THANK YOU!!!

What an amazing weekend it was at the Melrose Arts Festival! Thanks to all those who came to visit, purchased my paintings and to those who supported me leading up to the show. I met some wonderful people and so many of you had so many great things to say, I really appreciate it. Thanks again and hope to see you soon!

SATURDAY EVENING-NAA New Works New Members Show!

Just a reminder...for those of you who can't make the trip to Melrose this weekend, I will be displaying some work at the Newburyport Art Association "New Works, New Members" show on Saturday evening.

The reception runs Saturday evening from 7-9pm.

You can also view the NAA's Open Show which is still on display. I have a couple of pieces in that show also.

Both shows run until May 5th.

Hope to see you this weekend! OFF TO MELROSE!

Robin Thornhill Fine Art Class Registration Reminder!

Just a reminder...New Hampshire Artist Robin Thornhill is beginning a new block of Monday morning classes on April 30th at 9:30am. Registration is also open for Monday and Friday evening instruction. Please contact Robin for more information or visit www.robinthornhill.com for more information.

"Worth The Wait" 6x8 Oil

Here she is!!! "Just bang it out..." Ok Robin, I was wrong! I learned A LOT about myself on this painting. When I started this I thought I knew what I was doing...I thought I was a good painter...I was nothing but over confident in my own ability and I struggled mightily on this painting. I planned on completing it in Robin's class that evening. One year later...I learned my lesson. That's why I named it "worth the wait" because she was. I think she's beautiful, and I'm very happy with it. I was not ready to do something like this a year ago and I don't think if I completed it back then It would have looked as nice. By nice, I mean I have a better understanding of color, value and shape, then I did a year ago. Robin has done an amazing job putting up with my stubborn attitude and has shown so much patience teaching me when I say something stupid like I did that evening. You see her teaching in this painting and that's why I'm so proud of it. I couldn't have done this one without her. This painting came with a lesson and I learned it loud and clear. Thank you!

MELROSE ARTS FESTIVAL - SAVE THE DATE!!!

Please join me in Melrose next weekend for a three day Arts Festival beginning on Friday evening at Memorial Hall in Melrose, MA! It will be an amazing weekend to enjoy the arts and more! Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions! Feel free to spread the word and forward this to anyone who may be interested. Thanks, hope to see you there! 

"From Trail to Shore" 8x10 Pastel

Here's a nice 8x10 pastel I just finished of a beautiful dune trail down to the shore in Chatham, MA. I shot this photograph while on Robin's Plein Air Workshop last fall. It was a beautiful morning, a tad windy, but the sunrise was amazing.

I'm very proud of this painting...Marsh grass are my new clouds! This was the first time I've painted tall marsh grass and have been happy with it. I've found it very difficult in pastel and oil. In my opinion, until now, I've failed miserably. 

I love the tall blades of grass, the depth, the warm colors in the grass with the cool highlights. This is one of those paintings that gives me a happy feeling. I really enjoy looking at this one, I hope you do to!

"POWWOW RIVER WALK AMESBURY, MA" 9X12 PASTEL

Here's a nice pastel I did painting outdoors in Amesbury one afternoon. Plein Air is a very challenging painting process for me. I have a difficult time painting water in a picture that is not moving...water in real life rapids...completely different story! When I set up to paint this picture I actually wasn't going to put in the tree, I thought it may be a distraction, but I ended up painting it and I love it. I feel it makes the whole painting. The fall gives a nice lead in, following the tree up the river to the bridge! I love it. I've very happy with the results, I hope you are too! Enjoy!

From start to finish..."7AM - Bridge Street Chatham"

I stated in my April 4th post "7AM-Bridge Street Chatham"  I was planning on posting some images I shot during the process of completing this pastel painting. I'm going to explain my process and share some of my thoughts during each step of the painting. The description of each step will be below the image. Enjoy the post...it's going to be a long one!

I first started out back in January with a 16x20 piece of Kitty Wallace Sanded paper mounted on gator foam, giving me a solid, rigid surface to paint on. I used a selection of Terry Ludwig pastels to make this painting come to life. 

I started by lightly sketching the layout of my subject...the perspective and scale is key to this painting so I wanted to make sure I had everything in the right place. I really wanted to to a nice Amber colored under painting with this painting, but I guess I got lazy and just sort of blocked in quickly with my local color. Trying to focus on some of the darker values and colors I see right from the beginning.

I really started to focus on the sky here. In my opinion it was essential that I get the sky in a good place before I start putting in my clouds. I began to layer and layer colors into the sky...purples, greens, pinks...I did the same with the driveway under the boat. I wanted it to have more life than just blacktop so I gave it some nice maroons and oranges to give it a bit more life. I tried to stay really dark at this time also. Since the boat is one of the primary focal points, I started to layer the color on that area, not really focusing on form at this time. I haven't spent much time on the boat house at this time either.

