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Tag: autumn

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All good things must come to an end: my end of year reflections

Autumn farm, oil on canvasboard, $1449 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

This evening marks the end of my 2024 gallery season. Iā€™ll be celebrating with a reception for my current workshop students from 4-6, and Iā€™d love to see you. On Saturday, Iā€™ll dismantle the gallery, and on Sunday, Iā€™ll head west for the 20th Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival.

Among my end of the year reflections is the realization that our stellar autumn is balanced by simply ghastly weather elsewhere. Thereā€™s been horrific loss of life and property during hurricane season and a nasty heat wave in the west.

Autumn Farm, Evening Blues, oil on canvasboard, $1449 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Although thereā€™s a definite nip in the air most mornings, this autumn has been glorious in the northeast. The dryness has meant that the tapestry of color has emerged early and brilliantly. Weā€™re at that beautiful moment when leaves range from lush greens to amber, crimson and gold. The air is crisp and invigorating and carries a whiff of woodsmoke and fallen leaves.

None of that should preclude my praying for my Southern friends.

It’s cold enough that Iā€™ve started lighting the woodstove at night, but we havenā€™t had a frost. And itā€™s apple season, so Iā€™m baking an apple cake for tonightā€™s opening. Itā€™s my motherā€™s recipe, and itā€™s reliably good.

Why am I closing now, when things are so lovely here? Iā€™ll get back from my perambulations just before the holidays, during which we humans never seem to rest. But just as nature needs a dormant season in which to rest, so do we Maine artists. Weā€™ve been flapping hard all summer. Iā€™ll take those few weeks before Thanksgiving to reassess and reflect.

Beauchamp Point, Autumn Leaves, 12X16, oil on archival canvasboard, $1449 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US.

End of the year reflections

ā€œWork smarter, not harder,ā€ is something Iā€™ve never really understood. Iā€™ve worked as intelligently and as hard as I could. However, this year I turned 65. Although I have no intention of retiring, Iā€™m finding my usual pace is more punishing than it was ten years ago.

That makes me evaluate what Iā€™ve been doing. What benefits you and me the most? What is busy work? Do I have enough time to paint, or am I focused so much on teaching that Iā€™m forgetting my first love? Is it fair to my family and friends to work nonstop every summer?

Just in case you think those colors can’t be real, here are my chickadees painting on Beauchamp Point on Tuesday.

Every opportunity comes at a cost. For example, in 2024, I taught a lot, but that meant I didnā€™t do many openings. Traffic in my gallery suffered. I need to do a cost-benefit analysis of each aspect of my business.

By the way, none of this end-of-the-year reflection means Iā€™m cutting back on my blog. I get a lot of joy out of writing it and knowing it helps so many people.

Brilliant autumn day, 9X12, oil on canvasboard, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

How about you?

End of the year reflections are a great tool. If you finished this plein air season without painting enough, you can plan time in your schedule to paint. If you keep doing other things instead, you can join a class or group to hold you accountable. If your spouse keeps interrupting you, you can use the winter months to get him involved in his own hobby. (Just kidding, honey.)

But, really, come out tonight

Student show
Richards Hill Gallery
394 Commercial Street
Rockport, ME 04856
4-6 PM
Friday, October 11, 2024

Reserve your spot now for a workshop in 2025:

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Monday Morning Art School: setting up a still life

I start teaching my Rockport Immersive workshop tomorrow morning, and our forecast is for 100% chance of precipitation. I have a backup plan. Yesterday, in my amble through the woods, I cut various blossoms and berries.

Setting up a still life is great fun, but when youā€™re doing it for a roomful of artists, different rules apply. You treat it more like a still-life-scape, from which each painter can pull bits and pieces.

Whether youā€™re doing it for one or ten people, setting up a still life is excellent training. There was a period in my life where I painted a still life every morning, before I got on to my ā€˜seriousā€™ work. Itā€™s how I learned to paint with assurance.

Choose Your Objects

My theme for this still life was autumn, ā€œseason of mists and mellow fruitfulness.ā€ Formerly, Iā€™ve done still lives based on internet memes, nonsense my kids wandered around singing, or things I like to do. Even a simple book of matches can be an arresting still life.

Get in the mood

In autumn, the mood is lush; easy, peasy. Other still lives may not be so simple. They may be austere, luxurious, absurd or romantic.

