Paint on canvas...

I was listening to a Slate Magazine podcast about a show of Abstract Expressionist paintings in New York at MOMA. Dana Stevens said about the Rothko paintings, “there’s more to these paintings than the paint they are made of.” It’s simple, but I like it. Seems like a simple, but noble goal. How do we put something special into our paintings? How do we go beyond just paint on canvas? For Rothko this is even more impressive when you consider the simplicity of his images, with just a few colors thinly applied. But in the end, when I stand in front of a Rothko I am often caught up in the trance of his paintings.

Maui Mountians...

This is another 6×6″ painting from a photo. This is also from Maui last year. Scenes like this were a real challenge for me. I am not used to painting such dramatic mountains, and the colors that come along with such a huge object punching into the sky, and also trying to recede. Working from photos like this I have gotten a bit more practice. Right now I am in Hawaii and I have been painting all week. When I get home I will post some new images from this trip, but if you are on Maui and want to see what I have done the last few days, along with many other painters, come out to the Village Gallery tomorrow, Friday night. They will be hosting the reception for the Maui Plein Air Invitational, and there should be some great work.

Honolua...

I have been working on some smaller paintings for a show of 6×6″ paintings. This was done in the studio from a photo I took in Maui last year. I find these tiny paintings to be a great exercise in simplifying a scene into it’s most important brushstrokes. This scene also feels like it is held together by the colors as the landscape fades into the distance. The thick atmosphere keeps the colors in a tight range as they recede, and the sunlight warms parts of that atmosphere up.

Moonlight and Snow...

I know I said that I would make my snow scene posts more colorful, but I couldn’t resist one more night scene. Two nights ago I went out to paint in the near full moon, and frigid temps. Between the full moon and snow cover there was a lot of light to work with, and surprising amounts of luminosity in the scenes I found. This scene jumped out at me because of the simplicity of the shapes, and the colors in the sky and snow. It seemed peaceful and mysterious. Sorry for the glare on the image. I had a tough time getting a shot because the paint is still wet and dark colors tend to bounce more glare.

Staying Warm...

I ran into a friend and reader of this blog over the weekend, and he said the warm summer colors of my last post were very welcome after all of these snow scenes. So I may have a few more winter scenes, but I will try to keep them colorful. Maybe the blue sky in the painting above will help warm up the cold snowscape. I have to admit that I felt the same thing as my friend when I saw the most recent post go up. The summer greens felt like a breath of fresh air.

This is a painting of Bald Mountain in Camden, looking at it from the entrance to the Snow Bowl, our local ski hill. This past weekend was the US National Toboggan Championships at the base of the Snow Bowl. It’s becoming quite a big deal, although most of the excitement is peripheral to the actual races. We ran into friends who had a huge tent with music, food and drink out on the pond. There was lots of dancing and partying, and part of the fun of the races is having a creative costume, so the people watching was great.