Out Back O’ The Galley

For a year now I have been writing a blog. When I started this painting I went a little further out on that cyber limb and started a section called “What’s on the easel ? “.  Somewhat risky to put it all out there, the behind the scenes look…mistakes and all. But once I started, and found out that people were watching, I decided to keep going. The whole process is archived along with photos on my blog. Included here are some excerpts to give you a flavor.

This painting has been in the works for years. I began it in early March of 2009 after having major surgery which came with 6 weeks of serious lifting restrictions.  Pat had helped me get the panel up on the easel before I left for the hospital … and it was waiting for my return to the studio a week later.

March 15 – Transferring the sketch

After over a week of drawing, reworking and fine tuning the composition I finally finished getting the sketch for this mammoth painting on the panel yesterday. Since this is a Vineyard scene, and since my studio is in the almost landlocked state of Pennsylvania I am relying on a bank of photographs and sketches done on scene for reference. The first shots were taken back in 2004 and I have supplemented those with over a thousand more…chronicling  a wide range of lighting, weather and seasonal elements in the intervening years.
Without revealing too much of the subject matter yet, I can say that the view of this part of the island can and does change hourly. A busy intersection of human, waterfowl and nautical activity, there is almost constant motion…so trying to capture that energy in a static and narrow two dimensions has been a challenge.

It was also interesting to see the changes in some of the “bones” of the scene over the 5 years or more of photos and drawings. Shingles damaged over harsh winters waited years to be repaired and names painted on boats worn by salty seas were all of a sudden bright again as I flipped from on year’s shots to the next.
I decided to let the verisimilitude go and concentrate on finding the essence of the place. The early composition has expanded from a relatively small panel to fill and almost 4×8 foot frame. The challenges of working on a painting that size are offset by the opportunity to portray the beauty in the simplest of details that would be lost on a smaller panel. And there are hundreds of them in this composition. So here we go.

March 20 – On the easel…continued

A swath of sky, then in for some long distance work and detailing, then over to the shack full of shingles… I have become quite familiar with the weathered cedar shingle and learned that there are no short cuts. Wet-in-wet seems to work well for the first layers. Then I come back in and crisp up the edges and add texture. Then go back and glaze it all down as a summer rain storm might…and then back over that to bounce in some highlights where the appropriate sunlight … or shadow…would glance off of the surfaces.

March 23 – Windows

We took the weekend off..almost unheard of…traveled to Baltimore and were royally hosted by our friends Doug and Scott. Their generosity and genuine good natures and love of art is inspiring…and the gift of time spent with them AND being able to study the paintings of 17th century masters…priceless.
Now, back again in the studio, I’m buoyed by the images still fresh in my mind and ready to kick my game up another couple of notches. One of the things that impressed me was the many miniatures in the collection at the Walters Art Museum. Even though the current panel on my easel is almost 8 feet long there are dozens of “miniature” paintings within this composition.
The windows in the primary fishing shack are two such sections that I began to work on last week. In the painting they are only about 2×3 inches but they provide some much needed depth in a 2-D world …I want to give the viewer as much pleasure as I got from taking my glasses off and leaning all the way into the tiny portraits at the museum to see what those patiently applied brushstrokes had to reveal.

April 7 – Horizon Continues – upside down

Buckle down time… In a little over a week our little family of 2 will triple…and then some. (The Follansbee Family was due to arrive with 3 year old twins Rose and Daniel…and at the end of their stay… we were to bring home our new pup Finnegan ! ) …My goal was to get this mammoth painting finished by then…..sooooo brushes up !

April 13 – Who am I kidding ?
OK, so…
one thing I have some to know for sure is that every painting evolved in its own time.
There are some which have been incubating on the back burners of my mind for years, nay decades…and others that literally awaken me out of a night’s slumber and push all other work aside and in a wild impatience are painted in a flash.
The oversized ambition of this current work is certainly in the first category and I’ve recognized the slow and steady pace of bringing each square inch up to its own level of detail as the perfect challenge for a time in my life when I am forced to slow down my usual chaotic over-drive mode. Nice slow sessions at the easel with frequent breaks to stretch out the otherwise atrophying post- surgery muscles.
After weeks of that rehabilitating pace I am almost completely recovered…and almost completely behind schedule. Yes, the twins arrive tomorrow. Yes, the new puppy arrives on Saturday. Yes, I still have almost half the canvas to render. And yes, I decided to add two, or three, or more new boats into the harbor…just to up the ante. But ya just can’t rush this level of detail.

April 29 – Progress Report

My new alarm clock is programmed for a 6 am feeding… no matter what.  And with that change in my morning routine I am finding myself way ahead of the game…breakfast eaten, walk taken, gardening done in the coolest part of the day and most of all…puppy played out and ready for a nap…and all by 8am.
I began work on the foreground… as the tide changes, this area migrates from lacily raked seaweed to a carpet of small pebbles to a foamy lipped saltwater by… I wanted to bring the seaweed in to give a gesture of motion and to keep the eye moving around the composition …

May 21 – Painting Finished !!
(to read more and see the progression in photos go to the blog posts in March through May of 2009 )