6 paintings in 7 days: freezing, melting re-freezing........

       Some weeks just move faster than others. That's counter scientific, time is just time, and one second is the same as any other, no?  But so goes the heart, and so goes this painter's life.  I woke up knowing I would go to Glens Falls to deliver some paintings to Saunder's Fine Art, in the Shirt Factory building, and get to do an industrial. It was even sunny, who cares if it was 22 and breezy. I made it to this scene without a lot of fuss, I love large open parking lots.

             I had to eliminate the telephone pole and the tree just to the right, but overall was the best view of this scene from this side of the feeder canal.  In the spring the foliage will return and make scenes like this very different.

                                   Here is my Pallet.

      Here is the initial block in, and there is a lot that happens before this.  I don't do thumbnails, but work it out in my head as I put it together, the parts push and pull themselves a bit in this stage, and the general tones are also mixed and thrown on the canvas.

          #956  Paper mill from Cleveland  St. parking lot, G.F.NY      3-3-17       14x16

      Here is the money shot for the day,  it got a little more complicated than I would have liked, there was a lot of "stuff"  like cars, railings, reflections, and they resisted my gathering them to simplify,  I  just ignored a lot of that detail. I did a few tiny tweaks in the studio, otherwise that's it.

        The back of my van.

             This is a photo looking out the rear window of my shop/studio. I see this a lot.  In the afternoons, if there is light, it will hit the front of that little yellow shed, on this day I chose to go back there and paint it.

           I got this from in back of the building in between the trees.

                #955  Outback (rear window)               3-2-17                   9x12

                                                            I thought this was a little surreal.

        This is how I set up sight-size.

                                       #954    Yellow flower with clementine     2-28-17      12x11

                    On the way back from picking up my show in North Creek, I saw this and knew I has to stop!

       Super quick and super abstract.

              #953  Hudson River, Warrensburg, NY               2-27-17              9x12

     

    Although I took this photo days after, the light had been there on the garbage truck when I initially started to set up.

           #952 Turnpike rd. (yellow garbage truck)      2-26-17        11x12 

           #951      Battenkill @ Eagleville                      2-25-17            11x14

   I had forgot my brushes, which doesn't happen, but I found two strays under the seats in the van, and proceeded to make this mess.  I'm keeping it, just to remind myself how humbling this profession can be.

         This is me in front of my painting at the Small Works show at the Shirt Factory Gallery in Glens Falls, NY.  It won best landscape, so that was a nice surprise!   

Finished January Paintings.

     Yeah, I know it's March already, but I'm just posting the finished paintings from January, 15 in all, a little slim for me, but some aren't too bad, some are larger too, and it was COLD!

                  #920   Chamberlin Mills Rd. Hebron, NY            1-1-17           14x16

                                  #921 Varak Park,           1-2-17           12x16

                             #922 Reafield Farm Rd.       1-06-17       11x14

                                 #923  Brownell Corners Rd.          1-6-17         11x12  SOLD

                                #924  W. Main St.                   1-11-17             14x16

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

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

                                      #927 Outfront          1-17-17         9x12

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

                                   #929  Dead Flowers             1-22-17         12x11  SOLD

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

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

                             #933  View of Boston Harbor             1-29-17             12x16

                                #934   View of Hedges Lake                   1-31-17           14x16


     Nice that we had some snow!  

A flower, a courthouse, a paper mill, a trailer, a cement plant and a grainery, all on a roller coaster.

     It's been a pretty productive week, in all 6 paintings, but there are times when I feel lost in the wilderness, questioning what and why I produce painting after painting, stacking up, one after another, unsold. I mean what the heck am I doing?  These feelings peaked yesterday after a family outing, I returned to my studio and pushed myself to set up a a flower to paint, and by the time I finished it I felt better, like an addict getting his fix.  I think this is just part of the life of an artist, nobody said it would be easy, nobody said it would pay, and just at that moment, and a deep breath. This morning I woke up and sold a painting.

                            #950  Yellow flower                   2-23-17                               10x8



     I had a good run for a few days,  and the weather had record highs, Wednesday, there was some great late light, and the courthouse was lit up on it's freshly painted facade.

           #949  Salem Courthouse, Salem, NY.                         2-22-17                              14x16

         #948  Paper mill  from prospect St.  Glens Falls, NY  studio      2-21-17                      16x18


        This day got cold. and Legry's road was a little breezy.

                  It's not too often that I think a painting needs more detail, this is one of them.

                                        #947   Legry's rd.                     2-20-17                                9x12

                                       #946  Cement plant, S. Troy, NY.      2-18-17      16x12


      Last but not least some grain silos.  I go by these all the time and have wanted to paint them for some time, and finally I did it!

                #945   C.R. 59   Grain silos                   2-17-17                          12x16

                   As always, thanks for reading my blog!

   It's been a big week with a major snowstorm, Valentines day and birthday, followed by my tax accountant meeting, with all the preparations. So I haven't painted much, but I'm exhausted!

   I got out on Tuesday, went right down the street, into the thick of things:

                 
                        #944  E. Main @ Park Ave.                        2-14-17                              14x16

            This is the UP church, to my right is the (only) traffic light in town, and the busiest corner, especially at 3:00 in the afternoon.

 
                                                                       Looking west down main st.

   
On Sunday we had a fairly large snow storm, and the Village plow hit the electric pole right in front of our rental house.

                           Here is what it looked like.

          So at the time I thought it was important to get the scene right, with the trucks under the pole actually working on it, but they didn't start until after midnight, way after my prime hours, I hung out in a vacant, but heated! part of the house where I could watch and wait. When they finally started I set up on the porch, and painted the third nocturne ever, and clearly I'll need to do a hundred of them before I can even get a toe hold on the concept, but yeah, a good start!

                                #943  W. Main St.  nocturne                   2-13-17                      11x12

                    I took this the next day, even though it really was done in the wee hours of the morning!

                                            Here is is all done!

Some blabber and a river (of paint)

   

     Last night at my opening, someone asked me about the "artist's talk" I was going to give.  There were about 10 or so people, a few had come and gone, and I was pleased with the turnout, but there really weren't enough people to do a formal talk, so I said, well I guess this is it, what would you like me to talk about? We had talked about the places we've been and compared notes, as the recognizable scenes are always good conversations especially if both people know the places. And I went on and said something about the river of paint that flows from one painting to the next and how one painting simply flows to the next painting and yes it's a continuous practice, and he was pleased.  I had somehow in the free flow of self babble, revealed enough of the way I think.

     The conversation got me thinking about how and what to talk about in my work.   What does any artist talk about?  How it's conceived, made, sold?  How I'd pick a subject, how I'd paint the subject? Would I talk about paint handling, color, value, design?  Would I talk about beauty and the sublime; sentiment and historical precedent?    Any one of these could be hours of endless babble, and yes they are conversations I have in my head about what it is that I do for the best part of most days.  But just try to put that in an elevator pitch, sound bite or tweet!  What would that sound like:  "Yeah, I roll in the paint like a dog"  or  "Yeah, I swim in the paint" or "yeah I put paint up my nose"  this is one reason I don't tweet, I'm afraid I'd be committed, (not in the good way).

       At the end of the day the painting has to do the talking, the paint has to speak.  Like a poem or song, words, sounds, paint. The message is in all of these things, and the whole is more than the parts. And paint is just paint.

                       Yesterday on my way to North Creek:

                           #942 Hudson River, Warrensburg, NY.                  2-10-17                        12x16


                               I appreciate you dear reader, for reading my blog, thanks!