Padstow

Padstow is an old harbor town on the north coast of Cornwall.  9x12 oil on panel.

Polperro

A souvenir of the ancient fishing village of Polperro in Cornwall.  These boats are in the inner harbor, protected by a large wall with a gate.  The buildings were whitewashed in the 20th century since all the 19th century photos in the local museum show them without the white.  9x12 oil on panel.

Flatbush Barrels

The eighth Flatbush painting: a rare moment when the sidewalk was empty of people, though it is populated by traffic control barrels.  To figure out what they are called, I found a website called Crowd Control Warehouse.  Sounds ominous.   They are colorful.

Flatbush Cyclists

This is the seventh 12x12 oil on panel painting in the Flatbush series.  I think I'll do one more and move on to other things, or other sizes.  I used to be a serious cyclist years ago.  I would not want to ride a bicycle anywhere near Flatbush Avenue today.  It's tough enough being a pedestrian.

Abstraction on Flatbush Avenue

What appeals to me about this view of Flatbush Avenue is how the sky in the middle background unites with the tee shirt in the middle foreground to form a u-shape.  One could say the same thing about the two u-shapes on either side as well, though the middle one is more distinct and the distances between the sky and tee shirt much larger.  It's this kind of relationship that a painter can make which is nearly impossible to see outside of a painting.

I've been reading a lot about the painter Delacroix lately.  The exhibition at the Met has spurred me on, though I've always had an interest in Delacroix since reading his journal years ago.  I like Delacroix because he used color and composition in a formal, abstract way even though his paintings are all about stories, whether myths, battles, Shakespeare, etc.  His formal methods are seemingly hidden, and simultaneously right there for all to see.

The painting is 12x12 oil on panel.

Flatbush Revelation

These Flatbush Avenue paintings have become revelatory for me as I work on them loosely and comfortably.  The experience of walking in the city is always one of sharp contrasts, simultaneous attractions, and distractions.  Everywhere you look there's too much.  Turning that experience into paint is what I'm trying to do.  This one is also 12x12 oil on panel.  I'm running out of square panels.

Flatbush Afternoon

Flatbush Avenue. Late afternoon.  12x12 oil on panel.

Flatbush River

Flatbush Avenue appears as wide as a river at the corner of Sterling Place.  Even when I would drive across it, I wondered if the light would stay green long enough to make it over, never mind trying to make it across on foot.  The pedestrian stripes are testimony to the frequent diggings, resurfacings, and repaintings that urban surfaces undergo, like a painter's canvas.  12x12 oil on panel.

Thickly Packed Flatbush Avenue

Walking on Flatbush Avenue in the direction of downtown Brooklyn reveals a whole new skyline if you haven't been here recently.  The buildings are as thickly packed as the people on the sidewalk.   I visited downtown last week.  The new construction is everywhere, inhuman in scale.  There are still some venerable, smaller buildings left, but for how long?  12x12 oil on panel.

Flatbush

The name "Flatbush" comes from the Dutch meaning a 'wooded plain', according to Wikipedia.  So it's nice to see a tree on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.  Actually, there are a number of trees along Flatbush Avenue, even though now it's essentially a hard-surfaced, heavily built-up, travelled and populated place.  I was trying to achieve a dense, textured surface in this painting.  It may become part of a series.  12x12 oil on panel.

Maybe I Did It.

This is the last of the three paintings I did last Friday when the late afternoon sun was shining at the top of Sheep Hill in Williamstown, MA.  I worked quickly and maybe I exaggerated it a bit since I got carried away by how amazing it was.  8x10 oil on panel.

By the way, while trying to figure out why nobody seemed to be reacting in any way to my posts on my personal FB page, I found that for the last two months my posts were only visible to me and one other person.  How that change occurred is a mystery to me.  I do have double authentication in place.  Maybe I did it.

One Can't See It

The late afternoon sun is responsible for my interest in this view of the path and bushes at the top of Sheep Hill.  One can't see it, but the path abruptly turns left and downhill instead of heading directly for the row of trees, even though that's how it appears.  9x12 oil on panel.

Grateful I Am.

Spending one's afternoon painting at the top of a high hill in the warm fall sunshine is pleasant.  Again I was looking last Friday at Mount Greylock and the Hopper from Sheep Hill in Williamstown, MA, a view whose offerings I can never exhaust.  Grateful I am.  9x12 oil on panel.

Under the Gowanus

This is a large 36 x 48 inch painting that I've been working on for the last couple of weeks showing the area under the Gowanus Expressway at Third Avenue and 20th Street in Brooklyn.  I did a small 9x12 painting of this scene a couple years ago.  It's strange seeing the postage stamp photo of the large painting in this post since it doesn't convey how much the larger painting makes you feel as if you were under the road, hearing all the cars and trucks moving loudly overhead.  The postage stamp photo makes the painting seem more representational than it really is.  When you stand close up to it, it's a bit eerie and abstract.  At least that's my take.

Hard To See It

As I pondered the sky and mountains yesterday from Sheep Hill in Williamstown, MA, with a new panel on my easel, I happened to look at the trees behind me.  The late afternoon sun was trying to penetrate the density of trunks and limbs.  I just started to paint, trying to make sense of what I was looking at, even though it was hard to see it.  8x10 oil on panel.