Low Tide Chores

Low Tide Chores

11x14

Oil on Panel 

Framed 

Click here to visit auction

I love painting in Rockport and was a little sad that this was such a low tide. Then I noticed activity in the corner. A man was working on his boat standing in waist deep water. As I painted and watched the water got lower and lower. I thought he was cleaning it but all of a sudden the red disappeared! He was painting it instead. I liked the red better!

Blue and White Boat

Oil on Prepared Paper

7.5 x11 plus mat and frame

$390

Archival mat and contemporary natural frame 

This piece is a great memory one for me and it is getting reframed and is on its way to the gallery, unless someone buys it first!  I was taking a summer painting class at U Mass Dartmouth and we were supposed to stay on campus to paint, which was primarily a solo undertaking. We would go out, do our thing, then return to the studio for an extensive critique. One day I escaped and discovered a wonderful out of the way boat yard. It was full of old boats and weeds, gravel roads and had a wonderful view of the ocean. I came back day after day, doing painting after painting. This was one of my favorites and is the first image I ever used on a business card. The little blue and white boat sits waiting patiently for its owner.

Much later, I went to revisit "my" boatyard. It was totally cemented over with all the boats parked in neat rows and unwelcoming signs. I was so lucky to discover it when I did!

Framed "Leaves, Bark, and Silver Pennies"

Leaves, Bark, and Silver Pennies

13x20

Mixed Media

Archival Mat plus Simple Wooden Frame

$375

I absolutely love this piece. It is one of a series that I occasionally do, and I will show these pieces for a few days. I call them "inside work". This piece combines nature drawing with tissue collage, acrylic inks, and colored pencil. Though the effect is abstract, it actually is quite realistic if you know what you are looking at.

Matted "Off the Haystack Deck"

Off the Haystack Deck

7x10

archivally matted

watercolor

$125

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, is a special place, almost sacred to me. It is the place where I go to get deeper into everything I am thinking of, and to move ahead in my art. I haven't been recently, but have been there 8 times, each meaningful in a different way. It's a community of 70-80 artists living and working and playing together. It sits in a balsam boreal forest with rocky boulders and many lichens and mosses and magic spots. Most of all, it tumbles down the hill to the sea, with wide steps good for sitting, and if you step off the stairs you find places to work and places to dream, to wonder, and to relax. I am remembering when we all took our blankets one night in August and stayed into the night watching the meteor showers until I left at 3. Some stayed all night. And the art! It is the best fine crafts in the world, and each session they have one paper studio that offers things like printmaking, drawing, bookmaking, and papermaking. That's where I usually land. This small painting is done from the deck right outside my cabin. All this beauty under your nose!

Coastal Sunrise #5 (Goose Rocks Beach Morning)

Coastal Sunrise #5 (Goose Rocks Beach Morning)

36"x36"

Oil on canvas

Sold

This is the largest piece in the exhibit and one of the very first large ones I have done in my career. The director of the art gallery encouraged me to paint larger and I have done that several times now. I absolutely love it. When I face a canvas taller than I am to work on (on the easel, of course, I'm not that short!), it feels like I am taking on a challenging adversary! Maybe I need to do more of them. Yep.

Framed "Pink Sky, Orange Light"

Framed "Pink Sky, Orange Light"

8x8 oil on canvas 

contemporary maple frame

$195

This is one of the smaller studio paintings. With these, I started smaller and then gradually built up my size until I was at the 3x3 foot largest piece. There is a bit of shine on the canvas in this pic and I will be getting another, better, photo soon. Though it is small, I think it somehow manages to hold the large sky, don't you think?

"Coastal Sunrise #1 (Promise)"

"Coastal Sunrise #1 (Promise)"

Oil on Panel

12x24

Sold

This piece, the first of the Coastal Sunrise Series, is the first stage of several paintings from a spectacular sunrise. A long format makes it even more dramatic, and it was a struggle to get the center area as smooth and still as the upper and lower areas are dramatic.

This piece is available as a giclee at my store. Click here to visit the site.

Belfast Sunrise

Belfast Sunrise

Beautifully framed and deep matted

10x10 framed to 16x16

oil on prepared paper

Now up for auction! Click here to bid: minimum $250

After my stint at Goose Rocks Beach, I headed north and spent 3 days in Belfast at a cottage complex. The owner gave me one right on the beach when I told her I was an artistand I did this painting from that porch. I had just attended a lecture by one of my  inspirations, Connie Hayes, the night before and used one of her ideas in this one and I loved how it came out.

Here is how the piece looks framed: