Recent Additions

A short trip to Florida and some nice weather here in Maine gave me a couple of opportunities for new paintings which I submit herewith:

Botanical Garden

                                                  Oil on Canvas 16" X20"
A visit to the Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasota provided some wonderful colorful images, a few of which I combined in this picture. A nice trip for the imagination!

High Tide in Pond Cove

Oil on Canvas 16" X 20"

I used to live a short distance from this spot on Pond Cove in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It was a great place to sit on the rocks and enjoy the roiling ocean. The rocks are fascinating--almost like petrified wood. I hadn't been here in some years and was startled to find how storms had reconfigured the area with giant rocks tossed around like so much confetti. Still, there are some pretty inspiring views such as this day with the tide rolling in.

Art Shows-Lighthouse

Yesterday was the Mill Creek Art in the Park Show here in So. Portland, Maine. I only sold one painting and was a bit in the dumps about it until my son and his wife showed up with some friends and we decided to celebrate anyway and went out for lobsters and clams and much beer, wine and merriment. So I postponed cutting my ear off for another time.
Here are a couple of recent paintings involving the Portland Headlight, one of the most photographed and painted lighthouses in the world. I try to do things with it that make my representations of it different from most.


Artists at Portland Head
11 X 14 Oil on Canvas
I came upon these two on a sunny July afternoon almost in the shadow of the lighthouse, but I was struck by their gestures that seemed to indicate they were painting two different things, however looming the lighthouse was above them. I love contradictions like this so I took a quick photo and back at the studios practiced drawing the gestures until I got them right. This got a lot of notice at the show, but I still own the painting!



View of Portland Headlight from the South
14 X 18 Oil on Canvas panel
The same day, I traversed the great span of field to the south of the lighthouse to seek out this view which makes it as a subject as minimal as the above is maximal. I used aerial and hints of linear perspective to emphasize distance. I was going to make more of the clover in the field and even tried adding a couple on a blanket, but decided that they lessened the effect. Instead I added tiny figures off in the distance to the right. So in these two cases, I tried a different treatment of the lighthouse, large as a non-subject and small as a subject. I still own this painting, too. I guess not many visitors to this place like to get so far away. Why don't they understand?

Return to the blogosphere

I've been gone for 5 months, the result of a nerve problem in my right arm excerbated by working at computers. Things have improved enough for me to get back to blogging (and some other things), so I hope to recover the good friends I made before. I was able to continue to paint and that's a very good thing even though it was at a slower pace which gave me time for more thought and study. Here are some recent pieces.



Fern Glade in Sprague Woods
Oil on Canvas 18" X 25"
I've painted this before--the location is on the Sprague Estate land in Cape Elizabeth Maine, a few miles from where I live. The very wealthy Sprague family has set aside a large parcel of land for preservation. Much of it is mature woodland, and a portion is also used for farming. There are many treasures here. This is one of my favorite spots especially in low light. My first painting was in landscape format, but a slightly different location inspired me to make a vertical piece in which I could show some sky.



Low Tide at Ferry Beach
Oil on Canvas 20" X 16"
This is a small beach in Scarborough, Maine a few miles from my house. It's on the road to Prout's Neck, a section of town in which winslow Homer lived for many years. The beach is quite flat and at low tide is very wide (not so at high tide however). So the little dinghy in the foreground just sits flat in the exposed sand. But right at the waterline a good-sized lobster boat lies on its side. I asked an old guy there how come the boat was left like this. He said, "Time to scrape the hull." I guess at the next low tide the boat will be lying on its other side for the same reason. The afternoon light produced a pink glow on the sand and in the shallow water. That's Pine Point across the way and the ocean beyond.


Street on Higgins Beach
Oil on Canvas 11" 14"

Higgins Beach is a small beach enclave in Scarborough. It's another shallow water beach that's more than a hundred yards wide at low tide and non-existent at high tide. But it has warmish water for Maine and the surfing is great all year. The community was a bit funky but now is becoming gentrified with real estate prices through the roof. Nonetheless, good light yields some nice inspiration which I hope has produced an attractive painting here.
More soon, I promise!

Stuck Indoors

...so I have to go deep into my resource files to find material to paint. That's the thing about Maine--if you're an artist here, you have to develop files of material to have in the winter months so you can keep painting. Like a squirrel hoards nuts, I suppose. Herewith some of the fruits of that labor.



