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! 

Holiday Painting

Today was perfect weather for painting! My friend Judy and I went to Bristol, a great little town with lots of character. When we arrived, the townsfolk were in the middle of their Memorial Day celebrations: music, marching, gun salutes, a zillion flags. Within 15 minutes, the center had cleared out and we had the town center almost to ourselves. We found a spot to paint under the trees behind the diner, next to the Newfound River. Ideal, really: shady, cool, food and restroom nearby...... I painted the red building, which is the oldest in town, looking across the river. It was a grist mill in 1767, but is now a cafe, plus a music and poetry venue. I haven't looked at their website yet, but if you want to, it's at: www.TheMillFudgeFactory.com. The photo above is my setup about halfway through the painting. I'll post it when it's done. Oil on gessobord, 9 x 12.

Snowcamp

Well, I'm back. And one or more of my previous posts has (have) disappeared; I have no idea why. But, the exciting news is that I've just returned from a three-day outdoor painting workshop with Stapleton Kearns and eight other painters in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. It was an adventure, to be sure! We stayed at the friendly Sunset Hill House, where the heat went off the first night and the water pipes froze. Why? Because the next morning, when we all went out to paint, it was 10 below zero! Fahrenheit. At least the sun was shining. No one died or got frostbite and everyone managed to paint until about 4:00 p.m.

The views were spectacular: Mounts Washington and Lafayette, with other presidents and Cannon also nearby. We could see the snow guns working on Cannon for the skiers from our back yard. I did three paintings over the long weekend, one of Lafayette (the second one above; 11 X 14, oil on panel), which may or may not be salvageable, another of the inn's "annex" building, where we almost had to move in the middle of the night (a decent start, I think; 12 x 16 oil on panel), plus a "wiper," that will never see the light of day, never mind be on this blog.

It was a great experience; I now feel able to paint in just about any weather; I met a bunch of really nice people and got a jolt of confidence.

An in-depth version of our experience can be seen on our instructor Stape's blog: http://www.stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/. Be sure to let him know if you think he looks good in the orange hat.

Plein Air - Tavern

For four days of last week, I painted with 10 other New Hampshire Plein Air artists in a Michael Chesley Johnson workshop. I learned a LOT and had a great time! This is one little (6" x 8") oil, still somewhat unfinished, of the old tavern in the village of Dunbarton. The methods we were using don't work as well on canvas as on a gessoed panel, so the weave is too prominent in some areas. I'll post more from the workshop as they are dry enough to scan, and there'll be more whenever the weather is good this spring and summer.