Unfinished...

This plein air sketch was painted from Juniper Island in Lake George, NY looking up at a portion of Roger's Rock. It's unfinished.... I got about an hour into it and was invaded by a family of kayakers! Now - usually people are super polite and I have just wonderful experiences chatting etc..., but they didn't address me at all and the children were going to knock right into my easel..... very weird. So for the sake of my easel's safety I packed it in - I was pretty disappointed - but oh well - that's the way it goes sometimes.

I did take a photo and may try to finish from that but then it won't be plein air any more and I pretty much detest working from pics..... Will see..... It was such a great spot too - the waves were washing over my feet as I was painting : 0 )

Thoughts and Sketches

I've been spending a great deal of time lately writing - doing what we artists are supposed to do, create an "artist's statement". Phew.... man.... torture, but definitely a productive exercise. I've written pages to eek out a couple of paragraphs and am going to post stuff that just won't fit in my statement here on my blog because I do think I figured out some interesting stuff.

The above sketch was done plein air on what we call Ant Island on Stewart's Pond, NY. I did start a painting, but the ants were chewing on my feet so badly that I had to give it up. Very disappointing - live and learn ......

FAA Tony Merit Award...

A true testament to the marketing guru that I'm Not!!! I was awarded this little gem over a month ago and it didn't occur to me to post it until today.... ugh.... Anyway - the incredibly talented Tate Hamilton passed it to me and I've passed it on to Ken Powers - also amazingly talented - who has made terrific strides in his watercolors over the last six months or so....

Thank you Tate and congratulations Ken!!!

Gage Hill Farm

This little oil is 6.5 x 8 inches. I painted it one steamy evening last week. I worked for two hours and it literally felt like about 15 minutes. Home sweet home! The window next to the trunk of the maple on the ground floor is my studio window... : 0 )

Edit: I scanned this painting once it was dry and was able to get much more accurate color and values - seen above. It's funny - depending on the image, sometimes my camera sees the color much more accurately and sometimes my scanner does - occasionally both bomb out, but happily that's not too often.

Juniper in Sun, Roger's Rock, New York

This 4 x 6 oil on linen was painted on Juniper Island in front of Roger's Rock on Lake George, New York. I'm kind of fond of it - somewhat abstract - it is more about the experience of being there for me, in the sun in the evening, than a description of a tree. A step forward for me in plein air painting I think - albeit a small one -

New Blog Discovery

No pic today - I have quite a few new paintings and plein air sketches to post but have been too busy to photograph them - crazy.........

But did want to take a minute to mention Stapleton Kearn's blog - it's just wonderful... I'm really enjoying going back and reading everything from the beginning in 2007. They're terrifically well written, sooooo funny in places, informative etc.... He brings real "quality in art" into this dumbed down, anything-goes, cheap-thrills, instant-gratification era that we're slogging through -