ALONG THE ALGARVE III

 

Another painting from a trip to Portugal, this time trying to capture not just the amazing rock structures commonly found along this part of the coast, but also the deep almost cobalt blue sky which gives further richness to the orangish-yellow of the rock. I deliberately painted loosely in this work wanting to capture the mood of the place without getting concerned by too many details. I think I'll probably expand on this idea of working - especially in my future landscapes. This is an 8 x 10 in, oil on board.

PEONY BUD

 

Most of the peonies around here have finished blooming now but a month or so ago, I started a series of paintings of some the flowers I found - this one is the first that I did. There are two large peony plants nearby that I could take a short walk to and observe on a day-to-day basis, one a pale vanilla color with a few deep purplish-red highlights, the other one slightly darker with more red. Others further away in plantings along the river were a solid dark red and didn't attract me like the lighter ones did. I think this goes back to the peonies we had in our old home that produced beautiful large creamy flower heads the size of my palm, some with a few deep rose-red stamens. I really do miss those and wish I could have taken them with us when we left! I kept the paintings mostly small to start with, although the completely opened flowers were done on larger panels. This one is 7 x 5 in (18 x 13 cm), oil on board.

RECENT BIRD STUDIES

 

A while ago, I posted a page from my sketchbook featuring some House sparrow studies, the bottom one still in pencil. I did plan on finishing and re-posting the page but only recently got around to completing that one. I did enjoy painting these smaller birds and whenever I wanted to get any more information from them such as leg color or how much black had come through on the breast of the males, I simply had to walk downstairs and find one of the many living around the property. At this time, there are some young sparrows around too that hatched only a few weeks ago - and looking very cute!

I saw this Great Blue Heron as it passed overhead and began flying away from me. I remember the large dark wings against the sky and how its slow but powerful wing strokes quickly took the bird out of sight. Earlier in spring, I stood outside near the river watching the sky and looking for any signs of migration. A few large flocks of Snow Geese had passed overhead earlier and then came two Great Blues. They were quite close together but didn't form up as other birds of the same species usually do. Both heading north and flew right over the city! I would have expected that they would have kept to the many waterways around here. Another day, a loose flock of 7 Great Egrets passed by along with more flocks of geese. One small group of Canada Geese had a lone cormorant attached to it!

Both these watercolor studies are about 4 x 5 in, (10 x 13 cm).

MARSH SUNSET V

 

Another theme I keep coming back to. Something about that particular time of the day, and the solitude of open spaces. It is a particular feeling that is difficult to explain when one is surrounded by the expanse of a marsh at twilight. I know I'll keep painting it again and again - hopefully one day I will be able to encapsulate all my feelings in one painting. This oil on canvasboard is 12 x 9 inches (30 x 23cm).

BUFFLEHEAD STUDIES

 

In winter, I stood by the shore looking out across a bay near the headwaters of the Chesapeake. It was windy and cold but the sun began breaking through the clouds. Earlier, I had noticed a small party of Buffleheads further offshore and now nearby me were a few more. Mostly males, they began chasing a single female. There was a lot of splashing about as one male challenged another during their courtship, then they would all take off and shortly land again suddenly diving underwater. When they surfaced, some sped across the water creating a series of foamy furrows before diving again. I heard one or two of them calling a low rek rek, their bills held only slightly open with the head held stiffly upright. Eventually they moved further offshore but I managed a quick painting of one of the males in flight.

Later where it was calmer, another male posed in brighter light which brought out the iridescence on its head. Ranging from yellowish through purple, deep blue and greenish-black, I tried to capture this in my painting - difficult in watercolor but this study will do for now. Size of each is about 6 x 8 in. 

LONE PINE STUDY

 

Continuing with an evening theme here, I did this painting from something I saw a while time ago.  An evening walk took us past a large field then on through a small community where deer often browsed. Our destination was a small dock alongside a tidal river and we would sit for awhile as the sun set over the marsh behind us. This pine was the last tree before the flowing marsh grasses ran out to the barrier islands and often a pair of eagles would sit there looking out while darkness fell. I tried to capture the moment in this smaller study - hopefully a larger one will follow. Size is 8 x 9 in, watercolor on paper.