Downeast Sunset
11" X 14" Oil on Canvas Panel

I bought a dozen canvas panels from Raymar as I like working on the firm surface. I had in the past used their linen panels, which I like even more, but they are relatively expensive, so I thought I'd try this less expensive option. I was in the mood to press on a lot of paint and I find the harder surface without the give of stretched canvas allows me to do that.
I have a wonderful book called "The Rockbound Coast" which chronicles a sail from downeast Maine (extreme notheast coast) to Kittery on the state's southwestern border. I've "borrowed" from it in the past and here I go again. This is from a photo by Chris Little. I took some liberties with it, pushed the contrasts and the colors.



Back to the Boat
11 X 14 Oil on Canvas Panel

Also from a Little photo. It was untitled so I imagined that it was people in a dinghy, returning to their anchored boat, before nightfall, from a shore excursion. The photo was very dark, so I lightened it up a bit and as usual pushed the colors. How 'bout that sky!



Beachfront Shacks
11" X 14" Oil on Canvas Panel

Still another from the book. I like the setting sun highlighting the front of the shacks. (Yes you can see a setting sun from many locations on the Maine coast.) I prettied the shacks up a bit as I felt they "read" wrong in a more dilapidated state. I wondered too if now, 20 years later, they are still there, or does this beautiful frontage on the ocean now hold a "MacMansion." I'll have to go see...

Come, Take a Walk With Me-Part II

Rock Climbers
Oil on Canvas 20" X 16"

It was March 21 when I did Part I of this series. It was still winter then, so things have changed to say the least.
That blog ended at the northerly end of the beach we have a couple of blocks from here called Willard Beach. So now I start at that end of the beach on a trail that runs above it. The structure you see is a remnant of Fort Preble which was built during the Civil War to protect Portland harbor from the British, who you'll recall, sided with the Confederates. The openings for cannons are still there as are portions of gun mounts which were added later during WW II. This end of the old wall has long since crumbled, the result of the many storms that rage through here now and then. What's left is a jumble of rocks which blend with this rocky portion of the beach and provide a temptation for the intrepid and/or foolish who think they can climb their way into the old fort without going up on the trail and around as I am doing here. I must confess that I climb the rocks occasionally, too, but they can only be accessed at low tide and then you have to wait a couple of hours for them to dry off. Otherwise, they are impossibly slippery.
But even following on the trail you have to climb up a set of stairs over a long abandoned bunker where this view awaits you:

Spring Point Light from Ft. Preble Overlook
Oil on Canvas 20" X 16"

This is the first of two lighthouses that guide the mariner into Portland Harbor. It is a big metal "drum" and is the only one of the two that still functions (though ceremoniously, I suspect). It originally stood in the water, but later a long jetty was built for fishermen and visitors to the light. It is a l-o-o-ong way out and I tried to show that with the figures. I go out there often as there are nice breezes in the summer and it brings you very close to the big tankers and cruise ships that come into the harbor. In the foreground is a continuation of the old fort as seen in the first picture. I like the way it seems to zig-zag to the lighthouse. In the distance on the left is another old civil war fort called Fort Gorges, pronounced "gorgeous" for some reason. I also show some islands in Casco Bay including Little Diamond to the right rear. It helped to put in some foreground grass, I think, again for scale.
Moving on, I walk through a massive marina, an area with condos and then a tanker docking area which is used by 1000' tankers to unload oil to a pipeline that serves much of northern New England and parts of southern Canada. The marina has interested me when it is empty (see my painting "Sticking It Out"--Feb. 21, 2009)which it isn't now with literally 100s of sailboats and pleasure crafts at dockage there. I haven't gotten much inspiration out of the tanker area yet as they aren't very pretty! Some time I'll look at it all as an artist and see what I can do with these as subjects.
Now we come upon the second lighthouse which guides the final turn into the harbor.

Bug Light
Oil on Canvas 20" X 16"

It is called Bug Light, again, I don't know why, and is the focal pont of a nice park area that was developed by the town of South Portland and some wealthy benefactors out of a former industrial area. This is a great kite flying area, again with the breezes,and the light marks the beginning of the Eastern Trail which will eventually reach to Key West. This time of year I bike all of this and more and in the winter I walk about four miles of the beach and these areas every day that I can. Bug Light can be fearsome in the winter when it is zero or below with howling winds that drive you insane.
I should also tell you that most of the area I cover here was a huge ship building complex in WWII which produced something like 300 so-called Liberty Ships of which I believe there remains but one survivor. The ship business died out after the war, of course and it took a long time for this land to become "civilized." And now I feel fortunate to live in an area that provides so much interest to both the man and the artist.

