more information about this painting, contact me here.

Butterfly Garden at Norfolk Botanical Gardens

12"x12" oil on gessoed masonite artboard

This is the second painting I did last Thursday during the 'Out & About Norfolk' plein air event. I had a quick burger lunch and went back to the Norfolk Botanical Garden since I still had several hours of daylight...and admission still paid for the day! I've spent so much time at these gardens over the years. It is quite a treat for me to return and see what's blooming through the seasons, and changes that have been made over the years.

I did find out on Saturday evening at the show reception, that I had been awarded 2nd Place- with a $750 Memorial Award for the "Japanese Garden" painting! I am so thrilled over this - my head is still swimming over it! The show organizer, Karen Kinser has worked so hard to build this show over the last five years! She has done an amazing job! There's some serious award money, a gorgeous venue along the river at Waterside in Norfolk for the reception, I can go on and on....I plan on submitting work for next year's show!!


For more information about this painting, please contact me here.

Japanese Garden

12"x12" oil on gessoed masonite archival board

"All gardening is landscape painting." -William Kent

Today I returned to one of my favorite painting spots. It's actually my favorite botanical garden, here in Norfolk, VA. And to be able to return during different seasons, is such a joy.

This will be shown during our wet-painting sale at the Out and About Norfolk, Plein Air show and reception that takes place this Saturday from 6pm to 9pm at Waterside in Norfolk. For more information about the event, follow the link, here.

Heron Study I - sold!

5"x7" oil on gessoed masonite archival artboard

"In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia." ~Charles A. Lindbergh

Today I'm packing my art bags and equipment to head down to Norfolk, VA for the annual "Out & About Norfolk Plein Air Event". I'll be painting on Thursday and Friday, Saturday we will hang our wet paintings for the show & sale on Saturday evening at Waterside in downtown Norfolk. For more information, click the link above! I'd love to see you there!

Today, in between packing, I got out some of my sketches of egrets, I'm putting together in a much larger painting. But today is a color study of what's to come!

This can be purchased directly from my DailyPainters.com Gallery or by contacting me here.

Weir Studio, Autumn Afternoon

10"x8" oil on Belgian linen mounted on archival panel

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." ~John Muir

While at the J.Alden Weir Farm on Monday, I pulled out my sack lunch of PBJ & a banana & a pear & enjoyed the shade at a huge stone table that Weir had installed in his life time. Looking like it was part of the landscape I marveled that I could sit at the same space where he had spent time, and painted his family on that very spot as well! Across the yard from where I ate was his studio. The afternoon sun was catching some of the surfaces and turning that deep red to an almost coral orange glow. A magnificent tree had practically grown up against the building.

Technique-wise I had wanted to try a bit of brush work with my palette knife, as Camille Przwodek had done when I studied with her. Sometimes she would lay in the whole painting with a knife, sometimes with a brush, going intuitively, depending upon how fast she needed to go, how much detail, etc. I knew the afternoon sun would be changing fast. Our days are getting shorter and shorter up here in CT as fall marches on. So, I laid in the building and blocked in most of the basic areas with a brush on this one, then came back in with a knife on much of it. Finally the light had changed drastically enough to call it a day!

I really was taken with Muir's quote- and it seemed to really go along with everything I had encountered on my visit to the J. Alden Weir Farm. Weir certainly had a sense of beauty in nature, and preservation. Muir, a Scottish-born American naturalist, was an early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the US, and living during the same years as Weir.

For more information regarding this painting, please contact me here.

Oh yes, and more good news to share- I had a painting juried into the New Britain Museum of Art - 42nd Annual Juried Exhibition. Juror for the show was Elizabeth Ives Hunter, Executive Director of the Cape Cod Museum, in Dennis, MA. I'm so thrilled to be a part of this museum show! My submission for the show was the recent 12"x12" plein air work, "Chincoteague, Late Afternoon".

Autumn Morning at J. Alden Weir Farm

8"x10" oil on Belgian linen mounted on archival panel

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday was the most delightful day of painting. The Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society planned to meet up at the J. Alden Weir Farm over in Branchville, CT - which is a part of the National Park Service!

