Journal: Edge of Pond, Afternoon

Between storms today I painted down at the pond, where dragonflies were drying their wings and frogs carried on a lively conversation about the weather.

Journal: Fields and Trees, Morning

Back to my daily exercise of focusing on the present (which is one way to pay respect to the past.)

Hill Farm, Early Spring (detail, in progress)

Here's another painting keyed around a strong local color (the green truck) that has required some advance thinking about compositional unity and variety--though it always finally gets down to just putting the paint on the canvas and seeing what happens.

Hill Farm, Early Spring (in progess)

I've been mostly out of the studio this last week celebrating my son Colin's graduation from college and getting the garden in (an activity taken very seriously here in Vermont), but am back now working on this under painting of a composition all about shapes, shadows and seasons.

Barns on Route 7 (detail, in progress)

I'm starting this new large studio landscape with a different approach, thinking out the color composition carefully (a limited palette of six colors) and painting color shapes directly, without a monochromatic under painting. It's an exercise in what Kenneth Clark in his great book "Landscape Into Art" calls "the artifice of construction".

Red Truck and Wood Pile (in progress)

Here's a detail of first color--all keyed to the red truck--on yesterday's under painting.

Red Truck and Wood Pile (in progress)

Between plein air forays and too-brief attempts to get the garden planted, I've been hunkered down in my studio working on paintings (including this autumnal landscape) for my upcoming show at
West Branch Gallery.

Sunday Sketchbook: Vermont

Vermont may be the only land-locked New England state, but we have plenty of water here to enjoy like Kettle Pond and the Winooski River, each a few miles from my home.

Journal: Path to the Field

Birch trees, pines, and Grit Hill in the distance, all in late afternoon sun and shadow.

Journal: Edge of Pond, Morning

I'm starting to think that this is the most beautiful, if subtlest, time of the year here.

Blond Model with Ponytail

This study from a night figure session has a much wider palette, and very different mood,  from yesterday's painting.

Journal: Self Portrait by Bathroom Window

A day of changing weather both outside and inside the studio (where I have learned it is best to ignore storms, droughts and freezes, and just keep painting).

Journal: Pines and Birches, April Morning

Seeing this new, tender color during my morning walk with Roo got me out of the studio for my first plein air study of the season.

Journal: Morning in April

A time limit of ninety minutes allows just the simplest statement of what I see, looking through the dining room window, across the road to woods and pond.

Journal: First Spring Flowers

These few flowers that I picked in the front garden opened confidently during a warm week in March, and then hunkered down to wait out April's cold winds.

Journal: Squash and Blue Plate

The last of my winter squash, on one of my much-used, mismatched, Willow Ware plates.

Sunday Sketchbook: Vermont

I'm at a Vermont Land Trust board meeting this weekend, and as usual find I can listen better if my hand stays busy.

Journal: Garlic and Shallots

I'm back home in Vermont , and chill winds blowing a few snowflakes are back, too. For my "warm-up" painting today I found these remnants from last year's garden.

Figure by a Window

An exercise with my "Color for Painters" workshop, focusing on how far we can stretch a pair of complementary hues (in my painting, violet and yellow.)

Sunday Sketchbook: Virginia

This weekend I'm teaching a "Travel Sketchbook" class in Alexandria, and once again am reminded by the creative energy of my students that the world would be a happier place if more
folks would draw, paint, and just generally make stuff.

Journal: Hedges and Trees

After twelve hours in the car yesterday it felt good to be outside painting this afternoon at Dumbarton Oaks, where spring flowers have arrived a bit early.

Journal: Ginseng and Plums

As soon two things are placed together (even mysterious food items from a Chinatown grocery) they enter into a relationship.

Sunday Sketchbook: Travel

I'll be driving down to Washington next week to teach for ten days, and maybe if I'm lucky like last year I'll see a chevron of geese crossing my path, heading north towards home and into spring.

Journal: Polish Peppers

The second of my "daily journal" paintings, looking at another in my still life prop collection of beautiful food items I'd be afraid to eat.

Journal: Indian Pickles

As I've been engrossed in the studio with a new series of Vermont landscapes, I'm finding I miss paying attention to the little things I see every day here at home or out in the changing weather. So I'm back to doing small "journal paintings" in the morning as a warm-up for studio painting. My rules (hey, I'm a Virgo) for these are: 8" x 8" gessoed board, seven colors (white plus six primaries), directly observed, and no more than ninety minutes. Here are Indian mango pickles that I bought in Montreal, because who could pass up that color.

Sunset, Harbor

My last painting from the Bahamas this year, trying to keep my brush moving at the same pace as the spectacular sunset.

Sunday Sketchbook: Bahamas

Waiting in the morning outside Vernon's little grocery store, looking at the flotsam in the side yard, and waiting in the afternoon across the sidewalk at Munchies snack shop for my order of fish, salad and Kalik beer.

Pink House, Hopetown

A confection of a cottage, floating over a creme de menthe sea and under a sky of whipped cream clouds.

House and Dunes, Afternoon

I'm back home in winter Vermont after my Bahamas workshop, and already looking forward to painting the sky and ocean of Elbow Cay again next winter.

Houses and Dunes, Elbow Cay

A blustery wind never stopped blowing yesterday, and our class painted with a new vigor as we tried to keep up with the pace set by fast-dancing palms and waves.