"Shore View"

I painted this around 9am. My point was to give a good peek of the shore. Plus the dunes and the water are my two favorite beach elements.

All my paintings done while traveling are small, 5x7 to 6x8. I'd like to work larger but I don't have the strength to carry more than a small backpack of gear. Sometimes I see something that I think I'd rather tackle larger but the hassel of carrying a large canvas just hasn't been worth it. Oh well, isn't there a saying, "good things come in small packages."

6"x8" Oil on Linen (artist collection)

"Heading Off" (Sold/Private Collection)

Painted this on the Jersey shore in Stone Harbor at the end of the afternoon. I was attracted to the shadows created by large clouds moving across the beautiful blue sky. It was tricky as the light changed from cool to warm but I felt it was predominately cool shadows and warm light.

6"x8" Oil study ($145. framed)

"Avalon Dunes" 6"x8" oil

My next few post will highlight some of the oil paintings I did while vacationing on the Jersey shore. Although I'm really glad to live in this high-tech age, I discovered living without a computer and cell phone was really nice, for a while. Instead of grabbing a large mug of coffee and answering emails, I headed to the beach and worked on 2-3 paintings every day. Most of the paintings were palette knife pieces because an excited on-looker kicked over my turp. can (and easel) but this ended up being a happy accident. I really liked how painting with thicker layers of paint forced me to focus on accuracy and kept me from being tentative. Besides trying to get accurate values I'm pushing how far I can go with abstraction and yet still be representational.

On the Shore

In the evenings I've been playing with small format figure paintings which I recently called my "blop paintings." I'm really having fun in my own little bubble. They seem to work best if I'm working directly from life but that's not always possible so I've started taking a gesture from another painting and using it all on it's own, also working from my horrible little scribbles and photos.

A new collector of mine recently framed four to hang as a grouping. It gave me a boost to see them hanging and revitalizing that space in her home.

This is 6"x8." Which is the largest I think my "blop" paintings should be.

"Feeling Nantucket"

I was walking my dog near my home when I noticed this house. It struck me that it would look great sea-side and so the title. This piece gave me lots and lots of problems because I wanted to make it painterly vs. architecturally. Then there was the added problem of dappled light.

12"x12"

oil

Seascapes

These two oil studies represent the body of work I did during our two weeks in Costa Rica. My favorite location was right along the shore. Since I was anxious to get into those waves most of my oils were 8"x6."

6"x8"

oil sketches ($99. each)

"Morning Mist"

The humid weather created an interesting mist off the lake early in the morning. I quickly tried to capture the effect.

9"x12"
Oil on Linen
($290. +$6. s/h)

"just ripe" (sold)

I got into painting small veggies & fruit larger than life-size, during the winter. Their burst of viberant color brighten up the gray winter days and still gray spring. I think these bitty bites add a dash of color and life.

12"x12"

oil sketch