A Tale of Two Paintings

"Luck is the most elusive aspect of success. Your best chance 
is to keep moving forward until you find it." 

 Part 1.

   Every day last August was more beautiful than the one before on Monhegan Island. The trip was made even more perfect by my two companions, my vastly younger sister Carol, and my painting buddy Elizabeth. Our cottage perches almost over the edge of a shear rock ledge looking back 12 miles to Port Clyde, Maine. I was back to the cottage after painting around the island, and decided to set up my easel on the rock ledge at about 5:30 pm to soak in the gorgeous late light that ran across the top of Smutty Nose Island with Manana in the background. It would have to be a small quick painting and I just let it rip without worrying it to death. I felt done with it; then I put it on the drying shelf without judging it one way or another. But a funny thing happened.  People looked at it and would comment that they liked it. A couple of months later I felt like it was a complete statement just the way it was. I had been lucky- I was in the zone and the painting just arrived almost on it's own. It's like that at times.

"Smutty Nose Island" available at the Barn Gallery, Ogunquit, Maine

Part 2.

  Cornish, Maine is one of my spring painting destinations with great views over to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The spot I keep returning to is really quiet with only an occasional dog walker coming by where I set up beside the road. The day before my trip to Cornish I started a painting of a Vinalhaven scene from some reference in my studio. I spent quite a bit of time on the drawing before looking at it and deciding it was a really boring idea. I took mineral spirits and wiped out that day's work. Then I found a photo of Cornish from spring 2013 and painted a really loose sketch with big shapes from the photo onto the wiped canvas. I liked it and decided to paint on site from the same area using what I had just done as a starting point. 
  I spent the afternoon in Cornish and just kept working away try to get the feel of the early spring color and the texture of the trees. 
  The next day I looked at what I had done on site in Cornish and it was not good! It was confusing, too much color, the wrong brush marks in the wrong place. I had to scrape out and wipe out quite a bit of paint. I remembered hearing that Eric Aho used to do a painting, scrape it all out, and then paint it again using some of the same paint. So I decided to try that.
  It was an incredibly useful experiment. I felt like I had a better idea of what I might want to convey with this painting, so I went back to the painting and did it again. At home in my studio. Third time on this canvas-
  The next day I only had a couple of changes in the sky.

 I guess I was a lucky painter after all!

"Looking to the Whites" available at the Barn Gallery

Both of these painting are in the opening exhibitions at the Barn Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine. The show opens May 21 and runs until June 21. Come join us for the opening party on Saturday, May 24 5pm- 7:30pm. more information