Spring Has Sprung!

Signs of Spring
Oil on Canvas 16" X12"

After a really lousy winter, spring has suddenly exploded here on the coast of Maine. It seems like it happened all at once. So, naturally I'm out looking for spring subjects as I'm pretty sure it won't last long.
This scene is at Willard Beach, just down the street from our house. I was amazed at the array of forsythia that appeared on the point at the south end of the beach. It was a clear day, so the yellow wasn't particularly muted even though the bushes were quite distant. Then suddenly a young girl decides to wade in the frigid water, so I had the pink of her shirt complementing the light green of the distant grass and foliage and a purplish beach in the afternoon light complementing the yellow. Some nice reflections helped out, too. Sort of impressionistic and a little eye-candyish, but I liked it.


Balancing Act
Oil on Canvas 14" X 11"
Near the north end of the beach I came upon this--a small rock delicately balanced on a large one. No act of nature this. I mentioned in a previous blog that there is a guy who wanders the beach in search of the makings of such creations, sculptured "Kilroy Was Here" markers. I caught up with him early one morning in the act and asked him why he did it. "For the hell of it," says he. His sculptures usually don't last long--wind and water do them in quickly-- but this one lasted about a week and finally disappeared in one of the astronomic tides. It's just a painting of rocks, I guess--a lot of horizontals and one major vertical. The distance lighthouse you see is really not as prominent, nor is the red marker buoy to the right, but I pumped them up to get some supporting verticals to help my not- long-for rock. I also liked the colors in the foreground seaweed which when seen from further away looks just brown. Then, back at the studio...

Road to Salzburg
Oil on Canvas 16" X 12"
...I was going through some photos of our fall trip to Europe and thought one of the Austrian Alps had potential. During the trip, a cruise down the Danube, we stopped in Linz, Austria and then took a bus to Salzburg. What a neat city it is, but that's another story. Along the way, we stopped at a lake called Moon See. It was early morning, the sun was just showing over the distant peaks and the mists and fog had not yet burned off. A bit of snow-this was late November after all--was in the foreground nicely balancing what was on the mountains. I liked the multiple planes in the mountains but it was the fog roiling on the lake that stole the show. I stuck a building in the near left foreground just so I could show smoke coming from its chimney to tie in the misty elements. In a way, this was to be my farewell to winter, but it wasn't. Stay tuned.

Jewels in the Junkyard

Seen Better Days II
12" X 9" Oil on Masonite Panel
I wrote earlier (April 3) about an area on the South Portland waterfront that was possessed of several derelict buildings but also, ironically, served as a marina for very expensive sailboats. I mused that if I could get into the area, there might be some interesting compositions showing contrasts between the buildings and the sleek sailing vessels. Well, I did, and there were.
One sunny afternoon I gave it a try. Armed with camera and notepad, I drove over. The place is fenced all around, but on the street side of one of the buildings there was a stairway up to a door marked "office." No one was there. I went down to one of the gates and made some noise which only aroused a very large and apparently pugnacious German Shepard. I quickly moved away to another spot and I saw a friend working on his boat inside the fence (a modest 43' ketch)and called to him to let me in. He found the guy in charge who went by the name "Cap'n," a crusty Mainer who didn't look like he belonged on land. The dog was with him, but with Cap'n's apparent endorsement, he (the dog)was suddenly my new best friend. All the while I was in there, the dog stayed with me as if to make sure that I didn't run afoul of the many hazards everywhere.
My first inspiration came not from a contrasting scene, but from one of the buildings (painting above). It looked like it was teetering on its pins and ready to collapse any moment. I did the sketch in about ten minutes and it looked pretty good so I finished it. I left some stuff out as the building had so much to it, I didn't want too much detail. There was a rickety bridge over a ditch and I left that in for focus and scale. It also suggests a risky access. I like this!
Next came a really nice contrasting scene:


Aspasian Contrasts
20" X 16" Oil on Canvas
These three boats are all lined up in a row across from a clearly uninhabitable structure, plastered with forbidding signs. The problem with this when I was painting it was that I got over involved with the building and it over powered the boats. I tried to reshift the focus with strong highlights behind the boats and exaggerated shadows. I think it succeeds, at least in capturing the kind of contrast I was looking for.
Then I came upon an irresitible "portrait," this sailboat sitting in solitary splender in the sun--a real jewel. I'm learning to paint boats with their compound curves and exaggerated perspective, so I had to give this a try. I did a small piece--it was hard enough-and I'm OK with it, thinking about some things I will do better next time.

