Wells Reserve, Maine - SOLD

 Wells Reserve, Maine ~ SOLD!  (Somebody liked this!)

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on canvas    

$130 (unframed)

We had two fabulous short stays at Moody's in Wells, Maine last year (shout out to Moody's Motel and Cottages!) and were able to take in such stunning views of the changing light over the salt marshes while enjoying the heady ocean air.  Here's a stout little piece of colorful drama over Wells Reserve.

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Icon of Jonah - SOLD (Commission)

 

Icon of Jonah (commission)

11 in. x 14 in., acrylic on canvas

This piece was commissioned to capture Jonah crying out to God from inside the gullet of the fish.  Jonah, who attempted to run away from the mission God gave him to call the people living in Ninevah to repent from great evil, is pictured here having been rescued from drowning.  He does not yet know his fate, has no idea he and God are "still on" for his assigned task, and isn't expecting what will unfold in Ninevah.

I painted this with a nod to Christian iconography.  The esophageal ribbing and distant dark stomach valve symbolizing the thread of being digested to death are situated behind him to create a halo/nimbus around his head.  He kneels in the putrefying liquid of seawater and acidic saliva, yet his face and hands are upturned in prayer and worship  The utter darkness of the belly of the beast is illumined by the Presence of the Holy Spirit, unseen and outside of the frame, but yet setting alight his features and dancing on the surface of the water.

I would simply like to say that there are some pieces where I perceive God leading me every step of the way.  When I ran out of ideas about what the next step in the compositional process would be, He just, well... brought it to mind in a much different way than when my own mind works to come up with solutions.  This piece was an intriguing painting experience for me.  I hope it continues to speak to the one who commissioned it for a long time.

Magi Under Virgo - SOLD

 

Magi Under Virgo  ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)
12 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas    

Prints of this piece are available at my online print shop:

https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/shawne/  

It's been a while since I've painted a supernaturalist piece.  I only seem to be able to paint these spiritually symbolic images when they come to me, and I can't force them or simply produce one as an exercise.  This year, before and during Epiphany, I felt greatly focused on the Magi's curious trek to seek out the Child who was the subject of Revelation 12:  "And a great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth."  According to Dr. Michael Heiser, in 3 B.C. a conjunction of Jupiter and Regulus appeared in Virgo during The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), which is a very possible date for the birth of Jesus.  This piece puts the Magi, with their formidable entourage behind them in the distance, under the sign of Virgo, impregnated with a brilliant messianic nova.  The hills are Judean, and the clothes they wear are reminiscent of the flesh tones of the nations, who are prefigured in them as they bow down to the the Child they have come from so far away to worship.

Mount Washington in April - SOLD

 

On a trip up to North Conway here in New Hampshire last spring, before the buds on the trees were ready to open, I was able to capture this shot of our stately Mount Washington. This is the highest mountain in the northeastern United States, with record-breaking wind speeds at the summit.  This view appears on routes 16 and 302, just as the road turns west toward the town of Glen.  Fun fact: all that snow up there at 6,288 feet isn't going to melt until June.

Mount Washington In April  

~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas

$100  (gallery-wrapped, no frame needed)

Mile Road Salt Marsh at Wells - SOLD

Mile Road Salt Marsh at Wells  ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas   

$100 (gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed)

This little painting is a snapshot of the large salt marsh area just near the end of Mile Road in Wells as you approach the Wells Beach public parking area.  Here, the sun is nearly overhead, close to noon, and the red underpainting peeks through the top layers of paint so that the viewer can feel the hot, hazy August atmosphere hanging in the salt air.

Luna Moth Study

This little square, gallery-wrapped piece was a fun exploration into the  luminous, chalky green wings of the elusive Luna moth.  The incredible opaque jade color tends to glow against the surprising pink background, and I liked the lighthearted mood it created. The original photo of this moth was taken by my fellow pastor's wife friend, Christina, and she very graciously let me use her photo to play around with for this study. 

