Mild Maritime School Paint Out

View from the Duxbury Maritime School

What is a bustling place three seasons of the year was nearly deserted on this mid-February day.    The temperatures hit fifty and considering the harsh winter we have had, it was a heat wave.  The rear of the Duxbury Maritime School, overlooks Duxbury Bay, a gorgeous view with the Duxbury Beach barrier peninsula on the horizon and the low-tide mud flats along the immediate shorelines.   The only boats at moorings were oyster boats with their mini cranes for pulling up their weighty catch.  

It's amazing to discover how many shades of blue there can be in the water.   The furthest waters had a pale violet hue; the still waters along the layers of peat outcroppings reflected more of  a sky color.   A true marine blue was in the mid-distance and closest to the dock was a greenish gold.    I thought it was quite a boring painting until I added two interesting elements, namely the wispy fair weather clouds and an oyster boat that motored by with a dog at the bow and owner at the wheel.

 The next time I have my oysters-on-the-half-shell appetizer, I'll be thinking of the fishermen who have this tough, cold (and year round) job .

 

Baby Love



Baby Love - Stage One

Throughout time, painters and sculptors have sought to capture tender moments of mother and child.   The appeal of the mother/baby image is universal and timeless.   I'm thinking there are few, if any people in the world that can't connect with the classic 'mother holding child' image.    I personally have always loved the intimate Mary Cassatt scenes, chubby babies staring into their mother's eyes, maybe placing fleshy fingers on her face as babies often do.

Our family's babies tend to have perfect faces and I really don't think I am exaggerating. :)   When I saw this photo, I thought it looked like my niece was in a near state of reverie as she held her precious baby.   He had grabbed a tangle of her hair around his chubby fingers to pull her face closer.

Baby Love Final

As you know, I have generally been too cautious with respect to including babies in my paintings.   It really is hard to do justice to their flawless little faces.   I continue to work at it because it has turned out to be very challenging and rewarding.

In Stage One, I was working at getting an accurate drawing.  I wanted to make the baby be perfectly in focus and blur Mom somewhat.  Everything else would be underdeveloped.   Then I started on the hand which I loved because it leads you into the painting.  

My own assessment at this point is that the baby looks like my grandnephew, but his mom, my niece, not so good a resemblance.   I do think the feeling of a mother's love comes through.

This is one of my two entries in the March Boldbrush Competition.   You can help boost its rating by clicking on the following link and then hitting the Facebook "Like."

http://faso.com/boldbrush/painting/63035 

Icehouse Lane Winter Marsh View

Underpainting

Winter Marsh View from Icehouse Lane - Stage One

Winter Marsh from Icehouse Lane

There have been few mild days and the New England snowpack is still intact.   The sun is setting later though and the colors have been spectacular.   The pre-dusk light on the snow has been pinkish-yellow against the long cornflower shadows.   It has been begging to be painted and so I resolve to layer up and get out there.

I threw my long down coat, headband and knit gloves in the dryer and while they were heating up I loaded the car with my gear.   I was almost too hot as I drove the short distance to the end of Icehouse Lane at Barna Road in Marshfield.   The view across the salt marsh to Duxbury Bay was a snowy white tundra.   Miles Standish Monument was visible in the far distance.   Next closest was the Duxbury Bay shoreline and Great Wood Island.   In the foreground was the dense underbrush with plumes of orangey salt marsh grass at the edge.   Closest to me was a snowy embankment about 4 feet tall.   The snow shadows were darker than my initial mix, so I kept comparing until I had a good match (pthalo blue, cobalt blue, asphaltum and flake white).


Icehouse Lane Winter Marsh View

Generally for me there is no danger of overworking a painting when it is this cold.  My biggest technical problem was that the paint was too stiff.   I had used a trick that painter Stapleton Kearns uses for painting in the cold, and that is to make a circle of titanium and pouring medium in the middle to soften the paint as needed.  This certainly helped but as the finished painting reveals, the striations of paint made by the bristles never relaxed and are still visible.

The final work on the tree I did back in my studio.   It was a combination of dark shaded branches with no snow, snow shade color (a deep blue), and brightly lit snow branches.

Penny Paintings

Masters Snippets - Penny Paintings

I thought I had had a novel idea, and that was to create original oil paintings on shiny, copper pennies.   The idea hit me as some coins were being placed in my hand recently.   I knew that painters sometimes use copper substrates, but not the size of a penny.



