Cranberry Bogs Along Fuller St in Middleboro

Early Autumn Bog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gorgeous autumn tree colors, and the calendar say October, but the daytime temperatures would have you thinking May or September - warm and dry.   This is perfect weather for plein air painting.   The cranberry bogs are particularly pretty just before the flooding and harvest.  They get a distinctly crimson chroma, contrasting beautifully with the green bog fringe.   Of course the surrounding trees are often wildly colored and even clashy with the cranberry red color scheme.   But that's where a painter can even out the disharmony with a touch of cranberry color throughout.  See if you can spot where crimson brushwork softens the greens!

Golden Light at the Bog

Bog Pumphouses

Bog Pumphouses

 

 

 

 

 

 

A friend and I painted at this huge cranberry bog in Middleboro, MA.   The winding road with three visible pump houses attracted my attention right away.   I hoped to capture the perspective of just how big these bogs were by virtue of the diminishing size of the three structures.

The day started out a little cloudy and dismal, but gradually, it brightened.   Light changes can dramatically affect your painting.   "Chasing the light," is a common mistake, meaning, you paint your initial scheme of light as it appears (in this case cloudy - very pretty).   Then things may change.   The lighting scheme brightens and we observe the new light and paint that (in this case it became full sun).

The funny thing is, if you are really engrossed in the process, light changes may not be immediately apparent.   It's sometimes only when you start sweating that you realize it got warm and sunny :).  I did chase the light a bit, but since I worked the far horizon first, which is cooler and bluer - even on a sunny day, painting a sunny foreground an hour later worked fine.  I did have to go back and add the shadowy section on the road to be consistent.

I thought about adding the first visitor to our area of the bog - a coyote!   It was walking through the bog straight toward us but then, about 40 feet away, took a right turn away!  Yikes!   Plein air can be very exciting!

Late Light Bog in Winter

Late Light Bog in Winter

 

 

This bog is just down the road from me so I pass it all the time.    I've painted it before and I think I had become blind to how pretty it can be.   In winter, the cranberry plants become dark alizarin in color, which is part of the crimson/purple color family.   Dramatic long shadows were cast on the bog from the western trees.   Last week's snow was still piled up in a few low-light places.   All of this created an interesting scene, and the fact that it was a balmy 55 degrees made it perfect.    Since I was losing the light to early sunset, I painted quickly and somewhat wildly and was happy that I ended up with a very usable color study.

Pumphouse

Pumphouse - Duxbury Bogs

Unless you are a person who hikes local trails regularly or studies maps, you could never imagine how many cranberry bogs dot the Southeastern portion of Massachusetts.   Many bogs are no longer active, and slowly they become bird paradise.   Those that are actively worked and harvested resemble neat weed free crimson carpets.

I love spending time there painting and if you search this blog's labels for cranberry, you will find many paintings that feature local bogs.  The reasons are many - wide open space with lots of light, nice deep red color even in winter, and the high likelihood of spotting wildlife.

This pump house sits between two bogs in Duxbury and on this December day - post cranberry harvest- there were still plenty of fruits piled up along the edges of the bog, in contrast to the deep blue sky.

Cranberry Bog Snow Melt

Cranberry Bog Snow Melt

One of my favorite cranberry bog scenes is located in Duxbury, MA and is called Plucky Bog.   This bog is situated right alongside Route 3 in South Duxbury.   I've painted here on other occasions, and on this mild, mid-February the last of the shaded snow was still visible.   The shaded snow was blue, much bluer than you would think.   The cobalt sky had wispy clouds and jet contrails that happened to be angling opposite of the bog channels.   The linear elements seemed to point to the irrigation pump house on the far embankment, a good compositional feature.

At this spot in the past, a fox ran across the bog, some deer emerged from the far trees and red tailed hawks put on a swooping show.   Today, there were no sightings, other than the observation of a perfect winter day out of the studio!

 

Spring Bog after Snow

Spring Bog after Snow - Stage One

Spring Bog after Snow - Stage Two

This winter we've had less than average amounts of snow (thus far), so yesterday's spring storm provided some clean white trim to the landscape.   At the cranberry bogs, the deep crimson winter color looked stunning against the bright white and blue snow.  



