This is the salt marsh at Caumsett State Park and this place has gotten into my blood. Normally it takes much longer for me to feel this way about a particular place. I used to need to have much more of a sense of familiarity, I needed to have been there often or to have something special take place there. Like Prybil’s Beach in Glen Cove where I spent so many summer days or Fair Harbor on Fire Island where I used to vacation with my family.

I had only been to Caumsett once before that I can remember. But in the early Spring of 2009 I was driving around to the more familiar places that I paint and I just wasn’t getting turned on to anything, not getting that feeling that says “Ooh, I NEED to paint that”. What I needed was something new, some place new and Caumsett popped into my head. I ended up spending a lot of time painting there this past season and will be back on the first moderately warm day because it has so much to offer.

I have painted out at the marsh a few times now. It is about a two mile walk with all of my gear on my back so it is not easy to get to. And, to be honest, it is not the kind of place that offers great views everywhere you turn. But the few places where I like to set up my easel are worth the walk. That coupled with the strategy of visiting at different times of day and in different seasons are what make places like Caumsett such a treat. There is always a surprise. And what I’ve learned is that an artist needs to be surprised. That can get into your blood with even more conviction than familiarity.

“Autumn At The Marsh” is for sale and available on this website. Click on “Paintings and Prints” to the left and then on “Website Exclusives”. The painting is unframed and the price includes shipping via USPS Priority Mail.

I’ve discovered crock-pot cooking! After just a little bit of preparation and an average of eight hours of cooking time you get a wonderful hot and nutritious meal and, as an added bonus, wonderful smells throughout the house. It is, for me, an ideal way for the busy artist to prepare good food.

The other thing I’ve discovered is that I’m spending more time in the produce department of my local grocery store. For a recent gumbo recipe I needed all kinds of things that I don’t normally buy including okra. I also needed some tomatoes and wandered over to where there sat a nice selection of wonderful red-orange vine ripened beauties. I settled on one in particular and separated it from the others by breaking off the dried vine and, when it was alone in my hand, I suddenly was taken with its nice shape and the wonderful pattern the vine made. I knew right away that I would have to paint it.

I’m sorry to say that this particular tomato did not make it into the gumbo as it was busy posing for me. It did, however bring us much joy after it finished sharing it’s beauty in the painting by becoming one of the integral components in the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches we just had for lunch.

"Still Life with a Vine Ripened Tomato and Fall Flowers" is available for purchase on the Web Site Exclusives page of this website. The price is $250 which includes shipping by USPS Priority Mail.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I did a week of house and dog sitting in north central New Jersey, Basking Ridge to be specific. My sister in law lives there and I was well aware of what a picturesque area this is and was happy to have a few days there to paint. Not 5 minutes from where we were staying is the lovely small town of Liberty Corner. It seemed to me that a fair chunk of Liberty Corner is made up of a beautiful farm called English Farm. I am thankful to the folks at the farm for giving me permission to park my car and wander around looking for subjects to paint.

The first day I was there saw abundant sunshine and warm temperatures. I set up my rig in a beautiful meadow and painted their beautiful barn. Upon returning home I worked up the original 8 X 10 to a more refined 11 X 14 which I call "English Farm". This image can be viewed on the "Available Paintings" page of this website.

Day two was a different story. Cloudy with a constant threat of drizzle...and cold! The kind of cold my old friend and fishing buddy Dave Pabst used to refer as "butt numbing" cold. But there is nothing like the colors of autumn to distract the on site painter from less than comfortable conditions. I was strongly attracted to the bright orange leaves of the round maple surrounded by an infinite variety of grays. And, I must confess, I am a sucker for cows. I could spend hours just watching them move and graze, move and graze. When I was near to completion the farmer took a moment to walk over and check on my progress. The cows, who were some distance away, immediately recognized him and wandered over to see what all the commotion was. I took a great picture of one of the black Angus while he views my painting with what I feared was an overly critical eye! This painting is available from Gallery North in Setauket, NY. Contact the folks at Gallery North at 631 751 2676 to add this piece to your collection.

Late afternoon or early evening has always been my favorite time of day. I like the feeling that the day’s accomplishments are behind me and that a well-deserved rest is at hand. For me it is time to stand back from the days painting so that I can take a good look with a critical eye. It is the time to wipe off the brushes, scrape the palette clean and pack everything up for the hike back to the car.

            Lately I’ve been doing a lot of small oil sketches on site with the idea of reworking them larger in the studio and “Caumsett Shadows” is one of those pieces. I was very pleased with this particular sketch, the light was just right and the large cumulous clouds kept following each other through my composition like silent giants. What was most important to me was that I could maintain the freshness of the quick oil sketch while rendering it on the much larger, more finished canvas, and I am very happy with the result.

