Fingers in the Sky

6x8 Oil on Linen

Painting in the neighborhood of the church this morning. This spot is a four mile drive from my house, which is across this creek behind the trees. If the creek ever freezes I suppose I could walk to work. A woman walked up while I was painting and said, "oh, you're just sketching. Did you bring a canvas?" Sigh.

Time for an update.

When I started this blog in April, I really just wanted to see what was involved. I wasn't sure I wanted to try to put my work out there quite yet, but I think now it's time to start trying to make this into a real blog. I do this for a few reasons. I have had a pretty good run with juried shows at the Art League Gallery in Alexandria and will be placing works for sale in their bin gallery beginning next month. I want prospective buyers to be able to find out about my work, and this blog seems to be the easiest way to invite that. Also, I have been looking at other people's blogs and at the people who are following their work, and there seems to be an online community out there that I would like to start edging my way into. That is where I was with the blog idea until Saturday when the stranger I was sitting next to on a bus from New York turned out to be an artist. He asked if I had a web site (yes, soon) and we pulled out our sketchbooks and talked art for a good bit of the trip back. So here I am, sprucing up the blog for the next time someone asks, as they often do when I am out in the world painting.

Sometime in the next ten years I want to shift my focus to painting full time. The run up to that transition will involve learning to see, one painting at a time. So with those things in mind, here is some of what I have been painting since April.

At the end of June I went to Longport for three weeks intending to paint every day. Didn't happen. We had a house full of family, which was wonderful, but I couldn't shift gears. I didn't paint until the last week when Mary and I were on our own. These are posted in no particular order. The little painting of the parish hall of the Church of the Redeemer was painted from the comfort of the front porch of the rectory. After that I ventured out further.

"Patch of Blue"

6x8, Oil on linen

The church where I work in Longport each Summer is on the bay. One block in the other direction is the ocean. I painted this one from the front steps of the church.

"Waves of Grass"

6x8, Oil on linen

I still have bites on my legs from the greenhead flies that didn't want me to finish this one. I'm learning to love grey skies, and often prefer them to blue. I also enjoyed the linen-on-birch panels I bought for this trip.

"Bridge Unbrella"

6x8, Oil on linen

I had painted under this bridge before, and since I forgot my painting umbrella, I needed a bit of shade in which to set up for bright-day painting. Shade can be hard to find at the shore, so I keep coming back to this bridge and this time thought I'd put it in the picture.

"From the Rectory"

5x7, Oil on museum board

I could almost see the shadow moving as I painted it.

"Windswept"

6x8, Oil on linen

These clouds blowing in from the ocean looked as if they had had a part in shaping this little island in the bay. This was painted from under the bridge in the earlier painting.

"Cove at Mount Vernon"

6x8, Oil on museum board

Again, I went out to paint what was there without driving all over, hoping I would be inspired. If painting is learning to see, then the picture is probably right in front of me. I stood in the picnic area of Riverside Park and wished at first that I could see that cove without that little tree sticking up on the bank in front of me. Now I'm kind of glad it was there.

"Afternoon at the Creek"

6x8, Oil on canvas

I have done a lot of driving this Spring and Summer looking for places to paint. I have had days where I set out to find a subject and have driven until I was no longer in the mood to paint. After one of those long fruitless jaunts I came home and remembered a path to the creek that runs behind my neighborhood. I have now painted there a few times. It is close, and the changing light and seasons should keep me going for a while.

"Morning Comes"

5x7, Oil on museum board

I spent a lot of the Spring thinking about painting and not really painting. I did some work on my paint box, adapting it to hold panels, and prepared panels and canvases that became an embarrassment as they sat there unused. Finally one morning I threw my gear in the car and headed out at sunrise swearing I would stop at the first turn-out along the river and paint whatever I saw. I got lucky and was home by 7:30 with this little painting.