Spring Bog after Snow - Final

I had a new revelation about painting in the cold.  I have decided that I paint more efficiently if it is cold and windy.   Perhaps I don't stop and watch my surroundings as much if the temperature and wind are harsh.   This painting was 90 percent complete at the 90 minute mark.   The colors were thick and vivid, if only I can leave them alone once it is ready for a frame!

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Here's a 360 degree view of where I was painting.
https://youtu.be/k5RnpOz6pWY


Gray Winter Bog

Inaugural Paint-Out with "Vanna"

The site of this paint-out was the Duxbury Bogs along East Street in Duxbury, MA.  The map and description in the previous blue link describes the three distinct types of landscape here, namely the "upland", the "transition area" and of course, the "cranberry bogs."  The forecast was "rain by noon," and I did finish by noon without ever seeing a drop - despite looking like it may rain at any minute.   I enjoyed swirling some pink, blue and lavender into my very gray-day sky.

Initial Set-up

Gray Winter Bog - Stage One

Cranberry bogs turn a deep rich purple color in late autumn.   I scooped up some alizarin crimson, held it up to the bog, and did a direct comparison.   The color was nearly exact, and the value of the bog was slightly lighter than the "out of the tube" color.  The intensity of the paint color was stronger and more vivid than the actual bog.   I decided I liked this pumped up chroma, so I used it "as is".

Bogs generally have a cool, moist and quiet feel to them, but substract the "quiet" part if it is 10 a.m., which was when I started painting.This bog is very popular for dog walking, giving me options for including a human/canine center of interest.   The pairs of Golden Retrievers were particularly colorful against the muted early winter colors.  The bright red hat of the owner also stood out against the dark pines.

Two Goldens and Red Hat

Local Cranberry Farm

A friend of mine and her husband own a beautiful cranberry farm and she invited me to visit for a paint-out.   She noted that the cranberry harvest was in progress which was music to my ears.   Bogs are harvested one at a time and although I do not profess to know the exact sequence and process, I do know that it is a gorgeous scene once the berries are jarred loose from the plant and float to the top of the flooded bog.

Local Bog - On Site in Progress

Gentle sloping hillsides led to the expansive bogs at the bottom.   Apple trees, cold frames and a rustic fenced vegetable garden dotted the winding country path to the bogs. Some of the massive trees that dotted the property had to be a century or two old.  It was as if I was in a remote rural location instead of a half mile from the busy center of our large town.    

Local Bog

I set up on a slope next to a couple of apple trees to my left, and behind me was the vegetable gardens and domed coldframes which provided a wind block.    From here I had a view of the harvest in progress with two thrasher machines skipping across the watery bog in tandem.     I had hoped for the classic and iconic crimson sea of berries being corralled, but the pre-flood,  maroon bog was stunning as well.  The foliage in the distance and the apple tree next to me provided lots of sunlit color as well.

I was imagining that this 2014 farm scene was probably not much different than it was fifty years ago or more.  It was truly like stepping back in time and a beautiful hidden treasure.

Autumn Festival at the Bogs

Autumn Festival at the Bogs - Stage One

It was Columbus Day, and for many people in Massachusetts, it meant a day off from school and/or school.  I set out to find a nice crimson cranberry bog, seeking mid-harvest action for this paint-out.   When I spotted this cranberry farm I fell right in line with the family filled cars entering the grassy field (converted to parking lot for the day).



Autumn Festival at the Bogs - Stage Two

The harvest had already been completed at this bog, but it was beautiful nonetheless.  Deep shades of maroon and purple served as the painting foreground and beyond the bog were the harvest festivities.  There were fire truck tours, hayrides and food vendors.   Cranberry bogs often have large sand piles for use in layering and patching the bogs.   During the harvest celebrations, these sand mountains are always a hit with the kids who love to climb to the top and tumble down to the bottom.   I spotted quite a few dusty looking children returning to their cars with family.



Autumn Festival at the Bogs

The day was mostly cloudy, but as always, I'm fine with that.   The filtered
light was consistent for the duration of the paint out, and it was a chance to capture some pretty clouds.

Cranberry Bog in January

Stage One

The deep freeze that had had a grip on us last week eased up and today was a paint out day.  It's mid-January but it was a whopping fifty degrees which felt like sixty-five to me.   I noticed that although most of the snow pack in the area had melted, the cranberry bogs were still covered with a white frozen layer.