Luna Moth Study

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas
$72 (gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed)

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Almost Dark Over Wells Beach

Almost Dark Over Wells Beach
11 in. x 17 in., acrylic on canvas   NFS 

This piece was painted from a a very dark photo I took as my husband and I walked along Crescent Beach (just south of Wells Beach) after the sun sank behind the horizon and the last fingers of blazing clouds surrendered to the dark rolling in from the ocean.  Here, the tide has just started to go back out, leaving a shiny wet beach reflecting the bright lights of Wells Beach a half mile north.

Dusk at Wells - SOLD

This was fun little study based on some 

lovely moments of turbulent sky and sea 

I enjoyed in the early spring at Wells Beach 

in Maine.  The fun bit about this piece was 

that I had challenged myself to paint it all in 

one hour, on a small canvas, with a single 

brush.  I wanted to see if I could capture the 

feel of the swiftly moving clouds and get the 

marks in the foreground surf and sand area 

to read as wet and glossy and reflective. 

Dusk at Wells  

~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

5 in. x 7 in., acrylic on canvas    $72   

Misty Morning, Wells Beach - SOLD

Misty Morning, Wells Beach ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

16 in. x 20 in., acrylic on canvas    

$235 (unframed)

We had gotten away for a quick weekend respite right before Memorial Day.  I stood barefoot on the packed, wet sand of Wells Beach on a cool Saturday morning in May and was taken by the how green the receding tide appeared as the mist lifted.  Here, the flat, bright disc of the sun slowly burns through the weakening early fog, just as the grayness of the morning surrenders to blue sky.

Expanse (Wells Beach, Maine) - SOLD

Expanse (Wells Beach, Maine) ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)
12 in. x 24 in., acrylic on canvas    $235 (unframed)

Long and wide at low tide, Wells Beach is seven miles of sand, sky and cold Atlantic waves.  The wet, black piles of rock near Mile Road dry to a soft gray as the water recedes here at midday, and the onshore breeze creates a turbulent expanse of clouds thrown like a ragged cape across the blue ceiling of sky.  This piece sold while it was still wet on the easel, getting the last details laid in.

Winter Salt Marsh at Kettle Cove, Maine

Winter Salt Marsh at Kettle Cove, Maine
9 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas    

$150 (unframed)

On a recent winter trip to Maine, we stomped around lovely Kettle Cove, just over the hill and south of Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth.  Kettle Cove is connected to Crescent Beach, but has some great walking trails... if you don't have to contend with ice and snow.  Don't let the blue morning sky fool you; here's a small, icy salt marsh stream surrounded by spindly trees and tall, dead salt grasses, dried and stiffened by the bitter freezing February ocean air.  

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After the Storm, Harbor Island - SOLD

After the Storm, Harbor Island ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)
9 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas    

$150 (unframed)

My son Sam visited Harbor Island in Maine (the one further north) last summer and caught some great shots of some beautiful Atlantic coastline.  It's an isolated place, peaceful and wild, he says.  This is a view toward the west at sunset just as a strong summer thunderstorm subsided and passed.  

Black Mission Figs on Stripes II - SOLD

Black Mission Figs on Stripes, II ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas

$72 (gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed)

I love figs.  Fresh figs, dried figs, fig preserves... but NOT the Newton, which does a terrible, dry disservice to something so wonderful as the sweet and earthy fig.  For my fiftieth (!) birthday last September, my beloved daughter-in-law, who knows how much I love them, made me a gorgeous spiced pear layer cake with blackberry curd filling, brown sugar frosting and caramel sauce, topped with enormous blackberries and FRESH BLACK MISSION FIGS.  FRESH!!!  They were exquisite.  I am so glad I was born during that short window of time when fresh figs are actually available in the produce department of some stores.  The long and short of this is that my daughter-in-law loves me, so much that she left the rest of the little vented box of lovely black mission figs for me to enjoy.  Their dusky, tender and lightly ribbed purple forms were just begging to be painted, so I threw the last few onto a well-used ochre and white striped kitchen towel in the afternoon light and painted them.  I've painted this twice, an original study (still available, contact me for details) and this second treatment.  I hope you like it.

Dorie's Peony - SOLD

You know how peony heads can 

get so heavy they topple over?  

Dorie is no longer with us, but her 

peonies are still belong to her family, 

and this beautiful white blossom is 

from one of her plants, so heavy 

with blossoms this past summer that 

they were indeed toppling.  This single 

flower head was so white, it seemed 

to reflect the colors of the room around 

it as it perched primly on the table top.  

