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

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.  

Champlain Canal lock #6 What the shadow knows.

68  F  sun and haze

             It was unusually warm and sunny yesterday, and I had a standing challenge on to re-visit this site. Lock #6 of the Champlain Canal, along the Hudson, in the southern most part of Ft. Edward.  I'm not convinced that I satisfied the challenge.  The site has a lot going for it, the river and canal, with the lock, the road bridge, and the pump house.  There are really too many "things" here competing to be the subject, and I thought I dealt with that by focusing on water, embankment and the bridge.  The shadow, inescapable at the start  was soon to disappear, and I knew it but went ahead anyway.  There are lessons but the strong graphic quality of that shadow and the light really makes the painting, and I take total responsibility for that, it's a theme I want to explore so abstract and  (potentially) powerful.  The failure as I see it was going forward knowing I would only have a few minutes with the shadow before it disappeared, I got the shadow and some of the brightest lights in, but when the light changes, and changes so dramatically there is no real way to fake it with, or in, the other areas of the painting: the "other" parts are so fundamentally different That the whole scene cannot be  rendered as a whole.  That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

My scene at the start.

Squinting gave me this much darker shadow, and I liked it.

OK.

#727 Champlain Canal Lock #6

3-9-16

14x16

Hudson River @ Fort Edward, following hunches.

7  F  cloudy, no wind.

       On a hunch I went up to the Hudson River at Ft. Edward, about 1/2 hour drive North because I wanted to paint some black water and some ice, I did find it, in a location that I've painted before, but the 11 degree temperature in Cambridge turned into 7 degrees in Ft, Edward.   The clouds thickened and it snowed toward the end of my session. That happens a lot in this line of work.  I'll be following a hunch, I'll want a particular scene or place, and some other factors come into play that undermine (or so I think) the potential of the painting. Today the cold, while not unexpected was more extreme that I was prepared for and I got cold, a cold that sunk into my feet and my hands, so by the time I was in the mid session they felt tingly and my game was off.  Last year I was in the swing of this routine and was able to get out and paint. This winter has been relatively mild so I'm not full game, I'm not sure if this was detrimental to the results, or just a response to the world as it is, and maybe that's just fine, and maybe time will tell and judge the work along other lines, maybe it is a testimony to randomness or a record of the day.  Making art is full of mystery and unknowns.

  

Two bridges over the Hudson.

#714  Hudson River from Rodger's Island, Fort Edward, NY.

2-15-16

9x12