I have painted at this cranberry bog along Route 139 and Temple Street in Duxbury many times, but never when it was frozen.   Usually the allure of the bright red cranberry harvest gets me to come here, but this winter scene was pretty in a different way.  I did the first painting facing southwest and the shadows were coming toward me.

Stage Two

There were tall, dark pines bordering the marsh on the far side, and another lower but more distant treeline beyond that spanned the whole background.   I liked the variety of tree heights against the skyline.  I wanted to keep the center of interest to be the tall pines and after I painted the foreground, I thought that those foreground grasses were competing.  I used a large flat brush to softly blur the foreground grasses and snow.

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Tall Dark Pines at Winter Bog

Temple St Bog Cedar - Stage One

The second painting was looking north and the sun was on my back (and the canvas).   From this angle, the frozen marsh was on the left, Temple Street was entering on the right and they converged at a big old cedar.   Not fussing with detail really makes the result better - I think.   I did pump up the color of the warm, gold grasses, for the sake of a prettier painting.    I really like the cedar's long blue shadow across the road.

Big Old Cedar at Winter Bog

                         SOLD

Back to Plucky Bog

We returned to a small cranberry bog in Duxbury called Plucky Bog.   This bog is situated right alongside Route 3 in South Duxbury.   We had painted here before in late fall at which point it was quite a bit warmer than it was today.  

Bogs in late winter/early spring turn a dark, rich maroon color.   Some of the snow in the distance had still not melted and the contrast looked really beautiful against this alizarin crimson bog.

Late Winter Plucky Bog - Duxbury

It was a spectacular sky as well.   I mixed both cobalt blue and cerulean for the deepest blues of the sky.   I created the midday clouds using my sky blue, the cranberry bog crimson and a little brown oxide to warm it up.   I used Gamblin Fastmatte Titanium White for the sky and I am so glad I did.   It enabled me to layer the clouds because of how fast this product dries.

I was facing South, hence looking into the brightest of the sun and snow. The blue shadows of the trees creeped out onto the snow.   The brightest snow and shadows alternated which made an interesting pattern on the farthest bog bank.

Plucky Cranberry Bog

Plucky Bog Set Up

There are dozens of cranberry bogs in the Marshfield and Duxbury area.  I try to be vigilant in watching for flooded bogs because I know that immediately following the flood, the cranberry thrashing and crimson harvest will occur.   I wish I knew the local bog harvest schedule because these bogs are tucked into various backroads that aren't visible from my regular routes.  



Plucky Bog First Painting Stage One

When I haven't been able to find a flooded bog, there are always the non-flooded bogs - the scene chosen on this day.


Plucky Bog First Painting Stage Two

The "Plucky" cranberry bog is located on East Street in Duxbury and it runs alongside Route 3.   Aside from the constant whiz of highway traffic, the spot was perfect for painting a typical Southeastern New England cranberry bog scene.     It was not flooded, but rather it was moist, peat-rich, and dark magenta color. 

The color shown in the Stage One painting depicts a magenta shade that was too light and too intensely purple.  The morning sun was to the east and it was casting light on the far grassy bank.   There was a pumphouse on the other end used for feeding the water channels that surrounded and cut through the bogs.


I started a second round of changes lightening the sky and adding the jet contrails.  I also changed the color of the bog, making it much redder.   It was still not right. Although colorful, I though it was too red, so I put it aside.  I need to come back to this one.




Plucky Bog Second Painting Stage One

I grabbed another canvas and turned toward the south.  

Really accomplished artists would never begin another painting for the reason I did at this point.  The reason was that I had a lot of paint on my palette and I didn't want to waste it!   


Plucky Bog Second Painting Stage Two

Quick studies with leftover paint mixtures can be pleasant surprises and this was one good result I think.  



The painting that got the least amount of time turned out the best.   I think it is true that warming up can be a valid exercise for painting as it is for anything else.  It can help a painter get into a groove, work out some flaws and can result in a fresher more spontaneous result.   






Green Backhoe at Duxbury Cranberry Bog

One of my favorite spots for painting is on a stretch of Route 14 in Duxbury, MA at Temple Street next to a small cranberry bog.   This is the same location painted in another one of my paintings, "Pumphouse and Trailer."  A large, aqua backhoe appeared alongside the oxide red shed back in the spring.   I had been thinking that this old relic would make a nice, rustic painting subject.  I'm not sure this piece of equipment has even moved in the past seven months, but perhaps with the impending cranberry harvest, it will see some action.  

