Two Landscapes

The top painting is  9x12 oil on panel done this afternoon from a slightly different location near the top of Stratton Road.  That's Blair Road, with which Stratton intersects, in the middle ground, and the Taconics in the background.   The bottom image is an 8x10 pastel of a field not far from Stratton Road but much further downhill.  The view is looking north with the same mountains you have seen before.

Next To Stratton

The Art Stix drawing I made a couple days ago when the weather was nicer.  The 9x12 oil painting I did this afternoon when the weather was not so nice.  It started to rain a couple times,  but I persisted and the rain went away.

Overlooking Stratton

Of course, overlooking Stratton is the last thing I can do in my walking life, but at the top of Stratton I can look over it facing north.  Strange word 'overlook' which also defines its opposite.   Staying in the studio has its benefits, where I worked on a familiar view previously painted, drawn, and photographed.   I did try to get out three times today, but seem to provoke the rain every time.  The above is a 12x24 oil on canvas.

Lately,  I have been reading the poetry of Derek Walcott.  In a biography by Bruce King, Derek Walcott: A Caribbean Life,  King writes in relation to Walcott, who always wanted to be a better painter than he is a poet,  "Painting was about painting, not story, not morals.  Amateurs were concerned with subjects.  Good painters were concerned with making, with workmanship."  This comment certainly applies to Walcott the excellent poet.  But it also reflects the confusion many people have about painting.  I'm happy to see that the difference between amateur and professional painters is not tied to money.

On the Road

The routine of doing an Art Stix drawing this morning and then the painting in the afternoon worked well today.  The differences in the two, besides the media, is due to the time of day.  I tried to be as direct as possible when applying paint, but that's not uniformly possible.  The sky needs to go in early for example, with the knowledge that non-sky paint will be applied over it later.  However, it only took me about an hour to do this one.

The painting is a 9x12 oil on canvas of a stretch of Stratton that I have done many times.  Except that this time I placed myself in the field and in the shade far enough away to escape the dust clouds from speeding drivers.  Stratton at this point is a dirt road, and it's hot and dry.  Tomorrow and the next day rain is in the forecast, so I will be in the studio.  While painting, I had a visit from someone who lives nearby, and asked for and received permission to park at their place, so I will have an opportunity to do more paintings from a nice spot on the road.

Two Stix and a Painting

The 9x12 painting I did this afternoon on the same ridge above Stratton, but looking down an almost perpendicular driveway that makes the meeting of Blair and Stratton Roads actually a three-way intersection.   The 8x10 art stix drawing I did this morning to scout out the view, hence the shadowing is different.  The other stix drawing is the prep I did earlier for yesterday's painting.

Today I learned that I still approach outdoor painting trying to do it in stages, as in a studio.  But I only have an hour or so, so I must forget the stages and immediately get the right color and value, and put it on.  Any finessing can be done at the last minute.  Easily said.  I do like doing the art stix preparatory drawings, which set my compositions up, only leaving the painting to be done!

In the Air

This is the view from the ridge at the top of Stratton looking back down the road, a 9x12 oil on mdf panel.  I deliberately tried to be lighter in value to avoid indoor shock.  Cars kept racing up the hill creating dust clouds that would flow over me despite my higher vantage point.  I can understand why people like to paint at the shore; not as hot and more contrast,  and no dust.

Pain Air

This morning I did the colored stix drawing on a rise overlooking Stratton and Blair, and in the afternoon returned to do the oil painting.  It can be shocking when a painting done outdoors is seen indoors.  What you thought was bright and light turns out to be dark and heavy.  Also one loses track of time, but if you spend more than an hour on a small painting, then that extra effort usually goes into destroying the painting.  I have another related view lined up for tomorrow, and will try it again.

Catching Up

A day to catch up:  the first drawing was done this morning at the top of Stratton again.  This time I was standing on the edge of Stratton looking down Blair Road.  The trees are recognizable but from a different angle.  I was not able to get back there to make a painting.  I'll do that in a week or so.  The next two drawings were done last week.  The pine tree is located on the pasture loop behind the Clark, while the other tree is on Stratton Road.  It holds the birdhouse.  Finally, the 8x10 painting I did in June  at Field Farm.  It's a view of Greylock.

Still on Stratton

Again, this morning I went up to the top of Stratton Road and walked into the field but this time looked north, and did the drawing above.   I returned later in the afternoon and first reworked yesterday's painting a bit.  It is the view looking south with the Taconic mountains visible on the horizon.  I wanted to simplify things.  When I got around to today's painting, simplification was still the goal.  In the north view you can see the mountain known as "The Dome."  The panel I used was pre-toned, which I think helped.

Third at 25th

But earlier this morning I completed the above 12x24 oil on canvas of a view under the Gowanus Expressway at Third and 24th Street in Brooklyn.  I love jumping from the country to the city and back.

Blair at Stratton

This morning I went up to the top of Stratton Road, walked into the field, and made the 9x12 charcoal drawing of trees and bushes that reside on the edge of Blair Road, which abuts with the top of Stratton. Then it occurred to me: why are you overlooking this most obvious place to paint.  You can park easily, you have multiple views, and the neighbors are friendly.  So I came back in the afternoon and did the above 9x12 oil on panel painting.  As I looked around, I realized that just in this spot alone, I could make a dozen paintings.

Bergen at Washington and Can Art Save the World?

A 12x24 oil on canvas of Bergen Street at Washington Avenue in Brooklyn.

I recently read Culture and the Death of God by Terry Eagleton.   He writes, "An art which is its own raison d'etre is an eloquent riposte to exchange-value, but it is not easy to see how it can redeem the world.  For the radical Romantics, art represents the values we live for, but it is not for art that we live.  Autonomy is a political as well as aesthetic value, so that the self-dependence of the work of art speaks of more than itself.  Somewhere between Shelley and Tennyson, this insight is mislaid.  The imagination gradually ceases to be a political force.  As the era of industrial capitalism unfolds, the autonomy of the artwork begins to speak only of itself.  Radical Romanticism melts into fin-de-siecle aestheticism.  Art itself comes to stand in for the promesse de bonheur it once held out."

If you have ever read The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, you will remember that he writes that the making of the work of art is more important than the final product, as far as the artist is concerned.  Recently, I read an essay, which takes this further and includes everyone,  by the painter Jordan Wolfson with the title How Painting Can Help Save the World, Actually.  Go to:  http://paintingperceptions.com/art-politics/how-painting-can-help-save-the-world-actually.  Wolfson I think is convincing that art does indeed stand for more than itself.   Let me know what you think?

The Garden Fence

The garden fence: the large 18x24 version for which I did the sketch earlier.

Garden Fence

A 9x12 oil study for a larger painting done this morning at Sweet Brook Farm.

Above the Clark

This morning I visited the Clark Art Institute for the first time since its renovation.  It was wonderful to re-encounter the Monets, Pissarros, Sisleys, Corots, Daubignys, etc.  On my way out I looked up at the hill behind the Clark.  Hmm... I worked up there this afternoon painting this 9x12 oil on panel of the tree, grass and distant mountains.  You might see me up there again.