Gerry Lake, en plein air, 16x12"

This painting was done over a year ago at Gerry Lake near Oxford, NY, when another friend an I joined the Colorscape Chenango Plein Air Painters of Central New York for a day of painting.

I have recently reworked some areas that were bothering me, and lightened the color of the trees. Because this was done on a coarsely prepared board, toned with red, I had to be careful of not clogging the tooth too much. This kind of surface gives the work an unfinished quality that I like.

On a different note, I have to confess that I did not paint at all this past week simply because my studio has become a mess. It's bad when you can't find colors you know you have. I wish I was the kind of person who uses a pastel stick and puts it back where it belongs after each use. But no; mine end up in an dirty pile and now I'm paying for it. It's a very bad habit that I need to get under control. This coming week my goal is to neaten my working area and rearrange my pastels in a way that should make it easier to keep clean and organized.

Miniature paintings, 5x7"

Storm Cloud near Tully -SOLD
I have been accepted once again to participate at the Plowshares Craftsfair and Peace Festival in December. For shows of this kind small paintings sell better than large ones, so I have begun preparing for it.

I painted these two this weekend. The more detail there is, the harder it is to cram it all in, as it happened in the second one.

Meadowbrook Pond -SOLD
I don't consider them studies, as many artists do when working in this size. I see them as paintings in their own right, and I frame them only when they look right to me. If I feel inclined to make a larger version of any of them, I already have the advantage of being familiar with the scene and color scheme, and very often the second version turns out better.

My husband call them "postage stamp paintings", but framed in a wide frame they look nice.

Leetonia Road, en plein air, 12x9"

As we had done in other years, my family and I spent Labor Day weekend at a friend's camp in Leetonia, in northern Pennsylvania. This area is close to the Great Canyon of the East.

There was so much green everywhere that I did not feel like painting; after some thinking I realized I was afraid of failing even before starting. So basically, I forced myself to paint. This in turn forced me to look more carefully at the possibilities I had before me, and this partially sunlit road offered the most interesting subject.

I think the correct name of the road is Painter Leetonia Rd.

Old Forge Plein Air Paintout

Adirondack Cottage, 9x12"

This past weekend was the Plein Air Paintout at Old Forge, NY, that culminated in the auctioning of donated artwork to benefit the new art center, View.

This first scene is one that I have been studying since I took a workshop with Susan Ogilvie in May of last year. It's a private entrance seen from the parking lot of the old arts center. It seems that having all this time to ruminate on the scene helped me immensely because the painting went very smooth.

After checking several places for painting potential I decided to go to the Moose River. This area is one that everyone sees when entering the town.





Moose River by Rt 28th, 9x12"
(donated)