A flower, a courthouse, a paper mill, a trailer, a cement plant and a grainery, all on a roller coaster.

     It's been a pretty productive week, in all 6 paintings, but there are times when I feel lost in the wilderness, questioning what and why I produce painting after painting, stacking up, one after another, unsold. I mean what the heck am I doing?  These feelings peaked yesterday after a family outing, I returned to my studio and pushed myself to set up a a flower to paint, and by the time I finished it I felt better, like an addict getting his fix.  I think this is just part of the life of an artist, nobody said it would be easy, nobody said it would pay, and just at that moment, and a deep breath. This morning I woke up and sold a painting.

                            #950  Yellow flower                   2-23-17                               10x8



     I had a good run for a few days,  and the weather had record highs, Wednesday, there was some great late light, and the courthouse was lit up on it's freshly painted facade.

           #949  Salem Courthouse, Salem, NY.                         2-22-17                              14x16

         #948  Paper mill  from prospect St.  Glens Falls, NY  studio      2-21-17                      16x18


        This day got cold. and Legry's road was a little breezy.

                  It's not too often that I think a painting needs more detail, this is one of them.

                                        #947   Legry's rd.                     2-20-17                                9x12

                                       #946  Cement plant, S. Troy, NY.      2-18-17      16x12


      Last but not least some grain silos.  I go by these all the time and have wanted to paint them for some time, and finally I did it!

                #945   C.R. 59   Grain silos                   2-17-17                          12x16

                   As always, thanks for reading my blog!

   It's been a big week with a major snowstorm, Valentines day and birthday, followed by my tax accountant meeting, with all the preparations. So I haven't painted much, but I'm exhausted!

   I got out on Tuesday, went right down the street, into the thick of things:

                 
                        #944  E. Main @ Park Ave.                        2-14-17                              14x16

            This is the UP church, to my right is the (only) traffic light in town, and the busiest corner, especially at 3:00 in the afternoon.

 
                                                                       Looking west down main st.

   
On Sunday we had a fairly large snow storm, and the Village plow hit the electric pole right in front of our rental house.

                           Here is what it looked like.

          So at the time I thought it was important to get the scene right, with the trucks under the pole actually working on it, but they didn't start until after midnight, way after my prime hours, I hung out in a vacant, but heated! part of the house where I could watch and wait. When they finally started I set up on the porch, and painted the third nocturne ever, and clearly I'll need to do a hundred of them before I can even get a toe hold on the concept, but yeah, a good start!

                                #943  W. Main St.  nocturne                   2-13-17                      11x12

                    I took this the next day, even though it really was done in the wee hours of the morning!

                                            Here is is all done!

Some blabber and a river (of paint)

   

     Last night at my opening, someone asked me about the "artist's talk" I was going to give.  There were about 10 or so people, a few had come and gone, and I was pleased with the turnout, but there really weren't enough people to do a formal talk, so I said, well I guess this is it, what would you like me to talk about? We had talked about the places we've been and compared notes, as the recognizable scenes are always good conversations especially if both people know the places. And I went on and said something about the river of paint that flows from one painting to the next and how one painting simply flows to the next painting and yes it's a continuous practice, and he was pleased.  I had somehow in the free flow of self babble, revealed enough of the way I think.

     The conversation got me thinking about how and what to talk about in my work.   What does any artist talk about?  How it's conceived, made, sold?  How I'd pick a subject, how I'd paint the subject? Would I talk about paint handling, color, value, design?  Would I talk about beauty and the sublime; sentiment and historical precedent?    Any one of these could be hours of endless babble, and yes they are conversations I have in my head about what it is that I do for the best part of most days.  But just try to put that in an elevator pitch, sound bite or tweet!  What would that sound like:  "Yeah, I roll in the paint like a dog"  or  "Yeah, I swim in the paint" or "yeah I put paint up my nose"  this is one reason I don't tweet, I'm afraid I'd be committed, (not in the good way).

       At the end of the day the painting has to do the talking, the paint has to speak.  Like a poem or song, words, sounds, paint. The message is in all of these things, and the whole is more than the parts. And paint is just paint.

