river islands late day

cool water hot rocks

outward bound kayak

I have been teaching a class, Evening Landscape Painting on Location, sponsored by the Yellow Barn Studio. The class meets at various outdoor locations Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm. I haven’t heard of anyone else who teaches a weekday class  as the sun begins to set; maybe I am the first! It is a real challenge, even for an experienced painter to paint en plein air when the light is changing so rapidly. But it is amazing to watch as the colors mutate from deep orange to deep blue, with purples and turquoises to match, within the space of a few hours.  The paintings that you see here I painted down along the Potomac River, at the Anglers Inn entrance.We met there the first two weeks of the class.

Construction/Destruction

This large, 3′ x 4′ painting was inspired by photographs I took of an abandoned field that was slated for a housing development. There was some sign of construction, of freshly dug raw earth and plastic orange  fencing and piles of dirt but basically with the economy the way it is the site has been left in this in-between state for over a year. Right next to this is a new shopping mall that is only half occupied. You can see this in the upper left part of the painting. I think what attracted me originally to the site was the  orange fencing against the green grass. While I worked on the painting I added gestural orange lines that seemed to suggest plans for future building. If you asked me to explain what this painting was about I would say something about the contrast of land as an actual place vs. our concept of ownership and business. But really I just like the way orange glows against the other colors and the spidery lines of dry grass. I feel like the hole in the earth might conceal buried treasure.

Signs of Civilization

This is a revision of a previous work (see February 12). I had painted over the original with large ‘x’ like shapes that looked like freeways. Mostly I did this out of frustration hoping that if I did any crazy thing that that something would come out of it. Of course it looked crappy. But I had kept a photo of it at an earlier stage  and after a while thought it didn’t look so bad. So I just repainted it to match the original, making improvements where they seemed to make sense. Hope you like it

No Smoking

Instead of painting from a still life of model, I thought I would try to make something up. I just started this small work filling in the background with a smooth gradation with a large brush, then filled in some white shapes here and some dark green shapes there. It seemed a little skewed to the blue-green range and was crying for some red. What better way to tie the painting together than with a big red “X”? I added a little house and connected the white cloud shapes to the house’s chimney. Is the painting a warning to clean your chimney before you light a fire? Or is it just a silly excuse to paint. You be the judge.

Red City

Though recently I have been drawing mostly, I have also been working in acrylic lately to ease myself back into painting. I am also looking for a subject matter that I can sink my teeth into for a while. Since I have done several paintings of urban scenes that have been well received, I thought I would continue in that vein. Typically landscape painting focuses on more rural scenes probably because people find natural subjects more pleasant and relaxing to look at. I mean who wants to look at the freeway after driving on it all day? But living only blocks from the national Beltway, the subject matter is close at hand for me. And maybe there will be some kind of catharsis in the viewer who will take a new look at their surroundings on their daily commute. Anyway I have always been more of a city boy.

Blue City

Heaven & Earth

I have been teaching a class as part of the faculty of the Yellow Barn Studio, my first job teaching landscape painting. The class is held in the evening outdoors. This is challenging because of the rapidly changing light, as well as the usual “plein air” painting problems: rain, lightning, etc. I chose the grounds of the National Cathedral as one location to paint. The tall towers of the cathedral were sure to catch the last rays of the setting sun. I painted this small work as part of the preparation for the class. I find the cathedral and the way that its spires capture the light very inspiring. I am never quite sure what color the building’s stone is. Is it pink, yellow, orange, tan? I will have to try combinations of all of them and see if I get it right.

Nearing Spring

The March weather has been warm and dry on weekends so I have painted the last two Sundays along the Potomac River near the Anglers Inn entrance. The first painting, above, was painted when there was an overcast light all day. The soft diffuse light had the effect of enriching colors not dulling them and gave a slight pink cast to everything. In comparison, the sky seemed to have a green tint to it so I started with an overall light green base. The final  color scheme turned more blue and orange but the traces of green left help to give the overall colors more balance and may serve as a hint of spring yet to come.

Lead the Way

This next painting was done the following weekend in much the same spot but I set myself in and among the rocks that you only see in the distance in the first painting. Lately I have been using a camera before I paint. The small preview you see in the back of the camera gives a good idea of the basic forms that are often hard to see with the naked eye. For example you are so used to seeing the sky that you don’t often realize how dominant it is. And afterwards you have a photo of what you took in case you need it as reference.  In this scene all I saw in the camera preview were the two basic shapes of the sky and its reflection below which looked interesting but I would not have noticed that without the camera. Something about this painting seems colder and more forbidding then the day actually felt. It was actually a pleasant day with people basking on the rocks. There seemed to be a constant party going on somewhere behind the rocks in the background of this picture but here those rocks look somewhat inhospitable.

"Candy Corner"

Another attempt to work with a limited palette but this time with the accent of the “Candy Corner.” This little building was left over from the days when Glen Echo was an amusement park. It hasn’t sold candy for quite a while, and I don’t think it is used for anything but storage, but it is still is kept up. I guess it just looks so interesting contrasted with the neutral colors around it, like a brightly dressed child surrounded by solemn grown ups.

"Radiant Congregation"

Recently I have been painting outdoors when the weather permits. There seem to be more colors in the winter landscape than in the summer. At least there are a lot more subtle variations of browns and grays. What exactly is the color are bare branches? Sort of a purplish brown or a greenish gray? I never seem to get it exactly right, which is why I keep at this, I suppose. I simply wanted to match the colors I saw in this painting, though there is something touching about how the two buildings seems to be having some kind of conversation.

January 20, 2009

During the third week of January, our house was full of guests visiting DC so they could be part of the inauguration of our 44th President. While I stayed home at home watching everything on a new 32″ TV set, they battled the cold, crowds, blocked roads, and general mayhem, just so they could be a part of this special time in US history. I was impressed by how calm our new President seemed and how much he seemed to be enjoying the whole long and elaborate ritual on what was a very cold and somewhat gray day. I felt the least I could do was do some work in the studio to make up for not being there. I tried to capture some of the spirit of Obama’s energy by modeling him somewhat on Superman and his ability to fly.