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

Oak Hill Rd.

56  F  mostly sunny

         #728  Oak Hill Rd.   3-11-16   14x16

I've been thinking about confidence and how balanced life has to be to maintain that confidence.  Having the ability to put the paint on deliberately with a strong composition, values and color so I'm actually satisfied with the result. It happens, and it's great, but just as soon, I  miss something, it may be obvious or more subtle, but it's certainly a miss. There is no substitute for growth, change and learning, and that sets you up to failure, at least for a day.

1st light.

2 nd light.

Darks.

  
Money Shot.


I've done this scene a number of times before, there was a very large barn just to the left of the truck, it fell about a year ago and this is the first time painting it since then.

3 days 4 paintings; Self doubt: drive thru.

   

     I often find myself setting out to paint with no idea about what I want, and not only that, conflicting voices in my head: do I paint in a desolate or village location? the intimate or the big picture? the beautiful or the sublime?    While these questions seem easy,  I'm thinking they are not and am racked with doubt. I don't know why, I think, rationally I should be beyond this, but they're always following me around, pulling at me, these demons.   I get in the van, stop thinking, turn on the radio, and drive.

     It was a good three days, the light was lovely, with sun and shadows, although the warm weather made it easier, there is no snow and doesn't feel like winter in Upstate New York.


Warm and clear, this afternoon.

     #711  Covered Bridge Museum, Shushan, NY.  2-7-16  8x10

On the right is the covered Bridge Museum, the new bridge is County Route 61

My pallet.

The "Money Shot"

Above the door of the museum.














This morning, (also warm and clear)

    #710  Eagle Bridge, rail yard.  2-7-16   9x12

Nice light!

This was yesterday, Saturday, in the morning, before a shopping trip.

     #709  Cty Rte 62.    2-6-16   8x10  

It was hazy and bright out early.

Not a good photo.

This was Friday afternoon on English Rd. 

        #708 English Rd.   2-5-16   12x16

I liked the junk cars and farm equipment in the hedge row.

Brownell Corners Rd., yesterday.

42  F  mostly sunny.

           There is ebb and flow in this painting life, this weekend was very social, with friends, dinners and a few beers, and mostly it's been cloudy.  We had a little snow and I like painting that, but since it fell on friday, it's pretty much gone now, so I don't feel too guilty about not getting out and painting it.

I love the fields when the corn stalks stick out of the snow.

About 1/2 way through, there is very little color, but lots of subtle, dark grey.

My pallet, it's been mostly frozen and kept outside, so it hasn't dried, even the scraped paint, but I like starting on the muddy mess.  A clean pallet is way overrated. In the ebb and flow of this painting life, I will have some of yesterday's paint in tomorrow's painting, you might not know it's there but I will, good or bad there it is, one painting to the next, the same painting done over, done again, and just maybe I'll get it right this time, or the next.

#706 Brownell Corners Rd. @ Turnpike Rd.

1-30-16

9x12