Thinking of Newfoundland

Colorful Cliffs on the Skerwink Trail
11 x 14 Oil on Canvas Panel  2017

Here in Florida the weather is hot and the air is thick and humid.  Relatives in Newfoundland are however dealing with temperatures quite a bit cooler and the fishermen still haven't been able to get out in the boats at Sibley's cove because of the ice in the bay.  

Key Largo Bromeliads

● Key Largo Bromeliads
Watercolor  18 x 24   2017

Mill Series Continues

I have been working sporadically since moving into the studio and just finished another in the Mill series that I revisit periodically.  The island's two mills are very different in configuration but share certain shapes and themes of construction that have leant themselves to being merged in some of my studies.  This painting however is totally from the Rayonier mill (and my imagination).

• Mill #1
24 1/2 x 32 Oil on Canvas on Birch Panel   2017

Playing with Paint

Golden Sunset on Dames Point
18 x 24 Watercolor and Gouache   2017

Red Trumpet Flowers

●Red Trumpets
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas  2017

Although I had planted the native red trumpet vine to feed the hummingbirds, this year it is playing host to a wide variety of bees.  You don't see them when you go to the plant until they buzz out of the trumpet and move on to another.  The flowers are full of nectar.

More Tulips for our Early Spring

●Parrot Tulips #3
15 x 20 Oil on Canvas Panel  2017

Cliffs Edge on the Skerwink Trail

Cliff's Edge on Skerwink
14 x 11 Oil on Canvas Panel  2017

Parrot Tulip

The parrot tulips change in color as they open fully and get to the end of their days in the bouquet.  This tulip is almost ready to start dropping its petals but still has great color and shape.   

●Parrot Tulip #2 (untitled)
8 x 8 Oil on canvas 2017 

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