                       Yesterday on my way to North Creek:

                           #942 Hudson River, Warrensburg, NY.                  2-10-17                        12x16


                               I appreciate you dear reader, for reading my blog, thanks!

Show opening tonight! blog today: this weeks paintings!

My exhibit reception and talk is tonight, in North Creek, NY.  it's about 20 minutes north of Warrensburg, and exit 23 off the northway, then a short drive west on rte 28 to the town of North Creek.

Yesterday we had a pretty big snow storm.

Wednesday I completed (I think) a studio version of a painting I did maybe a week ago down the street and up the railroad tracks of a parked flatcar.

                      #941  Sleeping giant                                    2-8-17                                   16x18

                            This is how these get done, I rely on the plein air painting and memory.

                      This was a short hike down the feeder canal in Glens Falls, it's the cement plant.
 

                    Here it is packed up, it's got to be one carry, and should be as light as possible.

   
       Here is what I took home, I've worked on it a bit, and might do some more, there were some drawing issues, with all the machinery, etc, more complicated than I thought it would be, and maybe I'll do a studio version.

                     #940  cement plant from feeder canal.                    2-6-17                            14x16


           On Sunday, I went out looking to see if the flatcar was still in Cambridge, it wasn't, so I went down to see what was in the Eagle Bridge rail yard, and found this:

             #939  Eagle Bridge rail yard                          2-5-17                                    9x12

       

I wanted to practice some still life work, and had the idea from a FB friend, I'll try again....

#938   Tomato can         2-4-17      12x9

















          This is the paper mill in Glens Falls, it's a big plant, but I can't go in, so I have to find places just outside, I didn't put the gate in.

                      #937  Paper mill from Prospect St. G.F. NY.               2-3-17                           14x16

      It was a quiet street, but I had to move the van for 2 trucks that couldn't make the turn, still a good and easy way to set up, especially when it's cold and time is of the essence.


        This is Ballston Spa, I came to drop off some work for the Pop-up show.  That is how I ride, if I'm going out of town, and it works, I'll paint in the place, or along the way, and kill two birds with one stone, time and gas add up!
         

           

                         #936  Ballston Spa, NY  backlots                2-2-17                            11x12

Tannery Pond opens tonight!  5-7 in North Creek, NY  info below, all welcome, free wine!

http://poststar.com/calendar/arts_and_entertainment/exhibit----oil-paintings-by-matt-chinian/event_aad96b30-e3f0-11e6-af0b-308d99b27d1c.html

Pop-up show opening Friday Feb 3 6-8 pm!

here's the info, if you are local I hope you can come out and say hi,  it's also chocolate festival!

 
                 These are the paintings I brought to the show:

Tannery Pond Community Center is up!

Yesterday I installed 35 paintings and 3 photographs in North Creek NY.  It's a bit of a haul for me, with traffic it took 1 1/2 hrs, but a familiar route; it's the same way we go to the cabin on 6th Lake, in Inlet.  here is a link :http://tannerypondcenter.org/gallery-schedule/

Well that's the show, I put up more of the Adirondack paintings, so we'll get ready for the reception on Friday the 10th, 5-7. I know it's far off for many of my Cambridge area friends, but near or far I'd love to see you!


Today was mostly cloudy with a little clearing toward the end of the day, the light was beautiful, but I just couldn't get out the door, so I painted my woodstove.

                                              It takes a while for me to get a good fire like this.

                                       #935  studio wood fire                  2-1-17              10x8

                               
This is a view of Hedges Lake from a place recommended to my by a Facebook friend, I usually don't go on private property, but a second degree permission and no signs to the contrary, and I went.

      #934   View of Hedges Lake                            1-31-17                                           14x16


              I took a quick trip to see my Parents, and on Sunday wandered into Boston, I wandered quite a bit, and finally found a great parking space.  Then I walked around, and found my kind of scene, so I wonder why go to a big city with lots of truly different types of scenes, I picked one that's totally familiar.  I am pleased with the results.

         

             #933  View of Boston Harbor                  1-29-17                                    12x16