Audubon Marshfield Hills

North River Wildlife Sanctuary

North River Wildlife Sanctuary

I've done several paintings at the Daniel Webster Wilderness Audubon in the Green Harbor section of Marshfield, but this day we drove to another Audubon in Marshfield, near the mouth of the North River.     Within the first ten minutes, we saw turkeys, hummingbirds and woodpeckers, proof that the wildlife got the memo.  Add to that all the azaleas and white flowering dogwoods and you've got a miniature natural paradise.


I set up facing north looking at the rain garden which has flat roofed building wing just behind it.  I worked on matching the colors of the vegetation, cool blue-greens for the distance, bright vivid cool greens on the left, and bright cool pinks and yellows for the flower beds.   I also included the bench that overlooks this serene setting.

The perennial flower beds had patches of color but certainly not to the degree that I painted it.  I am addicted to buttering on a palette knife full of blooms, so I took liberties.  The building facade started out in shadow but by the time I finished up for the day, it was sunlit.   As you can see I "chased the light" and the building is sunlit in the painting.

Here is the scene as it stands right now and the following is a list of issues I think I should address.   If your more objective eye spots anything else, let me know.

1) In the middle window, the far side window was visible, (the odd looking blue rectangle).  I don't think it adds anything and, moreover, it does not read correctly.

2) The grass is too cool and almost whitish.  Although the color harmony is cool light, warm shadow, the grass needs more yellow.  Sometimes painting in the bright sun will cause me to make this mistake.

3)  The building looked more stately and provided a better backdrop when it was in shadow.   By repainting it and making it sunlit, the focus was changed from the bench and flowers to this bold, bright architectural element.   And, what possessed me to make it so pink?

Maybe a trip back to this spot is in order as well.   The next time you see this one will be on my website.  Comments welcome as always.



Border Street Bridge Cohasset, MA

I headed north up Route 3A to drop off paintings for an art festival in Cohasset.   I have painted at Cohasset Harbor before and I quickly remembered how wonderfully scenic this area is.   Instead of parking near the Atlantica Restaurant as I have before, I went a little further and crossed a small bridge, then took my first left into the Harbormaster's station.    There were parking spots along a grassy area below the bridge on the banks of the ocean outlet for this small waterway.




Border Street Bridge Stage One

Here is a photograph of the plaque which is on one of the bridge buttresses.  The bridge was built in 1924 and lists the Board of Selectmen, the Engineers and Architects.   I searched for information about the bridge, but most of the links pertained to its popularity as a place local youths liked to jump into the water, and the authorities' desire to deter it.



Border Street Bridge Stage Two

I liked the long graceful arch of the bridge and the fact that I was low enough to be able to look under it and see the shoreline further inland.   There were even some whitewater rapids next to me and I was thinking - yes - this would make a very nice postcard!     I began roughing in the sky and Spring green of the trees.  



The right embankment was illuminated by the sun and seemed to have every warm shade of yellow and red.   Although there was a lot of water movement, the right side embankment was calmer and had nice reflections.

Border Street Bridge Stage Three

This one is close to being complete.  There are three issues I want to address before finalizing.

1) The waterfalls at the bottom are painted to the real scale, but I'm thinking the they start too low in the painting.   I do like how they echo the patterns in the clouds.

2)  Verifying the darks; they seem too dark.    Logically, the watery reflections would be throwing more light up under the bridge than I have depicted.

3)  Adding one or more bicyclists crossing the bridge, since there was a steady stream while I was painting.

 I welcome any other feedback.   My plan is to return to this location with the painting and finish it off " en plein air.

 VIEW FINISHED PAINTING

Red Trolley - Boston Waterfront

Today was the mildest day yet this year hitting 80 degrees by midday in Eastern Massachusetts.   My destination was not clear when I set out at 9AM in jeans, boots and fleece with my long down jacket stuffed behind my drivers' seat.  In today's mail, I received my postcard from the South Shore Arts Center Juried Show: Not Selected.   Grrrr...how disappointing, since I have sold pretty well in this show.    I considered two of the pieces to be among the best I have ever done, loose and juicy.  My work is evidently not a fit for what the organization wants to show.  Onward and upward!

So that was my state of mind as I drove northward and before I knew it, I was getting off the exit in Boston and heading toward the waterfront.   On Atlantic Ave just beyond the Boston Harbor Hotel, I spotted not one, but two parking spots (of course I only needed one) and quickly pulled in.   One quarter gets you 12 minutes in the downtown area and the limit is two hours.   That gave me just enough time to execute a plein air painting.   

A car pulled into the other spot. An attractive business women with two smart looking (and large) bags began to search for her meter money.  I was still getting my painting gear out when I saw the woman look around, worried, presumably looking for a place to get quarters.   The harried expression on her face gave me a flashback to my old days working in the corporate world, running to meetings and not having time to think about things like feeding a meter.  



Map of Boston Waterfront Where I Painted

"Do you need quarters?" I asked.   I retrieved my stash from the car and provided her with a couple of dollars worth.    Although she had seemed quite serious, she smiled and said she liked my PLNAIR vanity plate.   I offered her my card; obviously the woman had an appreciation for the arts.   She did take a minute to tell me that she lived on the South Shore as well.  I bit my tongue as she also said she was on the Board of Directors of the South Shore Art Center in Cohassett!   Coincidence!  I'm proud to say, that I didn't blurt out: "I'm not happy with their Arts Festival jurors!"   I know it's just a matter of personal preference, but what are the chances of running into this particular person on this day.


She wished me a good day painting and
we went our separate ways.   I set up at the corner of Central and Old Atlantic at the trolley stop across from the Aquarium (see red box in map to the right).



Red Trolley Painting  In-Progress


In the city, settling on a scene and creating the composition is as much about how much to leave out as it is what to include, and it is easy to become distracted by all the visual stimuli.  

I set the boundaries of the paintings using the structural elements via the drawing - in paint - of the major buildings.  The Long Wharf Marriott is recognizable by its multi-tiered brick.   The blue awning of the Legal Seafoods Restaurant was on the sidewalk on the left and the Chart House was on the far right.   A bright red trolley was the center of interest (which was replaced with a green trolley at some point along the way.)   The pedestrians that were all over posed the biggest challenge, and gave me the most flexibility, as to who to include and where they would be placed in the painting.

So I'm posing a compositional question.   I used some black paper cutouts of some figures in various positions on my painting to decide on the placement of the figures.  Let me know what you think.   Once I add the figures, I'll post the final painting to my website.

Option A



Option B



Option C

Option D



Option E



Option F



Option G



Kayak Girls

Kayak Girls - Stage One

We are fortunate to have access to the Cut River here in Green Harbor which snakes through the marsh behind the house.   Our yellow sit-on-top kayak has gotten a lot of use, especially when friends and family visit.   The primary requirement for enjoying the kayak is a tide level that is high enough to navigate the 20 yards between the house and the channel.   It is easy to tell that the water is high enough when the adventure begins.  It is the return that can get tricky if the kayakers are not paying attention to the water level.  If the water does get too low,  you must get out of the kayak at the river and make a mucky trek back to our little dock dragging the kayak behind. 

I've noticed that people usually are relaxed and smiling as they return from a nice kayak adventure.  That was the case in a nice photo of my sister and niece from last summer.    I took a few photos of them as they paddled around out on the marsh.   As the came in to the dock, I got this photo which I liked the best.

This is what I liked about the photo I took of them (besides the fact that it makes me smile to see them smile).  Compositionally I liked...

1) The angle of the shot was from an upper deck, looking downward.   Because the subjects were looking up, there was just a touch of light on the side of their faces making them recognizable,

2) The downward photo angle also simplified the background to just the marsh grasses with the sky  color only evident in the reflections, along with the kayak and passengers,

3) The paddles and their reflections formed "X's" and that variation seemed to give the composition balance

4) The angle of the reflection meant that the dark yellow/green underside of the kayak was more dominant (and thus subdued) than if I was at a lower angle.   At a lower angle more of the figures would have been mirrored, perhaps competing for too much attention.

Kayak Girls

As for color, the kayak is bright yellow, and in thinking about complementary color pairs, I thought that making the kayak red would make a nice color harmony against the green marsh grasses (see stage one photo).   I changed my mind and reverted to the yellow colored kayak once I saw that the red was too dark.   I was still aiming for an overall red/green harmony, fitting the yellow kayak within that context.    The figures were quite red as were the shadows and lower part of the grasses.

