Recent Paintings

Rising Tides
Boston is gorgeous this time of year, and it can be hard to find time for painting! But I'm collecting LOTS of scenes to paint, whether now or later. I've been focusing on coastal and nautical images, recording my first summer experience living in Boston. Here's some pieces I've been working on: (click to enlarge) I will get these posted in the inventory/price list soon!

RACE POINT LIGHT FROM HERRING COVE,
16" X 12", CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLY, 2011

This kind of lighthouse scene can be formulaic unless there is something unusual in the  interpretation of color, form and/or structure. I'm pleased with the reflection of light and movement in the water here--this series is a great chance for me to work on various ways to render the sea, a good artists' challenge. I think the tall bank of clouds lying tall against the horizon also provides a good sense of place. Years of visit to the tip of Cape Cod have taught me how weather systems linger on the edge of the mainland. I've favored a salmon and turquoise palette in this series too, but this is probably the most intense example.

DOCKHOUSE AND HOIST, CHARLES RIVER
24' X 16", CASEIN PAINT ON MUSLIN COVERED PLYWOOD, 2011

This is one of the most multi-layered pieces I've done to date, which is partly why I rendered it in a more graphically representational style, though still focusing strongly on elements of reflected light.  An achingly beautiful late afternoon in early summer from the Esplanade, just east of the Community Boathouse. The hoist anchors this scene as the centerpiece of a story about boating, from the magical play of light in the sails, to the motorized patrol skiff. I really like how the lights atop the hoist look like devilish little cormorant wings, ready to magically transport the hoist to a shoreline somewhere near Hogwarts.

LONGFELLOW BRIDGE AND SAILBOAT REEF, CHARLES RIVER
12" X 9" CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLY, 2011

Also from the Esplanade, but the west side, showing the boathouse reef against the distinctive pepper-grinder towers of the Longfellow Bridge. This is a smaller piece, and the richest and most painterly palette so far in this series. Pleased here with the deep pools of colors and shimmering serene surface of the river.

PTOWN BREAKWATER, SCRUB, AND COASTGUARD LIGHT
24" X 12", CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLY, 2011

This is dangerously close to a kind of pretty postcard scene that gives me a bit of the heebie geebies. But there is something about the scrub bush dead center, (hints of burgeoning spring leaf notwithstanding,) that pulls it away from a mere bucolic landscape--I hope! This is another Provincetown locale, heading towards the rotary at the end of Commercial street, on the way to the starting point of the breakwater. It's a ritual of my visits to the cape to hike across the rocks and out to the lighthouse. For an all-day hike, you can head all the way across Herring Cove and Hatches Harbor (don't try it at high tide!) to Race Point light (depicted in the top painting) before circling back to town along route 6A.

ON THE QUAY, DEEP TWILIGHT
16" X 12" CASEIN ON MUSLIN COVERED PLYWOOD

Another Massachusetts waterfront painting I've previously posted, but wanted to include here. While wandering home from a hike on Plum Island, I got a bit lost and found myself at this dead end. A beautiful scene at the end of sunset but with an incongruous light pole sprouting signs with regulations, warnings, and statements of liability limitation. Again playing with the conventional notion of painterly focal points, but adding a bit of commentary on bureaucracy and our litigious society. Hopefully kind of cool and pretty too.

Ancient Murals

More years ago than I care to recall, I did a mural for the home of some clients in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Their house had outer rooms circling a central core structure. Our staging conceit was that this core was a Roman Ruin inside a modern outer framework. Below is a picture of younger yours truly posing on the living-room side of a completed section. Depicting the dimension of rough-hewn stonework on a flat surface was a scenic artists' delight!  The second pcture shows me working from a beam on one of the tall corners sections. Residential murals are a natural bridge between theatrical backdrops and residential artistic painting. I'm interested in doing more!