Beginnings, endings and somewhere in between.

              This is my shop, still chaotic, but things are moving in the right direction.  For years I've been fixing things.  Years of scraps and the tools and flotsam of just about every job, stored away waiting to be placed and used but really just taking up space and collecting dust. It's bittersweet to wind down this part of my life, signaling changes, aging, and all that.  I enjoyed building things, and the satisfaction of  seeing my work function to provide shelter.  It's been a good run.  I still have our house, the apartment and the cabin, so there is plenty to fix, but on a much smaller scale.  I'm more excited about having the space free to be my studio, a treat I'll be really excited about putting together.

            #841  Grove St. Easton, NY                         8-29-16                            14x16

       Running on the theme of shadows on summer lawns as well as the bright light on white theme.


       Tomorrow I'm up to the Adirondacks to paint in Old Forge, I'm woefully unprepared, but it's all familiar territory, so I can't get lost.  I'll blog from there.

"The curse of der Maler" put to rest, and W. Main St. @ sunset.

       Today was the first day of the Cambridge Valley Fine Art Tour, and It was a great success, with a lot of visitors and sales.  I hadn't had any sales since December and I was begging to think I had a curse, "the curse of der Maler", and now it feels broken, and if it's anything you want is to have a curse broken!

80  F  clear.

     
      At the end of the day I was exhausted, but it was such a great day, and the light was so nice I went out, and ended up right down the street.

                   This is not a very accurate photo, it's much more dramatic, but it illustrates exactly what I liked about the scene, the bright light on the funeral home, the very dark trees, some far hills and other village buildings in light.

                                        The light and this painting went like greased lightning.

              #840  W. Main St.                           8-27-16                               10x8

Open Studio this weekend!

   I'm just finishing hanging my show, there are lots of paintings on the walls and in the stacks.  All are oil on canvas panels, painted in and around Cambridge, NY.  Here is a link to the group web site: http://cambridgevalleyart.org/,  and the FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/CambridgeValleyArt/?fref=ts

My location is: 138 W. Main St.  Cambridge, NY, 12816

Hours:  Saturday, August 27 and Sunday August 28, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Finished July Paintings

   Finally, a day before my August open studio, here are most of my paintings from July.  I'm thinking the lot of them are too blue in the photos, and I apologize, I really need to get the photos better, but you can get the idea.  All told not a bad month, a few Adirondack paintings, and some nice shadows on summer lawns.

            #801 Battenville @ RR Bridge                   7-1-16                9x12     

         #803 6th Lake thru trees                          7-3-16                    8x10

              #804  Back bay (6th Lake)                           7-4-16                            7x10

     #805  Back bay (6th Lake)                     7-4-16                    6x8

         #806  Hoosic River @ Buskirk,                     7-5-16                              11x12

      #807  Battenkill @ Skellie Rd.                         7-6-16                        11x14

     #809  Billy's bald spot(big moose lake)                      7-11-16                  12x16

      #810  Glens Falls City Park                                7-12-16                                11x12

          #812  Eagle Cliff (4th lake)                    7-15-16                    9x12

      #813  cloud from dock                       7-15-16                            6x8

      #814  C.R. 61 @ Carney-Cassidy Rd.                   7-17-16                     12x16

      #815  Meetinghouse Rd.                            7-20-16                                  14x16

      #816  Legrys Rd. @ Plains Rd.                             7-20-16                           9x12

      #817  McCart Rd.                         7-21-16                          11x14

                    #818  Pearl St.                               7-22-16                           10x8

              #819 S.R. 29 @ Schuylerville NY.                         7-23-16                    9x12

         #821 C.R. 59                               7-27-16                                 12x16

      #823  Galesville Cemetery                   7-30-16                            8x10

Bacon Hill, a view and a friend!

75  F  sunny!

         Looking south down State Route 32 at Grange Hall Rd. in Bacon Hill.  The road goes down to the Hudson River and to Schuylerville.

       There were some nice shadows and the far hills and mountains.

