Perfect Day (oil on canvas, 2007)

This field and trees are a mile and a half directly behind my house and I have painted this view many times, especially in the winter (see "Winter Trees" above and "Three Trees" below). Thanks to my good friend Robert Pierce for the title.

Field At Sunset (oil on canvas, 2007)

Red House Over Yonder (oil on canvas, 2007)

(Private Collection)
I saw a retrospective of Edward Hopper's work at the MFA in Boston the week after I finished this painting and it made me realize how much of an influence he had on me. This is an empty house right on the border of Canada. It looks as though it might have been some kind of border patrol station at one time, but the road is currently blocked off right where the road crosses the border. One of the Border Patrol agents came out to see what I was up to one evening while I was doing a drawing here. I showed him my sketch pad and waved and he waved back and drove away. A friend later told me that he overheard the agents talking on his police scanner about me and said they referred to me as a "hippy" artist. Yikes!

Red Sky (pastel, 2007)

(Private Collection)

Autumn Hay Bales (pastel, 2007)

(Private Collection)

Road to a Friend's House (pastel, 2007)

April Snow (oil on canvas, 2007)

Impending Darkness (oil on canvas, 2007)

I was out doing a pastel from my car one afternoon on the Station Road here in Littleton which is essentially the end of civilization up here, being the eastern border of the great wilderness between here and Quebec. I did an unsatisfactory pastel of a small house and decided to call it a day as it was getting dark. As I turned to my right to make sure there were no cars approaching I saw this little shell of a house with the sun going down behind it. It is a curious and incomplete structure, being what appears to be a single room with a door and it having no siding yet, but wrapped in Tyvek paper. I did a quick pastel sketch which became the impetus for this large painting.

Clear Blue Sky (oil on canvas, 2007)

Last Days of Summer (oil on canvas, 2007)

(Private Collection)

Monticello Grange (oil on canvas, 2007)

Groundhog Day (oil on canvas, 2007)

(Private Collection)

Thirty Below Sunrise (oil on canvas, 2007)

I went out for a run one morning in January and it was so cold (30 below zero with the wind chill) that the fluid in my eyes (the only part of my body that was exposed) froze before I got half a mile from my house. This was unbelievably painful. I had to walk back with my hands over my eyes. So, I capitulated and went out drawing instead and did a colored pencil drawing which became the impetus for this painting.

Indian Summer (oil on canvas, 2007)

Monticello Potato Shippers (oil on canvas, 2007)

Bend In the Road (oil on canvas, 2007)

Ross Ridge Barns (oil on canvas, 2007)

Skies Clearing Over the Ridge (oil on canvas, 2006)

(Private Collection)
Late in the afternoon after a long period of rain in the Spring 2006, the skies started to clear and I saw these fantastic clouds moving quickly across the sky. I grabbed my pastel supplies and rushed to out find a view to draw from before the phenomenon was over. I ended up on Front Ridge Road in Littleton, ME, the most elevated ridge in the area from which you can see great distances on a clear day. I got out of the car and did a quick pastel, which later yielded another pastel, several drawings and finally this painting. In this particular work, more than any other, I can see my love of John Constable's painting.

Corn Field in September (pastel, 2006)

Summer's End (pastel, 2006)

(Private Collection)
I was out running one day on Ross Ridge Road near my house when I saw a unique barn that had two opened doors at right angles to each other so that one could see right through the corner of the barn to a corn field beyond, which was ablaze in the early September sun (see above). I returned the following day to make a pastel of the barn and corn field. I parked across the street and I was unloading my gear from the back of the car I looked to my right and saw this solitary tree, with New Brunswick off in the distance. Needless to say, I drew the tree instead and went back another day to draw the barn and corn field.

Monticello Potato Shippers (pastel, 2006)

This is the Elliot's old potato house on the Station Road in Monticello. When he was a boy, friend Kevin used to come up here with his dad from Massachusetts to pick up potatoes. This was done in early September 2006. I was standing much further to the right planning to do an image of the entire building. A large cloud mass was blocking the sun and as I waited for it to pass I walked around considering other views to work from. When I got to this spot, the sky cleared and lit up the west face of this building, which is corrugated metal, like it was on fire. I moved my easel and did this pastel, which I developed into an oil painting during the winter. Sometimes the best way to show how large an object is is to only show a portion of it.

Leland Hill Road (oil on canvas, 2006)

(Private Collection)
The intersection of Leland Hill and Pierce Roads in Sutton, MA has been very fruitful for me. The painting "Pierce Road" (see below) is view looking at this location from the opposite side (note the triangular Yield sign in both paintings. The red barn from the painting of the same name (see further below) is just to left, outside this picture frame (note same stone wall in both pictures).

Pierce Road (oil on canvas, 2006)

(Private Collection)

The Red Maple (pastel, 2006)

(Private Collection)
I went out early one Friday morning in June, just after sunrise, and despite it being the height of black fly season, I managed to get a couple of nice pastels done (see "Early Hours" below). I returned home around 9:00 feeling quite happy with the morning's work. When I showed my wife my proud accomplishments, her only response was "When are you going to draw that red maple tree in back of the house?" Feeling especially confident, I went back outside to face the black flies once more and did this pastel, on black Stonehenge paper. My wife was under the mistaken impression that I had done it for her and is still mad at me for selling it.....

Early Hours (pastel, 2006)

This was done on the Lake Road in Monticello, ME just after sunrise on a Friday morning in early June 2006, whilst I was eaten alive by the vicious Maine black flies. Despite, being covered in insect repellent, I had to keep jumping back into the car every couple of minutes to wait for the flies to dissipate as they would swarm around my head to the point that I couldn't even see to draw.

Birch Trees at Woods Edge (pastel, 2006)

This pastel was done from a field in back of my property in April 2006, before the black flies arrived.

Three Trees (watercolor, 2006)

(Private Collection)
This small watercolor was done from the car on an overcast winter day.

Fresh Snow Cover (oil on canvas, 2006)

This is the original version of this painting, which I was never completely happy with. I re-painted over it in November 2007. (see more recent post)

Pierce Road (watercolor, 2006)

I like watercolor, but it doesn't come easy to me and I have to force myself to work in it. One day I forced myself to do a watercolor and I did this, based on a drawing I had done in Sutton, MA a year earlier. I like the exaggerated perspective and the cinematic composition. This image later became an oil painting. The limited color scheme is inspired by Winslow Homer, who did many paintings using only two colors, mixing them in varying degrees to create a multitude of different color tones.

Bend In The Road (pastel, 2006)

(Private Collection)
I was driving out on the Framingham Road on my way to another location to do some studies for a painting that I was working on when I looked up and saw the sky filled with these unusual zeppelin-shaped clouds. I stopped the car and got out on the hood and drew this using Polychromos hard pastels on a cream colored laid paper. I have since done two paintings from this composition.