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

A rail car, a tractor, a feeding wagon, dead flowers, a canal lock, some houses and a bridge.

      I didn't vote for the jerk in the white house!, I could elaborate, but there are many blogs out there that do just that, so I'm going to stick with my mission and blog about my work. For the last few weeks my production has been a bit down, like my mood, cold and grey.  But carry on I must and that I'm finding, one step at a time.

      Yesterday as I drove over the R.R. tracks and looked up, I saw the flat car parked about 1/2 way down and thought it would make a good subject.  We don't always have rail cars hanging around, so I went back later in the day.

              #932 R.R.tracks and flat car                   1-27-17                                  9x12

                 #931  Stevenson Rd. @ Edie Rd.                            1-26-17                             14x16

   This is the scene I found the other day, a little sun on fresh snow, unusual with the mostly grey days of January.

       I found this feeding wagon with two cows feeding, when I stopped and started to set up, they noticed my presence and wandered off!

          Here I have put down a lot of white paint, (snow)  and  started fleshing out the details by scratching them into the paint, I do this a lot, but here it's very visible.

      White can play a lot of tricks on you, sometimes it looks blueish and sometimes it looks reddish, and sometimes it looks yellowish.  Here the far field looked a bit reddish, with the foreground looking bluish but as it turned out I wasn't happy with the way the far field didn't recede as it should have.

        #930  Juniper Swamp Rd.  Shushan,  NY.                    1-25-17                         9x12

         This shows how I set up for sight size.

                               This is how I started, I would normally do the darkest darks and the lightest lights, but it seemed important to get a large swath of the background and then the lights of the flowers.  The premise I was taught was to do the "most different" thing at each and every step, you find the "most different" by looking at the subject and then the canvas, and back very quickly so that the differences are readily apparent, an oh, yes to squint.

                                  #929  Dead Flowers                   1-22-17                       12x11



      This is the un-official start of my "Canal Project"  here in Ft Edward, not far from where I often drive by. The last time I was looking at the map I saw this location and wondered why I hadn't been down this way, and there's a lot to paint there too!

    #928  Champlain Canal lock #8 Ft. Edward, NY           1-21-17                               12x16



             This is my house, it was done a little hastily (not too uncommon)  but it's got the light on the side and the woods in the back.

        #927 Outfront                                      1-17-17                                              9x12

          This is one of my favorite bridges!

          #926  Hoosic River @ Buskirk's bridge                       1-16-17                           12x16

          I wandered down to Hoosick Falls and found myself by the Sand Bar, a local pub, and a neighborhood that's seen better times.

       #925  Hoosick Falls, NY                          1-13-17                                           11x12