Floral - Penny Paintings

I tried a yellow rose, a winter snow scene, a couple of miniature portraits.    I loved the smooth copper surface.  Could I possibly be the only painter who thought to use them?  I googled "penny painting," and a painter names Jacqueline Lou Skaggs turned up. She had worked on her series of twelve pennies back in the 1990's.   Her penny painting story was covered in the news as she used pennies she had found on the ground, enjoying the idea of "defacing" an old penny, which ironically, then inflated its value.

Landscape - Penny Paintings

For my pennies, I decided to mix up the subjects - some landscapes, still life, portraits, etc.     I used pointed sable, watercolor brushes small enough to work the oil paint onto the smooth shiny penny.   Working on these penny paintings seemed to satisfy my love of working on the fine details.   It was almost like I could get the microscopic detailing out of my system via the pennies - sparing my larger paintings, where it wasn't needed or appropriate.   And they're just pennies, so it didn't matter if they didn't come out too well.... which is probably the right frame of mind to be in for good results, and I loved them.

So what do you do with a penny that has a pretty little painting on it?   Some options might be to:


1) Put it into circulation (anonymously), and see if anybody notices.*
2) Carry a special one in a pocket as a good luck charm (or a worry bead?).
3) Mount it into a coin snap and display it like you would a commemorative coin.
4) Sell in an art gallery or shop.

You've probably guessed that the plan is to enact all four options.

View the initial twenty penny paintings at South Street Gallery in Hingham, currently the exclusive source for these originals.   They are framed and can be displayed with mini-easel (provided).   Each original in the initial series is being offered for a low inaugural price of $34 each.  

*Penny painting search - I'll be distributing five pennies via ordinary change transactions around the Boston/South Shore area in the next week or so.   It's is a long shot, so - if by chance,  a) someone comes across a penny painting in their change, and b) they notice the name on the back, and c) they google it, thus finding this post, I'll give that first lucky person a 9" x 12" oil painting. 

And of course if a blog reader comes across a penny painting, you'll know what to do - let me know!

Rocky Shoreline in Tropical Paradise

Tropical Rocky Shore - Stage One

Moist tropical breezes, warm turquoise water and "effectual" sunshine.  Is there any wonder why these came to mind on this, the night of shoveling out from yet another snowstorm - this time wet heavy snow.     Continuous cold and snow is to be expected for this northern latitude, but by working on this painting (started last spring), I relived a bit of the tropical attributes of Vieques, Puerto Rico.   On this unspoiled oasis, the absence of commercial development was astounding,   We literally saw no other people as we trekked and waded for more than a mile along this rocky shore - half in the water and half on the sand.     The strong sun made all the colors look brighter and more vivid water, rocks and palm trees.    And it looks so warm!


Tropical Rocky Shore

Self Portrait

If a painter would like to work on a live portrait - and there is no model available, self-portrait work is the only option.   Staring for hours into a mirror with the goal of creating a good likeness has always been a challenge.   The task has become less daunting with the realization that it is no different than producing a realistic still life or landscape.    Highlights, shadows, and lines (many lines) all arranged in a precise order magically become an image.   True to most self-portraits, the facial expression in this charcoal sketch seems serious and even scary.

Snowy Gazebo

Snowy Gazebo

With two fresh inches of snow, the scenery looks as you would expect for the end of January in New England.  Along the main route in Marshfield, there is a small gazebo just down a sloping boardwalk path from the Veterans' Memorial parking lot.   It wasn't plowed so I drove over a small snow pile to get just far enough into the lot to unload my gear.   It was mostly shady, but there were slivers of sunlight illuminating the left side of the gazebo and that was what caught my eye.   My substrate was a 12 x 16" Centurion Linen Panel which I had toned with pale blue.



Snowy Gazebo

My "snow in shadow" color was ultramarine blue, asphaltum and titanium white.  My sunlit snow was titanium with minute streaks of naples yellow, cadmium red light and cerulean blue.    The underbrush and woods beyond the gazebo looked bluish brown with some reddish accents(ultramarine, raw sienna, burnt sienna.   Some of the underbrush to the right was sunlit and appeared quite gold.

I loved the result of the subdued winter palette.   In the bright cool winter light of outdoors, all the subtle colors were plainly visible and you might even say vivid.   My feet were freezing so I finished up and packed up, all the while thinking of a nice hot coffee.

Back in the dimmer light of the studio, I was not so enthralled with the "subtle" color.  What color, in fact?   I still liked the freshness of the painting and the fact that not everything was spelled out.   I added some colorful accents with the same colors I had used outside, but stronger, so as to account for indoor light.   Maybe I'll add even more color, but for now, here it is.