Yaz - Gate B

Yaz - Gate B

 

Summertime in the city - that usually means baseball, but it is 2020, the year of virus fears.   A Boston Red Sox fan favorite, Carl Yastremski played his entire 23-year Major League Baseball career with the team (1961-1983).   

After Carl's retirement, a beautiful bronze statue was created by Sculptor Toby Mendez.  Carl Yastremski,  fondly known as "Yaz", is depicted saluting his loyal fans on the day of his retirement.  The statue stands at the back entrance of Boston's beloved Fenway Park on Van Ness Street.  When we finally get back to Fenway, Yaz will be there at Gate B waiting!

Christmas Tea Pot

Christmas Teapot

With Christmas decorations all around, setting up a still life was relatively easy.    My Christmas teapot, given to me a long time ago by my mother usually gets a lot of use during this season, but this year it remains on display for painting reference purposes.  It sits next to my shell angel, gumdrop sticks and ornaments.

I hope you are enjoying all of your traditional decor in your homes, and the fond memories that they bring!

Inspiration from Historical Hassam

Marlborough Street - Childe Hassam

Every Spring, the Copley Society of Art holds an event called "Fresh Paint".   Dozens of painters head out into the streets and waterfronts of Boston to capture the scenes in the open air tradition, better known as "en plein air."

To this year's event there was an added twist.   We were invited to choose a painting from a list of forty famous Boston based paintings and use that painting as inspiration in the creation of our new piece.    I selected painter Childe Hassam's Impressionist painting of Marlborough Street shown here.

Inspired by Hassam Marlborough Street

My version, inspired by Hassam's city-scape, a corner in Boston's Back Bay, is missing the horse and buggies and the long dresses.    The red rooftops, long shadows and stoop-front roses remain very similar.

Fenway Park Gate B

Fenway Park Gate B - Stage One

Boston's beloved Fenway Park is nestled into the city surrounded by streets and back alleys, unlike the sprawling parking lots and plaza's of many newer professional ballparks.   That is precisely one of the reasons that a visit here is so unique, nostalgic, and energizing.   How do thirty-five thousand people get absorbed into such a small footprint, in the space of a few hours?  

Many of them enter through the back gates along Ipswich Street.   Here on the Gate B side, people can take photos with the statues of Red Sox legends such as Carl Yastremski and Ted Williams.   Trolleys typically use this corner for their hop-on/hop-off customers.     On this day, the corner was busy since it was a game day, but first pitch was still a few hours away.   Vendors were arriving and the cleaning crew was tending the area.  I think there was actually a anticipatory buzz in the air even though most of the fans had not even arrived yet.  

I thought that the biggest challenge for this painting would be matching the famous Fenway green.  That went well enough but surprisingly, the pavement proved to be a more challenge.   Given the bright sunshine, the blacktop was light grey with various shades of shimmer mixed in and it took a few tries.   The painting offers several points of interest including the statues, the garage, the trolley, the upper stadium, and the trolley with riders.

So remember, the next time you visit Fenway, check out the back entrance for a walk down the Red Sox Memory Lane. And incidentally, if you have children with you, entering through Gate K (for Kids) means extra fun and it is located just to the right of Gate B.

Beach Shelter in Winter

Beach Shelter in Winter - In Progress

This is the view from my childhood home, done from a photo taken by my niece just last week during a snowstorm.   Thank you Stefanie!  The shelters today look no different than they did fifty years ago, and I'm thinking that anyone who walks, runs or rides along Day Boulevard should recognize the shape of the roofline over the benches.  During the summer, they provide nice shade and during the winter, they provide material for a nice painting.

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Beach Shelter in Winter

Yacht Clubs from Kelly's Landing

Yacht Clubs from Kelly's Landing

There was a strong line of storm cells between the South Shore and Boston on this morning.    I would be driving straight into it.  The weather forecaster assured viewers that the weather would clear by 8AM, but it didn't.    The clouds and mist lingered as I set up along Day Boulevard in South Boston, MA.  This spot was always known as Kelly's Landing, known for its seafood and ice cream - back when ice cream cones were only 15 cents each. :)

The rain had soaked everything making surfaces look darker and shiny.   The old cedar shakes on the yacht club looked even darker against the cloudy skies.  Truthfully, this was an unpleasant paint out and the painting didn't turn out too good either.   As I've said before though, a bad day plein air painting beats a good day at the office - anyday!


Lucky Four Leaf Clover

Who doesn't like a four leaf clover and what it stands for?    The last time I may have had a real one in my hand was probably as a grade school child.   That was an age when there actually was time to sit around in a grassy spot and just comb through the soft clover - no place to be and no concerns about efficient use of time.  

I painted a four leaf clover on a penny earlier this year and it has since sold up at the South Street Gallery in Hingham.   I painted this four leaf (especially lucky) clover image on a new mailbox for my son's first home.     I painted it with love and warm wishes of good luck.....

One Word and A Twenty Inch Square

Canvas Stretched onto Cradleboard

This year's challenge for the North River Arts Society event is to transform a twenty inch wooden cradle board into a work of art - and - somehow integrate a word into the creation.  Signing up for these challenges is exciting because it really makes one push out creations that otherwise would never have been conceived.

Staring at this nice cradleboard square of sturdy wood, it did cross my mind that it could serve as the base for a three dimensional creation.   3D has never been part of my repertoire - and call me cautious - but I didn't want to risk doing failed experiment with a creation that would benefit the organization.  So my first step was to cover it with gesso'd canvas.

Thumbnail charcoal

I don't typically work on squares and every time I do, I really enjoy it.   Composition "rules" that are generally followed for rectangular canvases, aren't necessarily in play for squares.   For example the widely accepted guidance of not placing the center of interest in the middle of a rectangular canvas, can usually be ignored for squares.   Symmetry works just fine on a square.



Once Upon a Storybook - Stage One

In the spirit of the "people" work I've been concentrating on lately, I sketched out some scenes with small children playing.  I have been experimenting with unusual head placement/angles and one of my latest favorites is the head down angle. I composed a scene in which small children are gathered around a checkerboard - see thumbnail to left.    


After completing stage one, I swapped out the checkerboard for a large picture book - with, of course, a word.

I first positioned their heads within a circle drawn within the square.   Additionally I roughed in two tangents, the calf/shoe of the boy on the left, and the arm/hand of the boy on the right.   The book forms a strong quadrilateral shape to balance the square and circle.

Important:   If you are interested in the painting, it will be auctioned off Memorial Day Weekend at the North River Arts Society Festival of the Arts in Marshfield Hills, MA.





Once Upon a Storybook

Dad 1945

Dad 1945

The handsome strapping young sailor in this pencil/charcoal drawing is my Dad.  Dozens of vintage photographs were with his things.  He had taken the time to label each photo with names of those in the pictures.  That is, except for this one photo - of himself.  

I began with a two value drawing with pencil.  I expanded my value range to five, but was not satisfied with my darkest value until I introduced soft vine charcoal over the pencil for the darkest dark.  I used a stump to soften each value.

The familiar features (literally) common to the clan include the high arching eyebrows, straight full nose and prominent lower lip.  I see these features in myself and my boys.   I think it helped the flow of the drawing to know that these were the features that needed to be right.