Summer Pasture

 

Summer Pasture

6 in. x 9 in., pastel on sanded paper

$225 matted and framed under glass to 9" x 12"

A simple tutorial piece, reminiscent of old farmland in New Hampshire, particularly along the rivers and seacoast where the hills roll gently and the standing copse of trees in the summer pastures provide shade to livestock.

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Hot Cross Buns

 

Hot Cross Buns

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on masonite panel

$180 framed 

A Lenten still life, painted during that season of devotion and meditation.  And yes, I make  Hot Cross Buns from scratch using my own recipe every Good Friday.

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Bradley Lake Road, Andover

 

Bradley Lake Road, Andover

5 in. x 7 in., acrylic on canvas

$85 unframed

This view will greet you on the way back from dunking your feet in Bradley Lake.  Views of Ragged Mountain peek up over the farm and the near hills.  A peaceful, out-of-the-way spot, with few people and a gentle, olden times feel.

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Ali's Daisy

 

Ali's Daisy

12 in. round, fluid acrylic on circular stretched canvas

$200 unframed (no frame necessary)

This piece is from an Ali Kay workshop I tried just for fun, using fluid acrylics.  I experimented on a round canvas, which I enjoyed very much!  This piece is quite a bit different from my usual style, which uses heavy body acrylics and tends to be tighter and closer to realism.  However, the fluid acrylics lend themselves to a looser brush stroke and I like the way this seems to splash off the surface of the canvas.

 

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Hendrick's

Hendrick's

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

$100 unframed (no frame necessary)

While painting with my grandson (who was 10 at the time and wanted to paint a dragon), I fiddled around my daughter-in-law's kitchen for a couple of things to set up for a still life.  This little bottle of Hendrick's and a lonely lemon were just the thing.

  

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Cockermouth River at Sculptured Rocks

Cockermouth River at Sculptured Rocks

11 in. x 14 in., acrylic on cradled board

$325 unframed (no frame necessary)

A few years back, we took a hike up to Sculptured Rocks, a natural area up in Groton, New Hampshire. Sculptured Rocks gets its name because the water has carved interesting softened curves and holes out of the stones and boulders in and along the Cockermouth River.  Mostly shady and lined with hiking trails and a few walking bridges, there are several spots where you can sit by the water or soak your feet in the cold current.  I climbed down to a large, flat rock in the river to take the reference photo for this painting looking upstream.  

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Lobster for Three

Lobster for Three

11 in. x 14 in., acrylic on cradled board

$325 unframed (no frame necessary)

This jolly lobster trio has been painted with softer, fluid acrylics, and was just plain fun to paint.  This is a bit of a looser style, one that I've been enjoying working with the flowy, fluid acrylics on a smooth surface. It makes for juicier, washier brushstrokes, which have been interesting to experiment with.  This is classic New England, and nothing says New England like lobsters, whether you eat them or not (I sure won't!) But I sure loved painting them, and I hope you like it!

Photo reference courtesy Kindel Media

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Herodias

 

Herodias

11 in. x 14 in., acrylic on cradled board

$325 unframed (no frame necessary)

After painting this great blue heron, I found out that the scientific name for them is Ardea Herodias.  I thought Herodias would be a fitting name for this piece, since the historical Herodias was the cold-blooded initiator of the murder of John the Baptist.  She waited for the right moment to put her daughter up to asking for his head on a platter in front of a room full of her step-father's partying friends.  In order to avoid embarrassing himself, he granted the request.  Great blue herons are patient and lethal hunters; they will stand as still and unnoticed as possible, watching and waiting for their prey to swim confidently closer and closer until they can impale them with their long, sharp beaks and swallow them whole. This painting was done as an exercise to assist an aspiring art student in learning to paint.  I hope you like it.

Reference photo courtesy @diego.madrigal.cr

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Backyard Bandit

Backyard Bandit

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on Masonite

$180, framed

This well-fed little guy visited my workplace during a summer evening shift a few years ago and I'll admit to feeding him... pretzels.  He loved them.  I raided a coworker's stash for the salty little snacks, leaned out the office window, and he snatched them from my fingers.  This little painting, done quick and loose, captures the fleeting 7 or 8 minutes he hung out with us!

 

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Well Hello, Leon - SOLD

Well Hello, Leon

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on cradled board

$180 unframed (framing not necessary) ~ SOLD!