This is a quick study of that lovely 

singular bloom.

Dorie's Peony 

~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas

$72 (gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed)

Toward Mackworth

Toward Mackworth 

9 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas

$170 (framed)

Mackworth Island is an almost perfectly round little island in Falmouth, Maine.  It sits in Casco Bay, right along the border of Portland.  We frequent Portland often, and this view is from the little rock jetty near the boat launch on Portland's Eastern Promenade.  The island is heavily wooded with walking trails, is home to a school for the deaf, and is accessible by a narrow causeway from Falmouth.  From the perimeter trail on Mackworth, you can enjoy lovely and unique views of the peninsular bluff on which the city of Portland is perched.  

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Quechee Gorge

Quechee Gorge

16 in. x 20 in., acrylic on canvas

$270 (framed)

A mile long and 165 feet deep, Quechee Gorge in Quechee (Hartford) VT has been an enduring source of wonder and awe for me since I was a small child and we lived in Andover, NH.  My parents would regularly travel the bridge crossing the gorge in the painting (which is U.S. Route 4) to a Whitehall, NY campground with our camper in tow for summer weekends.  It was our custom to pull into the Quechee Gorge gift shop for a "pit stop" and to walk out onto the green bridge for a look down into the deep canyon where the Ottauquechee River burbled and splashed below.  My mother was afraid of heights and was a good sport, but really could not tolerate being on the bridge near the railing for more than a minute or two.  Me?  To this DAY there is nothing more thrilling than walking out to the middle bridge seam, waiting for one of those heavy-laden Vermont logging trucks to thunder over the span and feeling the roadway shudder and flex under my feet.  The misty, distant atmosphere looking up the narrow chasm from the surface of the water, the steep, metamorphic rock walls like a deep, great hall, the verdant Vermont foliage, and the beautiful, familiar curve of rust-spotted, green bridgework captures this beloved and special place for me.

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Winter Ascent, Kearsarge

Winter Ascent, Kearsarge

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on canvas

$130 (framed)

When my friend Jennessa scaled the side of my favorite mountain last February, she took some great shots during her climb.  The moody sky and light snowfall she climbed under created an ephemeral atmosphere in her photos, and, with her permission, I wanted to capture the odd combination of the softness of the mood with the stark crispness of the scene.  I decided to eliminate all extraneous bits and pieces from the forest floor and distill the simplified elements of the landscape into cool sky and warm shadows, sharply sloping mountainside, trees and snow.  I used ragged ribbons of acrylic texture paste under the paint layers of the near side trees to pull them forward into the space in front of the canvas and build a textural and dimensional experience for the in-person viewer.  

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Pemigewasset River in June

Pemigewasset River in June

11 in. x 14 in., acrylic on canvas

$185 (framed)

Last summer, this was my view from the steam train at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, New Hampshire, while having a fun day with our grandchildren, Gloria and Wesley.  The train at Clark's crosses the Pemigewasset River by way of a covered bridge from 1904, and opens up briefly into this vista over the waters.  It was day of increasing cloudiness, but for a short time, a bit of blue sky and sun decked the mountains and water with light, briefly changing the moody appearance of the valley and riverbed.  Looking north toward Franconia, the exposed rocky riverbed of sandy-colored rocks and gravel created a lovely, sunlit field of stone on the opposite shore. The Pemigewasset River starts up at Profile Lake in Franconia (home to the former Old Man of the Mountain which fell from the Cannon Mountain cliff face in 2003) and runs south through the White Mountains.  It continues down to Franklin, flowing for almost 70 miles before joining the Winnipesaukee River.  The two join to become the mighty Merrimack River that ultimately takes those waters to the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

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Mom Always Called Him Sunshine, II - SOLD

Mom Always Called Him Sunshine, II 

~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)
12 in. x 12 in. acrylic on canvas

$190 (framed)

Bruce was my mother's only son, and from the time he was a little shaver, even when he grew up to be a big, burly man, she often would address him as, "Sunshine."  When asked, she said it was because of his headful of unruly golden brown curls that framed his face as a little boy, and that to her he looked like a round-faced sunshine.  When my brother died unexpectedly in January and we were fumbling around in our grief trying to put together a fitting funeral for him, I could think of nothing other than somehow getting my hands on a big glass ginger jar full of brilliant sunflowers in his honor, even in the midst of a snowy New England winter.  This painting is of a few choice blooms from that gorgeous and nourishing riot of sunshine that will always, always, always be a symbol of my funny and precious Bruce, who is now most definitely basking in the light of the face of Jesus.

