For the love of Tulips

I am very fond of parrot tulips with their fringe and colorful combination petals but they are hard to come by here in NE Florida.  When I got a bunch recently I just had to paint them.  They have so much character as they move from tightly closed to completely open and ready to drop petals.  The colors change during this cycle as well as the petal shape.  Here are the first two paintings of the group, and there are two more in process at the studio.

●Untitled - Parrot Tulips
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas 2017

Parrot in the Shadows
15 x 20 Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel  2017

Bridge in Transition

The bridge over the Rio Grande river gorge just outside of Taos is an amazing feat of engineering.  The bridge spans the gorge 565 feet above the river and offers breathtaking views of the gorge walls with the river snaking below.  I have painted the river from its banks where it flows along beside the road from Taos to Espanola, but have never found a way to convey the feeling at the deep gorge section near the bridge.  I started the Gorge Bridge in a more traditional representation:

which I quickly came to dislike..... In painting over that scene, the next view of the piece is moving more toward a compression of the shapes and colors:

and finally, in the finished painting, the colors and shapes that convey for me the structural yet ethereal presence of this bridge over the deep gorge are distilled to only those bits I find essential:

Gorge Bridge
25 x 32 Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel  2017

I took the photos used for reference in this piece last December while visiting on a sunny early afternoon.  The bridge cast a shadow on the walls of the gorge and the snow and clouds reflected and concealed parts of the Taos mountain ski area in the background.

Study for Bridge and Mill

After working on the Newfoundland "postcard" series for the past month I felt a need to loosen up and return to our local landscape.  This painting is a memory of the way our mills and bridges look to me at night as you return to the island by boat on the river.

●Night Mill
14.5 x 24 Mixed Media on Canvas Panel  2016

Rock Fingers at Sibley's Cove

This is from a very sunny day of hiking around Sibley's Cove Newfoundland.

●Rock Fingers at Sibley's Cove
14 x 22 Oil on Canvas Panel  2016

Keels Newfoundland

Keels Newfoundland is a very small outport village on the Bonavista peninsula in Newfoundland.   We have visited friends there for an afternoon the past two years in our annual visit to the province but have yet to catch Keels on a sunny day.  This is from the past year looking out from the "patio" of our friends house.

Red Shutter in Keels
14 x 22 Oil on Canvas Panel
2016 

Skerwink Trail

●Cliff Slices, Skerwink Trail
14 x 11 Oil on Canvas Panel
2016

Hiking around Cape Bonavista

One more in the Newfoundland "postcard" series.  This one is from Cape Bonavista near the lighthouse during a stormy afternoon last year.

●Storm Swirl at Cape Bonavista
11 x 14 Oil on Canvas Panel
2016

Egans Creek Shadows
16 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Postcards from Newfoundland

After returning from our annual visit to family in Newfoundland, I began a series of small oil paintings of some of my favorite scenes from hikes around the province.  I am still painting in this group but thought I would share the first six.

Gray Beach on the Skerwink Trail
11 x 14 Oil on Canvas Panel

A Snug Harbor in Brigus
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas Panel

Apostrophe on the Skerwink Trail
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Fallen Trees on the Path
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas Panel

. Skerwink Totem
14 x 11 Oil on Canvas Panel

.Storm on the Cape
14 x 11 Oil on Canvas Panel 

More from the Lily Pond at the Fairchild

Pond Reflections
20 x 16 Oil on Canvas 

Back to the Grand Canyon

New watercolor of the light on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at dusk now available at the Island Art Association.

Dusk on the North Rim
23 x 17 Watercolor

St. Augustine 7th Annual Nature and Wildlife Show

If you are in St. Augustine between now and the 28th, stop in the St. Augustine Art Association gallery on Marine Street.  I have the painting below in the show and hope to get there this week so check out the rest of the work.  

Desert Candelabra
36 x 36 Oil on Canvas