Leon and his companion Huey were the resident Percheron draft horses in the pasture adjacent to the former Twiggs Gallery in Boscawen, NH, belong to the Sanborns.  The poetry group I belong to that originated at Twiggs are the Percheron Poets, named after them.  One weekend day at a gallery event, I snapped an up close and personal picture of Leon as he gazed at me curiously over the fence.  In a recent private art coaching exercise, a friend and I used my reference to paint portraits of Leon.  As you can see, he's quite paintable!

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Pink House Requiem

 

Pink House Requiem

8 in. x 10 in., acrylic on panel

Not Yet Priced

This was how The Pink House looked on her final Saturday, standing out by the marsh, on the second weekend in March 2025, a parting portrait for this 100-year-old lady.  She was unceremonially torn down by the Parker River Wildlife Refuge three days later, on a foggy Tuesday morning, after refusing several offers to take her away, rehab her, or as trade for other land.  Shame on you, Parker River Wildlife Refuge management.

Marshmallow Fluff

Marshmallow Fluff

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on panel

NFS

Sometimes you gotta paint something for yourself, you know?  I really love retro food labels, and the New England made Marshmallow Fluff is iconic for really never changing up their label art very much.  Nothing else looks like this label, and it's instantly recognizable.  One of the things I really love about painting retro food art like this is that it gives me the opportunity to really study the forms, colors and lines in the designs that we so often take for granted.  This one is going to hang in the house.

Spring Thaw at Portland Head Light

 

Spring Thaw at Portland Head Light

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on panel

$200 framed 

Being probably the most photographed place on the eastern seaboard, and only 2 hours from my home, it's an easy hole-in-one to paint PHL any time I'm feeling like I just want to create a piece of classic New England.  I've painted and sold this lighthouse a few times over, and feel like I know all its details by heart.  This view was painted from some reference photos we took when we were there in March a while back.  As chilly as it was, the cold blue of the ocean and stark white of the lighthouse looked warmer with the orange and red scrub and grasses matted from the recently melted snow cover.

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True Friends

True Friends

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

$130 unframed (no frame necessary)

This is a painting I recently completed using a great reference photo from @sedwickstudio.  I In this piece, the concern that the three whole pears seem to have for their cloven counterpart is quite lovely and wholesome to observe. I nearly titled it "The Widow," but that was a little too heartbreaking, and I'd rather leave the reason for the concern up to the personal interpretation of the viewer, and ultimately, the buyer who connects with it. 

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Mount Washington from North Conway

Mount Washington from North Conway

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

$130 unframed (no frame necessary)

A March trip up NH Route 16 led to a few snapshots from the car as we rolled through North Conway.  Imposing Mount Washington sits resolute along the straightaway in town, making all the buildings, cars and telephone poles feel like a miniature village.  

 

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Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher

Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher

***WINNER: BEST IN SHOW- SAA Gallery February 2025 Theme Show: All Heart***

11 in. x 14 in., acrylic on cradled panel

$400 unframed (no frame necessary)

This was a piece I painted for a February art show called, "All Heart" for the Seacoast Artist Association in Exeter, NH.  What a challenge this painting was!  There were times I was unsure if I was going to able to successfully render these puckered, shiny, mylar balloons convincingly.  It required careful flexing of the "paint what you see and not what you think is there" muscle.  The balloons, being metallic, curved, and reflective, meant that the colors and shapes over the surfaces of the balloons just didn't seem to make sense for about 80% of the painting experience.  It wasn't until I started in on the lightest shades and the brightest highlights that quite suddenly, the nonsensical forms made sense... and they became shiny red mylar heart balloons.  It was really magical!

Photo reference courtesy Alesia Talkachova @_aleia_t

 

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Oranges and Cranberries

 

Oranges and Cranberries

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

$130 unframed (no frame necessary)

Another #foodpaintchallenge reference from @dennispfeil.art and it was an excellent challenge with a lot of subtle value changes and a variety of muted and saturated colors.  The lighting was also interesting; achieving the transparency of the orange slices and the glowing penumbra around the shadows took some time to puzzle out and get right.  This one didn't flow "straight off the brush," but it sure built some muscle, and I'm happy with the results.  I hope you like it, too!

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Nor'easter - SOLD

Nor'easter

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

$130 unframed ~ SOLD! (somebody liked this!)

A simple nocturne painting of a familiar winter sight up here in New England.  For those of you from away, a nor'easter is a snowstorm that backs in on top of New England, spinning counter-clockwise and bringing tons of moisture from off the coast. Nor'easters are usually responsible for dumping higher snow totals than other storms onto us here in the northeast. Roads are covered quicker than the plows can keep up, trees sag under the weight of the snow, and all you can see in the illuminated pillars of streetlights is swirling snow coming down hard and fast.  Just like this.

 

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