SUNDOWN AT GUARD SHORE

 

Guard Shore, late December. I was sitting quietly and peacefully at the shore watching the dusk descend. The place was deserted and I was thankful for it! I could hear chip chip calls from sparrows that lurked in the marsh grasses nearby, the taller strands of grass waved in the chilly breeze. Behind me, a high whistling from a Surf Scoter's wings as it took to the air and flew deeper into the bay. A few had been feeding just offshore, diving then reappearing to bounce up and down in the choppy water. As the night drew in across the marsh, the sky took on an intense yellow that slowly deepened to blood-red before finally fading to black. It was an experience to cherish and I tried to capture my feeling for that evening in this painting. Size is 9 x 12 in (23 x 30 cm). Oil on canvas.

SUMMER FIELDS STUDY

 

A smaller study I did quite a few years ago which I posted back in 2013! I thought I would show it again as this kind of scene is still relevant to me as an artist. As with so much of my work back then (and now), I was trying to capture the mood of an early morning sunrise with the sun just breaking through clouds. I never tire of this subject and currently have quite a few more like this on the go! This one is an 8 x 10 oil painting.

EVENING SKY, MARSH STUDY

 

The evening drawing to a close over the expanse of the marsh - something that I go back to time and time again as a subject to paint. Here clouds cover most of the sky and the weak winter sun is hidden. Soon I will head home again but linger for just a little while longer as the last fluting wader calls drift across the water. This oil study done on an 8 x 10 canvas board.

GLOSSY IBIS STUDIES

 

I did these juvenile Glossy Ibis studies after seeing a few during my field trip to the New Jersey shore last late year. One bird was close by feeding in the marshland right next to where I had parked so was able to spend some time with it. Although the body feathers had a faint iridescent sheen like the adult, I expect this to become much more apparent when the bird matures. It will also lose most of the white on the head while overall becoming much smarter looking. I expect I'll will get to the adult birds soon and do more studies of this interesting bird. Size is 12 x 9 inches, watercolor on Strathmore paper.

WINTER MARSH VI

 

While I have been working in watercolor again, I decided to paint another view looking across the evening marsh. This one is similar to the oil study I did a while ago but I think I like this one more than the other. It did take a little longer with it using quite a few washes of color to capture not just the deeper rich tones, but also the textures in the grasses too. This painting has become one of my favorite watercolors to date and am looking forward to seeing it in a frame. Size is 12 x 9 in (30 x 23 cm).

MARCH MORNING CLOUD STUDY

 

In this smaller study, I tried a slightly more realistic view wanting to get a better representation of just how the sky and landscape looked that morning. As usual, I was sitting looking out and waiting for the sun to rise, hoping for an atmospheric effect that I could try to capture in paint. Here being so early, the sun is still below the horizon but illuminating the sky behind the encompassing cloud. A slightly lighter glow effused the center while the lower horizon blended into the sky above. Lights showed where there were various buildings in an otherwise dark landscape. This one has become a favored piece of mine and I enjoy looking at it remembering the beautiful sky that morning. Size is 5 x 7 inches (12 x 18 cm), oil on board.

GREAT EGRET

 

After working in oils for some time recently, it felt good to pick up the watercolors again. Here a back-lit Great Egret makes its appearance. I was lucky with this bird because they are usually quite shy but it was distracted by an outpouring of water from a dam where fish had gathered so allowed a close approach. The winter birds don't have the vivid green around the base of the bill and eye, this area reverts to a more somber yellowish-orange that is slightly paler than the bill. The eye as always fascinates though - and that dagger-like bill! Although a simple composition, I enjoyed painting this one. Size is about 9 x 10 inches.

BIRD STUDIES IN GRAPHITE

 

I'm not sure if I posted these drawings before so here are two larger ones I did. I have always liked the look of Snowy Owls especially the younger more heavily marked females like the one shown here. I have managed a few paintings of them over the years but nothing that large. Most have been watercolors but I really want to do justice to this bird so will have to work up something more serious.

Another one of my favorite birds is the Gyrfalcon and I am happy to say I have seen both these and Snowy Owls in the wild. The two studies shown in this drawing are of the same bird as it sat at rest in front of my when I visited a raptor breeding center many years ago. Such impressive birds and another species I can't get enough of. I have a large painting or two planned for these birds too so will have to get busy! Both are graphite on Arches paper, size 22 x 15 in (56 x 38 cm).

THE ANGRY SEA II

 

This is the second in what will be a series of sea and wave paintings. I'm still using a vertical format here but as I do more, I'm sure this will change. As with the first one, the subject is a rough and turbulent sea with a foamy middle and foreground. I worked on these two areas quite a lot trying to make them interesting and suggesting moving water without taking away from the breaking wave at the top. I was also thinking of adding a gull flying fast in the offshore wind but couldn't find a place for it - perhaps in the next one. Size is 10 x 8 inches, oil on canvas.

