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New London Lighthouse
Oil on black canvas, 18x36 |
I've never been a big one for painting sailboats, but suddenly, they've appeared in my heart and more or less demanded to be in paintings.
So, here is one of two sailboat paintings I've made recently.
This one is special for me not only because I love it when some subject (sailboats, waterfalls, cows) walks into my little painting world and requires my attention, but also because the lighthouse and houses in the background are in New London, CT, where I grew up.
My mother, brother and I, my dad when he wasn't working, and eventually my sister, too, spent all day, every day, every summer of my youth, at Guthrie Beach on Long Island Sound.
We'd get there at about 10 a.m., and leave about 4 or 5. We'd stretch out in the sun, swim until we were pruney, dive off the raft, play endless games in the water and eventually sail on my Sailfish (pretty much a surfboard with a big sail).
Mom usually packed our lunch, though sometimes we would get lunch from a guy with a truck. The guy would lean out the window of the truck, tipping his head through the opening. Later in life, when we'd see him, his neck was still tipped sort of sideways, as it had been when he leaned out the window. I never knew if it was tipped because of leaning out the window, or if he decided on the food truck because his neck already was tipped and this was a job that could utilize his peculiar anatomy.
When we lay in the sun, we slathered ourselves with Johnson's baby oil, or with some dark tropical something that smelled like coconut. I often had zinc oxide on my nose, which always burned. Sometimes we'd use Coppertone, which at the time, I believe, was a suntanner, not a sun blocker. These days, even a whiff of Coppertone sends me back to Guthrie Beach.
I haven't come down with skin cancer yet, though my brother has, and had it removed and has been in remission for nearly 10 years. I don't go to the beach much these days, but making this painting has brought up a beach urge in me that I hope to satisfy soon.
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AND THE TIME I might get to satisfy it is during the
Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, Aug. 13-14, in Mystic, CT.
I will be at the corner of Pearl and Main, across the street from the post office, and near the pet shop and bagel place. It's my usual spot, and I'm happy to be there again. Hope you come by and say hello, see my new paintings and maybe even buy one!
The weekend before, Aug. 5-7, I will be in the
Uptown Art Festival in Minneapolis, MN.
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Tetons Homestead
Oil on black canvas, 10x10, $125
PLANS FOR THE Big Skies Painting Trip are officially underway. It's another of my sponsored painting trips, with sponsorships available at the $125, $300 and $500 levels. I'll be traveling to Montana, Wyoming and perhaps South Dakota, wandering, discovering, and making plein-air paintings for my sponsors.
Here's how it works: Each sponsorship level gets you a different sized painting from the road. The $125 level gets you a 10-inch by 10-inch painting; $300 is 16x16; $500, 20x20 or 24x24. You decide what level you want, then sign up to sponsor me, sending me the funds by check or through paypal.
From the road, I'll send special blog entries to my sponsors. In these blogs, I'll write about and send photos of places I'm seeing and people I'm meeting. I'll include my paintings, and photos of my paintings in the landscape. When I get back, I'll post all the paintings on a web page, and sponsors will choose their paintings in the order in which they signed up.
In addition to the blog and your painting, you'll get a postcard or two, a visit if it's possible, and my eternal gratitude!
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Dog of the Day
Met this cutie at the Wickford Fine Art Festival a few weeks ago.
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A Final Thought
"Successful art is a collaboration between its creator and the patron, unified in grace."
- Chad Poppleton
The quote was sent to me by a blog reader who collects my paintings, and had just seen my work in the newest edition of "Southwest Art."
