Copying Art of Maine

....a study of an N.C. Wyeth Painting, "Black Spruce Ledge" (1941). You can probably tell mine from the original. My grandmother gave me a book called Paintings of Maine by Carl Little for my birthday last year and I've been gleaning inspiration from it. N.C. Wyeth was an illustrator and painter and father to the painter Andrew Wyeth. He lived in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania but spent summers in Port Clyde, Maine from where his painting inspiration came toward the end of his life. Wyeth's dilemma was that his success as an illustrator left little time to pursue his desire to paint landscapes and seascapes which captured the emotion and richness of nature he deeply admired. I chose to copy this painting because I was drawn to the composition and the strong contrasts of the shadows in the rocks and trees against the bright summer sky, also reflected on the water. The clouds looked like fun too. Even though the painting is not my own, it was a good exercise in color matching. See all the colors in those rocks? As you can see, my proportions and colors aren't accurate to the painting, but as it developed I became less concerned with making it look like the original and more enamored with the colors and contrasts, while maintaining a looseness which is not characteristic of N.C. Wyeth and more my own style. I'm trying to avoid realism. A lazy excuse or a reach towards more painterly art? Not sure yet, hopefully the latter. Now to get outside and find my own composition...

Amesbury Open Studio

April and I had a fun weekend at the studio, meeting art lovers, talking about art...and selling a few paintings! We were so pleased and thankful for our success, 10% of sales from the weekend were donated to the Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy disaster relief (the rest towards rent for this space...).

...in the process of hanging the exhibit in my studio space at Artist's Muse.

April sold 2 large paintings from her "Engine Room" series to the headmistress and founder of Sparhawk School (where we both teach). Louise was so thrilled by April's work and invited us over to her very colorful house. I captured her with my phone in a moment of pure excitement, with April's newly purchased painting hanging on her living room wall. Congratulations, April! See more of her work at her website.

Pickled Beets: a photo journal

At our school garden we had more beets than we knew what to do with...

....until we discovered pickled beets! We've already processed two large batches and consumed two jars of them over the past few weeks, with the help of housemates and my in-laws who joined us for dinner this week and loved them so much they took home a jar. So sweet. They are a nice topping on a salad or as a side dish to aid with digestion.

Can't get enough of them...Doug and Andrew planting more at the homestead.

Lobster Cars

Above is a sneak peek at a series of paintings of "lobster cars", the wooden floats that live at the edge of the harbor and store lobsters under the surface until the price goes up.

Lately the price of lobsters in Maine has been lower than it has been since 1980. The reason is because there are so many of them, and there are so many because the lobstering conservation laws in Maine are such that the population of lobsters is higher than ever. Recently a lobsterman friend of ours, David Thomas was interviewed on NPR about the dilemma. A good, quick listen.

These two photos are actually of floats used simply for storing traps and other gear.

When I took the photos from the kayak, I was interested in the juxtaposition of the pleasure yacht and these industrial floats, which both represent historic sources of livelihood for the island communities. ............................................................................................................... Support the local/Maine economy--eat lobster!

Yummmmmm...picking soft shells on the porch.

A large painting

Below is a progression of recent work on a painting of the Islesford Dock and harbor. At 24x28", it is the largest painting I've attempted in a long time. I usually avoid large pieces because they are intimidating to approach and more often I don't have the space or time to finish them. But I was encouraged to start this one at the tail end of the Labor Day Workshop last year and have been slowly working on it away from the site...

Above is the first sketch, done on site. If you prefer the painting at this stage, I'd be interested to know...

Here's what I did last month in my back yard (excuse the overexposure). Not pleased with the colors--too candy-like...

Here's what I've done in the studio...Finished?

Last month, on his way to paint Phil and Judith's poppies, Ashley Bryan saw me painting in my parents' back yard and stopped to give some tips. I was delighted by the mini lesson and also a little embarrassed because I thought it was obvious I'd tried to imitate his energetic style...

(one of 3 paintings Ashley made of sunflowers from my vegetable garden in 2006) ......................................................................................................................Ashley said it was a good idea to be away from the scene to preserve the energy and immediacy of the brush strokes. This is how lots of painters including Ashley and Henry do it: start the painting on site and then finish it in the studio. He told me also to do some more pencil sketches on site to remind myself of where the darks and lights were. So I did, and it helped...

Thanks Ashley and Henry for the inspiration and the workshop last year. I hope this is the start of more large paintings to come!

In the gallery...

Congratulations to Cynthia and Dan Lief on their 20th year at the Islesford Dock Restaurant! Many thanks to them and Georgia for showing a few of my paintings this summer in the gallery. http://islesforddockgallery.com They have a larger space this year and have grown an impressive collection of artists. It's a privilege to show my paintings among them.

Wedding gifts

When Andrew and I were planning the wedding, my mother (a jazz radio host) said, "you MUST have live music at your reception." She also assured me that she'd pay for it, so I called an old friend from high school who graduated from Berklee and is now freelancing as a jazz pianist (check out his site: http://chrisdoylemusic.com). He was happy to come from Boston to a Maine island wedding. And not only did he refuse payment, he brought with him a five piece band including two other high school classmates and our dear old band director, Dan Granholm (shown below with trombone).

It was beyond what we ever could have imagined. Our lovely friend Katherine who officiated sang Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose" for our first dance along with some other jazzy numbers. Check out her music here: http://rose-hips.bandcamp.com/album/the-wanderer

My mom even had the chance to sing a few songs with the band. She was in heaven.

We could not believe our eyes and ears. On top of being happier than ever when we walked into the hall, we were received by a live jazz band of old friends playing beautiful, joyous and complex music (much like our emotions that day) for us and our dearest loved ones. How do you thank such generous and talented musicians? Our photographer David Denison took some great shots of them. I love this one of Fox Schwach, singing "Little Trip to Heaven" by Tom Waits in his lovely bass voice...

...So I used David's photos to create paintings. An exchange of art for art...

Even from photographs, these small paintings were really fun to create! The last one is the smallest (5x7"). Because of their size they were less intimidating so I could work fast. I finished these four within three days, in between working on landscapes. I had considered giving them each a landscape painting but like I said before, I miss figure painting. What's more, there was a beautiful painted backdrop behind them of an angry ocean which helped me complete the ocean in this painting:

I should have known it would take a jazz band to inspire a seascape.