How I Manage Time - Sometimes

Sometimes I get really really "stuck."

I've been working on a portrait and am not quite sure that I am ready to pick up my brush and find that "elusive" likeness today.

So I switch gears - it's almost like a mini-vacation.

I usually have a stack of unfinished landscape "sketches" laying around the studio - just waiting for me to "pull it all together." Today is cold and snowy and I originally made this oil sketch on a delightfully warm day. When this happens in hot weather, I tend to grab a Fall or Winter scene - go figure.

This is why you're seeing me post landscapes just now:

Ferry Beach, Maine

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas

So I finished this little beach scene I began 2+ years ago and framed it. I like a wide gold, old-fashioned frame for most of my works...they work for me.

"It is never too late to do what you might have done."

(My version of a quote from George Elliot)

A note about my frames:

Since I tend to buy or stretch my canvasses to standard sizes, I find that I can use ready-made frames. I have had good luck with JFM Frames.

Hopeful Skies

This was a clearing a clearing after a storm so I gave it a happy name. Sometimes we need that, eh?

Hopeful Skies

20" x 24" Oil on Linen

Meadowlands #4

Sometimes I need a break from painting portraits. I wanted to bring a little sunshine into my studio.

Meadowlands #4

24" x 30" Oil on Canvas

Meander, landscape painting

Meander, 8"x 10", Oil on canvas, framed

$895

In general, I like wide, dark gold, old-fashioned frames like this one. The purpose of a frame is to isolate the painting from its background and that is why I like width - even on a small painting like this one.

Unfortunately my work is all-too-often hung on a white wall. Frankly I cannot think of any artworks that look good on a white wall - I don't even have a white wall in my studio.

Also, a rule of thumb is that no oil painting should have a linen liner in the frame. Liners are for prints and other works on paper.

Cambric Tea - Encaustic Still Life Painting

Cambric Tea

10" x 10" Encaustic and oil paint on wood panel, framed

$895.00

[KAYM-brihk] 

An American term used to describe a hot drink of milk, water, sugar and, if desired, a dash of tea. It was a favorite of children and the elderly in the late 19th and early 20th century. The name is taken from a fabric called cambric, which is white and thin . . . Just like the "tea."

This is pure nostalgia for me. I remember having a delightful cup of Cambric Tea with my Grandmother. She used the fancy china and I felt verrrrry special and grown up.

Songbird - Encaustic Painting

Songbird

8" x 10," Framed, Encaustic and oil paint on paper on board

$795.00

Pear Still Life - Encaustic Painting

Pear Still Life 

5" x 7" Encaustic and Oil on Paper on Board

SOLD

Dogwood Still Life - Encaustic

Dogwood Still Life

8" x 10" Encaustic on paper on board

SOLD

Peony Still Life - Encaustic

Peony Still Life

10" x 8" Encaustic on paper on board

SOLD

"Tray Jolie"

I painted these “French Landscapes” on tin trays for The Colonial Theatre’s fundraiser called “Tray Jolie” this year.  They are celebrating 85 years.

Below are my contributions to the auction held on October 17th. 

I don't know which was more fun - painting the trays or writing the descriptive blurbs about them:

Night Flight (Vol de Nuit)

"A moonlit stroll back in time to the wildest and most isolated region of France. In the place where wolves prowl and griffon vultures fly, moonlight is magical.

I suggest a broad simplification with a darkened palette rich in sensuous appeal. To capture the mood, I use scrubby brushwork - where the strokes are applied so quickly that the color of the underlying tray shows through.

Thick juicy brush loads of oil paint capture the moonlight."

Woodland Sorcery

"Lost in dreams, a magical sunrise evokes inspiration in the poetry of a drowsy hum tucked into the French countryside.

Where no fantasy is taboo, the mood is hushed: moisture-laden air, clouds before the rain, the clearing after the storm, mists, vapors, fogs, smoke and hazes. 

Deliciously, intoxicatingly sensual - you’ll want to return to again and again."

