Paintapalooza 2

Monday September 22, 2008

The art-house in Port Clyde

I’m back from my week painting in Port Clyde, Maine with some friends. I’m a little exhausted from all of the painting through the day and the laughing all night. I never thought I would have so much fun with those guys. We would wake up and eat some breakfast before heading out to paint for the majority of the day . As the sun went down, guys would start coming home with their day’s paintings, and we would lay them all out where everyone could see them, as we ate a late dinner. When the moon was pretty full, a couple of guys would go back out in the dark to do some nocturnes. Those were really interesting, and beautiful paintings.

I had only met two of the 12 guys before we all got together. In fact, most of us were meeting alot of new people down there, and everyone was really great to get to know. It was a real treat to spend so much time with such good painters, especially with people who take their painting so seriously. I was happy to learn so much about how people are looking at their paintings, and dealing with galleries, and what materials they prefer to use. Being around so many good painters makes me look at my own work with a much more critical eye and wonder what I should be trying to improve

“Rock Shapes” 16X20”

This painting is one I did close to the end of the week, that I am particularly happy with. We had all been painting all over the area and I was looking for a new way to see something interesting in the same old places. These rocks are near the Marshall Point lighthouse, and I thought they would be a good way to play around with the formal elements of painting. I tried to choose an area of rocks that had a nice sense of movement for a composition, and with little bits of life peeking out. There are a few wildflowers managing to thrive in this rock pile, and I chose to paint these more carefully to accent the living part of the painting. I think they make this painitng of rocks less bleak.

I’m in the process of photographing other paintings from this trip, which I’ll have online soon.

This is a photo taken by Frank Gardner when I was painting at the lighthouse, standing on the rocks.

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