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.

Winter's Treasures

I haven't been blogging lately, not because I've been in hibernation. Not at all. Winter in Maine has many gifts for painters and I've been honored to receive many of them. Here are a couple, inspired by my daily walks on our nearby beach. It's called Willard Beach and because it's southeast-facing, the stroller is protected from the northwest winds that blow incessantly at this time of year. Most mornings it's pleasant even in the winter, but if the wind changes direction, watch out!


Winter Morning Silhouettes Oil on Canvas 18"X24"
This was a cloudy morning with the sun peaking out from cracks in the cloud cover. There was a strong reflection on the water the intensity of which is very hard to capture. I try to do it by contrast, but if there is a better idea out there, please let me know!


Snow Fences Oil on Canvas 16"X20"
These are installed to not only prevent drifting but also to protect the dune grass. If you look at them just right, you can find interesting compositional patterns. I added footprints for balance and added tiny figures on the beach to show distance. The first picture faces into the morning sun. The posi tion for this one is further to the north with the afternoon sun to the rightrear.

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...

Winter in Maine–an Artist’s View
It was a long time before I realized what potential the bleak, gray winters of Maine had for an artist who lives here. It’s way to cold to go out and paint sketches on site and though I do get out for at least a walk daily in winter, I didn’t often see much that inspired me artistically.
Well, I was wrong. The more I studied painting and the more I exchanged thoughts and ideas with other artists, the more I woke up to the treasure trove of goodies laying on the snow, in the low, slanting light, in the expressive bare limbs of the trees. Now the problem was to develop a method of capturing all of this on canvas.
I have an artist friend who paints out of doors all year long in Maine. He has a 60s vintage VW bus that he has set up with a heater inside. He’ll go to a site, set up his easel and paint until he gets cold. He then repairs to the bus, turns on the heat and warms up. Sometimes it’s every few minutes. Now that’s devotion! I don’t have a VW bus or anything like it, but as I said, I do get out and have since learned to spot paintable things and scenes. When I do, I take several photos and try to totally absorb what I see–even making a few notes. I find that I have a pretty good memory for images which helps. When I get back to the studio, I put the images in my computer, do a bit of PhotoShop and then do some quick sketches on a canvas, including color notes of what I remember.
I should point out that I use the photos only for reference and positioning of items in the piece. How to use photos in painting is another piece altogether, but I quickly put the photos away. I pretend that I am doing an on-site sketch and start painting as if I had the same time pressure as I would plein air. This helps me deal with color masses and values quickly, saving details until later. I also find that imagination quickly kicks in and I’m able to take my image memories into a more "artistic" realm. When I finish the painting a few days later, I compare it with the photo. The human eye coupled with the brain is infinitely more powerful than the camera! (Not to demean the art of photography, which in its way is just as challenging as painting).
Here are a couple of paintings I did in recent weeks. The lighthouse is Portland Headlight which stands on a point in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It’s a couple of miles from where I live. It has been painted and photographed thousands of times by thousands of people. I’ve painted it a few times myself, but I try to find an uncommon view, so it’s not just another "lighthouse painting." This day had new fallen snow followed by brilliant sunshine. I saw a spot on a little bluff that had birches in front of it. In one of those "aha" moments, I trudged up and saw this scene. A couple of photos and a few moments of study later, I had it. The sun was blinding on the snow, so the camera didn’t "see" much, but I did, adding colors in the snow providing an atmospheric perspective. I also intensified some colors to pump up the image of the lighthouse which should be the focus of the piece. I also pumped up the white in the birches, inspiring the name, "White on White."
The second picture is a mile down the road from the first, a marsh that most people don’t even see because on the other side of the road is the ocean, often spectacular with roiling waves and distant ships. It was late in the afternoon with long shadows and that brilliant gold white light we have in winter when the sun is receding. I used the same technique as before, but I changed the composition substantially, isolating that crooked tree and simplifying the background. I call it "Pond Cove Marsh in Winter" to distinguish it from another painting I did of the marsh in fall. You can see it and some other pieces on the site fineartamerica.com/jack-riddle.