The Classic
10" X 8" Oil on Linen Panel
The name of the marina is "Aspasia." I looked it up and all I could find was that it was the name of a woman of Greek mythology, a consort of Perseus, and owner of a brothel! I'll have to pursue that one with Cap'n. He told me that the area is an historic preservation protected property, but no one can afford to preserve the buildings. As such he can't improve the property himself. In my opinion it's beyond repair, so maybe time will give Cap'n his chance (if he lives long enough). Anyway, I feel as if I got there in the nick of time.

Come, take a walk with me--Part I

House on Preble St.
Oil on Canvas 20X16

Fishermens' Shacks III
Oil on Canvas 20 X 16

View of Spring Point From Willard Beach
Oil on Canvas 24 X 18

Willard Beach Solitude
Oil on Canvas 20 X 16

During the winter, I take a 3 or 4 mile walk every morning. (In warm weather I bike 15 miles more or less--that's another blog, if spring ever comes). Most people have an idea of what they think Maine is like, but actually it is very diverse. Where I live, my walk takes in several different worlds--all of them interesting and stimulating. I traverse a neighborhood, a beach, a working waterfront, a college, a marina, a seaside park and a couple of lighthouses. So I invite you to join me and let's see what we see.

My neighborhood is in the Spring Point section of South Portland, on the other side of the river from Maine's largest city, Portland. It has a wide range of residents ranging from artists, to aging hippies, to fisherman, working folk, soon-to-be tycoons, retired people, college people and others undefined. It also has very diverse architecture--winterized beach houses, triple deckers built in the 40s for shipyard workers, MacMansions, large homes converted to apartments, and some oldies but goodies such as the mansard roof Victorian above. So I start my walk with a good ration of architectural eye candy, and a few "Mornin's" to passersby who must wonder where this guy is going every morning, all bundled up with sunglasses. My wife says I look like the Unibomber.
Then I head down to the beach, called Willard Beach. It's a crescent beach, probably 3/4 mile in length, but somewhat shorter when the hign tide covers a portion of it at each end. The first view is of these shacks out on a point that are painted by artists all the time. It is said they were (and are) fishermens' shacks, but they have a wonderful weathered and run down look. But it looks as if someone makes an effort to keep them standing, even as they often are battered by the northeast storms that roar through here. I've painted them several times. The one shown is from last summer. The beach is also loved by dogs whose owners congregate here in the morning while the dogs frolic in the sand. Naturally, there are people who don't like the dogs on the beach--it's a big controversy actually--but I enjoy the dogs and I'm glad their people are getting outdoors.
I usually walk on the hard sand, except when the tide is high. As you look to the north you see the Spring Point Lighthouse which marks the entrance to Portland Harbor peeking over the remnants of Ft. Preble, a Civil War military post now the home of Southern Maine Community College. This painting is from a couple of years ago when I was in a "blue period." I since have learned a lot about ocean water and skies, but a friend said she loves the colors, so I gave the painting to her.
When you get there, the view from the north end of the beach to the south normally reveals another lighthouse, Portland Headlight, but I left it out of the solitary figure picture, because I was fascinated by the particular situation of the lone man with the setting sun on his back.
I've gone halfway by now and I'll take you the rest of the way another time. Please stay with me.

