Silver screen

Olive Kitteridge

Living on the north Shore of Massachusetts

Here is a painting that was used in the HBO movie Olive Kitteridge.  I have not seen it, but know it was shot on the North Shore.

Summer Marsh

Oil on canvas

24x36

Living on the North Shore of Massachusetts I was reminded of thd landscape of England.  Some of the open fields and salt marshes reminded me of Sudbury in Suffolk.  There I could see great distances.  Inland there were so many trees.  Out on the coast I am able to see the horizon and watch the effects of light as it comes down over greate distances. This painting was started from a smaller study that was done near thd Parker River in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

The family all got out and stretched while I painted for an hour. My family is so patient. Later I took the small painting back to the studio to make "Summer Marsh."  I hope to see the movie.  Sometimes I feel as if I like a movie just because of the locations or the sets.  

Central Park

A few years back I made a series of paintings in Central Park, New York.  

I really enjoyed bring there.   It is a wonderful place to get away.  At the se time is is really nice to people watch. 

The painting above is a grisaille of Bethesda Fountain.  14x11 inches.  I painted the fountain a few times at different angles.  This grisaille is on of my favorite as it is a quicker sketch.  I enjoy these simple studies as they feel more like snap shots or gesture drawings that get closer to the subject that s more finished painting could. 

Below is the 18x18 finished painting that went into an apartment that over looked the south west part of the park. 

The painting below is looking toward the stairs and was done closer to the evening.  They were shooting a movie so there were lots of extra lights. 

Small Studies

Moonlight study

5x7

Oil on panel

I have been painting some moonlight studies this past month.  I am using 5 x 7 panels.  Usually I first cover them in orange or ocher and mix it with liquin.

This creates a nice ground to work on rather than white.  What  I like about the small studies is you can take a quick idea and instantly have something.  I was first inspired by George's Seurat drawings.  They were interesting in that they didn't spell everything out.  They have a warm glowing feeling for me.  The light of the paper hovers around the forms.  

 

I made a series of paintings in where I painted the panel blue and the put a layer of black over everything.  I then used sand paper to get through to the blue.  The process was time consuming and hard labor but the results gave evidence to this fact. It was more reductive and felt a little like sculpture where I would be surching  the form.  In these drawings I am drawn to the way in that light makes its way through darkness.  

From Walden to Olana

I spent the second part of my childhood growing up in Concord, Massachusetts.

Near Walden Pond I would enjoy walking and cross country skiing in the back woods.  Later on when I read Walden by Henry David Thoreau I was amazed by his curiosity surrounding nature.  He took string and measured the depth of the pond!  A poet and a scientist.  I admire his note taking for posterity's sake in books like "Cape Cod".

He did what many painters of the Hudson River School did when they showed they beauty of America to those that had not yet traveled. 

Frederic Edwin Church was one such painter. A few summers ago we took a trip to "Olana", where he built his house and studio. Here is a painting done from his garden.  This painting was on view at OK Harris in New York. 

"View from Olana"

24x48

Oil on panel

Private Collection 

In my mind I put these two together.  The both loved to travel and to share with others the things that they found.  I for one am glad they did.  Here is on of Church's paintings that first got my attention.  

It seemed so "modern" to me.  In part because of the subject matter and also in the manner it was painted as a study with parts left unfinished.

Here is a more finished painting that I do enjo but not as much as the studies above.

Italian Landscapes

Italy has been on my ind these days.  I was there Seventeen years ago at this time.  It was the place that I first started painting landscapes.  

Orvieto study

9 x12

Oil on panel

Here I am with a wall made of the soft volcanic ash that the town of Orvieto is made from.  I had the chance to carve it and it is like butter.  

The sculpture I am carving here is a harder stone known as Pepperino.  The name fits as the stone has little black flecks that look like pepper.

I have written a few little posts about my trip and time there.  I will at some point get all these blogs together so they are in one place. 

Hay Bales

In the studio this winter I have been doing a series of paintings based on the fields around where we live.  The hay bales at thd end of the summer remind me of where I grew up in England.  There was s field behind our house and I have the clear memory of watching a farmer plow the field.  I might have been about seven years of age.  I stood at the edge of the field thinking that I would love to drive the tracker and plow the earth.  This was my first memory of having a idea about what to do when I grow up.  

By painting these landscapes I feel I am getting at part of that desire as a child though I didn't know what it was.  

Dutchess County

Oil on canvas

16x20

Private Collection 

Hay Bales 

Oil on panel

14x18

Jon MacAdam

Sky over Hay Bales

24x24

Oil on panel

"True Farm" Holderness,NH

Oil on canvas

11 x14

Private Collection

Appleton Farms

We have been walking around Appleton Farms in Ipswich. I have been doing some watercolors from there. There are so many surprising view points where you feel as though you are no longer on the north shore. I was told that it is the oldest farm still operating in New England, established in 1638.

"Stonewall Through Landscape"

24x48

Oil on panel

This painting was done from one of the Watercolors.