Curious Cows

Yesterday afternoon I stood in a cow pasture to do this 9x12 oil on panel painting.  Fourteen cows slowly munched their way towards me until I was surrounded, but I didn't pack up and leave because of them.  The clouds gave way to a steady mist, and my panel started dripping, so it was time to leave.  The cows were quite curious about my painting equipment, but they let me go.

The Truck, Large Version, in Four Panels

This is a painting that I've wanted to do for a while.  It's a large 24x24 oil on canvas of the Haley Farm truck, familiar to anyone to has hiked from Haley Farm on the Greylock trails.  This painting actually is composed of four 12x12 panels.  It's a sort of 'panel' truck.

Field Farm Trees

A 12x12 oil on panel of some trees at Field Farm.

Baling

Wednesday the field nearest to the Hopper was being mowed when I did this painting using branches to screen the Hopper.  I had to paint quickly before the rows of hay disappeared into hay bales.

Upraised Hood

For a change of pace another drawing of the old Dodge truck, this time in pen & ink with wash and two touches of pastel.  I find old, broken, deteriorating trucks more attractive than any new ones.  They only drive your imagination.

Pear Screen

Yesterday morning, Wednesday, I first did the drawing on site to familiarize myself with the scene, and then started the painting, which I completed in the studio.  It's apparently an old pear tree, with some life (not seen) at the top only.  The tree screens the Hopper, along with another row of trees in the middle ground, and assists in countering green.  The light kept changing all the time so I had to remember what I originally liked about this view yesterday to complete the painting.   I took a couple digital photos during the session, which were helpful.

Red Truck in the Woods

One of the best ways to deal with green is to find a red truck in the woods.  Oh, look.  I just happened to find one.  This is a quick 8x10 oil sketch of an abandoned red Dodge truck in the woods.  I'll have more trucks soon.

Too Intense

A second painting that I did yesterday in the afternoon on the same theme as the morning's painting.  The Hopper is too intense.   Maybe my reaction to it is too intense.

In the Face of the Hopper

This morning I painted in the face of the Hopper, but used a fruit tree to partially block the Hopper.  It's too daunting to paint the Hopper directly.  On my Facebook page I posted a couple of photographs kindly sent to me by photographer John Kirby, who photographed me while working.  Actually I had already completed the painting, and was cleaning my brushes, but I do look busy.  The painting shows an earlier sunlight situation than appears in the photographs.

Fourth and Douglass

Another in the recent series of large Brooklyns that I am doing, this one a 24x24 oil on canvas of the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Douglass Street.  It's a companion piece to the previous painting of Washington Avenue with the cyclist, with a similar but different composition, which I posted on May 29th.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Quite recently I discovered a truck graveyard.  I did this quick charcoal drawing yesterday afternoon of one of the trucks.  I plan on doing more drawings and paintings.  There's something poignant and humbling about discarded or abandoned items that used to be 'important' to humans in a location where nature asserts herself.

Half a Hopper

This is this afternoon's painting, a 9x12 oil on panel of a partial view of the Hopper from the hay field to the right of the tree enclosed path leading to the hiking trails.

Looking the Other Way

Another 9x12 oil on canvas painting of a view near Five Corners, from the same spot as the other painting posted a couple days ago, but this time looking in the opposite direction, north instead of south, which I did a while back but did not previously post.

Behind the Barn

This 9x12 oil on panel is the other painting that I did yesterday at Haley Farm.  It's a view of the barn from behind, now accessible after the mowing.

The Truck

Today was a good day to paint at Haley Farm, not too hot. The sun was intermittent.  This is the second painting I did, an 11x14 oil on panel of the famous truck with the barn in the background.  Fortunately, the cows had been moved to the other pasture.  I only had to worry about where I was stepping.  I could paint this truck all day long.  It's not green either.

Near Five Corners

A 9x12 oil on canvas painting I did a while back but never posted.  It depicts a spot near the Five Corners intersection of Routes 7 and 43.

It's OK to Walk

Another 18x24 oil on canvas painting, this one after a drawing I posted on Christmas day of a scene at the corner of Grand and Fulton in Brooklyn.

Late Afternoon

This is a larger, 18x24, version of a painting I did a while back of a location on Third Avenue at the corner of 19th Street, with the Gowanus Expressway in the background meeting the Prospect Expressway.  The sunlight and shadows create a kind of Diebenkorn scape.  The time is April late in the afternoon.

Pine Tree

Yesterday morning I sat under a pine tree at Sheep Hill, and painted for a while: a 9x12 oil on panel.

Hidden Hopper

This afternoon I sat under another old tree looking left at yet another old tree that was hiding the Hopper, which is in the background.  The Hopper is a large v-shaped valley below Mount Greylock.  You can see that the field has been mowed allowing me access to this location.  Otherwise I would have grass up to my eyebrows as I sat in my painter's chair.

Hopper Screen

Unlike yesterday's painting, which is cool by comparison,  this one from this morning seems like it was painted on Tahiti by Gauguin.  But it's a view of the Hopper from the back of a field now accessible because it has been mowed.  I'll probably try this view again.  I like the trees up front creating a 'screen' to the mountains and Hopper behind.

From Under an Old Apple Tree

The field behind the barn was mowed yesterday, so I went out into it to paint from a vantage point below an old apple tree.  It's hard to make this painting look like a view of Utah with buttes or a rocky seacoast in Maine.  Yeah, I know.  Cheap excuses get you nowhere.  If I can just make one or two brushstrokes better each day, not to speak of the composition or other key choices, it'll be okay.

Compliments to my Friend

Working with my new best friend, green, today.  This 12x9 oil on panel was done at the Green River's edge [an aptly-named river though that 'green' refers to the water's color from earlier in the season] below the bridge on Route 43.  I like this spot because I can ignore the car traffic, but I can't ignore my new friend because he is everywhere.  I keep searching for ways to compliment my friend with complements, such as blues and reds.

Groaning and Grasping

One of the hardest lessons to learn when painting outdoors comes when one realizes that the afternoon's (or the morning's or the day's) efforts are not good, and wiping away the painting is necessary to use the panel again.  You might ask why I didn't wipe away this one, which is this morning's effort with overcast skies.  Without the sun the scene was essentially static, and flat.  I was trying to do something with green besides groaning and grasping.  I should write in addition to 'groaning and grasping.'  It's a 9x12 oil on panel of the view from Haley Farm looking down Hopper Road.  Compared to this tractors are fun.

Not a Green Tractor

At this time of the year, maybe it's all summer, the results of painting outdoors in the green landscape seem acidic, garish, loud, hot, and just too green.  It becomes hard to tell what's going on and how to deal with it.  Today I tried adding red to tone down the green, but I'm not sure of the results.   This little 8x10 oil on panel, done yesterday, has the least of these objectionable characteristics of the work I've done in the last couple days.  I did have a choice of doing a green tractor but passed on it for the moment.

Diamond on the Farm

This is an uncommon view of the Haley Farm barn.  One would have to go down the road and look diagonally left at this point.  The path at the left was created by cows.  I liked the diagonal cut created by the fence.  With the two right corner triangles and the tree branches, the fence creates a diamond shape enclosing the barn.  Of course there's light, lots of light.  The painting is a 12x24 oil on canvas.