Losing Geoff (Triptych) - SOLD

Losing Geoff (Triptych) ~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)

Three 9 in. x 12 in. panels, acrylic on canvas

$378 (unframed)

This triptych is a few years old, and had been living a quiet life in my home for most of that time, with only three ventures out of the house to go on display at brief events. This week, at its third outing, it sold almost as soon as it went public. In fact, at the New Light Art Show reception, several people commented on it and one woman told me I could have sold it at least a couple of times over, based on her own love for it, and on the feedback she said she'd heard from others. 

Losing Geoff was the first triptych I ever painted, and, despite it having been a memorial exercise on the occasion of losing a friend to a sudden illness back in our old church, it was an enjoyable challenge to paint.  The composition is a "treescape" or an expanse of oak branches viewed from underneath the tree, looking up at the summer sky, and spanning the entirety of three panels.  The piece may be enjoyed for what it is, without knowledge of the "Easter egg" within it to which the title refers. 

The story the painting tells is as follows: The leaves are a community, of sorts, all living within reach of each other, brushing against and interacting with one another, all clinging to, and receiving life from the tree to which they are attached.  A few bare twigs void of leaves mark the piece here and there, but on the leftmost panel, there is one vacant twig, freshly bereft of its leafy member, marked by a single, glistening red drop on its terminus, a fresh wound made by the amputation of the living leaf newly ripped from it.  This image was an apt reflection of the painful void in our fellowship left by the unexpected death of our dear friend and brother in Christ.  

The branch will not be bare forever.  We will vacate our own branches each of us, one by one, but we will be together with our lost one again.  Spring will come.  He promised.

Mount Kearsarge, Wilmot Side - SOLD

Mount Kearsarge, Wilmot Side  ~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)

12 in. x 16 in., acrylic on canvas

$196 (framed)

The northern slope of Mount Kearsarge is home.  I spent my earliest years living in Andover village, at the base of Kearsarge.  His stately, flat top will always be recognizable to me from wherever he rises up from the horizon, and when I go near him, I feel like I could lie on the soil of his dominion and become part of his very roots.  I have climbed to his square-blocked, rocky summit many times; my first climb was when I was six years old, and my forty-something mother, refusing to be outdone by the younger moms in my first-grade class, insisted to my teacher that she would most definitely be one of the chaperones on our field trip up the steep Winslow Trail.  Here he sits under a dramatic skyscape in a pose most familiar, just off NH Route 4 just north of the Andover town line.

Bartlett Pear Study - SOLD

Bartlett Pear Study ~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)

6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas

$72 (gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed)

Just a quick study of a simple Bartlett pear, with it's bumpy, green-to-yellowing ripening transition.  I love pears, and I grew up with Bartlett pear trees with were heavy with huge yields every fall.  I think they've gotten short shrift here in America, where we're all about apples, all the time.  Pears are mellow, juicy and lovely, and ought to be used more often in our common cooking and baking.  If this were a food blog, I'd dazzle you with a sexy photo of the glorious pear and cardamom skillet pie I made last fall.  

Franklin, NH, Christmas 1972 - SOLD

When I was a little girl, and we lived in the small town of Andover, NH, the nearest city my mother would drive to for groceries and the like was the small mill city of Franklin, about a 10 mile drive from Andover across Route 11. This intersection is Central Street and Franklin Street at the old bank on the right, with the old J.J. Newberry storefront on the left. At Christmastime then, and still today, the city of Franklin decks out the downtown with those wonderful retro electric-lit Christmas swags and ornaments, looking a lot like the fictional Bedford Falls from the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." This little painting is from an old photo after a snowstorm and heavy road sanding, looking toward Willow Hill. Other than Newberry's and it's fantastic old wood floors being gone and the the cars being newer, the scene here looks very similar to Central Street in Franklin today.

