Palette...

Recently I’ve had quite a few inquiries about my palette set up and how it works, but before I get into that I have do a wee bit of self promotion. This weekend I am teaching a 2 day painting workshop in Rockland at the Farnsworth Museum of Art. I think there are still a few spots left, so let me know if you are interested.

Now on to the palette…  This is something I made myself, to be the best possible solution to my own needs. It’s not perfect, but if someone wants to make something similar these photos might help. The palette is 13×26″ and has a wooden cover. The sides are made of pine with a channel cut into them to slide the top into. Both the top, and the palette surface are made of thin oak ply. There is a small support piece glued to the top to keep the cover from pushing down  in the middle where the top would have the most flex. When the cover is removed, I use a bungee cord to attach it to the easel. Hopefully the pics below will show all of this.

Workshops...

This past weekend I taught a fun class at River Arts in Damariscotta, ME. They were a great group and we really lucked out with some decent weather.

I wanted to mention again a few of my classes that are coming up this summer. Below is a current schedule for this summer.

May 19-20
Farnsworth Art Museum
207 596 6457
Rockland. ME
This will be a two day class similar to this past weekend, but on my home turf of Rockland, ME. And the Farnsworth has great classroom space if we do get forced inside by the rain.

August 13-17
Farnsworth Art Museum
Workshop retreat at Nebo Lodge
207 596 6457
North Haven, Maine
Nebo Lodge is a great b+b on North Haven, an island in Penobscot Bay. We will take the ferry out Monday morning and have the week to live and work together, sharing meals and stories outside of class time. North Haven is a quiet and beautiful island.

September 10-14
Coastal Maine Art Workshops
207 594 4813
Rockland, Maine
This class sold out with a long waiting list, so we added another 5 day class the week of September 24-28. These 5 day classes are a fun week with lots of challenging projects to work on different aspects of our painting each day. We visit some of the places I paint when I am on my own.

October 6-8
Haystack Mountain School
207 348 2306
Deer Isle
Part of their Open Door Workshop weekend. I have always heard great things about Haystack, and I am excited to experience it myself this year. There will be other workshops going on this same weekend, so we can share the weekend with people studying other disciplines. Students stay at Haystack, with all meals prepared for us. We will have a nice long weekend to paint this beautiful part of Maine, and work on improving our plein air skills.

Liebster Award...

A week ago I was looking for a place to paint on an incredibly windy day, and decided to look for shelter in the woods of Camden Hills State Park. My wife pointed this tree out last time we hiked as a good painting subject. It was a fun challenge painting this downed tree because of all of the interesting color relationships. There is cool light and warm shadow on the trunk, and a mostly cool cast shadow. The sapling that has been pushed down also creates an interesting spatial relationship.

I also want to mention the Liebstar Blog Award I was given by another blogger, Brian Cameron. This is an award that is passed from blogger to blogger. When you are awarded the award you are supposed to link to the three blogs you want to honor. This gives an opportunity for us to share new images and ideas. Since most of my favorite bloggers are either well known already, or are not posting very often anymore. So I am sharing some of my favorite sites that are not

Powers of Observation
This is a great site for seeing some interesting approaches to realist painting. The blogger, Catherine Kehoe, also posts slide shows of different themes, which are a great way to get exposed to even more painters.

In the Make
This blog is a view into artist’s work through their work space. I love seeing how different people set up their studio and the little windows that gives us into their process. This is a fun one to spend some time browsing. Lots of different types of art here also.

Painting Perceptions
I have mentioned this site on this blog before. There are some in-depth interviews here and good links to look into. He has interviews with artists whose work and thoughts I respect. I particularly recommend Ken Kewley’s notes on color, and interviews with Stuart Shils.

Docked in Rockland...

Last fall I painted this in the weeks before my daughter was born. This is a painting that I was unsure of when I finished it. I thought it was ok, but did not really love it at the time. This past weekend I was cleaning up my garage and stumbled onto it again. I was surprised at how much I like it now. I am really happy with the composition and movement through the painting. Funny how perceptions of our own work can change so much.

Storage barn...

I found this barn the other day when I was looking for a subject. I enjoy the shape and color  of weathered old barns like this, but what I really like here is the pile of junk in the foreground. This place was a run down piece of property with tons of trash scattered around. A place like this, with old junk around is so much more interesting to make a painting of than a well groomed landscape.