Madison Windmills, 8x10"-Sold

My plan was to start another painting based on the previous one, but this photo from the same area begged me to paint it first.

For several years I had seen the windmills in the distance and was very curious as to what they looked like up close, so last year my daughter and I went to Madison county in search of them. Not only did we take lots of pictures but also fell in love with the countryside.

As a believer in renewable energy, I plan to include windmills in some future paintings. The ones here are barely visible on the left.

Cumulus Cloud, 8x10" -Sold

The variable weather we've been having has gotten me in the mood to paint skies.

This small painting took me longer to finish than I had expected. Somehow, clouds always look so inviting and easy to paint but once I start painting them I realize that it's not so easy after all to represent their three dimensionality.

I've just got another idea for a different version of this... I'll better get to work on it!

A Fast Moving Front, 11" x 17"

This painting is based on the same reference photo that I used for Distant Pond.
While a larger format allows for more detail, it can also make things more difficult if you want to keep it loose. Perhaps that's why it took me over three weeks to finish it. Several times I thought it was done only to come next day and erase the previous day's work. I even added a dirt road -and still think it would have been a good idea, but it did not come out the way I wanted, so maybe another time, another painting.

I'm becoming more aware of how much one can learn from painting different versions of a particular scene. To avoid repetition you are always asking yourself what to add or remove to make the painting work.

The Rock Garden, en plein air, 9" x 12"

My friend MaryBeth and I went painting this morning to her next-door neighbor's garden. She had told me about this garden before but I didn't imagine it had so much to offer!

This scene with black-eyed Susan, mullein, and globe thistle, was the first one that caught my attention, so after scouting for a while I figured I needed some practice painting foregrounds and this one offered the perfect setting.

From the very beginning my goal was to practice, not to produce a finished painting; that took so much pressure off and I'm happy with the results.

The Orchard - en plein air paintings

The Orchard, 9"x12"
Beats me what made me do it , but I painted this last Thursday at midday when the temperature was in the 90's. I placed my box under a mulberry tree and once I started painting I wasn't that aware of the heat. It was done in about an hour--thus the level of detail, but one of the advantages I see on working fast on location is that one is forced to make decisions on the spot about placement of objects and values.

This year the orchard will be remembered as the year of fallow because besides the perennial bed, garlic, a tomato plant and a few herbs the rest is weeds and more weeds due to the work we are doing on the house.

The following are the previous paintings I've done from the same spot:

The Apple Trees - 2009, 9"x12"














The Scarlet Runner - 2008, 11"x11"

















The Garden - 2008, 13"x17"

The Old Barn, 10" x 10"

I wanted to have this piece finished and framed for the Lavender Festival last week but I had reached a point where careful consideration was needed, so very reluctantly I decided to let it rest for a little while.
Even today, after having taken a few final shots I impulsively added some blue green to the background tree, and that had the effect of tying things together.

Nick Lake and Moose River, 5" x 7"--SOLD

The 4th Finger Lakes Lavender Festival at Lockwood Farm was great, and from what I heard it's getting better each year.

Nine of my small paintings found new homes, including these two from the Adirondacks, and the one from the previous post. I loved this event because I had the chance to talk to lots of people, meet other artists, and even educate people about the pastel medium.

From my booth I had the opportunity to take lots of pictures of people picking lavender, and I have already been editing some for future paintings. I rarely include people in my landscapes so this project will be interesting.