All those little apples...

At the recent, "Fine Works in Miniature" show at Artistree Gallery in Woodstock, I showed five small apple watercolors.  The first was part of the fifty unframed pieces by fifty artists shown together....

 "Three Knobbed Russets"

7" x 7" - watercolor mounted on clayboard

Most of these paintings, including the one above, were inspired by lovely heirloom apples I discovered at the Woodstock Farmers Market....

"Three Holsteins"

7" x 7" - watercolor

"Three Queens of the Pippins"

7" x 7" - watercolor

This last arrangement made me think of a traffic light--hence the title....

"Stop, Caution, Go"

7" x 7" - watercolor

And I blogged about the creation of this painting last time....

"Three Cortlands"

7" x 7" - watercolor

Working small is an interesting challenge.  I enjoyed it immensely and will remember it as a possibility even as I go about stretching some big canvases for acrylic landscapes.  And all those little apples?  They made fine applesauce.

A Little Apple Still Life

I've been painting some small watercolors for the upcoming "Fine Works in Miniature" exhibit at Artistree Gallery here in Woodstock.  Here is the beginning of the first painting--the lightest yellows over a pencil drawing of the three apples....

Next come the oranges, greens and reds.  The middle apple is still at the beginning stage and the closest one is almost complete....

Moving along, the apples are completed....

Finally, the apples are grounded with shadows and "a place to live".  And here is the finished product!

"Three Cortlands"

watercolor - 7" x 7"

"Creative Harvest"

“Creative Harvest” is the current show at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, VT.  It is a community art exhibit that features two-dimensional work in all media created by seventeen local artists.  It runs through this Thursday, November 14th in the Mezzanine Gallery and is open during library hours, Monday through Saturday 10 am to 6 pm.  This is my entry in the show:

"Summer on Locust Creek"

oil on canvas

Stop by and take a look--it's a great show!

Some Fairly Random Thoughts....

This morning, I took myself to the Woodstock Farmers' Market to get some heirloom apples.  For painting, not for eating.   I came out with a great sandwich and some very cool apples:   

     •  three "Knobbed Russets", all green and webby, also known as "Old Maids in Winter" back in England in the early 1800's
     •  A "Black Oxford", not really black--more like a deep, dark purpley red
     •  three "Reine des Reinettes", translating to "Queen of the Pippens"
     •  a "Holstein" (apple, not cow)
     •  three Ashmead's Kernels, a lovely 300-year-old variety with sort of scruffy green skin
     •  one "Hidden Rose" which promises to have pink flesh
     •  a "Hudson Golden Gem", gold, red and lime green, popular in this country in the early 1900's
I don't have any paintings of these lovely apples yet, but soon.

Below are the two plain aire paintings I'm now showing at Artistree Gallery here in Woodstock.  The first was painted back in May off Church Hill Road in South Woodstock....

"Early Spring, South Woodstock"

11" x 14" - oil

And at the end of August we found this site just off route 14 in South Royalton.  While we painted a fisherman was enjoying a day of fly fishing just upstream to the left and a couple of very noisy trains whistled by to the right....

"Railroad Trestle on the White River"

oil - 9" x 12"

I love this painting and will be sad to say goodbye to it when it goes to its new owners....

It's been awhile....

Since I last posted there's been a lot of painting and showing going on.  Currently I have several paintings at Noah's Restaurant in Stonington, CT--a lovely spot on Water Street in a beautiful town on the coast.  Here's the first painting in the front window....

"July Field, Quechee"

30" x 40" - acrylic on canvas

Along the booth wall are three more, "Posted on Cobb Hill", "October Pasture" and "Sap buckets on Calendar Hill"....

And the paintings continue along the opposite wall:  "Swimming Hole on Locust Creek", "Densmore Hill" and "August Garden, Brookfield".  I think these plain aire frames set the paintings off nicely....

In all, there are 14 landscapes.  The show runs through October 27th, so if you're in southern Connecticut, stop by for a yummy seafood meal and take a look!

A Rainy Day

This morning plans were all set to paint plein aire but lo and behold it was raining.  Again.  So, Sandy and I set up in the Summer Studio and worked there listening to Ottmar Liebert's flamenco guitar and the falling raindrops.
We both worked on finishing paintings we had begun earlier and decided that the rain was a really blessing in disguise.  Here's the acrylic which I started way back in March, finished at last!

"Sap Buckets on Calendar Hill #2"

acrylic on canvas - 14" x 18"

The Process

I just completed a painting which you can see below in an early stage. Here,  the landscape has been brushed in quickly. 

As I continued, I brightened the sky and added details to the under painting.  I decided to balance the composition by adding a limb so that the tree would seem to "pose" for her portrait.  Here is the finished painting....

"Sap Buckets on Calendar Hill"

acrylic on canvas - 14" x 18"

Below is the photograph I took on March 17th and used for the painting.  As you can see, the painting in its finished state, differs substantially from the photo.  I was so tired of interpreting gray winter skies in my "Posted" series that I decided to crop out the background and change the mood with a blue sky.

There is a great advantage to working from photos.  When it is too cold to paint outdoors, I can work in the studio and change the landscape to suit my taste.  But I look forward to getting out to paint en plein aire soon as spring arrives and the weather warms up.

Posted on Cobb Hill

I've been working on landscapes that speak winter and mud season here in Vermont.  Often we drive by trees sporting posted signs and these signs make a colorful statement in the cold and gray scene.  This is my second painting in this series.  Last week this is how it looked:

After removing an errant branch, cleaning up others, adding darker values to the sky and finishing the sign, this is the finished piece....

"Posted, Cobb Hill"

acrylic - 14" x 18"

"Art That Celebrates Winter"

Snow is falling outside my studio window right now, and the media is calling this the Blizzard of 2013.  Having experienced the Blizzard of '78 while living in Massachusetts--four feet of snow and a week of "vacation" afterwards--so far this is disappointing!  Hopefully, before it is over we will have at least the expected 8" to 14" on the ground.

Speaking of snow, yesterday, I completed a painting for the Norman Williams Public Library's next exhibit entitled, "Art That Celebrates Winter".  It is an area group show which will be hung later this week in the Mezzanine Gallery.  The posted land that inspired this painting is on Advent Hill Road in Hartland.  Very seldom have I painted winter landscapes and this was a treat...

"Posted, Advent Hill"

acrylic painting - 16" x 20"

  The Opening Reception for "Art That Celebrates Winter" is to be next Saturday from 5:30 to 7 on the mezzanine at the library.  If you're in the neighborhood, please come by!