A Long Stretch

It's been quite awhile since I posted, so here's an update. In the early spring, Mary Byrom and I, plus a few others, painted at Mothers' Beach in Maine. That's Mary with the easel and me with a sketchbook.

Later, I went to Sugar Hill, NH with the New Hampshire Plein Air group to paint the lupines. We do this every year. The flowers are wonderful, but of course I had to get a couple of buildings in. This is a 12" by 9", oil on oil-primed linen. I'm expanding it into a larger painting, but so far it's a flop.

Below is my part in a collaborative printing (woodcut) project, engineered by Maria Arango, an artist from Las Vegas. The result is a huge, multi-part, "puzzle" print, but she has also published the images in a book. Here's a link to her site if you want details: http://1000woodcuts.com/projects/cityoftheworld/index.html. It's fun to be part of such a huge project!

In August, while hauling my painting gear out of the back of the car in Camden, I slipped a disk in my back and was laid up for a couple of months. Ouch! Because of that, I didn't get to one of my favorite places to paint, Tarbin Gardens, very often, but here's a small (7" x 5") oil I did there at the edge of one of the ponds. 

I'm working on making my painting gear a lot lighter, to prevent any more injuries. One project is turning an old laptop computer into a paintbox, We'll see! 

In the meantime....

While I'm working on getting photos of paintings, here's a casual photo of a reduction woodcut done for a Baren print exchange. It's called "Barney at the Beach" and is done from a photo I took on a freezing cold, windy day in November. A man was throwing a ball for his two dogs, who ran again and again into the surf to get it, not minding the frigid water. The image is 10" x 7" and is really rectangular. The odd shape is because I took the pic while the print is still hanging to dry. I wish it would hurry up; it's supposed to be in the mail today! 

The Baren forum is an online group of printmakers who exchange original relief prints and information on techniques, ideas, sources, etc. It's a great group! They're at: http://www.barenforum.org/. 

Snow!

Now that the holidays are over, it's time to settle down and paint. Here I am on Tuesday, trying out oil-primed linen again. I'm beginning to like this stuff!  Mary Byrom found a turnout we could paint from. It's still not bitterly cold, so we needed only a modest number of layers to keep warm. You might be able to see the little barn behind me across the field (I was painting the buildings on the other side of the road). After awhile we noticed animals coming out of the barn.

Here's a closeup of the donkeys that kept an eye on us. They're too cute not to paint sometime. I'll post the farm I painted as soon as I get photos (forgot to do it in the field). 

Time Away

Last month, we spent a couple of weeks at a friend's camp on Hosmer Pond in Camden, Maine. It's an idyllic spot, out of the way, yet near enough to town to be a tourist, if that's on the menu. 

A pair of loons has lived on the pond for as long as I can remember. In fact, the first eerie loon call I ever heard was probably from ancestors of this pair.  

The Maine coast is a gold mine of painting opportunities! One day, I went to Belfast Harbor, where my brother works, to paint the tugboats. One of them was off on a job somewhere, so I tucked my easel into the shade beside the ice machine and painted the "Taurus." 

Our daughter Jessica took advantage of the beautiful weather to photograph Camden Falls, which is where the Megunticook River flows into the harbor. 

There were beautiful little things around, too, like these Indian Pipes that seemed to appear suddenly after a rainy day. 

One afternoon, I heard the loons making a greater-than-usual racket, calling loudly over the pond. They sounded almost panicky, so I went down to see what their problem might be. There, on the little island in the middle of the pond, was a bald eagle! It refused to pose formally as the National Bird, but I did get this slightly-out of focus photo before it took off behind the trees. Apparently, eagles aren't welcome in loon territory. 

Vacation!

Steve and I spent most of last week as guests at a wonderful seaside house in Maine. I got a little painting done, but nothing to write home/blog about, so instead I'll show you what the week was like. 

Sunrise over Fire Island was beautiful! This was at low tide, which actually turns the island into a peninsula. That's Islesboro in the distance. 

As at any seaside place, there were lots of little things to find.

Seaweed, of course....

and a sea urchin. If you look closely, you can see a tiny shrimp caught in the spines. 

The kids had a great time!

Here's Nina, walking the plank over a little waterfall.

And Jack, exploring at low tide. 

One day, it rained, so we stayed mostly indoors.

Some windowsill critters kept us company.

Love this little seal pup.

Finally, it stopped raining and we were rewarded with a rainbow. It was hard to photograph; maybe a trip through Photoshop would get rid of the washed-out look. 

The full moon and its reflection, looking like an upside-down exclamation point, was a great ending to a wonderful day. What a week! Thanks, Jason & Lucy!

Painting in Maine

A couple of weeks ago, I was painting along the water in Wells, Maine. It was a cold day, so I set up with the truck door open to keep out of the wind as much as possible. Notice the guy picking up rocks.  

Last week was warmer, so several more folks showed up from the Plein Air Painters of Maine. We came back to Wells, along the sea wall. My old station wagon was back from its trip to the garage.  

This summer, I'll be painting often at Tarbin Gardens in Franklin, New Hampshire. This is one of their magnolias, which lost many flowers in the frost after the 90-degree weather brought them into early bloom.

Even in early May, some daffodils were still in bloom.

Tulips, too, were in profusion that May day. I ran out of time after taking many photos, so I'll be back to paint in Tarbin's five acres of plants, trees and flower gardens soon!