Spring Warm Up! Marsh View Landscape

16"x16" oil on cradled birch panel

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Ah, the earth is finally beginning to wake up along the shoreline here in New England.  Each year I have such a sense of anticipation. Bound by parkas, and wool, several layers of clothing, most of us have been getting pretty antsy when winter tries to extend it's stay.  

The Warm Up....such a welcomed time!  

Wide Wetlands (dyptich)

6"x24" x2" deep cradled panel -dyptich, 2 (6x12")
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and here's a close up of the left side:

 (side 1),

and below is side 2, the right side:

I've been wanting to paint a wide panoramic view of what I see out at Barn Island. Usually I just choose one small area to paint. The place is so expansive! Actually I could go on with additional panels and continue the view as though I were standing in the midst of the place.  haha, but that's another project for yet another day!

High Tide...and catching up after travels!

8"x10" oil on linen mounted on panel

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I made it back out to the marsh at Barn Island this past week. This time, it was high tide when I got there. Fortunately, I blocked in those big shapes FAST when I first set up. Why is this so crucial? Well, some times when you're out painting, not only the light changes quickly through out the day, but tidal changes can vary greatly in a very short amount of time! To make my point, here's two photos I happened to shoot while I was there. They are taken about an hour and a half to two hours apart. When I was bringing this painting to completion, the place looked quite different.

Mother Nature, you never cease to amaze me! I was really happy to see the tide as it was, I really love the shapes of land vs. water in these vast expanses of marshy areas. As it turns out, this was a study for a design option for a commission I'm currently working on. And yes, I'm very excited about it! It's great to be back home in my own studio after lots of travel time this summer.

Clear Summer Morning

6"x8" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

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Another thing I love about summer in New England...when we get those clear summer days, the weather is comfortable, everything is growing, marsh grasses are brilliant high-key-limey green out in the brilliant sun here on the coast. Yes, I'm still working on my "Barn Island Project", getting back there to paint in every season of the year. I love to see how the colors change over the course of a year - even standing in this same very spot to paint! This one was the first of the morning. I'll show you the second one tomorrow!  I'm still playing around with the new techniques...using some brushes again, and a bit of palette knife...sometimes more, sometimes less. Only adding what needs to be added, editing is the key!

Tomorrow I'll also have the third and final drawing of my water-color post cards from France. If you are a blog subscriber, your name is already in the hat! If not, find the column on the upper right hand side of this blog to enter your email and subscribe!  I'll draw two names (but I'll only print your name with your permission!).  

I do hope you're having a wonderful summer, where ever you are, and where ever you go!

Clear Autumn Morning In The Marsh, plein air Barn Island

6"x8" oil on linen mounted on archival panel

This is another one of the paintings I had neglected to post on my blog! ***This plein air work was done back in October!  One of my favorite places, Barn Island Wildlife Refuge.  I think it's a wonderful refuge for people, too; judging by the number of people I see out there from time to time. On the weekends there are many hikers, dog-walkers, etc.  It is a place of beauty and refuge in all seasons, not just for the wildlife, but all of us who need a bit of nature to remind us how to be calm.

Stormy Skies, Autumn - Plein air at Barn Island

6"x8" oil on linen mounted on archival board

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I was going through my recent  plein air paintings and found a couple that I had not blogged about yet! Bummer, because I've found it to be the best way to chronicle works over time.  And of course, this started around Thanksgiving, when I somehow allow the rush of the holidays to disrupt everything, rather than to just go with the flow.  Like swimming, you don't want to panic in the water - instead, just relax and go with it.  

On this particular day (October 17th, 2012) I had painted another one just before this (High Tide Before The Storm, see blog post of Oct. 17th, 2012). When I finished, I turned my easel in the opposite direction and the passing cloud cover was truly fascinating.  I finished this just as a line of showers came through.  Cleaned up & made it to the car before getting soaked! Now that was a good day of painting!

"Improvisation I - Variations on a Theme" Marsh and Woodlands

6"x6" oil on archival panel, $100

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Improvisation - to make a variation on a theme.  This little painting is a variation on a plein air painting that I did just recently in fall.   I'm wanting to do a much larger painting from the original, but I've made some slight alterations in color and shape/composition.  So I'm trying these out in this small piece before I jump back to a 40"x30".  

This has been a fun project for me, all these marsh paintings from Barn Island. I was going through them this afternoon, to label them, and found that I've neglected to  blog a couple of these! So, I spent the rest of the afternoon labeling paintings, photographing the two large ones I recently finished, and getting my desk organized again (well, I'm still working on that).