This painting is the result of an interesting exercise for me. I had done a 9 X 12 study on site and had a picture that was taken while we were painting and painted this piece using this reference. When painting on site you are often able to get a feel for the light and shadow and value relationships but not too often get much of a “finished” piece. Sometimes I feel that the studies are enough and can stand on their own as a complete impression of the subject. But I wanted to take this one further.

I gave the piece the rather long title of “Lloyd Neck, the View Looking East Toward Eaton’s Neck”. The area we chose to paint is actually a private beach and mooring area for some of the locals. There is a long dock directly behind me with a number of skiffs tied up to it. These small skiffs are rowed out to the larger vessels moored in Lloyd Harbor. From there you navigate toward the east and out into Long Island Sound. We decided we could probably get away with setting up there for a couple of hours especially as it was a Monday and not liable to have a lot of “weekend traffic”. I’m happy to say that we were able to finish without being run off of the property!

The finished painting, as you see it here, is painted on canvas, which is taped to a 16 X 20 panel. I will eventually have to stretch it or mount it permanently to a sturdier panel and have not yet decided what the final size will be.

Every now and then I stumble on a subject that really appeals to my sense of what Long Island looks like and this view is no exception.

This is a piece that I really enjoyed doing but for completely different reasons than I usually set out to achieve. I was asked to do a demo at the Utrecht Art Supply store in Carle Place which is not too far from the massive Roosevelt Field shopping mall right smack dab in the middle of the Island. Utrecht was celebrating their first year anniversary in this location and had a number of special events going on as part of the celebration.

If you know this area then you know it cannot be confused with any of the more picturesque places I normally choose to paint. It is flat and lined with strip malls with lots of traffic on a very busy Glen Cove Road. So I decided to demonstrate from a photo I took a number of years ago of my favorite Hewlett House at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration.

Here on Long Island we were having one of the most humid days I can ever recall as Hurricane Bill was passing well to the east but was still pumping a lot of hot, humid air into the vicinity. I was set up out on the sidewalk in front of the store. Being in this kind of location under these weather conditions, painting from a photograph in front of a number of people watching my every brushstroke was, to say the very least, not the sort of conditions to which I am normally accustomed.

However, I am surprised at how much I like the result. I managed to get the canvas covered and did some rendering while I was demonstrating but did clean up a few details in the studio. I’ve never painted from start to almost finish for an audience before and I think the fact that I had to explain everything I was doing helped me to stay focused on my subject. But because I didn’t have a lot of time there is also a looseness or painterly quality in this piece that I find very appealing.

I should also point out that my compensation was a Utrecht Gift Card, which I immediately cashed in for a large umbrella that clamps to my easel. It would be difficult for me to put into words how much this excites me! But if you know me then perhaps you’ll understand.

I call this piece, simply, “Demonstration” and it is available on the “Website Exclusives” page. Click on “Paintings and Prints” and then “Website Exclusives” to purchase it “Demonstration”

I was ready to paint this! It had been two weeks since I got the rig out and set up, paints squeezed out, brushes in hand. We tried last week. We drove upstate in and around the New Paltz area looking for subjects, which were as plentiful as the rain that started coming down before we were even off the Island. I don’t mind a little bad weather, that’s just part of what I do. But I’m talking rain! The kind of rain my Aussie friend Avril describes as “pissing down with rain”.

So this week I was itching to get out and get something done. See, I’ve come to be very addicted to doing this, tossing the gear in the truck and heading out to look for something that excites me.   It bothers me now when I’m doing something other than pursuing the paintings. Everything else seems to be a waste of time.

This picture is actually the second of the day. We spent the morning on the grounds of Coindre Hall overlooking the elaborate boathouse and the Sound and I’m pretty happy with the result.

But this piece is the kind of view I’ve been looking to do since last week…well lit trees in hazy, late day summer sun. I didn’t want anything that looked to manicured but something that looked like it could have been out on the way to the mountain in Ulster County. And while I am not usually the kind of painter who finds that satisfaction comes easily, I am quite happy with this picture. It looks and feels like an on site painting and I think I was able to represent the kind of day that it was and that makes me happy. Not entirely satisfied mind you…but happy.

“Summer Color” is for sale and available on this website. Click on “Paintings and Prints” to the left and then on “Website Exclusives”.