This painting has special meaning to me because my sister looks happy and healthy after having gone through an ordeal with breast cancer - and coming out victorious.   It won't be for sale because I'm giving it to my niece, whose mom and sister are in the kayak.

Nude Apres Shower

Nude Apres Shower Stage One

This painting was the result of a two session sitting.   At the initial session when we decided on this pose, it looked like an "easy-to-hold" pose for the model.  After all it was sitting, but it turned out that this was a difficult pose.  The majority of pressure was on the right leg.    Our model is quite dedicated and was determined to hold the pose anyway and she successfully completed the challenge, not only for one three hour session, but a second three hour session a week later.   A big thank you to her.

I particularly liked this pose because it seemed more natural, as if the person was in the process of getting out of the shower, toweling off, or perhaps applying lotion.  The substrate for this painting was a smooth 16" x 20"  gessoboard, that had been toned with enough fleshtone color to give the smooth surface some tooth.   

I "drew" in the armature with transparent oxide brown.  Using all my measuring tools I modeled the figure.   I used excess paint which I could then wipe off with a papertowel to get an accurate figure drawing.  The fleshtone ground underneath provided a ready made skin hue.  I didn't rush this part and had to keep stepping back and re-measuring.  It was tempting to launch ahead with color, but I have found that, for me, that usually backfires.  I worked cool fleshtones with green oxide and alizarin crimson.  At the end of the first day, I had a decent drawing in paint, but that was too light and too green, as can be seen in Stage One photo.



Nude Apres Shower - Final

On the second day, I immediately washed over the green fleshtones with alizarin crimson.  I also  reapplied a dark background to redefine the figure.   The figure was backlit from my angle in the room.   The right inner shoulder was in shadow, and was the background for the facial profile, a nice contrast with the forehead, nose, lip and chin which all picked up some light.   The brightest edge of all was the rim light on the right shoulder hence it has the cleanest edge with the brightest light.   All other highlights were made less bright, and all other edges were made fuzzier.

The final touches that I made back in my studio were to add the stool she is sitting on as well as an understated bottle of lotion and a towel, completing the theme of "après shower."




Flower Shower

Flower Shower - Stage One

I returned to the Lambert's Flower Stand in Pembroke today.   I really enjoyed my first paint-out at this location and brought another 12x16 inch canvas that would complement the first painting.  I wanted to paint a scene that was not a "same-size" composition, which is what I typically do plein air style.   It was really through the use of my camera viewfinder that I framed the scene for this painting.    A worker in jeans and a white tee shirt started showering the flowers along the first row walking toward me, dragging the hose behind.  It made an interesting composition having the figure as the focal point, and I liked the geometric aspects of the background.  The black square on the left is a chain link fence; the white rectangle is the open door of the shed; the black rectangle on the right is the entrance to the shed.   By contrast, the flowers and figure are all curves and soft edges. 

Flower Shower Stage Two (Last?)

The question I am asking myself on this painting is:  if the figure is the center of interest, should I be dulling down the intensity of the flowers so that they do not steal the show?  I love the buttery outta'
the-tube type color that I used for the blooms.   Can the sizable human figure stand up (figuratively) to the waves of bright color?   Are they complementary or competing?


Corner of Ferry and Ireland

Corner of Ferry and Ireland - Stage One

Just behind the Bridgewaye Restaurant near Humarock, the South River runs alongside Ferry Street.   The banks of the river are lined with rocks and sand with just enough space to pull the car over.   I was going to paint the river and the Sea Street Bridge when I noticed a different scene.   The house at the corner of Ferry and Ireland was positively beautiful - a mini-Holland with hundreds of Spring bulbs.   The tulips were set off by the fresh and newly green shrubs and grass.  Additionally there were pretty stone walls lining the property and winding up Ireland Street, an appropriate name.   



Corner of Ferry and Ireland - Stage Two

The gardener extraordinaire who created this natural layout used a keen design eye, and I was told by neighbors walking by that for every season, the property provides them with a beautiful scene.   I must to remember this spot for painting.    Although in the Stage One picture looks like I may be painting the house on the left, I actually painted the barn to the rear.  After laying in the armature, I continued to smear on the color thickly with my palette knife.   The bright red tulips were the most prominent.  The pavement was where I cleaned my palette knife so that a colorful gray started to develop and I wasn't wasting any paint.