       #839  S.R. 32  @ Bacon Hill           8-24-16        12x16

     This is my friend, Ken Wilson, we drove around the countryside a lot before we got to this spot, and it was a great painting day, beautiful light and perfect temperature,  we had a great time!

Battenkill and Belle Rd. 5 days until Cambridge Valley Fine Art Tour!!!

    It's that time again, in less than 5 days: The Cambridge Valley Fine Art Tour!!!

    Click on link:    http://cambridgevalleyart.org/the-artists/matt-chinian/

    Hope and I went to Newton to see my parents, Hope's grandparents! and we squeezed in a visit to The Fogg art museum of Harvard University, in the other Cambridge.  It was a lovely visit, I hadn't been to the Harvard Museums in ages, and there ware a lot of changes there, but the collection is amazing, and always more than you can take in at once.

                

                                Hope, Mom and Dad!

    So I had a few days away from painting, yesterday I ended up in a really nice spot, but didn't quite get it:

      I had driven past a lot of good scenes, and by the time I got to the bridge, and down the path to the water, then down along the river's edge, I got to a dead end, so I stopped. Sometimes the scene is a perfectly good one, but I can't get far enough back to actually see it.

       #837  Battenkill @ Shushan     8-21-16    12x11

       I also forgot my pallet knife.

       Today I went right to this spot. I didn't have it in mind, but there it was, when I drove by.  I had done this last year.

    #838  Belle Rd.     8-22-16      14x16

The close by and familiar, the lost and the found, Varak Park and Buskirk bridge.

    There is nothing like hanging out on green grass in the late afternoon in the summer. The world is your living room.  Last night I went out wanting some lawn and late shadows. I didn't really need to go anywhere, there is a lot of lawn and shadows at my house, but "going out" is part of the process.  I did find something petty close at Varak Park, a Victorian era factory complex in the middle of my village.  The front of the property is a lawn, bisected by a channeled stream, and a footbridge, lovely.

     At the start the light was mostly on the building, and more on the lawn as well.

      I liked the pattern that the light and darks made, like a secret language, a binary code, but way more complex, way more mysterious.  The world is all pattern, and all changing, and it is there to be discovered.

           #835  Varak Park      8-17-16        12x16

     A red pick-up truck pulled up along Main St., in front of the building and the light was hitting the back of it.  I spent a lot of time on it, as is often the case with certain details.  The big pieces, with a little luck, can be broadly and quickly rendered, while some of the smaller pieces take more time.  Those big picture things are often the things

       This morning I went down to a familiar spot along the Hoosic River at the Buskirk bridge.

           #836  Hoosic River @ Buskirk's bridge.      8-18-16      12x16

         This painting didn't have a large lawn, I think I like going to familiar spots to see how my take on life (or seasons) have changed since the last time I was here, and that's usually a good thing.

Civil war memorial, Hoosick Falls, NY, and a sales pitch?

     Yesterday was hot, humid and mostly cloudy,  as I drove out of the driveway, not knowing which way to go, I saw the last of the blue in the sky and followed, somehow and for some reason I ended up at the civil war monument on Classic and High streets in Hoosick Falls.  I've also been thinking a lot about trying to get my sales pitch going or whatever the hell that means.  There are a lot of people selling advice on getting these skills, and maybe they work.  Of course if they're artists and have found a way to sell their work, why are they selling sales pitches?

   

                 #834 Civil war memorial, Hoosick Falls, NY.      8-15-16      12x11

                 I've been liking lawns in sun and shadow and I found that, I also found the bright light on the green house, the statue was just an afterthought.

             I've been by this place thousands of times, but never stopped and the little triangle lawn, I presume is a park, but there is no sign to indicate that.

                                                              I'm not sure who this is!

                               
       There are parts of this that look too illustrative for me, some places where the drawing is just not right (I don't mean the statue, it's not my subject).  I'm pretty confident I got the values to do what I wanted.......

     So if you want to buy a painting.........