Franklin, NH, Christmas 1972 

~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)
6 in. x 6 in., acrylic on canvas
$72 (gallery-wrapped canvas, no frame needed)

Winnisquam Sunset at Ahern - SOLD

Winnisquam Sunset at Ahern ~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)

8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on canvas  
$115 (framed)

A late summer afternoon with a friend sitting on the sandy eastern shore of Lake Winnisquam at Ahern State Park here in NH was the inspiration for this painting.  There's a little walking trail that leaves the beach and runs up the knoll through the woods, emerging on this little woodsy rise overlooking a sharp drop-off down to the water.  The sun was setting on the other shore (that's Steele Hill, there) with strong light right in our eyes just outside the right frame of the painting and illuminating the dry leaves and pine needles on the ground with gold. The warm and cool colors were exciting to me and the shadows were fun and dramatic.  It was a good excuse to use blues and oranges, my favorite complementary pairing together.

Two Lights On The Rocks (A Mini Painting) - SOLD

Two Lights On The Rocks 

4 in. x 5 in., acrylic on canvas

SOLD

When you visit Two Lights at Cape Elizabeth in Maine, there's a small, elongated promontory of brittle quartzite and phyllite that rises up and juts out into the Atlantic Ocean.  The long, stepped and faulted surface looks like squared off logs stacked like stadium seating and rubble tumbling into the surf on one side and dropping off to a cliff on the other. When you stand on the top of the promontory looking out to sea, you get the rubbly view of this painting.  It was a moody, overcast day in winter, and everything was blue-green midtone.

It's a tiny painting... see?

This is a mini-painting, a small study of the rocky outcropping at Two Lights that can fit in your hand.  It required brushes many times smaller than I usually reach for, but it was a fun challenge, and captures the chilly, rocky and nonstop wind here.  It's a cool, simple composition, but if you've stood out on top of the ledge here, you recognize the sights and you can hear the open sea pounding into the rubble around you.

And maybe being confined to a tiny painting tames the power of the place just a little? 

Give A Piece of Original NH Art for Christmas

Original art is special.  It's one-of-a-kind and originates in the mind's eye of the artist long before paint ever touches the canvas, and the soul of the artist has brooded over the work as problems are solved and pigments are mixed and applied.   The subjects of a still life, simple as they might be, may be perfect symbol of comfort for a special person, or an emblem of a some experience or place that is meaningful.  A landscape that looks like "back home," or a evokes a particular memory will hang in that special spot in a home or office, and the effort that went into that unique piece magnifies the love of the gift-giver.  

People pass by the mass-produced, soul-less printed canvases and prints stacked like cord wood in home fashion aisles of department stores every. single. day.  There's a reason for that.  It might look nice on your loved one's wall, but who wants to give a gift with no soul?

I have several small landscapes and still lifes that may be a special and meaningful Christmas present for someone on your list.  All artwork is unframed, but sometimes that's best done by the one who knows where it will call home.  Browse the paintings here on this blog.  Hit me up if you have any questions.  Shipping doesn't cost much; canvas art is lightweight.  

Merry Christmas!

~Shawne

Fog Signal House at Two Lights - SOLD

Fog Signal House at Two Lights ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

9 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas    

$148 (framed)

Last February we visited Two Lights, as we often do on our winter vacation trip to Maine.  It's quiet and sparsely visited.  I love it here.  You can pick sea glass from the little pebble beach right in front of the little parking spots, or you can check out the cave in the rocks if the tide's out far enough.  I love to climb the rocky peninsula and scramble out to a warm spot on the rocks.  There's a lot of subject matter to paint here.  In the winter, the lobster shack is shuttered until spring and all the whole place a long, wide, rocky staircase angling down to the rhythmic tidal spray.  The sea has a green cast here in the morning, and on this particular morning the sky was all movement and bars of sunlight between the windy clouds.  You might like this painting if you've been to Two Lights yourself.