MORNING SKY STUDY

 

It has become something of a ritual these past few years for me to rise before dawn in the hope of observing any interesting cloud formations. In a book that I am recently reading, it appears that Turner did the same thing - his luminous skies are something to behold! Anyway, on this morning, there was almost total cloud cover except for a soft line just above the horizon where the sun created orangish-red lines across the sky. This I felt I had to capture if only because it was something different from what I usually see when looking out. My easel was already set up so I worked quickly trying to get down as much as I could before the sky changed too much. I meant to add a little more landscape to the bottom of the work but ran out of room! If I do a larger version, I can readjust that. Size is 8 x 10 inches, oil on canvas.

WINTER MARSH V

 

I began working on this painting of the evening marsh some years ago. My sketchbook has a few studies that I did of the subject but nothing much came of them. This is often the case and a idea can remain in my mind for quite some time until finally becoming reality - in this case expressed in a painting. I spent a bit more time on this one especially working on the grass as I wanted to capture the receding marsh grasses and textures, also on the water which leads the eye into the mid-distance and then on to the distant water. I'm relieved that this one came to fruition and hopefully this will lead to a greater range of evening paintings. Size is 10 x 8 inches (25x20cm), oil on canvas.

MARSH EVENING STUDY

 

In this study, I have returned to the nearby marsh but am now looking across the expanse of grasses to a distant treeline. This angle is much lower down and no water is visible although it is there hidden by the taller marsh grasses and cattails. The setting sun has finally broken through the heavy clouds creating a starburst pattern and illuminating a central pathway over the marsh - a rare effect but one that I was hoping for. A little later on, this was even more extreme and I may try to capture how that looked too. I have done a few small studies of the marsh from this side but this one is so far the closest to what I had hoped to capture. All there so far seem to be somewhat of an experiment - trying to capture the correct tones between the sky and the marsh. Oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches.

GIRL IN A KIMONO

 

Deciding to change direction for once, I returned to my travels in Japan as I had always wanted to do something like this. The model for my painting was wearing an exquisitely patterned kimono full of flower patterns - real and imagined. Even the charcoal-grey areas had a slight texture and small details created with embroidery. Her hair had been twisted and arranged into a bun-like shape which cast its own shadow on her nape - an area long considered erotic by the Japanese. The waist band featured silk bows of different colors along with embroidered cords - the whole a delight to paint! With a subject like this, one is faced with a dilemma. What should one focus on - the kimono or the model? The way I got around this was to arrange a composition with the model facing away and most of the kimono cropped but with enough left to give an idea what the rest of it would look like. Overall though, I was especially attracted by the highlights in her hair so I focused on that first.

Here you can see how I started with a first pass of oil color after transferring my drawing onto the board. With this stage done, I drew in the details of the kimono then gave that area a first pass also. Returning the the head now that the paint had dried, I slowly brought the hair and arrangement of flowers on the left to a finish before moving back to the kimono and adding the final details there. Finally I could call it finished - a long project but a rewarding one! Size is 12 x 9 in (30 x 23cm), oil on board.

AMERICAN ROBIN STUDY

 

It has been a quiet winter around here bird wise, just a few of the more usual species present. During the very cold snap we had a few weeks ago where temps never got above freezing, a lot of the river froze over with only a few areas of open water. These were surprisingly filled with mostly Common Mergansers (Goosanders) with a high count of around 60 or so birds together one morning. I think that many of their usual wintering areas had frozen over pushing many birds south which was to my gain as I had plenty of chances to view these birds close up. Not just the females with their reddish shaggy crests but also plenty of simply stunning males in their picture-perfect breeding plumages. I love how the the sharp iridescent green and black head contrasts with the bright red bill and white of the body. Anyway, now that it has warmed up a little, I don't see them so often but yesterday for the first time this year I heard robin calls. A single male has been hanging around the rather large lawn area nearby so certainly we are beginning to see some migration. Looking over the distant landscape this morning, I saw a staggering flock of blackbirds - probably in excess of two thousand birds heading north just over the Deleware river. Cormorant numbers have risen too and I'm looking forward to many other species arriving sometime soon. The robin shown here was present feeding on some left-over berries, its plumage well puffed out due to the cold. Done in my sketchbook, this watercolor is about 11 x 8 inches.

