Central Park Revisited

Top: Stone Bridge in Winter
Oil on Canvas 20" X 16"

Bottom: Sunday in the Park
Oil on Canvas 20" X 16"

I hinted in my last blog that the painting "The Road to Salzburg" was to be my farewell to winter. Well, it wasn't. It's probably because those of us in Northern New England are simply obsessed with winter and can't let it go. I'm not going to speculate though because winter does give me some decent painting opportunities.
"Stone Bridge in Winter" came to me by way of my son. In my blog of 5/28 I told of our trip to New York and spending some time in Central Park. My son Tom and his wife live on 104th St., a couple of short blocks from the park and spend a lot of time there. He's also a pretty good photographer and when he saw the paintings that resulted from our visit to the park, he sent me some of his photos. I picked the one of the stone bridge as it is a subject I really liked the first time and this was a chance to do it in a new way. In his photo, the bridge was centered, but I moved it a bit to the left to get more out of the colors and light in the snow on the right. Of course I had to change the perspective a bit. His camera saw a lot of blue (which I find most digital cameras do without adjustment) so I toned it down a bit, but left the blue in the shadow areas, particular around the base of the bridge. I minimized the background detail to keep the focus on the subject. I like the way it turned out and learned more about how a painter can use a photo creatively. Somebody who knows more about using photos in a painting than I do (are you listening Frank Gardner?), ought to deal with this as a blog subject.
"Sunday in the Park" uses this often photographed bridge in the park-the name escapes me--in an impressionist mode, irresitably. I put an extra bit of arch in the bridge, which has really a much smoother arc, because there is a Japanese bridge here in a local park that I really admire that has such an arch, almost like a hovering bird. I also put just one boat in the picture. There were several in the photo. That's my interest in solitary things popping up again. I resisted the temptation to show more backgound detail and hyped the reflections in the water--particularly the low lying willow, and the colors. I also messed with the sky, as I imagine Monet or one of my other impressionist pals would have done. Again--using a photograph creatively, I hope.
All in need is a thumbs up from Tom and I'll be OK. Maybe even a couple of more ideas...

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.