Since it is October, the tall summer grasses are leaning over and are bleached out.   In some areas the clover grasses look like they are having a rebirth due to the cool, damp autumn air, the only growth that looks true green.   Even the copse of trees beyond the backhoe and shed have a hint of rusty colored needles as does the ground beneath.   



Rt 14 Duxbury - Bog Backhoe Stage One

My canvas had been the beginnings of a seascape as can be seen in the Stage One Photo.   I blocked in the dark shadows of the distant trees and the backhoe.   Having painted many "red" barns and sheds, I know that they are really never red.   For this shed the sunlit red plane was a warm pink, made from cadmium red, naples yellow and some titanium white.   The shed plane in shadow was a alizarin, cobalt blue shade, with a darker version of that same hue just under the roofline.

Once I sketched in the two main subjects, the shed and the backhoe, I wasn't satisfied that the composition was unified.   I decided to play up the trunks of the trees in the distance between the subjects as a way of connecting them.   I feel like it made it better, but I wonder what an objective observer would think.

The small bog canal enters the scene on the left and winds back around the shed.   It was completely covered with pea green algae, which I didn't like, so I made it blue - initially.   The blue looked wrong and I don't know if it was because I knew it was made up, or if it was the wrong blue, but I decided to mix up some algae green and have it cling to the shorelines.



Bog Backhoe and Shed

The most fun for me as a painter is applying the last small touches on a painting.   For this painting, there were about four things I did at the end on the dry painting.  It amounts to punching up (down?) the darkest and lightest spots.   In applying these finishing touches, I try to do it in one stroke to give it a loose look

1) Retouched the darkest darks under the shed and backhoe.
2) Used my "sideways" bristle brush dipped in some naples yellow (and in some places cad red) to touch on the random dried out grasses. This softens the mid-distance greens too.
3) Mixed a cool white with just a tinge of cobalt to brighten the shed trim that was sunlit
4) Used a lemony (cool) yellow to lighten the sunlit side of the backhoe.


Corraling the Cranberry Harvest

I started this painting a year ago.   I loved the composition at the time, but I was not happy with the figures, especially the foreground figure in the painting.   I like to do the cranberry scenes in the fall when the bright, bobbing cranberries are harvested, so I gave it another chance this year.   This piece was painted using both a photograph that I took last year at the Makepeace Cranberry Festival (for the subject and placement), and a plein air cranberry harvest painting that I did on site last year (for color reference).

The workers were pulling a black corraling strip into a spiral that is used to gather the floating berries while a vacuum hose suctioned the berries.  The berries then passed into a sifting machine and were hosed off into an 18 wheeler stationed beside the bog. 

I virtually repainted the entire canvas, but having the ghost of the previous painting underneath made the adjustments quicker and easier.   Another benefit was that the overpainting resulted in some extra texture and color variation.

Manning the Cranberry Corral

This time for the figures I tried to think of each cranberry worker image as a collection of colored brushstrokes, rather than people.   This helped give an impressionistic look and improved the perspective.

My son who has a keen eye and on whom I rely to give me a critique toward the end of my paintings noted that one problem was that the shape of the corralled cranberries was somewhat warped and even though was accurate to the photo, it did not seem right in the painting.   He suggested straightening the distant edge of the red strip by widening the water.   I had been blind to it, but it made a big difference.

More cranberry harvest paintings are in progress since this is the season.   I'm not tired of the scene yet and hope you're not either.

Cranberry Worker

 I have been working on a series of cranberry bog paintings.  Cranberries are native to our Southeastern Massachusetts area and the bogs are one of North America's most distinctive types of wetlands.  Bogs are strange ecosystems characterized by thick sphagnum moss, acidic waters, peat deposits and a spongy, mat-like substance on the water's surface. Cranberries thrive best in beds within the bog, which consist of alternating layers of sand, peat, gravel and clay.  