I really picked up the pace a bit here...started to focus on the form of the boat, really pile the blues on the sky and started to give the boat house a little life.

Now that I felt the sky was in a good place, I began to quickly block in the clouds. I stayed a little lighter than I probably should have, but I was really just going for shape at this time. The perspective is key here also...the clouds really show movement and give the composition depth and capturing the angle was essential. 

I really went dark on the boat and other areas to get the rest of the painting to the same place. I over did it on the ground, at this point I lost a lot of the nice color I gave the hot top. My values on the house are not correct at this time, but for me I needed to see things a certain way before I moved on.

Very pleased at this stage.

In this picture I only focused on the clouds.  I set out to make them fluffy and give them the right color. If the color was not right I don't feel I would give you the early morning feeling that captured me so deeply when I photographed this landscape.

I went a little heavier on the three bottom clouds than I wanted to. I ended up darkening them up quite a bit. I really set out to make them feel far off in the distance...not sure if I accomplished it or not. I have notoriously struggled with clouds so I was very happy at where these were.

At this time I also began to go back and fourth with the sky colors again. That was very, very challenging because I'm a very messy painter...I had my pastels everywhere and quite honestly I couldn't for the life of me remember what pastels I used where, so the sky color got quite a few unexpected color additions at I moved forward.

OK, this is were it really started to breathe...The clouds were pretty much done at this point. I needed to warm them up a bit, so I began to add some creamy whites, some yellows and I also started to darken up the sky directly above the boat house too. I think I needed to get back some of the dark I lost to bring back some of the depth.

As you can see I really got into some of the details and really bring the form together on different parts of the painting. 

I began to darken up the right side of the boat house. I wanted that to be an afterthought and did not want  it to take your eye out of the painting. I focused on the shadow of the boat on the house and really tried to boost the amazing orange glow on the house. I focused shape of the shadow and the amazing reflection in the window also. I lightened up the color of the house and felt that was at a good place at this time so off to the boat! I added the white pinstripe, punched up the oranges and ambers, while keeping the glossy black color of the top of the hull. I focused on giving the bottom of the boat shape and inserted the stilts the boat was resting on.

Now the fun begins...I can't believe I didn't attempt to put the mast ropes in earlier regardless of what stage the painting was in...I added the crossbar you could see in the last image, but now adding the ropes was challenging and fun! I wanted them to have form and I wanted them to reflect the same orange light the rest of the subject was capturing. This is where the Terry Ludwig pastel is a HUGE help! Just pressing the corner of the pastel and following the angle down, varying pressure in different spots is what gives the ropes life and form even in the smallest, thinnest scale. I couldn't wait to do that. I was happy with the results. One of the ropes I had to fix...LOL the angle was WAAAYYY off!

In the final step, I lightened up the color of the hot top, added the line to lead you in a bit, lightened up the boat, fixed a little smudge in the orange window reflection...VOILA!

I hope you like the painting and enjoyed the post. I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading!

NAA Spring Members Open Show - TONIGHT!

Please join me this evening at the Newburyport Art Association for the artist reception to celebrate the Spring Members Open Show.  I have a couple of paintings on display so come by and enjoy some wonderful artwork on what will be a beautiful spring evening. I Hope to see you there!

"Beauty Before the Beast" 12x16 Oil

This was a very challenging oil painting...I honestly can't believe it came out the way it did. I'm very proud of it. It's been about a year since I started and it's come a long way. This was very intimidating and a huge undertaking for me. Clouds...I feel like I have overcome my fear of painting clouds in both mediums. I still need LOTS of practice with them, but for oil painting, this is a HUGE accomplishment!

This was a painting I did of a photograph I shot right before I stopped to paint "Before the Storm" in Newburyport the night before Hurricane Irene. You can see the photo of "Beauty Before the Beast" here. These links will also give you a little more history on this painting and what the night was like.

I feel I really captured the time of day. The depth with the road wrapping around the trees, the reflection in the water, the beautiful color in the sky and the form on the clouds....that is probably what I'm proud of most...The large cloud really makes you feel like you're looking up at it and the bottom cloud...I love it! Especially the little heart on the right...I hope YOU love it too!

"7AM - Bridge Street, Chatham" 16x20 Pastel

Finally back to posting some images of my paintings!

I have been very busy preparing for the Melrose Arts Festival, the Newburyport Art Association shows, jury submissions, plein air painting and more!! MOST importantly, I've been getting in some quality painting time! I am currently working on about five different paintings in oil and pastel in many different sizes too. This is the first to be completed of the bunch.

I actually documented every stroke on the canvas while painting this pastel. I plan on posting images this week and explaining my thoughts while working on this painting.

I am very pleased with the results of this painting and I hope you are too. Please feel free to comment, I've put in a lot of hours and really, really enjoyed painting it! Probably because of the memories...I will never forget this morning during my trip to Chatham last fall!