This painting is the result of one of those strange days that will occur from time to time in the life and career of an on site painter. There were, to say the least, many opposing factors. It was a beautiful day, but hot. I was painting with my painting buddy Anthony Davis. We were in a beautiful location but had trouble finding a composition that seemed to work well as a painting, which meant a lot more walking than usual while carrying all of our gear. When we finally happened on this view and got set up and started painting, the tide came in so quickly that the path, which attracted both of us to this view, was soon submerged.

And then, there were the horseflies. Now I do not know of anyone who enjoys being bitten by an insect but I simply cannot stand it. In fact I cannot stand it to the point where it situates me on the verge of a panic attack. On this particular day there was evidently nothing very attractive about my friend Anthony, as they showed no interest in him. I, on the other hand seemed to be the object of great desire. But not all of me, mind you. Just on my socks!

Sometimes I looked down and saw 5 or 6 of the little bastards chewing on me. I seems that the more I sprayed my socks with insect repellant the more they were attracted. It was only after my socks were completely saturated that I was attracting nearly a dozen at a time! However I was more and more satisfied with the result on the easel and decided to work through my phobia and the painful bites. Never let it be said that Paul Bachem was chased from the field by carnivorous insects!

“The Lagoon at Caumsett” is for sale and available on this website. Click on “Paintings and Prints” to the left and then on “Website Exclusives”.

I often enjoy painting at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration, which is just off of exit 48 of the Long Island Expressway. The village consists of actual 19^th century buildings, homes, a church, etc. which have been moved from their original locations around the Island, brought here, and arranged like they might have been in a 19^th century village. The result is a lovely, quiet, bucolic place just where Nassau County meets Suffolk County at one of the most congested exits on one of the Island’s most traveled highways.

The Village often plays host to various events such as the Long Island Fair, demonstrations of 19^th century life and, on the day I visited, a Civil War battle staged by enthusiastic reenactors of this tumultuous period in our history.

My intention for going there to paint on this day was to try to portray one of the camps that were set up by the reenactors. But I have had the house I ultimately ended up painting on my mind for a number of weeks now and the light seemed just right. By that I mean that the light was just right when the sun wasn’t behind one of the many summer day cumulous clouds that moved across the sky on the warm summer breeze of the day. These are among the perils that on site landscapers must deal with as a matter of course and I will not vent my frustrations here!

After about an hour of painting I noticed that the “Confederate” army was marshalling and began to march to a dirge-like drum beat toward the staged battle which took place just out of my view behind a wooded area to the rear of my position. After a short time I heard the two armies engage, lines form with the outdated Napoleonic tactics of the era and the inevitable order of “Ready, Aim…”

I found myself very moved by the sounds. Volleys of musket fire, shouts, screams, the “Rebel Yell”, and thunderous cannon fire that shook my panel on my easel. Soon young parents began to retreat past me with frightened crying children for whom this all seemed too loud and too real. I was reminded of the civilians who went out to watch the first battle of Bull Run at the outset of the war, not at all prepared for the carnage they witnessed.

There was something about not being able to see the action, which made it all the more real for me. I began to think that while I was painting this genuine farmhouse, while listening to the unthinkable chaos of the battle, that there must have been some frightened soldier out on the field behind me…and all he could think about was getting safely home…home to the house I was painting.

“Hewlett House” is available for sale. For details, click on “Paintings and Prints” to the left and then click on “Web Site Exclusives”.

Things have been extraordinarily busy around here lately but I guess that is a good thing. Last weekend I had the opening at Bannerman Island Gallery in Beacon, NY and this past Friday night was the opening at Gallery North in Setauket. So, it was such an enjoyable experience to get into the van with my good painting buddies Anthony Davis and Jane McGraw-Teubner and drive in to New York City to paint in Central Park yesterday, July 18^th, 2009.

The reason for the schlep into the city was the new PBS TV series entitled “Passport and Palette” which follows different on site painters around the world and chronicles their experiences as well as sharing their advice. The main participants in the series i.e Kevin MacPherson, Ken Backhaus, Joe Anna Arnett, etc. were all painting and filming in Central Park near the Bethesda Fountain yesterday and other painters were encouraged to come and join them. It seemed to me at about mid-day that every New York painter who paints on site must have been there, all crowded around the fountain, including the great Tony Bennett who is a lover of painting and was doing a nice watercolor. There is probably no where else in the world outside of New York City that you can turn up to paint on a Saturday morning and end up working next to Tony Bennett!

I love living in such close proximity to the “Capitol of the World” and really enjoyed painting there. “Central Park II 7.18.09” is the second of two 8 X 10’s  that I did that day and is, as far as I’m concerned, the kind of view that makes Central Park unique. This painting is available for sale. Click on "Paintings and Prints" to the left and follow the link to "Website Exclusives".