Watch Me Paint: World-Class Art, World-Class Instruction
I’m off to Maine and Rye! I’m leaving some of my favorite landscape paintings for you—works by Canada’s mighty Group of Seven painters. I love them because they combine the freshness of impressionism with a love for the northern landscape. The Tangled Garden, 1916, JEH MacDonald At the age of 14, JEH MacDonald moved with …
Continue reading “Seven Days of the Group of Seven—JEH MacDonald (1873-1932)”
Portrait of Ann Douglas, by John P. Douglas, pastel on paper, c. 1969 Last week I wrote, “My father loved Maine, painting, and sailing wooden boats. Several times this week when I signed my paintings I thought of how amazed and happy he would have been to see his daughter getting paid to stand on …
Painting on a floating dock during the Quick-Draw. My preferred vantage point for boats. (Photo by Howard Gallagher) I have an informal contest with a Maine pal about which of us can be mentioned most often in the media. Until this week, we were tied, but I think I just out-paced him with photos in …
Today’s painting, fail. Who cares? I knew today would be chaotic at Camden harbor but I like chaos—in metered doses—and I’ve painted enough good paintings this week to spend the day schmoozing on the dock. I hadn’t expected to paint through cannon fire, however. Frankly, my painting shows the distractions. Still, it’s been a tremendous …
A squall rolled through Camden last night and people put their sails up to dry. I begged the owner of this gaff-rigged boat to not go out until I was done painting. He was a kind man; he acquiesced… and then bought the painting. Painting as a spectator sport—who knew such a thing was even …
Downtown Camden, oil on canvasboard, by little ol’ me. If you thought Camden was crowded on a normal summer day, you should see it during the Windjammer Festival. I ended up parking halfway to Rockland, and I fielded about a thousand questions and comments from passers-by. Good thing I love talking to people! Look at …
My ride. My backpack. All rolled into one. I had such a great day painting, I think I’d like to talk about my bike. My ride (and it’s not a hooptie, no matter what my friend Toby says) works to carry my stuff around, but is rendered impractical by the sheer volume of traffic in …
A lousy photo of a decent painting of the schooner Mercantile. Yesterday I posted that I was unhappy with the design of my Mt. Battie painting, and hoped to fix it by playing with the light. (I was hoping I could break the rigid horizontal at the bottom by making the contrast with the water …
Unfinished, Mt. Battie from Camden Harbor. Will either finish it or scrape it out tomorrow. The first day at Camden Plein Air dawned with great atmospherics—a light drizzle that had fizzled out by 10 AM. Threatened thunderstorms failed to materialize, and scudding clouds to the north over Mount Battie made for a constantly changeable sky. …
The Halve Maen passing Hudson Highlands, 40X30, oil on canvas (also available in GiclĂ©e print) This painting is hanging in Sea and Sky: A Personal Journey, now through October 18 at Lakewatch Manor, 184 Lakeview Drive, Rockland, Maine (call 207-593-0722 for more information). I painted it to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s 1609 …