LAST LIGHT STUDY

 

Some paintings come together nicely and at times, without too much effort - this was not one of them!! I saw this scene some time ago one evening when the setting sun broke through a dark layer of clouds creating a stunning vision. My initial attempt looked okay but seemed to be missing something. That was when the real work started - trying to capture on canvas what I had seen and envisioned in my mind. t think I must have repainted the sky at least three times, the foreground twice, but finally I got close to what I had hoped it would look like and I am calling it done. I still find it difficult to decide if I should give up on a painting, or whether is it worth the effort of repainting it in the hope that it finally works out in the end. Thankfully it was in this one. Size is 8 x 10 inches, oil on canvas.

WINTER MARSH IV

 

This is the fourth one in the winter marsh series, painted from almost the same spot as winter marsh III. Obviously it is set much earlier in the day than the last one, in fact, the sun has yet to rise. I focused on the dawn colors in this painting keeping the landscape part of it closer (and darker) in value where the sky is mostly mid-tone. I like the way the marsh seems to recede as your eye gets drawn towards the horizon. A few faint clouds help to give the sky a little more definition. I think I could take the sky even darker and it would still work - perhaps even more so than this one. One benefit from doing a series of smaller painting like this is that one can draw on the experience of working from a single area and finding new ways to portray the surrounding landscape. Each one builds on to the next and as I have access to this area almost any time of the day, going there for fresh ideas is always easy (and helpful). This is another 10 x 8 inch painting (20 x 25cm), oil on board.

WINTER SNOW STUDY

 

I was lucky to discover this farm not far from where I used to live and have done many studies and paintings of it over the years. Here, I walked around to the back early one morning and painted this view from across a low valley. These buildings are attached to the back of the farm and the silos and larger barns are out of the picture on the right. I focused on this section because of the more subtle rooflines with the melting snow that created patterns coupled with the bare trees that acted as a foil to the sky. Of course, the light was paramount as usual and contained a lot of warm tones due the the lower position of the sun that had just risen. I'm sure in the future I will continue to explore this area and try to capture more of its many changing moods. Size of this one is 8 x 10 inches, oil on canvas.

EVENING LIGHT STUDY

 

Walking back home one evening just before it got dark, I looked across the fields and saw a thin strip of light breaking through the clouds. This was a wonder to me and is this kind of thing that really resonates with me as an artist. So when I got back to the studio, I tried to capture what I had seen in this small painting. Even now, when looking at the study, I can still remember the scene clearly in my mind and it brings back vivid emotions of that moment. Size is 8 x 10 inches (20 x 26cm), oil on board

HOUSE SPARROW STUDIES

 

Downstairs from where we are staying is a small party of around 10 to 12 House Sparrows. We see them everyday no matter the weather (we have been getting some incredibly cold temps lately). So from time to time, I go down with my sketchbook in the hope of getting a few more studies. I think I wrote a while ago that I prefer the males in their winter plumage with their somewhat muted plumage. Their black bibs are mostly hidden by lighter breast feathers and their heads a little more diffuse than in summer. I think this is the first time I have painted a female. Anyway, I did these watercolor studies recently trying to capture their individual characteristics and especially their form which is usually puffed up on colder days - a look I like a lot! Size is around 12 x 9 inches (30 x 23cm).

WINTER MARSH III

 

This painting is one in a series of works that I have planned. The viewpoint is looking east across a nearby marsh and will focus on the quality of the early morning light from sunrise until around mid-day. This particular scene is around 11:00 or so with the sun behind higher clouds that are slowly breaking up. I'm hoping to capture a particular mood in each of these paintings with the receding marsh grasses and reeds being of a secondary importance. The marsh is only short drive away so I can be there at just about any time of the day, quickly set up my painting equipment and capture whatever the day has to offer. This oil on canvas is 12 x 9 inches (30 x 23 cm).

BAY OF FIRES

 

I have been working on this watercolor for some time and recently spent a day putting the final touches to it. I think I am happy with the painting although I'll probably find a few other things to do to it then I'll upload a better image. Studio work has been a little slow of late but now I am back in the swing of things and have a lot of work planned for the year. Hopefully this time I'll be able to condense a few of the ideas that have been held most important in my mind during 2024 and finally come to fruition - that will be reflected here on my blog. This one is a 10 x 8 inches.

SNOWY OWL

 

I did this small watercolor for a greeting card design, something I used to do quite a lot of. Luckily I have seen quite a few snowy owls so I have quite a bit of reference of them. We usually see the more-heavily marked females around here which is fine by me as I do prefer this plumage. While I enjoy all the markings, it is of course the eyes that are really the focal point here and in this study, its gaze really seem to penetrate. Size is about 6 x 9 inches.