Few nature lovers with a camera can resist pulling over to take pictures of the brilliant magenta of a flooded bog in the Fall.  Likewise, I can't resist painting them.  For those who aren't familiar with the cranberry harvest, here is a summary.  Each cranberry has a pocket of air inside of it, and back in the 1960's someone came up with the idea to flood the bogs with water to float the berries to the surface. The wet harvest has become the predominant method of cranberry harvesting used today.  The dry bogs are flooded with up to 18 inches (45.7 centimeters) of water the night before the harvest. The following day, the farmers use water reels nicknamed egg beaters to dislodge the berries from the vines so they'll float to the water's surface. The farmers then wade through the bog and round up the fruit with large wooden or plastic brooms. This process is called corralling. Once the bobbing berries are gathered together, they're transferred to a loading area where they're lifted by conveyor belts. (Sometimes, a pump truck will suck the berries right off the bog.) The berries are then cleaned before processing. More than 85 percent of the crop is harvested in this manner; however, the use of the water reel to beat the berries off the vines is relatively harsh on the delicate fruit. Therefore, wet harvested cranberries are used mostly for juice drinks, sauces, or as ingredients in other products.  

 

Although I have worked on several cranberry landscape paintings recently, I have been wanting to work on some that include the cranberry farmers at work.   I selected a photo that I took in Wareham a few weeks ago of a cranberry farmer waist deep in amid a bright pink flood of cranberries.   I placed my small plein air cranberry landscapes in view around this canvas so that I could accurately match the cranberry flood colors to my reference paintings rather than the photo.  I know my photo is more washed out than the cranberries are in person.

I have been "preparing" this canvas for a few weeks now.  I think that this underpainting will provide an interesting ghost because of the texture of the cranberries and the variation of the streaks of white, pink, red, and crimson berries.   

I drew my grid of thirds and sketched in the farmer so that his face was at the northeast sweetspot and his brightly lit hand was on the southeast sweet spot.   The worker is corralling the cranberries by pulling the rope with his right hand while detangling weeds with his left.  Next I fill in his overalls and made drawing corrections.  

I usually use a wildly colorful canvas like this and when I get to this point, I often look at the painting and think that I like it just like it is and that I ought to stop.  I like the darkest dark silhouetted against the colorful ground.   Of course if I was radical enough to do it, I would get rid of the grid lines, then call it done!

I press ahead by grabbing a big brush and filling in the background, letting some of the undercolor show through.   I started at the top using a mixture of permanent rose and naples yellow, gradually converting the pink to cad red and the naples yellow to cad yellow for the foreground.  I mixed flesh tones for his face, arms and hands.

I returned to the background because I wanted to make sure that the distant cranberries were receding.   I think it looks too whitish, so I'll come back to it another day - after Thanksgiving.   I'll be serving up cranberry sauce and a story about the cranberry wet harvest for my guests.

Cranberry Bogs

Pumphouse and Trailer

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Original:  SOLD

I have been working on several cranberry bog paintings, most of them started out at the bog.   I have completed 2 of the 3 that I described a week ago.   When the third one is done, I will post all three together.

I have been working on small canvases since Spring because when the weather is good - and this has been a great year weatherwise - I feel obligated to paint outside.   I have been itching to start something bigger and have been "toning" a 24X36" canvas with leftover paint for weeks now.     I was ready now to start a large cranberry bog painting.   All these smaller paintings have given me the color studies I need to get onto a big
 painting.



24X36 inch canvas with Vezina toning looked like this at the start

The undertones were filled with texture and color, perfect for an autumn scene like a cranberry harvest.

Starting photo

Next I worked on my composition.   I have several photos of bogs from Duxbury and Wareham.   I used a viewfinder with a proportion of 2:3 and reviewed my photos until I found a composition I liked.    Here is the original photo.

I decided on the cropping on the paper photo, then I returned to my computer and created a cropped version for my painting reference.     at this point, I was not sure what the foremost center of interest will be.   It could have been the electric meter on the shack or the wheel of the trailer.   The decision was delayed at that point. 

Pumphouse and Trailer in Progress

Cranberry Bogs

Roughing in color on first painting

I find cranberry bogs fascinating.   At this time of year, they are especially glorious.   I spent time painting this week at the bog in Duxbury on Route 14.   Warm October days may be my favorite.
I did three paintings from the same spot, the first one facing west, second facing south and the third facing south east.   Naples yellow and cadmium red, scooped onto my palette knife and spread onto the canvas seems to achieve the most accurate depiction of the floating cranberry harvest.



Second paintinglooking south across the bog.  Wind was blowing toward me and pushing cranberries toward closer bog bank.







Third paintinglooking southeast into the sun.  Working on a bright ochre toned canvas.


I have some decent photos for reference so that I can finish these off in my studio today, since it is pouring outside.