The Blog

Easton! The word brings joy to the heart of any plein air painter…especially those who have been juried into the event as I was fortunate enough to be for my 3^rd consecutive year. Plein Air Easton takes place every year around the 3^rd week in July in Easton, MD which is about halfway down the Delmarva Peninsula. A combination of fabulous coastal views, rolling farmland and a lovely historic and picturesque village ensures plenty of painting possibilities. It is also the best run event that I know of from the organizers of The Avalon Foundation, the entire community and a small army of very dedicated volunteers who all work very hard to make things run smoothly and with incredible efficiency.

For those of you who might not read this entire post I will get to the big news right at the outset…I won an award! “The Utrecht Award of Excellence for Best Use of Light.” Trust me when I tell you that winning an award in Easton is no easy task and, considering the extremely high level of competition, is something for which I am very honored, proud and humbled. I did not get a good photo of the winner but do have the following shot of it hanging on the wall in the awards room.

 

 

"Moored at Dawn" 8 x 10 o/c Sold

 

The competition was extended by an extra day this year and 2 “pre-paint outs” were added as well so I was on the road for 11 days. This is made much easier by the availability of “host families”, people in the community who are generous enough to open their doors to the artists for the duration of the event. I stayed with a lovely couple just south of downtown Easton and they were most accommodating with the crimp that I’m sure my schedule put in their usual routine.

The Eastern Shore of Maryland in July means heat and while the heat was not as bad as in years past we still had a couple of blistering days in the middle days of competition. Most of us try to get out for the early light, crash at the host’s house in the midday and then head out again in the late afternoon to take advantage of the late day/evening light.

One nice surprise was an offer to 3 competition artists to paint Billy Bragg while he performed at The Avalon Theater in downtown Easton on Sunday night. I was one of the 3 artists chosen and set up my easel against the wall to the left of the stage. Bragg split his set into two parts; the first had him sitting and playing his tribute to the music of Woody Guthrie on an acoustic guitar and the second set featured him standing and playing his own music on electric guitar. I chose to paint him during the first set, when he would be reasonably inactive. This set only lasted about 50 minutes but I worked like mad to get the following piece done. It is by no means finished but it had an energy that I liked…and Billy Bragg got himself a new fan in me!

 

 

"Billy Bragg" 11 x 14 o/c I'll probably clean this up a bit but liked the "roughness" of it.

 

Aside from a couple of quick notes there is no need to talk about each of the following paintings. They are all typical of the area and represent about half of my output for the week. I have not worked out a good way to get good photos of my work while out on the road so that the following are all I have to share with you. In all I produced 11 paintings and sold 6… it was a good week for me!

 

 

"Cooke's Hope Pine" 11 x 14 o/c Painted not far from my host family's house just after sunrise.

 

 

"Evening Shadows at the River House" 8 x 10 o/c. My first painting of the week at welcoming dinner held at The River House on the grounds of The Easton Club.

 

 

"Pentaquad's dawn" 12 x 12 o/c. My last painting of the competition painted at dawn on Thursday morning. This rather idyllic scene was painted on the shoulder of an overpass on a very busy road! The title refers to one of the characters in Michener's "Chesapeake".

 

 

"Sunflowers and Cumulus" 11 x 14 o/c Sold

 

 

"The Robert Morris Inn" 12 x 16 o/c. A rare time where I didn't finish during the first session and returned the next evening. The Inn sits just across the street from one of the oldest running, private ferrys in the country. I think the Inn was built in 1710.

 

 

"Tilghman Morning Light" 11 x 14 o/c. Painted out at the very picturesque sea side village of Tilghman Island.

I leave in a couple of days for an invitational event in New Hope, PA. More on that after I return.

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link under each image to view purchasing details. The price includes shipping costs.

Just a quick post this week as I am busy, busy, busy! I’m getting prepared to leave for my 3^rd year at Plein Air Easton in Easton, MD. Easton is one of the best attended and very well run juried events and is the premiere plein air event on the East Coast. It has been expanded a bit this year, so much so that I’ll be painting for almost eight days! It is a beautiful area on the Eastern Shore of Maryland…great coastal scenes along with a lot of bucolic farm land. We paint for a week and then submit ten pieces for the show of which we designate two as our competition pieces. The exhibition opens on Friday night the 20^th when sales are usually very brisk and the awards are announced. It is a very exciting night…Friday night in Easton is, for me, second only to Christmas Eve!

 

The only draw back is that it is the Eastern Shore of Maryland in late July and it is hot! We saw regular heat indexes over the past couple of years in the 115F range. But being uncomfortable is all part of the plein air experience! I will have a full report with images of the paintings when I return.

 

I did get out painting a bit over the July 4^th holiday. I found a lovely spot to set up at Crescent Beach in my old home town of Glen Cove, NY. It’s not often that I manage to get set up in the shade of a tree with a cool breeze blowing in off of the water. I was happy with this painting…it looks like home.

 

 

"Crescent Beach July 4th 2012" 11 X 14 oil on canvas. Click onthe link for purchasing details.

 

I normally like to include an American flag in any paintings that I do on a holiday such as July 4^th and had the following scene all picked out in advance. However, when I arrived on the morning of the 4^th it was a bit overcast and the view just didn’t work for me. I returned the next day and conditions were just right so I named this one…

 

 

"The Fifth of July" 12 x 12 oil on canvas. Click on the link for purchasing details.

I’m not too picky when it comes to inspiration…I take it when it happens. Often the most sought out and planned subject comes to nothing while the flash inspiration seems to, more often than not, almost paint itself.

 

Recently a friend sent a photograph to me that she thought might be something I’d enjoy painting. And she was right…an old barn/shed with a rusted metal roof, part of it offering a peek into dark, mysterious shadows complete with a foreground of gorgeous bluebells. The oranges of the rusty roof worked very nicely along with their natural blue compliments.

 

As most of you know, I am an on site landscape painter and it is usually with some trepidation that I choose to work inside from photographic reference. When I do, I endeavor to get the same kind of look and feel that I get when I work out doors. I try to not get too hung up in the detail and work at the same pace I do out doors to achieve a painterly look. In this kind of situation I try to make the photo my own.

 

This first image is a small sketch which I did during my class at The Village Artist in Huntington. As I mentioned before, I am really just trying to make an impression of what is before me so I didn’t spend more than about 90 minutes on this. As a way of saying thanks for the reference I have decided to give this sketch to my friend who sent the photo to me.

 

 

"Rhapsody in Varying Shades of Blue" 12 x 9 oil on canvas. Private Collection.

 

I liked the sketch a lot. I rearranged the foreground flowers into a very natural path which leads the viewer’s eye back to the shed. I thought the composition worked very well and decided to take the whole one step further. Using mostly my sketch, I decided to work this up into a larger piece. The problem becomes compounded now as A larger surface offers more area which artists will sometimes use as an excuse to pile in more detail. I wanted to avoid this trap and try to keep the larger finish as loose and painterly as the small sketch. I gave myself an afternoon to paint this to further lessen the temptation to go too far.

 

 

"Bluebells" 20 x 16 oil on canvas. Sold

 

The next, small painting is another very fast attempt at capturing a fleeting light effect. I wanted to maintain a warm glow in this piece and, too that end, under-painted in warm, orange earth colors before adding in the true colors. I’m pleased with the raking light effect on the shadow side of the near house. This painting reminds me of the summers my family spent on Fire Island.

 

 

"Beachfront Property" 9 x 12 oil on canvas. Click on the link under the image for purchasing details.

 

Note that all of these small sketches are available for sale directly from me via this website. Simply click on the link under each image to view purchasing details. The price includes shipping costs.