Morning in Vermont

I started this painting last summer and then had it sitting in the studio all winter, nagging me to do a few things to finish it. So finally it’s done. The best times for plein air are early in the morning and late in the afternoon. However, I also like to hike in the morning and have a glass of wine at the cocktail hour so too often I talk myself out of getting out when I should! This summer I vow to do better. I really like the early light in this one.

Morning in Vermont oil on masonite 12.5 x 24 $650 framed

Thaw

I started this piece by painting over an old portrait and I didn’t really have a plan to begin with. Spreading paint around with a palette knife resulted in this picture of a stream or river and mountains with ice and snow receding. When I’m just pulling a painting out of my head it’s interesting to see what winds up on the canvas. I guess since we’ve been in the middle of a thaw that must have been on my mind. (With the record snow we’ve had this past winter we still have ice and snow all around us!) I enjoy working with a palette knife, scraping paint back, painting over, pulling additional layers of color over dried layers for texture. The accumulated patches of paint seen at close range are much less realistic than the overall impression. I think it’s useful to work fairly abstractly from time to time, without having to represent something literally. I’m intrigued by how the style of my knife paintings differs from the usual look of my work.

Thaw oil on canvas on masonite 16 x 20 $750