Edges

Another drawing from last week when I was scouting out the farm at the end of Hopper Road for painting the next day.  This tree resides at the edge between the pasture and the hay field.  I went under the barbed wire to stand in the pasture.  This pasture is interesting because it's located right at the edge of the woods, partly in and partly out.  Edges in drawings and edges in reality.  12x9 pencil on paper.

The Same and Not The Same

The view from the top of Sheep Hill is one of those places that stays the same, and changes all the time.  So whenever I go there to paint, like this afternoon, I always find something that I want to do.  9x12 oil on panel.

Monhegan Sun Light House

This is one of those paintings that have been in my painting closet for a long time. I've not been sure whether to throw it away or keep flogging it.  It depicts a building near the main pier on Monhegan Island when the last burst of late-day sunlight strikes it before quickly fading away. 14x18 oil on canvas.

Dead Pear Tree Before The Hopper

A drawing from the other day while at Haley Farm at the end of Hopper Road: it shows a dead pear tree that stands before The Hopper in the background.  9x12 pencil on paper.

What One Remembers Seeing

The third painting that I did on Saturday, this one from the top of Sheep Hill looking towards The Hopper.  I've cropped out Mount Greylock on the top left.  Shame on me.  My panel wasn't big enough.   There is something mesmerizing about this view.  It has been my experience that people will appear at the small parking spot, up to my right, and just look for a while.  On this day, late in the afternoon with an incredible sunlight, people were showing up to take pictures.  They will discover later that the view is impossible to photograph in a way that will match what they remember seeing.  9x12 oil on panel.

Out Of Time

For the first of the three paintings that I did yesterday, I set up in the middle of the hay field, and faced The Hopper.  It was a beautiful day.  I was both aware of time passing, that such beauty would not last, and while I painted, I forgot about time, except as the shadows changed ever slightly on the row of trees with the movement of the sun, but even that I forgot for a while.  9x12 oil on panel.

Line Up With The Sun

This was the second of three paintings that I did today.  I scouted it out yesterday late in the day when the sun eventually came out.  I was stunned by how brilliant the tree was.  This morning I stood in a different spot in the hayfield so that the sun would still line up behind the tree as it did late yesterday.  9x12 oil on panel.

Painting Exhibition at Tunnel City

Here are two photos that I took last night after hanging an exhibition of 37 of my paintings at Tunnel City on Spring Street in Williamstown, MA.  The paintings will be up for a while, so please visit Tunnel City, and let me know what you think.

A View of Amsterdam

A view of Amsterdam.  A memory painting.  A memento painting.  9x12 oil on panel.

At The Edge

This afternoon I found myself at the edge of Mauserts Pond again.  8x10 oil on panel.

Flying Angles in the Suburbs

Earlier this year I did the drawing of a suburban backyard, and yesterday had the first opportunity to paint the same view.  The obvious appeal to me are all the flying angles and wedges.  12x9 oil on panel.

When I Looked Back.

When I looked back, I could see the two distant towers of the Rijksmuseum, which were oddly matched by the two sides of the nearer bridge arch.  9x12 oil on panel.

Everyman

Little did I realize as I wandered through the Old Church in Delft that I would find the burial site of Johannes Vermeer.   His compatriot Rembrandt was also buried in a church in Amsterdam, but his final resting place is unknown.  The Wikipedia entry states that Rembrandt "was buried as a poor man in an unknown grave in the Westerkerk.  It was in a numbered 'kerkgraf' (grave owned by the church) somewhere under a tombstone in the church.  After twenty years, his remains were taken away and destroyed, as was customary with the remains of poor people at the time."

So, the extraordinary painter of humanity became, in a sense, everyman.

A Drawing and A Painting

A painting, and the drawing it's based upon, both depicting a canal in Amsterdam.   9x12 inches.  Oil on canvas.  Pencil on paper.

Two More

Two more drawings, the second is from Delft. 12x9, pencil on paper.