You'd better mind the fog signal and not be too close if you're there when it goes off.  Here's a link below to where you can see and hear the signal, looking down opposite from the vantage point of this painting. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHtlCUDrmIE

Ursa Major SOLD

Ursa Major (Illuminated Twitter Poem)
11 in. x 14 in.,  Pen & Ink and Watercolor
Unframed, $85  ~  SOLD (Somebody liked this!)

For some time I have enjoyed the challenge of using what used to be the old 140-character limit Twitter format to compose a bit of poetic verse.  For those of you who know me, you will not be surprised that I have several rueful lines aimed at my disdain for the month of March.  A couple of Septembers ago I was out at night for a run and there in the darkening sky was The Big Dipper, that highly-recognizable portion of the constellation Ursa Major that as children we might first learn to find and become familiar with.  Staring at it twinkling in the cooling heavens, I thought about how much larger the full constellation is supposed to be and how the classic Baroque drawings of Ursa Major (The Great Bear) often showed an odd bear with a long tail (?) arranged over the stars in a non-sensical way.  And so often in reality the stars beyond the dipper in the full constellation are just not visible.  I found myself re-imagining Ursa Major along the dipper itself without the extended, invisible stars, and suddenly, there he was, crouching just above the horizon, eyes penetrating and ears at attention, his powerful back tense and curved upward and away.  

I drew Ursa Major on mixed media board with pen and ink in Zentangle-style and washed watercolors over the top.  There are washes of iridescent aqua blue watercolor over the surface of the sky.  In person, he sports interference shine across his intimidating form. The poem he is illuminating is casually lettered below.  At some point I will mat and frame him, or whoever buys him could opt to have it done themselves.  He was enjoyable to create, and I hope you like him. Maybe other constellations will follow.

Ursa Major

Unblinking
Straining across the cold black
he arches low, blocking the
northern passage.  I am pinned beneath
his unmistakable vertebrae.

Near Mount Tom - SOLD

 

Near Mount Tom ~SOLD (Somebody liked this!)
8 in. x 8 in., acrylic on canvas
$115 (framed)

I enjoy hiking when I have the time and opportunity, and if I can get someone to climb a mountain with me, I'll go.  But my friend Linda has logged serious miles hiking up and down and all around.  Recently, she posted a breathtaking photo from a cool-weather hike, and I fell in love with it.  She generously gave me permission to paint the landscape she captured in her photograph.  This is a portion of her ascent along the Mount Tom, Avalon and Field Loop up near Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.  The silent, frosty calm of the trail disappearing ahead and into the misty trees among the spruce was just asking to be painted.

Sometimes when I paint I listen to theological lectures.  It keeps the right brain working undisturbed by left brain who wants to criticize and backseat drive.  Listening to theology feeds my soul and also give left brain enough ontological meat to chew on so right brain can mix colors, choose brushes and make compositional decisions.  In classic Sesame Street fashion, I'm happy to tell you that this painting has been brought to you by lectures on The Psychology of Atheism, and by the first three parts in a series on Justification.  I hope both Kierkegaard and Luther would have liked this little painting!

Amy's Butternut - SOLD

Amy's Butternut ~SOLD Somebody liked this!

9 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas    

$150 (framed)

My friend Amy knows how much I absolutely adore butternut squash.  If I could only choose a single vegetable to raise, it would probably be these sweet, golden gifts of the natural world. So when she grew a small crop for herself last fall and presented me with one, it made me so happy. That being said, however, when I saw that she had left a portion of vine attached, complete with springy, dried, skeletal tendrils, I HAD to paint it.  I decided to forego enjoying the goodness of her harvest in order to have this specimen sit enthroned in the studio on an old cloth for a portrait.  

I played with the bluish and blushing fleshtones on his heavy, sturdy form at the Twiggs Gallery event in February, and the many people who came through to watch us in the live art room seemed to appreciate watching him become something.  His curly accouterments, however, dress his plainness up, like a good, non-symmetrical hairstyle; without them, he's just a big knucklebone. When I finished the painting and set it aside next to the actual squash to dry, I noticed I had painted it very near to actual size on the 9 x 12 surface, something that I hadn't necessarily set out to do.  Behold, the Butternut!

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On Cardigan Summit - SOLD

On Cardigan Summit ~SOLD (Somebody Liked This!)

