Herrington Hill Road, the deep freeze continues.

15  F sunny!

I've been working on getting my show together, but I couldn't resist, this beautiful, cold day!

I started just before 4:00, and it didn't seem too bad, I was at ski club, Willard Mountain with Hope, when she went out to ski I went to paint.

 It looks like a mess, but I've got two lights, warm and cool, and two darks also warm and cool, I don't consciously do this, but I'm looking at my scene and trying to match the tones, they're slippery, so going back and forth constantly is the name of the game.

OK so this is my thing I'm looking into the sunset and down the road, there are good views all over, I could look in any direction, but I like the "vortex" theme, the light provides contrast galore: "know thy self" who said that?

My concentration on the tone sacrifices the drawing, that and the speed at which I go. the cold means spending an hour, at 15 degrees, max, and the sun is moving fast, which happens in the summer too.

The farm in the middle distance is hardly visible in my painting, some of the hard edges might be a welcome contrast to all the fuzziness.

This is where I ended up, .I could probably tighten up the trees, but I probably won't.  There is a lot of bare (just toned) canvas in the fore ground part of the road, and I'm liking that.





So now I'm going to be behind in my show preparations, I need to finish the framing, the labels and other printed stuff and publicity is that all?

"A year in paint" a show in two locations going out the door next week!

Well this is what the old "office" looks like in the barn, I'm trying to organize the paintings into two shows, so that each one had paintings from each month, I'm heavy on the recent months and a bit light on summer and last spring, I'm not a good organizer. There is also the other stuff like a new bio, statement ans about the paintings:

Old Cambridge Road,

42  F  Clearing toward dusk

Where I ended up today, after aboutan hour of actual paint time, I spent at least a 1/2 hour (more) driving around scoping out spots.  I was out late at dinner and a movie and was tired, I pushed through,

I.m looking into the light, I just couldn't decide on a spot, what do I learn when I'm pushing through exhaustion?

It was nice out today, some sun here and there, I wanted a water view and passed a bunch of good ones up, I don't know why.

Thr lowering sun brought even more contrasts, which I like, but I didn't need.

It's really a mess.

My scene toward the end of the session, longer days mean more time to paint, but more distractions too.

Rouse Road, snow and warm weather, this can't last. (yesterday and last year)

42  F w/ big bright back-lit clouds.

I got a late start today, well yesterday, really and went strait to a favorite spot,  There were big white backlit clouds on a blue sky and I knew this scene would work, the sky by the time I finished was cloudy.

I'm working small, 8 x 10, I only had an hour to actually paint, so.....

The sun/shadow snow pattern, and their relative values, was the game, at least at this stage.

OK., so the composition......

This is where I ended up, I spent about an hour actual painting time.

The clouds moved over the scene a few times, and eventually it clouded over. The photo doesn't show the distinction in the snow, the subtitles in the shadows, and you can see how the clouds are back lit, but I'n not really a cloud guy.

This is from last February, I was never able to say I liked it, but it was always a bit mysterious to me.

Cambridge Creek out back painting on the blanket

50  F  Sunny early clouds later.

It was a lovely morning, so I got on it early (at least for me) because I knew the sun wasn't going to stay.

I had a tough time coming up with the composition for this, and the verdict is not out yet, I like doing an intimate view of the creek and bank, I couldn't include the barn, with snow on the roof but 9 x 12 was not big enough to include it.

The trickiest thing is to get the snow shadows right, and I felt like I had to do that first (after the darkest color), before the trees or any other detail.

In some places the shadow looks like it's bluer in others, grayer.

The sun lit snow also had variations in it in addition to the complexity of the drawing of the pattern of light/shadow. But that really is the subject, so yeah, I better figure that out!

By the time I start putting the trees in, most all the other parts are close to figured out, the pattern of shadows determines where the trees will go, and you can get away with murder on that, as long as everything makes sense.

I started painting at 10:50, I thought I'd paint a view of the road out front, but the traffic whizzing by didn't appeal to me, and I thought I'd spare my kids the embarrassment. I finished at about 12:15, so I had about  1 1/2 hours actual painting time. Painting right here still takes time to organize and find my spot!

Right out my back door,  I could go all around the world and not find better (different, but not better!)

Here is my spot, The heavy wet snow blanketed the ground making it so nice and easy to work here, so lots of times you have opportunities, under conditions you would never expect to have them.

My pallet, I eliminated Cadmium Lemon, which I usually like. I also only had one blue.

Horton Road, the curse put to rest.

20  F  sunny, no wind.

So I didn't scrape this off.  Yesterday, with the wind and my disposition, well it wasn't good.  In the mid afternoon I was feeling like I had to get back and put the curse to rest.

11 x 14

Here I had just started to change the sky, which had changed dramatically from yesterday, I really put blue in it, the first photo isn't quite right.

I started later than yesterday, and had way better shadows today even though they were small and in the distance. The weather was fine, and I had my mojo back.

The composition problems remain, with the huge boring sky, the snow in the foreground, and all the interest in the center, it's not my usual.

Not too shabby, my scene at the start of today, I hate having unresolved paintings, so I was glad to get this done.  Mr Horton stopped by so it was nice to meet him too.

Learning what doesn't work for you is important, and defines the boundaries of what does work.

The Curse of Horton Road.

22   F  windy!!!!

This is unfinished and should be scrapped.


These are the same silos I painted  from Tingue Rd. not two weeks ago, I was off to the left of the farm, up the hill.


I had painted on this road almost two years ago, and I was cold that day, (even though it wasn't), just like today I felt cursed.

This view should have worked . but it didn't I had stopped at another spot and it was so windy I didn't even start, I should have just gone home, but I hadn't painted since Thursday, and was itchin' to go. I think I'm feeling exhausted and as a result got chilled.  Maybe it's that I'm too far from the subject, maybe there was too much sky......

Here was the start, I was only painting for 20 minutes, but I drove around and scouted for spots I was out for 2 hours.

Oak Hill Road, Barn redone, seasons change, but some things stay the same.

19  F  Sun to haze.

I got started at about 1:30,  I went pretty much strait to this spot, which I had painted in October, I had to get away from the river!


12 x 16

I started with the dark, I wanted a scene with some contrasts and with the countryside covered in snow, lots of the big scenes look washed out.

The light snow

Sky, done in two temps.

The snow on the barn roof was elusive, when you're looking at it in comparison to the sky, it looks dark, when you compare it to the shadowed barn it looks light, so what to do?  I kept trying different tones, Until one looked right, even thought I modulated a bit here and there.

I'm looking South West, mostly West, I think, and the sun is moving, the sky is getting warmer, and the roof, darker. This is exactly what happened the last time I was here, even though there was no snow.

My focus on today's work was trying to get my tones to right, I spent 1 hour, 40 minutes, ( I should have gotten there earlier!) I sacrificed detail.  The road, if you notice is largely the bare tone.

Here is my scene at the start,  the ligt raking over the roof.

As the session progressed the sky turned a bit hazy, I actually liked it.  It made the scene warmer, and hardly any darker.

From early October  16 x 20,