Winter Studio Report

Good evening approaching Winter, I am ready for you.

Snow caps have claimed Mt. Blue and Saddleback Mountain— part of the expansive range visible from my studio window. Every day at five o’clock church bells sing to the brick buildings of Farmington. Now they sing in Prussian-blue darkness sanctioned by daylight savings. I have little time with the sun, but the light always remains impressive. The evening bells signal the end of a painting workday. More often, they signal the beginning of my night shift. I am spending a lot of time with my easel under the moonlight.

 Farmington Studio Report

 In my Maine studio (which is also my “main” studio- heh) I am painting young and fragile coniferous trees. I am painting the islands of ponds which appear to float and shift as I drive by. I am painting an old house that hasn’t been occupied in fifty years. I hear the mansard roof crack under the pressure of squirrels running along its gutters. I am climbing the turret of Merrill Hall and painting the town at dollhouse proportions. I’ve got the hometown blues.

 Cape Cod Studio Report

 Winter on the Cape is rural and Jazzy. Literally, because half of the residents pack up and leave and my late grandfather’s sheet music and band CD’s take up most bookshelf space in his home. Sometimes the wind passes between the house and the dunes and I think it sounds like a saxophone. Music and painting go hand in hand, so does a little bit of magic.

 On Sagamore Beach, Casa Lido (the house by the sea) is between marsh-fields and dunes. The Gulf of Maine’s currents are at its most intense during the winter. The ocean is producing a powerful white noise. It is hypnotic.

 I have a maze of drop cloths around the house. I am painting interior/exterior views. I  am painting the winterized furniture with its protective plastic coverings. I am painting panoramic scenes from window views that reveal miles outward to the blue Atlantic and miles inland to the Sandwich Power-plant. It is a hodgepodge of manmade development and pristine landscape.

 I’m on the north shores of the Cape, where the moon and the sun rise at the horizon line of the Atlantic. I am painting the reflections of each grand orb’s light as it reflects upon the ocean, every day and every night.

I’m working on the edge of the Gulf of Maine’s increasing activity, while the neighborhood grows quieter.