The remains of the day
This being Maine, the weather waited until we were irrevocably committed to a lighting structure and then sucker-punched us.
Tag Archives: learn to paint
Seeing red
Somewhere in our lives we realize that our happy moments are not infinite. We have to savor them while we can. For me that epiphany came with cancer; in that respect it was one of the great blessings of my life.
Indirect light
If I had to pick one place in Rochester that was a favorite place to teach, it would be Irondequoit Bay Marine Park. Yesterday I went there to pay homage to summer with a ground steak burger and onion rings at Don’s Original, a 70-year-old eatery along the bay. Irondequoit Bay was the original mouth […]
Fashionably framed
In my home state of New York, people wear black clothes. They believe that black flatters, is timeless, doesn’t show dirt (and there’s a lot of it) and goes with anything. I hate black clothes, personally. I think black makes me look like an old Italian lady who should be sporting a gold tooth and […]
Happy spirits
I have had a wide range of people in my classes—young and old, male and female—but this is the first time I’ve ever had a sprite join me. Chris Ann Derby of Waldoboro is the creator of Brownie, a barn spirit. I’m not going to tell you Brownie’s story; you’ll have to wait for the […]
Running in place
Yesterday Bobbi Heath asked me if I want to go to Stonington next Friday to deliver our work for the Penobscot East Resource Center’s 7th annual buoy auction. I’ve participated in this event for several years, since it’s an organization I believe in. “Are you finished with yours yet?” she asked in an all-too-perky tone. I […]
Helping me along
As soon as the sun is over the tree line, I am headed down to Rockland to paint a scene that a crew member of the American Eagle told me about. Plein air is a concatenation of place and time. We painters can’t be everywhere, so we sometimes miss the most important views. On the […]
Boat out of water
Occasionally I miscalculate and stumble into the cordon of standstill traffic on I-495. That happened yesterday. I spent a lot of time contemplating truck traffic that would have been better employed in the North End Shipyard sketching the Grace Bailey. As much as I’ve enjoyed visiting Buffalo, I was concerned that I would miss her. Built […]
The Zorn Palette is a lie
Brad Marshall and I spent a great deal of time considering the paintings at the Anders Zorn show at the National Academy Gallery in 2014. I came away with a new appreciation for Zorn’s virtuosity, especially in watercolor. Zorn knew how to paint in the low, indirect light of the north. But he was never “known for using […]
The ones you love
“When I were your age,” the old woman wheezed, “there weren’t no such thing as Holocaust deniers. If we’d tried that on Mrs. Rothschild next door or old Mr. Mastman… you remember Mastman’s Corner Store, don’t you, dear?” She blinked back the years. “Sorry, it was way before your time. “Anyways, if we’d said […]