 The tops of the posts of the decorative ranch fence in the middle happen to be right at the same level as the row of tulips behind.   I felt this was bad for the design, so I made them taller - mistake.   They looked awkward and if a sharp eye studied this, they would see that the hedges on the left were shorter which wasn't likely.  I cut the posts down.   I stopped the paint out there.   Once I start correcting, I feel like the freshness is lost.



Corner of Ferry and Ireland Stage Three

A couple of days after painting this and I tried to take an objective look.   If I analyze each section or element of the painting, I really like it, but as a whole, I don't.  For example, I like the rustic barn, the receding distant trees up the hill, the stone walls, the red tulip border that transitions from shade to sun.  Then why isn't this painting working for me?

Take a stab at identifying the problem.   It may not be salvageable, but I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks.     Here is the current version (Stage Three).

I will post the results in a second blog soon.

Magnolia at Veteran's Park

Veterans' Park Magnolia Stage One

We returned to the Veteran's Park in Marshfield today.   The water mill was spinning vigorously and we even spotted herring struggling to make their way upstream.    There were lots of flowering trees to chose from, and I've been scoping out magnolias this week so I immediately gravitated to a small pink flowering specimen.   I lined up my scene so that the magnolia's branches framed the right and top sides of the painting.   I taped my viewfinder to the edge of my canvas so that I had a hands free view of my scene for placement.   See Stage One photo.



Veterans' Park Magnolia Stage Two

The canvas had been underpainted with ultramarine blue.   I made a conscious decision to let the dark blue underpainting show through, forming the cool shadows.  I worked warm light on the white arbor covered footbridge and the stone wall edging in front of it.  Once I had all of the backdrop in, I used my palette knife to apply the magnolia blossoms.    These blossoms were freshly opened and they had a habit similar to a conical lotus flower whereby the petals are darker pink at the pointy base, whiter and wider at the top.



Magnolia at Veterans' Park

The warm light/cool shadow scheme was working until I got to these magnolia blossoms.    The dilemma was how to handle cool, bright white and cool, pink petals.   I tried to warm the white petals only slightly with yellow.   I also warmed the mulch at the base of the tree with some cadmium orange.   I painted in several tree branches on site, mostly the dark ones.   I finished off the lighter sunlit branches back in the studio on the semi-dry painting.

A couple of days later, I took a critical look at the stage two painting.  There were two main changes I decided to make.   First I downplayed the footbridge since the center of interest was the magnolia tree, even losing some of the footbridge supports completely.   Secondly, I warmed up the foreground grasses covering more of the blue underpainting with a warm green.    Done?





Spring Flower Stand

Spring Flower Stand Paint Out

There is a Lamberts Market in Pembroke that pops up starting in Spring in the north end of the Stop and Shop parking lot.   A small, yellow wooden shed functions as the check out shelter and a large pop up tent shelters the rows and rows of flower flats and hanging plants.  It always looks so attractive from the street and it occurred to me that this would be a great place to paint.

I parked a couple of rows away from the stand so that I would have a vantage that would include the shed, part of the tent, and all the flowers in between.   I used my palette knife almost exclusively again today.  I first worked on the sky which was filled with high thin milky clouds.   The trees were budding, but still had only a hint of green, except for the tall evergreens which were dark blue-green.   The foreground consisted of the pavement of the parking lot, which was pale grey in the sunlight.   I jazzed it up by scraping up all the color I had on the palette and swirled that into my pavement color.

Spring Flower Stand - Final

Finally, the real fun began with the bright, sunlit, out-of-the-tube colored flowers.   These full sunlight flowers got the most intense color.   The flowers that were shaded under the tent looked really pretty as well in person, but by squinting at them, I determined that they were very dark and much less intense.  For the painting, the same row of flowers that were bright, warm pink in the sunlight, transitioned to cool alizarin crimson under the tent.

The final touch was to add the person with watering duty who was dragging his heavy black hose through the rows of flowers as he showered all the colorful blooms.