Of Mice and Men (2009, oil on canvas)

(Private Collection)

Forgotten Dream (pastel, 2009)

Another, more recent, drawing of the old potato house north of my studio. When I started working in pastels, about 9 years ago, I bought a large set of Rembrandt pastels, which I used for quite some time. For the past few years, however, I have been using mostly Schminke, Sennelier and Townsend pastels which I keep in various boxes in a backpack. I used my old Rembrandt set for this image, and I quite enjoyed working with them again.

Wilson's Wharf, Eastport (pastel, 2009)

(Private Collection)
This is the second drawing that I did in Eastport on Saturday on a pier behind a seafood restaurant looking out towards Lubec. There was actually a dumpster from the restaurant right behind me and I did all i could to try and ignore the odor coming from it as I worked.

Houses on Middle Street, Eastport (pastel, 2009)

I went down to Eastport this past Saturday for the annual "Paint Eastport" event, organized by the Eastport Gallery. Artists create work during the day, which coincides with the annual Salmon Festival and the Pirate Festival (The biggest challenge of the day was finding a place to park!) and the work is auctioned off at a silent auction which takes place at the Eastport Arts Center. I decided to work in pastels because they are more portable than oil paints and the lack of available parking meant that I had to walk around town looking for subject matter. This was the first drawing that I did, between about 11:00 and 1:00. There was a church to the right of the white house, which I was originally planning to focus on, but as i started to work, I became much more interested in the the Victorian house in the distance and the two STOP signs.

Red Barn Up the Road (pastel, 2009)

This old potato house is just north of my studio and I have been going out at noon time and making drawings of it.

Wiley Road Potato House II (2009, pastel)

Another drawing of the old potato house off of Wiley Road.

Wiley Road Potato House (2009, pastel)

One of several drawings of this subject that I have made over the past week or so.

Potato Field in Blossom (2009, oil on canvas)

(Private Collection)
I was happy with the pastel drawing that I did of this subject earlier this summer and wasn't planning to do a painting of it for fear that I would end up trying to just "copy" the pastel. However, after looking at the pastel for a few weeks I realized that many of the reasons that I liked the pastel had to do with the handling of the materials, and that I really didn't know how to translate that into oil paint. I found this painting particularly challenging and learned quite a bit while working on it.