Snow and grey, the farm and the river.

   #902  Hoosic River @ Valley Falls, NY.                           12-6-16                                   14x16

    This is at the end of Bunker Hill Rd.  I've painted from the other side a few times.

   This convenient platform is part of the dam structure.

Yesterday......

      #901  Skellis Rd.                                              12-5-16                                                 12x16

Snow is fun!

Champlain Canal lock # 6 Ft. Edward, NY. laying out the paintings and a new gallery!

     Rainy today, after a cloudy day along the canal yesterday.  I needed a rain break to get some other things done.
 

                 This is a scene I've wanted to do for a while, it's the lock,  without the  lock, but with the bridge, pump house, the road, and all the other stuff. There are some yellow trees, but they stay very much in the background.

          A progress shot.

            The Money Shot.

             #878  Champlain Canal lock #6 Ft. Edward, NY.             10-19-16                12x16

       Here I've laid out the paintings from September, 25 in all, and most are my larger size.  I'm waiting for a clear day when I can photograph them, as well I will number, title, date and sign them.  Once this is done, I will varnish them and I can send out jpegs.

      This is the wall for my current paintings, these are the ones from this month so far. 

         On the largest wall I'm laying out the work, and just as important, the frames for a show at a co-operative gallery I'm joining (read, renting) in November.  My space is 4'-10" x 7'-10", and the black tape and board seem, indicate the size.  I will arrange the paintings like this, and change out the paintings, hopefully when they sell.  There will be a rack of 30 or so unframed paintings, they can be fitted with a simple black frame, or purchased without a frame.

       AMP Galleries are located at 454 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY.  I will post pictures as soon as I move in.  The web site is here:  http://www.ampgalleries.com/about

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.

Two days, two paintings.

90  F  hot, hazy and humid.

 This was from this morning:

       #777  Hudson River @ Rodgers Island, NY.        5-29-16       14x16

           It took 1 1/2 hours to get to this place, where I've painted at least 2-3 times.

        By the time I get to this point, I've figured out a lot of things, basically what I'm going to include, or not.

My pallet.

     Today's money shot.

   Yesterday I went down to the Cambridge Town Hall, and found this scene.

    There were things I liked about the scene, but there was a lot of middle value greens that I didn't.

    #776 Center Cambridge road @ town hall.    5-28-16    11x14

      At the end of the day, not terrible, but there is probably too much stuff.

Here are a couple of sash, I've had a lot of them through the shop. I'm going to finish up the few projects I've promised out and quit this line of work.  I've done close to 1,000 of these, maybe that's too many, maybe I'm quitting too late.  

Two bridges, one familiar one new.

84  F  some sun, some haze,

   #775  Hudson River, Troy, NY.     5-25-16    11x12

              This is the Collar City Bridge, in Troy, NY. It's a draw bridge which explains it's unique shape, it's also an icon of Troy.  I've wanted to paint it for some time, I got my chance today when I finished up a window job early,  although the clouds were in front of the sun, I don't get down this way to paint that often.

     The design comes first with large simple forms, dark and light.

     I alway wonder how much I really need, and what is extraneous, what tells the story and when do I start to fuss with it, when to quit.

                The Money Shot for this afternoon.

       This was done on Monday,  a familiar bridge.

           This is the scene, one I like a lot, still not sure what happened, an off day?

   #774  Battenkill @ Battenville.       5-23-16   9x12


      As always thank you for reading my blog!

Two bridges and a house, the familiar and the damned.

The last few days, weeks even have been a bit of a whirlwind, 5 window jobs have manifested themselves, my aging parents need some time and attention and they are out of state. Somehow I've managed to get out when I had sunshine. I love the sun in the morning, or evening, but I'll take it anytime if I must. So here is what I did the last three days:

         #769  County Route 60, Jackson, NY.     5-12-16    11x12

2nd time at this scene.

Yesterday I found this scene:

             

  #768 State Route 67 bridge, Valley Falls, NY.     5-11-16        12x16

Tuesday I had a different experience, I painted on this spot that's practically in the river.  

     

     This is the construction site that is the Johnsonville bridge.   The wrapped structure you see is the old trestle bridge, and the new construction is the new bridge.  The painting does not explain this, and maybe that's a problem, the confusion is about what you are looking at, it's subject and it's hard to make sense of it.  

  #767  Hoosic River@ Johnsonville bridge.         5-10-16       11x14 

     I've been thinking about finding new places and new motifs, seeing what happens with them. Sometimes they don't work. sometimes they need a re-visit or a re-think.  Other times I go right back to familiar places, sometimes it's to try and get what I had missed or to see what different light and different seasons look like.  It can all be maddening at times.