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Immersion in the natural world while painting is one of the greatest joys the painting process can provide to an artist. Observation of nature's nuances of light, shadow, and atmosphere, and the interplay of color in these phenomena is essential to my art. Painting the natural world, especially the Vermont landscape, has resulted in a deeper understanding of the elements that interplay and influence how the world around can be translated to canvas. When I travel to new places, with different elemental challenges, I am pushed to experiment and make new discoveries. Travel has become a way for me to take seeing to a new level.
Anyone who has visited an art store may have glimpsed the array of commercially available paint colors. My journey through this world of pigment has had many shifts and a few hairpin turns. On the advice of early mentors I began painting using three colors. Using the primary triad with white develops an intuitive sense for mixing, as virtually any color or hue can be mixed. Plein-air painting becomes simpler with this palette, and color balance is easily achieved. After a period of working with a limited palette I began adding earth colors such as raw sienna, yellow ochre and burnt sienna to the mix. As I became comfortable with new color I began adding hotter pigments to the palette like cadmium red light, cadmium yellow and cobalt blue. I am currently working with handmade paint from Robert Doak and Associates. Doak provides paint in colors not available elsewhere including some lovely blue-greens, sinopia and blue ochre.
I have traveled to France on more than one occasion to paint the French landscape. The region I have come to love is the Languedoc . This southwest region is known as La Petite France because its concentrated area contains nearly every type of geographical feature found in the rest of the country. I have had the pleasure of painting in vineyards as the grapes are harvested, in small towns and villages while daily life unfolds, and along the river Aude which ribbons gracefully through the region.
Painting in Belgium provided an opportunity for me to immerse myself in visually unfamiliar landscapes. I was, at first, daunted by the differences in atmosphere, color palette and subject matter-my eye had become trained to the challenges particular to Vermont's landscape. Before long, I was seduced by each Belgian day no matter how gray and rainy.
In the Summer of 2008 I had the opportunity to paint in County Mayo, Ireland. This countryside wears its heart on its sleeve, the landscape speaking volumes about what and who came before, and the events that shaped history here. The ice age set the stage for what would later become the Emerald Isle, carving mountains, sculpting cliffs, and leaving errant boulders in its wake.
The Atlantic Ocean is the man behind the curtain; the great and powerful Oz creating weather roils that sweeps in without a moment's notice. Great masses of clouds laden with moisture break-dance across the sky, as colors change from white to ochre to vermillion until, on gusts of wind, steel gray sheets approach. If anything is for certain on the West Coast of Ireland a place of nearly barren beauty, it is the fact that rain will come more than once, every day. One moment the sky is a blue backdrop for the morphiing clouds, and then suddenly you are off the yellow brick road, headed for the witch's castle, or the car if it's closer. At times a summer rain in Ireland is not unpleasant, a refreshing mist on the face, a sparkle on the raincoat. Depending on which lever is pulled a torrent may also come down and drench every animal, vegetable and mineral within reach. When these squalls appear waves will thunder against towering cliffs and boulder-strewn beaches, and the sky melts into the land.
The land is green for sure, but in such variety and often tempered by the omnipresent sky and the plethora of rock, and sheep, strewn about. Plenty of russet, red, gold, violet and fuchsia add balance. Have you ever purchased a hanging basket of fuchsia? All but those who persist with the watering will keep these flowers alive until the Fourth of July. In Ireland these moisture lovers flourish as trainable hedges. This all made for very interesting painting. I loved every minute that I spent in Ireland.
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