"In June of 1882, painter J. Alden Weir boarded a train from New York bound for his modest farm among the hills of Branchville, CT. Once here, Weir and his family transformed their summer retreat into a creative refuge for friends and fellow artists. After Weir, artists Mahonri Young and Sperry Andrews lived and worked here, continuing the legacy of artistic expression that still inspires today."(from the website)

One of best parts of the day (besides getting to paint there) was the tour that the park ranger offered to us as special guests of the park. The home and studio are closed to the public as they are currently under renovation.....but we were allowed to go in and see!. What a treat. She also shared much of the history of Weir and his family and friends. Definitely worth a visit, and I'm looking forward to going back!

Following the tour, we returned from Weir's studio back to the Burlingham House (which was where his youngest daughter eventually lived), I spotted the light coming through the golden trees and knew this would be my first painting here on this location.

What I'm finding truly wonderful as I study more about Weir, is that we today, can go back and stand in some of these same places where he stood to paint. The rocks are still there, the trees are much larger, and many of the pastures have grown in, but so much is exactly the same. What a wonderful welcoming feeling for a painter!

For more information about this painting, or my visit to the Weir Farm, contact me here.

Far and Away, Large Marshland Painting

30"x30" oil on 2" deep cradled panel


"Nature is my medicine." -Sara Moss-Wolfe


This painting was one I've wanted to do for a long while now. I have spent so much time working plein air, and in a lot of different sizes. But I have wanted to take one of my smaller/medium sized works and turn it into a much larger painting. Finally doing this enabled me to verbalize the feelings behind some of what I love to paint.

I love to walk/hike around coastal marshlands (all up the whole Atlantic coast). I've always found a fascination with the large abstract shapes of land and water. And, it is wonderfully quiet in any season, just the sounds of nature about you.....and everything else "gets out of your head". I always feel calm, yet invigorated after a hike through these spaces. I wanted this large painting to give the viewer a feeling of being able to walk into that space... to clear their head, the way I do when I go to the woods and marshes.


And while I'll continue to paint plein air as long as the weather allows it, I'm looking forward to painting the next BIG one! Once the paint is dry on this, I'll be taking it outside for a better photograph in natural light.


These cradled panels are quite beautiful as the edges are wood. Once the painting is dry, I'll be staining these edges to deepen the wood tones. For more information about this painting, please contact Roxanne here.

Roses By North Light

12"x12" oil on deep cradled birch wood panel (sides painted, not necessary to frame, but of course you may if you prefer).

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin



I've learned to not always listen to the weatherman. They predicted it would rain all morning and begin to clear in the afternoon. I awoke to find it perfectly sunny and clear this morning, but I had cut these roses the night before. Of course I was determined to paint them. I had re-arranged a bit of furniture in the studio (which I have pretty much abandoned all summer and painted out-side) so I could have just the right natural light fall on them from my north-facing windows (which allows nice even light in all day). Then by afternoon, there came the pouring rains! Glad I didn't listen to that turned around forecast!

To purchase this painting directly from me, please visit my DailyPainters.com gallery or contact me here.

Passing Showers

9"x12" oil on Belgian linen mounted on archival board

"I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. ~Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau really had it right. When I do get outside to the woods and fields, I really do find it exhilarating (and that I've got myself in the right place). And that's whether I'm painting, hiking, or even taking a short stroll. Lately I've been exploring some additional painting possibilities in our region.

This morning I did take a short trek over to nearby Barn Island, just over in Stonington. I could see that the sky was clearing in that direction, and thought that there would be some interesting cloud cover as the front blew over. It started sprinkling when I pulled out of the driveway, so I wasn't sure if I'd get to paint or just be rained on. But it was a nice heavy cloud cover with band of clearing sky near the horizon. I was really drawn to the way the bands of cloud light reflected into the marsh water pools. On gray days, everything is much closer in value range (and the color can sometimes seem so rich).

This painting can be purchased unframed directly from me at my DailyPainters.com gallery store, or contact me here.