Great Summer Days...

Yesterday I was able to go surfing in the morning, have a picnic on the beach, and then paint all afternoon. The weather this summer has just been great for painting and playing in the water. Here is a series of beach paintings that I did in the last few weeks.

These are all 8×10″ oil paintings on linen boards. I apologize for the glare that some of these images have.

You can view all of these paintings at Courthouse Fine Art Gallery in Ellsworth, ME.

Painting with friends...

This past week I got the chance to paint with Carol Marine, who is an online friend, although this was the first time we met in person. I have enjoyed her paintings for several years, so when I heard she was in Maine for a workshop and wanted to spend a few days painting the landscape, I was psyched to paint with her. We didn’t have great weather for it, but we toughed it out during some unusually cold and rainy August days. It was fun seeing her work in person and getting to share stories and ideas about making paintings, selling paintings, and teaching painting. The painting above was done in a Falmouth boatyard during a light rain. I don’t have any photos of our group working, but if you check Carol’s blog, she may post some soon. We painted with several friends, one of whom was Bobbi Heath, who managed to get us together after taking Carol’s workshop over the weekend, and helping to organize our rainy plein air session.

I often find painting in the rain frustrating, but I was really happy with the painting above. I tried to keep the colors a bit brighter and more lively than the dark colors of the actual scene. It was fun playing with the colors a bit and trying to punch things up a little.

Back from the honeymoon...

This is the last painting I did before the wedding weekend got up and running. These boats are parked at the Wayfarer Marine boatyard, where the late evening light is beautiful. I was particularly drawn to the different colors reflected on to the surface of the white boat in the foreground, and the way the shapes created an interesting composition.

Well, things have been slow on the blog because I was preoccupied by my wedding a few weeks ago. On August 8th Elizabeth and I were married here in Maine. We had a great weekend for the wedding and we enjoyed seeing all of our friends and family. It really was a great time, and now we are settling back into our lives.

In other news I just saw this write up in the Herald Gazette on a show of my paintings that is currently hanging in Augusta, Maine at the state house and the governor’s mansion. This show was put together by the Maine Arts Commission. We are also getting some more slots filled for the September workshop in northern Maine, so if you are interested follow the link to the Chewonki Foundation’s website to learn more and sign up.