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!

Finished September Paintings

    September was a productive month, with 25 paintings done, here are 15 of the best, although a few are missing because I had trouble with the photo files. The weather was spectacular, with a lot of sun and warm temperatures, and somehow I was able to keep life at bay enough to focus on painting.  I had a lot of successes recently with the "Best in Show" award from the Trask event and a bunch of sales. I got a show at Saratoga Arts, scheduled for the spring of 17'  and joined a new cooperative gallery in Saratoga Springs NY, to be installed this week.  All good stuff and I'm happy about that, as long as I can keep painting!

                   843 Strand @ night, Old Forge, NY.                         9-1-10                                    11x12

              #844 Moose River                                         9-2-16                                             9x12

         #845 View from Bald Mountain, Old Forge, NY.                      9-2-16                         12x16

                       #848 Park Place                     9-5-16                                   14x16

                 #849 Spraguetown Rd, @ CR 52 Greenwich, NY.                   9-7-16                          12x16

              #850 C.R. 59 @ South Rd.                                       9-9-16                                 11x14

               #851 W. Main St.                                      9-10-16                                        12x16

                 #853 Hudson River @ Thomson                                 9-12-16                                   14x16

                                 #855 Home                                     9-15-16                          11x12 

                      #857 Stuben @ James St. Albany, NY.                         9-16-16                            14x16 

             #858 Charles River @ Watertown MA.                       9-17-16                             9x12 

                                          #859 N. Park St.                                  9-20-16                          12x16 

                       #861 South Rd. @ C.R. 59                           9-22-16                                 9x12  

               

                 #864 McCray Rd. Greenwich NY.                            9-27-16                               11x12

                #866 S. Union St.                                           9-30-16                                            14x16 

                          

                                         As always thanks for reading my blog!

4 days on the farm

      I settled in to a week of staying close to home, and wandered the farm roads in and around Cambridge.

Thursday, September 22:



       #861  South Rd. @ CR 59                                          9-22-16                              9x12

        The farmer was plowing the recently reaped field but the impact on the land was too subtle to get in the painting.
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Sunday, September 25:

                  I wandered around and found this on Carney-Cassidy Rd.

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      #862  Carney-Cassidy Rd.                       9-25-16                                  11x14

                                                                      Another shadow selfie!

Monday, September 26:

       I found another field with the corn getting harvested, it was nestled in between a lawn and a treed hill, and it was off of Scotch Hill Rd.

         #863  Scotch Hill Rd.  Salem, NY.                     9-26-16                            14x16


 Tuesday, September 27:

          I wandered, like I do, and found this, the sun and shade on the lawn, and the back-lit barns.

    Part of the challenge is handling the brightness, when you and your canvas are in the shade, and handling the contrast is a challenge. I took the photo below when I got back and it's striking how much the color changes with the camera in different lighting.

       #864  McCray Rd.  Greenwich, NY.                         9-27-16                                11x12

     Almost caught up,  two more finish out September, then yesterday and today start October. Plus I'll have to photograph all the finished paintings of both August and September.  Thanks for reading my blog and following this serpentine path!

This week in the town and in the country

           This is 9-11 day and no matter what you think or feel about it, the world changed and if you were aware on that day you remember where you were and what you were doing.  For me I was working on a ladder on the side of a barn, in Washington County, NY. The sky clear and the air crisp, much like today, 15 years later.

Last Sunday I drove home from the cabin on 6th Lake, after the painting festival in Old Forge, NY.  I needed something familiar and green. There is a lot of that around here, I went to this spot:

       I've painted here before, just not too recently, it's a lot of green, and not much that is man-made, except or the mowed fields and an overgrown fence line.

           #847  Duel Hollow Rd.                      9-4-16                                 9x12

         The day light has been waning, just a few precious minutes each day, and it makes for a rush of elongated light as the sun sets, and then it's gone.

     This was Monday, Labor Day.  and another familiar scene just down the street.  The end of the day light made for some great shadows, but I failed on the drawing of the church, and a few other details lost in the process, seeing the image in front of the scene really points this out.  Maybe it doesn't matter, maybe I'll try again and get it better next time.

              #848  Park Place                         9-5-16                                    14x16

          This place, an intersection is one I've been through many times, and connects some fabulously picturesque scenery, but I liked the shadows and the trees.

      I've been working on the patterns of light holes, shadows, and the patterns of light and darks in the foliage.  There is a lot to those patterns and they can be vexing, getting them to feel right has come about after a lot of error, and we are still often vexed by them.

        #849   Spraguetown Rd. & CR 52, Greenwich.                          9-7-16                          12x16    

      
        It seems like I'm getting out to paint in the 2nd hour before sunset, this means I have some time before the light really starts to change, by the 1st hour before the sunset the changes in light turn most rapidly, and all hell breaks loose.

       The scene had a lot of glowing green and yellow, they were all so close, it was difficult to differentiate one from another, by the time I stopped the light was gone and I feared the painting was pretty dull and lifeless.  Much of this is because when you're out in the world the painting just can't do light the way nature does it.  When I brouht it back and saw it in artificial light, it looked ok.

      #850  CR  59 & Schweininger Rd.                  9-9-16                                          11x14

      Just down the street last night, a place I go by often many times a day.

    #851  W. Main St.                                      9-10-16                                             12x16

          This was tonight on Raefield Farm Rd. I was excited about the corn field being harvested, but in the end you couldn't tell in the painting, but the light and shadows carried the day.

              #852    Raefield Farm Rd.                          9-11-16                                           11x14

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