The color scheme is an extension of mood. In this case, itā€™s purple and gold, reds, russets and yellow. If I were doing something romantic, it would be lighter and more ethereal. If Iā€™m being snarky, all bets are off.

A variety of shapes, sizes, and textures is more important than content. Thatā€™s why I threw in the pewter and aluminum. In this instance a drape would be overkill, but donā€™t discount fabric as a shape- and pattern-maker.

Two closely analogous items.

There are times when Iā€™m looking for contrast, and times Iā€™m looking for closely analogous objects.

Composition is key

I spent as much time gathering and arranging this still life as I would spend painting it. True, itā€™s massive, but in some ways, that makes it easier.

  • Do you have clearly articulated focal points?
  • Have you layered objects to create depth?
  • Is there a good pattern of lights and darks? Warm and cools? A good color pattern?

Donā€™t be afraid to keep fiddling right through your compositional sketch. You may find better ways of looking at the objects.

Lighting

I prefer natural light when possible, as it gives livelier color and a softer shadow pattern. Positioning your still life near a north window will give you the most stable light, but there are times when strong raking light is appropriateā€”but you must work faster.

Natural light is not always possible. If you set up artificial lights, donā€™t put them too close to the subject. Make sure there is fill light in the shadows, and think of the composition mainly in terms of the cast shadows.

Negative space

Negative space is the area surrounding and between the subjects. These interstices define and highlight the main elements, creating balance. Effective use of negative space creates interesting shapes and patterns, draws attention to the main subject, and adds depth to the overall piece.

Some artists use still life shadow boxes. I donā€™t because they excessively control light and composition. When I paint still life, I just ignore what’s behind it. That gives me the opportunity to create what I want in the interstices. Itā€™s good practice in not being excessively driven by what you see.

Be inventive

Iā€™ve painted pretty absurd still lives, including toilet paper, bubble wrap, bacon and a tin-foil hat. Still life is only as boring as you make it. Donā€™t be afraid to be weird.

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Beauchamp Point in Autumn

Beauchamp Point, Autumn Leaves, 12X16, framed, oil on archival canvasboard, $1449 includes shipping in continental US

Each week until the end of the year I’ll be giving you a behind-the-scenes look at one of my favorite paintings. These are paintings that are available for you to purchase unless otherwise noted.

Ken DeWaard, Eric Jacobsen and Bjƶrn Runquist all live near me. In a normal year (unlike this one, where I’m tied to the studio making Seven Protocols for Successful Oil Painters), we paint together a lot. Not only are they very funny, they’re also quite tall, so I have artists to look up to.

Beauchamp Point (Autumn Leaves) was painted on a sunny fall day with Ken, on the dirt road that circles Beauchamp Point. It’s very much a local watering hole-I mean that literally, since there’s a protected swimming area with great smooth granite rocks on which you can sun yourself after your salt water dip. At the very tip of the point, there’s a land preserve that you can only access by paddling.

Spite House, located on Beauchamp Point in Rockport. Built around 1806 in Phippsburg, Maine by Thomas McCobb, this lovely colonial mansion was loaded onto a barge in 1925 and towed up the coast by tugboat. It was bought by Donald Dodge of Philadelphia who wanted it moved to Beauchamp Point in Rockport, where he planned to reside in the summers. Even the foundation was taken down and marked for re-setting on the new site. (Courtesy Digital Maine)

However, Ken is a disciple of a method he calls Park-N-Paint, which means that we never stray from our cars. I appreciate that, since my painting pack weighs about 40 lbs.

On this sparkling autumn day, the shadows were long and the sun was brilliant and warm. Ken painted the shadows on the rising forest slope. I looked down the road itself. There was almost no traffic, because very few tourists realize how lovely Maine is in October.

Rockport harbor is little changed from the time this postcard was made, as it’s home to many wonderful wooden boats even today.

The colors were brilliant, with every leaf picked out in jewel tones. As ever, I was reminded that we artists only produce a poor approximation of God’s handiwork. However, there’s something to be said for the way we interpret it. Plein air painting is truly a cooperative venture between nature and man.

You can buy this painting by clicking through here. I might even throw in directions to our secret swimming hole.

Reserve your spot now for a workshop in 2025: