Commissioned House Portrait

Commissioned House Portrait
11x14, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

My latest house portrait, just finished this one and have another waiting in the wings. I thought this was such a lovely scene, the house nestled in amongst the trees, with a sloping green lawn in front, and a lake in the back. I really enjoyed painting this one!

Canton Farm

Canton Farm
11x14, acrylics on gallery wrap canvas
SOLD

Nestled along the banks of the Androscoggin River in tiny Canton, Maine, this spectacularly beautiful farm sits next to a line of trees behind acres of green fields. It's always lovely, but at certain times of day, when the sun hits it just right, the drama and beauty are heightened to an almost unbearable level. I've been driving past it for years, and finally, a few days ago, happened to be passing when the light was exactly where I wanted it. I snapped a few photos and started painting yesterday afternoon.

I painted this a little more loosely than my usual style. A little closer to what they term "painterly." I like the result. Hope you do, too!

Trinity

Trinity
12x24, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

My latest, just finished last night. Again with those houses in Lewiston, you're probably saying. Yes, it's true, I can't seem to stop painting them. The colors are different every time I paint them, but the timeless beauty and dignity remain intact.

This one sold the day after I finished it, just a few hours after I listed it on eBay, to a repeat customer. It always makes me feel good--and humble--when somebody likes my work well enough to come back and buy another piece. I can look at my own work and love it or hate it, but what I can't do is be objective. That's an impossibility. But when somebody else comes back and buys my work again and again, there's a kind of validation I can't get anywhere else. So to all my customers, especially those who've returned and bought from me a second (or third!) time, I say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I don't have to name names. You know who you are, and a couple of you have made my week.

Appleton Sunrise

Appleton Sunrise

11x14, acrylics on canvas
NOT FOR SALE

Same scene, different time of year. I kept thinking about what that tree would look like silhouetted against a blood-red sky. Here's the answer. The trees, the fields, the road, the telephone poles are real. The sunrise is from my imagination.

Sentinel

Sentinel
16x20, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

One rainy Saturday in early April, I took one of my infamous drives with camera in hand. In spite of the dismal day, I managed to get a few good shots that I later turned into paintings. As I was driving east on Route 105, coming into Appleton, I happened across this majestic and dignified old tree standing sentinel over a winter-yellowed grassy field. I was struck by its solidity and by its solitude, so I took a few photos of it. This painting came directly from one of those photos.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE (well, it interests ME, anyway): One sunny day this summer, as I was out boonie-cruising once again with my camera, I turned onto Route 105 headed west, and saw the most amazing tree standing alone on the left side of the road. It wasn't until after I'd taken a photo of it that I realized it was the same tree, viewed from the opposite direction, and in its full summertime leafy glory. Who knows? Maybe one of these days, I'll resurrect that photo (It's somewhere in the more than 12,000 photos on my computer) and paint it in summer sunshine.

Belgrade Red

Belgrade Red
10x20, acrylics on canvas
SOLD

This is one of the paintings I did last winter, based on a photo I took in early fall. I've always loved the look of this cluster of houses, seen here from the rear, across the field from Route 27 in Belgrade, Maine. Love those white houses, and the bright red fire station in their midst is a wonderful contrast.

Commissioned House Portrait

Commissioned House Portrait
11x14, acrylics on canvas
NOT FOR SALE

My latest. I was so thrilled when I received this lady's photos, because her house is so beautiful!

Red House

Red House
24x30, acrylics on canvas
NOT FOR SALE

UPDATE: Okay, so I lied. I decided to go ahead and list this at Etsy for a rather large price, but one I would be willing to part with it for. I don't expect it to sell at that price, but if it did, I'd be okay with it. I think. In the meantime, it still has its place of honor on the wall above my staircase.

I think this is finally done. It's currently in what I call "wait-and-see" mode, which means I have to live with it for a while longer before I'll declare it officially and unequivocally completed.

In the earlier version, there was a dark blotch in the sky above the red house. In trying to fix it, I repainted the sky, and realized afterward that it was way, WAY too dark. So I had to wait for the paint to dry, and this morning I repainted it. This color is much closer to the original. But with all those layers of blue paint, it's going to take some time for the painting to fully dry.

I don't think I'm going to sell this one. Once I'm satisfied that it's really, truly done, I'm going to hang it either over my couch or on the dining room wall above the stairwell (we have an open, finished stairwell to the basement). Those are really the only places in my house where there's a wall space big enough to comfortably fit a painting this large.

I'm pleased with the result. I imagine I'll still do a little tweaking here and there, but nothing major. I still need to paint the bottom edge, which will have to wait until the sky is completely dry. Don't want to go messing up things I've already painted by turning it upside down and smudging wet paint. But for now, it's going back on the wall in my den, which doubles as a hanging space for all my finished paintings.

Red House 2

Still working on this one. Believe it or not, the changes since yesterday's post took several hours to accomplish. I'm getting there, but it's slow going, at least in part because the painting is so large and there's so much territory to cover. It was difficult to get the red shades that I wanted. I ended up wasting a fair amount of paint, making mixes that were useless. But I think I finally got it right. Then, there were all those windows. Not to mention the latticework under the front porch. I changed the color of the house directly to the right of the red one, mellowed the purple front into something warmer and not quite as dark. If you compare it with the far right house, you can see the difference. I wanted to vary them, and the purple wasn't working well with the reddish-brown shutters. This new color (purple mixed with turquoise) doesn't seem to clash with them as much. I've already decided, though, that if I don't like the end result, I'll paint the shutters a different color (probably black or dark gray). Granted, the entire painting is bright. But the colors work together, and I don't want it to be jarring. Those shutters could end up taking the final piece off balance. Will just have to wait and see.

I hate the color of the grass. Another mixing effort gone awry. Once everything else is in place, that will probably be the last thing I fix. I'm also a little bit confused about the two trees out front, which seem to merge together into one, almost covering the front steps. My photo isn't helping me at all; I may have to drive by the house to get a good look at where each tree's trunk actually is before I paint them.

I don't know if other artists paint this way, but my paintings seem to happen in a series of layers. One color on top of another color on top of another color, until I get the look I'm aiming for. If I don't like a color, I change it. Although I'm a follower of the school of realism, I don't let reality get in the way of improving a painting. If the real-life color clashes or otherwise causes a problem, I change it. If something gets in the way or overly complicates the composition, I get rid of it. I use whatever tools and techniques I have at my disposal to create the vision I see in my head. It's the final result that matters, and I do whatever it takes to get me there.

Sometimes I get frustrated. Frequently, I cuss myself out for my own stupidity. I'm infamous for painting an area, then immediately dragging my hand through the wet paint as I work on a different area. At times like this, the air around me can turn quite a lovely shade of blue. Fortunately, there's nobody around to hear except Max and Pumpkin, my lovebirds, who live in my studio/office and keep me company while I paint. Thus far, they haven't made any editorial comments on my work or my language. I've found that if I just put on a little music, they're happy. I love rock and roll, and so do they. Hubby loves Patsy Cline, and the birds are quite fond of her, as well. I guess they're just renaissance birds.

Red House - WIP

My latest Work-in-Progress. This is a big one, 24x30, and my arm and shoulder are aching from stretching up to paint. Started this yesterday, will probably finish it tonight. I haven't done one of the big canvases for a long time. There's a whole different dynamic at work.