Fitzpatrick Barns (pastel, 2008)

This was done Tuesday afternoon. It was cloudy and looked like it was going to rain when I started, but then the sun came out and I had to modify the picture accordingly. I had an audience for a while, as Mr. Fitzpatrick and several kids, all of whom had just been swimming, came out to watch me work. I have had artists and students tell me that they find the prospect of having people watch them work disturbing, but I have always found that people are usually very positive (even when the picture is going badly!) and I usually get some interesting information or hear interesting stories about the subject of the picture.

Barn and Lombardy Trees (oil on canvas, 2008)

(Private Collection)
This was mostly painted directly from life on Thursday 7/17. I had a student coming at 6pm so I had to stop working on it, but I finished it up in the studio later that evening.

Hayfield and Lombardy Trees (oil on canvas, 2008)

(Private Collection)
This was painted from direct observation on Wednesday (7/16) in the late morning into the early afternoon. This and the one above were done as a commission for someone who wanted to give a small painting of mine, of which I didn't have any on hand, as a gift to her sister. The subject matter was open to me, but she suggested that I might check out the views from the field behind the house where she and her sister grew up. I fell in love with the site and will probably be going back there many more times to work.

Hay Field, Barn and Lombardy Trees (pastel, 2008)

This was done on Tuesday from almost the same location as the painting above, but much later in the day. The painting above was done in the late morning and early afternoon, whereas this drawing was done at about 7:30 in the evening.

Henderson Farm, summer (pastel, 2008)

I did a painting of this view during the winter. It is amazing how the landscape h where I live went from buried under 3 feet of snow to being such a vivid green in what seems like a very short time. I may work this idea up into a painting.

Overcast (pastel, 2008)

Fitzpatrick Barns on the Foxcroft Road. It was about to rain and the grass had taken on an eerie green glow. This was done very quickly and I managed to get the drawing board and pastel box into the car just seconds before the sky opened up. Of course, I still had to break my easel down, and got soaked in the process...

Potato House Ruins (pastel, 2008)

(Private Collection)
I did this early Saturday evening off of the Station Road in Monticello. I did a pastel of this same building two years ago, but in the morning when the sun was on the other side of the building. Years ago, there was a railroad running through here and these potato houses were thriving. Now the railroad has become a trail for ATVs and snowmobiles and the old potato houses are crumbling.

Show in Eastport, ME

I will be having a solo show at the Eastport Gallery, 74 Water Street in downtown Eastport from June 13 through July 4. There will be an opening reception on Saturday June 21 at 5:00pm. I will also have work on display there in the main gallery throughout the season.

Green Truck (oil on canvas, 2008)

(Private Collection)
This small (10 x 20) canvas was done in my studio after two drawings that I did on location, one in pastel and one in graphite crayon. At the moment, we are in the height of the black fly season. I got eaten alive while working on the drawings and painting outdoors in oils is impossible at this point because the flies become embedded in the wet paint.

Kittrell, NC Barn (oil on canvas, 2008)

This painting was based on a photograph that my friend Ross took a couple of years ago in North Carolina, where he lives. I generally don't like to work from photos, but I liked the idea of the tree shadows being cast on this old barn and since we had record breaking snow accumulation where I live this year (over 200 inches!) and 8 foot high snow banks everywhere, which made working outside virtually impossible, I decided to work from this image. I did a lot of charcoal drawings to work out the composition and then a few pastel studies to play with different color ideas, none of which I was happy with. I went in to this painting not knowing what any of the colors were going to be and, as a result, most of it got painted over three or four times over the course of the last 5 weeks before I was finally happy with it.

Show in Madawaska

A lot of my recent work is currently on display at the Café de la Place, 285 Main Street in Madawaska, ME and will be there throughout the Month of May. There will be an opening reception on Saturday May 3 from 6pm to 8pm, which is open to the public. Regular hours at the Café de la Place are 4:30am to 2pm Monday through Friday. The phone number is (207) 728-0944.

Warners Road Shed (oil on canvas, 2008)

(Private Collection)

North Carolina Barn (charcoal, 2008)

From a photo taken by my friend Ross in North Carolina.

Asylum (oil on canvas, 2008)

This is a building (one of many) from the old Foxboro State Mental Hospital in Foxboro, MA. I used to work near here and would make drawings of these buildings on my lunch break. There was a security guard in a white van who told me that I wasn't allowed to draw the buildings because they were going to be auctioned off by the state (I never quite found the logic in that, and right before I moved to Maine, the complex had been sold and the buildings were being demolished) and she used to case me off all the time. I did a painting of this when I still lived in MA, but I was never really happy with it so I did this from memory, incorporating more textural paint application, intense colors and a different composition. In retrospect, I think the color in the sky was influenced as much by Giorgio DiChirico's work as the cover to Pink Floyd's "Animals" album.

Still Life Studies

A couple of small still life studies. These were each done in a single painting session.

Farmhouse At Dusk (oil on canvas, 2008)

Henderson Farm, Winter (oil on canvas, 2008)

(Private Collection)

Warners Road Barn

These are a couple of small (8" x 16") studies that I did based on a 10 year old photograph of an old barn near where my grandfather used to farm onions in upstate New York. I did 6 or 7 charcoal drawings and a couple of pastels from the photo first and then I painted these from memory, without referring back to the photo.

Puddle (oil on canvas, 2008) - updated March 2008

Since posting this painting in New Year's Eve (see below) I have repainted over it twice. In the second version, I made the puddle much smaller so that it didn't extend out of the lower right corner, but the painting still didn't work. In this version, I extended the puddle back out, but painted over most of the foreground and middle ground, lightening them both up and breaking up the furrows in the field. The result has been very thick paint with some interesting textures that I really like. All in all, I worked on this image for six months, but I am glad that I persevered, even though there were times when I thought about abandoning the image altogether.

Pastel Still Lifes

A couple of pastel drawings of still-life setups.

Charcoal Drawings

I have been doing a lot of charcoal drawings of still life setups over the past few months. Here are a few of my favorites.

Puddle (oil on canvas, 2007) - first state

The last painting of the year, finished on New Year's Eve.

Winter Evening (oil on canvas, 2007)

Dulin's Barn (oil on canvas) 2007

(Private Collection)
This is a view from a big field where I spent a lot of time drawing and painting this past September and October, until hunting season started and it was no longer safe to be out there.

Winter Trees (oil on canvas) 2007

This is another painting from early 2006 that I wasn't happy with and painted over (see note below). I am much happier with it now, especially the trees.

Fresh Snow Cover (oil on canvas) 2007

This was originally a painting that I did in early 2006, immediately after moving to Maine. At the time, it was the best I could do, but I was never really happy with it, so I recently painted over the entire thing, keeping the subject and composition the same. If you scroll down to the early work, you can see the older version.

Field behind Rebecca's House (oil on canvas) 2007

McGuire's House (underpainting) 2007

People often ask about my process. My paintings always begin as very loose monochromatic underpaintings where I work out the composition, large masses and value structure. In this case, I used Burnt Sienna oil paint thinned with mineral spirits in conjunction with an oil stick. When this dries, the color is laid on top of it (see finished painting below). It is not uncommon fr the underpainting to show through in some places.

McGuire's House (oil on canvas) 2007

(Private Collection)
Large painting (48" x 24") of the view on the north side of my studio in early October.

Dulin's Barn (pastel) 2007

(Private Collection)
A small pastel study (about 6" x 20") of the barn behind Elizabeth Dulin's house, viewed across a field at midday in September.