A Painter's Year

Boats in Harbor, Late Afternoon, Maine

2008-08-06T00:04:00.007-04:00

A rhythm of masts played on silent water.

Looking Down from Joucas

2008-07-01T01:00:00.004-04:00

This Provence landscape is unique: a patchwork of vineyards, orchards, lavender fields and wheat tracts, pinned by cyprus trees and stitched together by hedges and lanes.

Sunday Sketchbook: Vermont

2009-12-13T14:02:00.003-05:00

I'm back on the road again this week, gathering sketches and impressions of towns small and miniscule for my blog Let Me Show You Vermont. Here's a view from the southern part of the state of Main Street, Wilmington.

Twelve Pitchers (detail)

2009-12-12T13:10:00.003-05:00

Each of the panels in "Twelve Pitchers" has a different value relationship between object and ground (pitcher and table), and every tabletop is a different color or pattern. They'll fit together at the end to make a new value and color composition that can't help being more than the sum of its parts.

Sunday Sketchbook: Roadtrip

2009-12-05T23:29:00.003-05:00

Driving into New York from Vermont on an early winter morning, greeted by a cold sun and the first billboard of the day.

16 Pitchers (detail)

2009-12-03T10:54:00.008-05:00

I'm working on a new multi-panel piece, one of a number I have in mind that explores the idea of "theme and variation".

Twelve Pitchers (detail)

2009-12-04T08:15:00.003-05:00

Perceptive readers will remember that this painting I'm working on was called "16 Pitchers" in my last posting, and while I like that title more, I'm leaning (this morning, anyway) towards a square composition that needs a dozen rectangles.

Memory: Moonhole Beach, Bequia

2009-01-09T09:44:00.011-05:00

Every now and then during our frozen white winter I look at paintings from my visit a few years back to this beautiful island, and hope I have another chance sometime soon to be painting cerulean blue water in the middle of January.

Memory: Morning View from Moonhole

2009-12-01T10:04:00.005-05:00

Here's another painting from my trip to Bequia, on another balmy morning looking out towards a fishing village and the island's tiny airstrip.

Mas and Field, Murs

2009-07-01T02:30:00.002-04:00

A farmhouse by the bend in the road by the town park on a hot morning.

Memory: Cliff from Moonhole, Bequia

2009-11-30T09:56:00.006-05:00

I painted this during a winter trip to the Grenadines a few years ago. Seeing it again brings back the feel of breezes and sun on the terrace where I stood at my easel high above the ocean, and is a nice antidote to the cold, rainy morning outside my studio today.

Sunday Sketchbook: Vermont

2009-11-29T16:00:00.002-05:00

My blog "Let Me Show You Vermont" is up and running again with a report on my adventures in Bennington. I'll be happily exploring new (to me, anyway) Vermont towns this winter and posting back to you on what I find. You can click the link above to subscribe, and join me from the warmth of your computer!

Blue Pool, Provence

2009-08-03T16:24:00.007-04:00

A rare shape of aquamarine water in the dry Vaucluse valley.
Click here for detail.

Motel on 302 (study)

2009-11-20T10:12:00.007-05:00

Starting a new painting requires "confident groping", or maybe it's "tentative decisiveness". That's the acceptance that there'll be moments of abject uncertainty about both the image conceived, and the ability to develop that image to a successful completion, while at the same time believing absolutely in an idea that exists only in mind's eye.

Woman in a Garden

2009-11-17T11:27:00.005-05:00

Now that I'm home again in my studio, here's one last painting (an experiment in the style of the "Douanier Rousseau") brought back from the past before I dig in for a new series of work and a long winter.

Pond and Rocks

2009-10-05T15:12:00.004-04:00

All of a sudden the color of maple, aspen and birch are at their most vivid, and we're in the midst of brief and beautiful autumn.

Floodline

2009-11-12T21:01:00.002-05:00

A gray day, and piles of dead wood pushed by high waters against winter's trees.

Vine and Bramble (detail)

2009-11-12T14:50:00.003-05:00

While I've been going through some things at my mother's house, I've come across reams of my drawings from art school days. Here's a painting of seed pods brought in from a field I've now forgotten, years ago, in another autumn.

Sunday Sketchbook: Road Trip

2009-11-08T09:57:00.003-05:00

I'm on my way to Washington, DC to deliver the NRECA commission--and hopefully have some time to explore museums. It's a beautiful cool, sunny day, perfect for a drive down Route 2, through the Mad River Valley, and due south.

NRECA Commission

2009-11-04T11:10:00.005-05:00

My approach for this mural is "WPA Meets Post-Impressionism"--a stylized landscape combined with vivid color shapes. Click here to see more images from this project.

When I'm in Paris this spring, I'm going to see Raoul Dufy's mural about the history of electricity, and try to figure out how he managed to design a similar narrative in his wonderful decorative style--that's over 120 feet long!

NRECA Commission

2009-10-29T09:45:00.006-04:00

For the next ten days I'll be an artist resident at the Vermont Studio Center, where I'm working on finishing a commission for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. My painting is a forty foot long landscape with a winding road (with power lines!) spanning coast to coast. I've enjoyed the chance to work like a WPA artist, finding a stylized, decorative language to state the organization's goals and history.

Sunday Sketchbook: Montreal

2009-10-25T12:05:00.002-04:00

I've been leading a workshop with Karen Kane in Montreal this weekend, touring studios and painting exhibits with a group of fellow art lovers. We've seen varied and exciting work, from academic realism to installations--and we also enjoyed sampling the wonderful selection of food that Montreal has to offer. It's an accessible, vibrant city that I hope to keep exploring in the coming years.

Sky and Maples

2009-10-22T22:37:00.003-04:00

Looking up past a bank of orange foliage, towards blue sky and cumulus clouds.

Mom Napping

2009-10-19T23:56:00.007-04:00

I drew my mother many times over the years, sleeping, knitting, reading, or just posing patiently. The dress she's wearing here, 25 years ago, the gesture of her hand in her hair, the turn of her leg--all bring her back to me so vividly.

Portrait of a Woman

2009-10-16T18:13:00.007-04:00

In loving memory of my mother, Ruth Grace Abbott.
March 19th, 1920-October 14th, 2009