12 in. x 12 in., acrylic on canvas    

$144 (unframed)

A beautiful sunny October hike up Mount Cardigan in Orange, NH with a friend last fall opened up to the blustery and oddly smooth summit that is uniquely Cardigan.  The naked, open summit is like an ice cream scoop of plutonic rock, heavily freckled and white-striped with sparkling quartz like a geological football field. This painting is looking north from just below the fire tower, toward the White Mountains in all their autumn regalia, then fading into atmospheric blue layers in the distance. I think the weathered evergreens clinging to the crevices along the curve of the summit look like they are flowing down over a waterfall.  Large brushes were key to keeping from getting caught up in little, niggly, paintbrushy details.

Oh Happiness!

Oh Happiness!
8 in. x 10 in., acrylic on black canvas
NFS

This was a gift for my son and daughter-in-law's sixth wedding anniversary. I painted it from a candid photo taken by a beloved family member during a quiet moment between the two of them at their wedding reception. They had stepped out onto the porch of the park house for a breather and this one image snapped quickly seemed to capture a forward-looking, prayer-prepared journey that God had called them into together. These two. We love them.

The painting itself was a fun (and scary) experiment on black canvas. I wanted to create a piece that felt like a stylized poster illustration, something like a stained-glass look. The black ground ensured that I could cut in areas of paint closely but intentionally separated in many areas to achieve this kind of leaded border effect. I enjoyed the intensity of the way the color popped, and how easily the shadows and muted areas seemed to paint themselves. Of course, this meant having to work a little harder (read: more white from the tube) to achieve the lightest lights. Additionally, I needed to slightly rearrange and even remove some of the park elements for the best and most streamlined composition. Keep the focus on the couple (and not on the less-than-fetching park benches and clumpy hostas cluttering up the background)!

I took care with the proportions and placement 

of the elements of the composition, and drew the 

initial paint sketch with a small round brush in 

diluted burnt sienna. Then I laid down the first 

blocking in of basic color areas with a wide, blunt 

brush, leaving black borders in the areas where 

I wanted them to stay. The groom, clad in black 

trousers and vest, is still a large area of open, 

black canvas.

I tightened up the shapes and sky holes of the far line of trees, intensified the slightly burned summer grass in the distant field with a golden wash, and better defined the middle ground of the park pathways. The porch deck will be lightened with the gray of aging planks, but the reddish brown of the porch paint job will need to show through later, so I laid this color in.  The distant blue-green of the sky and treeline is hazy and cool, just the way I wanted it, but the green of the near lawn is of the same temperature and not warm enough.  

Overpainting the green of the foreground lawn in a much warmer, yellower green changed the whole feel of the painting.  It brought the lawn closer and popped the couple forward toward the viewer. It also pushed the hazy, cool horizon further into the distance and created a longer visual space.  Much better.  

The groom's black clothing needed to come to life. I mixed a dark, dusky violet with pthalo blue, cadmium red and alizarin crimson and, when painted on the flat black canvas, became a deep, glossy color that your eye reads as a satiny blue-black with depth and dimension.  With the deep cool blue strokes of fabric folds, he comes to life. The porch starts to age, and the folds of the wedding gown get some treatment.

The bride's skin, seen mostly in shadow, is modeled, delicately lightened and softened. More work on the gown, the groom's sleeves and collar, and the porch planks.  The middle ground trees finally inherit defined limbs and leaves. The bride and groom's hair get a few conservative strokes without over-fussing.

The "unfortunate tangent" of the intersection between the sharply curving path and the upper porch rail has to be altered.  They visually track very close to each other, and, although accurate to the photo, is awkward here. If I can remove picnic tables, benches and shrubs that don't really need to be cluttering up the painting, I can also chose to alter the trajectory of a garden path.  I've got the paintbrush.  I'm in charge here!

And... there's a pathway that visually makes more sense to the viewer and breaks up the green foreground. I worked some definition into the hands, railings, porch planks, and punched up the sky.  A significant bit of fiddling with the bride's wedding gown, and a slight rusty gold wash over the freaky hot green of the near lawn, and I'll call game on this one.

Happy anniversary, Dave and Dorothy.  Look what God did.