Lupines...

Normally lupines are a late spring or early summer flower that grows wild in Maine.  When they are in bloom you can see them on the side of the road in ditches for a few weeks, and then they disappear.  For some reason this year I’ve been seeing them all summer. I still see lupines growing wild in a field every morning when I go for a run. It’s been a weird summer with all of the rain and cool weather, which has made for a very interesting growing season here in Maine. These lupines were painted a bit earlier in the summer, but the fact that I still see scenes like this at the end of August is kind of amazing to me. Everywhere I go people feel like this summer was slow in coming, and will be too short. I’m just now feeling like I can settle into summer things, like swimming and enjoying consistantly dry and sunny days for painting.

Since I have been a little busy lately, I’ve neglected to mention that my paintings are now showing in a gallery in Door County, Wisconsin. Fine Line Designs has the work that I painted while I was in Door County for the Plein Air Festival, so if any of you are out in Wisconsin and looking for a place to catch some of my paintings, you can stop by the gallery and see my work, along with several other artists who participated in the show.  They have a great space with nice gardens, sculpture and alot of paintings.  I really had a great time while I was out in Door County and I can’t say enough good things about the other painters there, and especially the organizers of the week of events. I’m already looking forward to going back next year.

Summer Heat, Painting, Workshops...

I’ve been bad about responding to comments on the blog. Sorry about that. I’m trying to pay a bit more attention to the site now. To answer questions I’ve been asked about the prize I won at the Door County Plein Air Festival, I was awarded a “people’s choice” award which was given to an artist, not for a specific painting but for their body of work from the week of the festival.

As for painting, I’m getting out to do a fair amount of painting these days, but the heat is wearing me down. It’s been unusually hot here in Maine, now that it’s finally warmed up. I’m getting some decent painting done, but I’m also spending alot of time struggling with my work. I’m wiping out a lot of canvases and having a hard time getting work that I’m happy with. These things come in phases. I was really happy with how I was painting during the week in Door County, but when I got home it felt like things fell apart a bit. In the last few days things have picked up a bit more again, and I’m feeling a little better about my work. But it’s always tough to go through the rough patches when it feels really hard to pull a painting together. I think these things tend to catch me later in the summer most years as I get worn down a bit.

Also, I taught a workshop in Damariscotta this past weekend and had a really good time with the group. It was a hot, clear, sunny, great weekend to be painting. We were mostly working in a quiet harbor with a great variety of scenes. The class was a really easy group of people, who were fun to work with. We had a full class of 12 people and everyone was working really hard to improve and asking some good questions. It’s tiring, but fun to teach a class. It’s interesting to notice that part of the class is about technique, but a big part is about teaching people to see things more carefully, and pointing out the subtle things that nature does with light and color. It was a fun experience and has me looking forward to the Sept. workshop I’m teaching in Rockland. That will be a 5 day class, and I’m hoping to get to play around with some fun exercises with that group since we’ll have so much more time together. I’m starting to feel more confident about my teaching, and I’m enjoying these workshops a bit more than I used to.

Wild Garden...

The painting above is a new one. 20×24″ called “Wild Garden.” I’ve had alot of fun this summer playing with garden scenes, whether my own or a friend’s. I hope to keep this up, and keep enjoying the summer color in my yard.

I had a chance to do some paitning this week. I struggled through a few canvases and did some nice work on some others. It was definitely a tough week for painting. I have been really busy, and I’m trying to get in front of the easel as much as possible, but it’s been hard. Things are just finally starting to settle down a bit, but I still have alot of stetching, gessoing, framing and painting to do this summer, but I won’t be travelling as much, which is great.