Lobster Shack

Closed for the Season
Lobster Shack, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Oil on Canvas, 20 X 16

One clear sunny day a few weeks ago, I was wandering around the area looking for subjects to paint. I ended up in one of the more remote places around, a point in the so-called Two Lights area of Cape Elizabeth. In the summer, thousands of people find their way out here because of this place--The Lobster Shack. It serves fresh Maine seafood "al fresco" and it's especially known for lobster. You stand in line to give your order inside and find a place to eat at one of the many picnic tables that are arranged outdoors. To the back of this view, the waves crash on the rocks. So as you wait for your number to be called, you can enjoy an often spectacular view of the open sea. Those of us who live here have these views anytime we want them, but for folks "from away" they are a real draw. The crowds that come here during the summer season are hardly hinted at during winter.
As you can see, no one had been here in some time as the snow was unbroken. I was tempted to paint a gloomier scene with clouds and faint light, but the sun was so brilliant, I felt an irony here in an otherwise desolate scene. Besides, Edward Hopper, who painted in this area would have seen it this way. Would that I could capture what he would have! Anyway, I like the desolation plus the light, the picnic tables all piled up in front and the colors in the snow.
If this scene chills you to the bone, here is a lobster recipe that will warm you, I hope.

Easy Lobster Quiche (Serves 6)

Ingredients: 1 9" unbaked pie crust (store bought OK), 4 large eggs, 2/3 cup milk (can be 2%), 1 clove garlic-minced, pinch fresh grated nutmeg, sea salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste, 1 cup fresh baby spinach-chopped, 1 medium onion-diced, 1/2 cup mixed red and yellow bell pepper-thin sliced, 8 ounces fresh Maine lobster tail and claw meat-sliced, 1 cup grated Gruyere cheese--can be smoked.

Preheat oven to 425.
In medium bowl whisk milk, eggs, nutmeg, garlic, salt and pepper until lightly beaten and well-blended. Add spinanch, onion, peppers and lobster and stir well.
Pour filling into pie crust and sprinkle cheese over.
Bake at 425 for 30-45 minutes until solidified and lightly browned.
Let cool a bit before cutting into 6 slices. Serve warm.

The Sky Above, the Sea Below

Top: "Sticking It Out"
Bottom: "Bare Bones"

We actually did have a spell of good weather a couple of weeks ago, so on my daily walk, I decided to try to find some subjects to paint. On one particularly clear cold morning, I happened to start thinking about trees in my neighborhood. In the summer they are loaded with foliage and in the winter they are stripped bare. Nothing new, right? There is one aprticularly huge old oak a couple of blocks down the street that I've had my eye on before. This time I looked straight up and saw this very dramatic pattern of limbs illuminated by a hazy sun. Bingo! There was "Bare Bones." I wanted to be sure that my viewer saw the setting as if looking straight up, so I emphasized the highlights to show that the light came from different sides depending where the branch was located--to the left, right, above or below the light source. In a fit of Michaelangelo channeling, I even gave some thought to tacking the piece on the ceiling! Anyway it's a 20 X 16, oil on canvas.
Another morning saw one of those golden rosy mornings we have here in winter. Part of my walk include a walkway above this huge marina which sees 100s of vessels of all types in the summer. Just about all of them are hauled in the winter--put up on land--and covered in heavy white plastic "skin wrap." All except this guy, sitting all alone, all opened up, as if it were ready to go at a moment's notice. Note in the background the white shapes. Those are some of the boats hauled for the winter. People tell me I am attracted to lonely and isolated things. Could be. But there is a certain kind of poetry in that that I hope you feel in this scene. This is also a 20 X 16, oil on canvas.
So when you're out there, look up, look down!

Maine in Winter

Here are a couple of small sketches of subjects I found wandering around my area the other day. Not all winter paintings have to deal with snow. The first one is an 8 X 10 on a linen panel. It's a scene that a lot of painters here try to capture. This one is with the tide out, so these shacks are left high and dry, so that's what I named the piece, "High and Dry." It took maybe an hour. I really love the texture and tooth of the linen. The overall tone is the yellow-rose light of the early winter morning.
The other picture is something a bit new for me. It also is an 8 X 10 on linen panel. This area, Portland, Maine, has a lot of oil tanker traffic and serves as an oil terminal for parts of northern New England and parts of Canada. The tankers are huge--maybe 1000' long and seem to fill the ship channel as they come in. The are so heavily loaded you wonder how they stay afloat being so low in the water. They usually stay for 24 hours which is what it takes to unload the oil. As they unload, the added buoyancy allows the vessel to arise out of the water like some leviathan, maybe 50-60'higher, and close up they literally fill your view. So I come upon this view and saw the little lobster boat on the lower right cowering behind its pier, like a mouse hiding from a cat. The composition is weird, but it struck me that it might make an interesting painting. Does it?