Each tray is 21" x 15". All the trays by many local artists were displayed for a full month in the Colonial Corner window at 95 Main Street in Keene. 

The fundraiser featured trays and other services including a stay in a house in France. It was a fun event that includes a creative performance on the magnificent Colonial stage. 

For more information, please call The Colonial Theatre Box Office at (603) 352-2033 if you are interested in events like these.

The trays are tin and my oil paints did not stick easily to the slippery surface. I also learned that my paint takes a lot longer to dry on metal.

Last year I painted a wooden box to look like a souvenir of Bali. The year before I painted a plaster chicken (really). They always assign us artists something a little wacky and a lot of fun.

The Colonial Theatre in downtown Keene, NH is an historic performing arts center, which brings the cultural and creative spirit of our community to life.

The funds raised by this annual project will go a long way in helping to bring our young people into the Theatre, many of whom have never seen a live performance. It is our hope to create the seeds of inspiration to grow future interest in the Arts.

"In the work of human hands and the pursuit of excellence, through nobility of craft and the mysterious infusion of spirit into simple materials, beauty reveals itself."

Helen Kish

Day Lilly Still Life

From my garden...to the easel...and onto this blog (with a short time delay).

Day Lilly Still Life

8" x 10" Oil on Linen, framed

$1200

Dogwood Still Life

Dogwood Still Life

8" x 10" Oil on Linen, framed

SOLD

Garden Tools Still Life

Garden Tools Still Life

8" x 10" Oil on linen, framed

SOLD

“Landscape Nocturnes”

Full Moon

8" x 10" Oil on canvas, framed $895

Although I am primarily a classical portrait painter, I often make time to focus on landscapes. 

I find my inspiration in the poetry of nature’s drowsy hum lost in dreams. The mood is often hushed: moisture-laden air, clouds before the rain, the clearing after the storm, mists, vapors, fogs, smoke and hazes.

The mysterious colors of dawn, dusk, twilight and moonlight challenge me to work within the narrow range of color that the mysterious and moody scene allows. To these themes, I apply the musical term “nocturnes.”

I avoid the literal in copying nature but suggest the broad simplification with a darkened palette rich in sensuous appeal. 

Sometimes to capture the mood, I use scrubby brushwork, particularly in the skies, where the strokes are applied so quickly that the color of the underlying painting shows through. Oftentimes thick juicy brush loads of light illuminate spots on a canvas. 

My goal is to find the spiritual in landscape: to create order out of chaos and to blend the “real” with the “unreal.”

Landscapes

Rolling Thunder

8" x 10" Oil on canvas, framed $895

Sunset

9" x 12" Oil on canvas, framed $895

Granite State

10" x 8" Oil on canvas, framed $895

High Meadow (Encaustic Painting)

High Meadow 

10" x 10" Encaustic on Board, Framed

SOLD

Apples in Blue Bowl Still Life

Apples in Blue Bowl 

8" x 10" Oil on Linen, Framed

$1200

Galatea

Galatea

36" x 18" Oil on Board, Framed

$14,900

According to the Roman poet Ovid, Galatea was the name of the maiden who was originally a statue carved by Pygmalion and brought to life by Aphrodite.

I based this painting on a marble statue I saw in a museum in Philadelphia.

Cliff Landscape(s)

I was standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Visby Sweden when I felt inspired to create a (two) landscape diptych. If I had the time it would have been a triptych (three landscapes that fit together - but a heckuva lot harder to design).

These were such fun landscapes to paint. Sometimes I will hang each piece separately or put them together like this:

OR I can switch these paintings around and hang them differently to create a completely new and different scene like this one. 

The two paintings configured together better represent the breathtaking view and panorama of earth, sea and sky.

Views from a Cliff (composition 1 & 2)

Each painting is 24" x 24", Oil on Canvas, Framed

$2400 (for the pair)

Artwork For Sale

I intend to post new works here from time to time and many are for sale both in my studio and in galleries (incl. Art Cards) - ask me if you are curious.

But that is not really the point of this blog. Basically I want to share info with other artists.