Tag Archives: stone paintings

North Woods Creek

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TM9516 North Woods Winter 36×48 oil on panel

With the right gear, nothing beats a winter day exploring the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This frozen creek, known locally as “the bowl” is just off interstate 93, and provides inspiration in any season (though I like winter). The drama of the off-kilter boulders and ice can be dangerous, but it offers a glimpse of the sublime, where intoxicating beauty and danger collide. It took many years of experience painting before I dared trying to paint the bowl, but now I want to go back and get more views. Details below. Enjoy.

TM9516 North Woods Creek – close-up showing rocky terrain

TM9516 North Woods Creek – detail from lower left with ice flow and boulders

TM9516 North Woods Creek – detail from upper center

TM9516 North Woods Creek – detail from left side

From a Favorite Trail

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TM9443 From a Favorite Trail 36×20 oil on panel

Some trails become a habit. Maybe it’s because they are close-by. I tend to think it’s because they always provide a boost to the spirit and something new to appreciate. I particularly enjoy learning and recording the changes that seasons bring, then incorporating these details into my paintings. Below, you’ll find a few photos showing the development of this piece. Enjoy.

TM9443 From a Favorite Trail – first layer of painting, paint applied with a roller

On the first day of painting, I strive to block in the major values and textures. I use a roller to apply thinned oil paint, then manipulate it with mineral spirits and paper towels. I want the feel and gesture of the forms to be established.

TM9443 From a Favorite Trail – second day of painting with more defined forms and colors. On the third day, I applied a number of thin glazes to modulate the color.

The second day started with blocking in the sky and defining the trees. Compositionally, I liked the stalwart tree almost dead center as a focus and contrast to all the diagonals of the granite ledge and uplifted tree boughs. On the third day, I worked on the pattern of light on the granite, and refined the detail in the stone.

TM9443 From a Favorite Trail – close-up of trees

On the last day, I decided to bring more light and air into the trees, and lightened the distant ridge so it would recede.

TM9443 From a Favorite Trail – detail

More light and saturated color were added to the overhanging foliage, and reds and violets were glazed onto the ledge in the shadows.

TM9443 From a Favorite Trail – close-up of eroding ledge near bottom of painting

I also glazed more warmth into the stone granite at the bottom of the painting. Finished!

TM9443 From a Favorite Trail 36×20 oil on panel

 

 

 

Hiking to the Chasm 2 & 3

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TM9425 Hiking to the Chasm #2 7×7 oil on paper

TM9426 Hiking to the Chasm #3 7×7 oil on paper

More studies from Purgatory Chasm – a perfect place to wrestle with the geometry of glacial chaos!More in the works…enjoy.

 

Early Summer at the Quarry

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TM9415 Early Summer at the Quarry #1 7×7 oil on paper

TM9416 Early Summer at the Quarry #2 7×7 oil on paper

Two interpretations of Early Summer at the Quarry, from different vantage points. Sometimes people ask me why I paint the same place again and again. My answer: it’s never the same! Changes in light, season, viewpoint, and my own mood mean I’ll always see something different and challenging. If I don’t see something new, then the problem is me, and I need to find out why. Painting the landscape (nearly) daily is a record of change and a diary. Enjoy these quarries…..

From a Winter Walk

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TM9372 From a Winter Walk 36×40 oil on panel

The transformative power of snowfall – what had become the dark woods of late autumn is brilliantly lit by reflective snow crystals, and even the shadows glow! This view, from the trail around my favorite little pond, epitomizes why I so love to paint winter. Enjoy.

Technical painting notes: I start the winter paintings much as with any season, applying a dark roll-up of thinned oil paint, sometimes warm, sometimes cool in tone. In this case, I used a mixture of burnt sienna, raw sienna, and burnt umber, with a little pthalo green on the left side. I scraped into the wet paint, suggesting branches, and spattered and roughed up the paint on the right side, where the outcrop would be. When the base layer was dry, I began refining the forms, using soft brushes and thin paint to “draw” the trees. I also use a roller to apply white or tinted paint to suggest snow. The accidental way the roller landed on the ridges of dark underpainting almost painted the outcrop for me. Layers of rolling the shadows and white highlights was followed by more refinements with a brush on the rest of the image.

Homage to Tectonic Time

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TM9323 Homage to Tectonic Time 24×44 oil on panel

Campobello Island is one of my favorite places. The geology is magnificent, with layers of iron rich granite, black basalt, and quartz intrusions that seem to stripe the ancient headlands. All this with views to Grand Manon and Maine. Homage to Tectonic Time is my “portrait” of a spot I like to visit early in the morning. It is wind-swept and primal. Except for erosion, it feels like it hasn’t changed since the end of the last ice age. So much history can be read in the rock. Ancient mountains. volcanic activity, changing sea levels, compression and rebound – a long story that you can touch and feel – it always sends shivers up my spine. Below are details. Enjoy.

TM9323 Homage to Tectonic Time – detail from right side with morning view to far headland

TM9323 Homage to Tectonic Time – close-up

TM9323 Homage to Tectonic Time – detail from left side showing quartz intrusions in ancient basaltic headland

 

Up on Bass Rocks

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TM9322 Up on Bass ROcks 36×48 oil on panel

There’s a time for drama and a time when quiet is most appreciated. Up on Bass Rocks seems to be a meditative, peaceful morning, with a view out to sea and a retreating fog bank. But in truth, if you love geology, the thrill of touching such an ancient mountain is fantastic. In some ways, the painting is about time – long, stretched out time. The ancient granite, bruised by glaciers and pummeled by the sea, is alive with crystals and abstracted by fractures. To paint it, one’s own sense of time has to slow down as well. The layers of paint and texture can’t be rushed; the tantalizing forms need to reveal themselves. Enjoy.

TM9322 Up on Bass Rocks – close-up of granite with bands of quartz crystals and yellow lichens

Technical painting notes: The painting was built in layers. The first layer of paint, applied with a soft roller and crumpled (re-used) plastic film, was rough, streaky and transparent. I spattered mineral solvents on the paint and re-rolled the surface repeatedly to achieve grainy textures. I also spattered paint in places, for more depth. The opaque dots of paint contrast nicely with the open spots where the mineral spirits has left deficits of paint. When the first layer was dry, I layered transparent glazes, then painted into the wet glazes with soft brushes and more transparent color. Occasionally I applied paint with the roller, to get more interesting “accidents.” Additional layers of glaze and stippling refined the color and textures.