This month I am exhibiting the first of the plain air paintings of this season in the SOAG Salon

Belle Canto Farm Shed, 12×16, oil on canvas, $400

.This has been an unusually busy spring, so I haven’t been painting out and about as I would ordinarily. Among other things, I have had to discipline myself to stay in the studio long enough to finish the abstract color exploration series, and the four Ibis paintings. However, I did get out with a group of painters, on what turned out to be a blustery day with drizzle on and off, to a beautiful spot – Belle Canto Farm – owned by the sister of one of the painters. We had to to paint in shelter, and I chose to stand in the feed shed, a wonderful red structure, which contrasted with the fresh young green of the grass, and filled with an assortment of boards and odds and ends.

Five White Ibis diptych, 20×40″, acrylic on canvas

During the month of May, the State of the Art Gallery presents new work from all of their members. It is an eclectic show with painting, photography, digital works, sculpture, mixed media, and video. I will be exhibiting three of the four panels in my Ibis series: Five White Ibis diptych, and White Ibis Group (4 adult and 1 juvenile). I started these paintings in spring of 2014 after a trip to Key West, where I saw these stunning birds for the first time. During that first spring, I realized that I had a good composition, a pleasing landscape, but lacked enough experience with these birds to finish them in a compelling way. I was not aiming for a

Ibis Group (4 Adults, 1 juvenile), 20×20″, acrylic on canvas

scientific avian illustration, but a convincing painting of birds as we see them. I do want them to feel right. I made two more trips to Florida in the succeeding years, Each time I had many opportunities to observe, photograph, and sketch. Each time I returned to my studio better equipped to continue refining the figures,  I am pleased to finally be able to share them.

The show opens on Wednesday, May 4, and runs till the end of May, There will be a reception on Friday, May 6, 2016 from 5-8.

Cottonwood Grove, 14×18, oil on canvas

I promised that I would post an image of the new painting on exhibit at State of the Art Gallery. I have been tangled up in one thing after  another for a while, some not so funny like multiple house calls by plumbers, roofers, and garage door technicians, and some really good adventures with the Cornell Spring Ornithology lectures and field trips, but finally, at long last, here it is. It started with the intention of painting the poison ivy vines, blazing red in their fall colors climbing the cotton wood trees just past the Treman Marina, and wound up being more about the weather on a brilliantly sunny, violently windy day. It was the last good painting day in October, 2015. It became a very abstracted landscape. This will be available until May 1, 20116

Today I took down my paintings that were hanging in Transformations Hair and Skin Salon. It was a very pleasant place to show work. I signed up to exhibit there again in the future.

I still have work up in the Community School of Music and Art Gallery show, A Sense of Place. The show will come down on May 13.

Ibis diptych, 20×40, acrylic on canvas.

Here is a preview of work that I will be showing at the State of the Art in the May Member’s Show. It is Ibis Diptych, two 20″ square canvasses that were started as separate images, but seemed to want to go together. I started it in March, 2014, and it took quite a long time to finish, in fits and starts. I was able to start it right away, after my first trip to Key West, and my first sight of white ibis. It was clear, after I established the composition, that I needed to learn a lot more about the birds. Two more trips to Florida, with lots of observation and sketching gave me what I needed to carry them on to completion. There is one more 20″ square group of Ibis, that can be shown in May, but I will tease you with just this much of a preview for now.

I have a new painting on exhibit in the State of the Art Gallery Salon for the month of April. It is the last plain air painting from Fall 2014: The Cottonwood Grove – 14×18, oil on stretched canvas. October 1 that year was warm and sunny, an unexpected last gift of summer. I grabbed up my painting equipment and went down through Cass Park, past the Marina, to the first grove of trees in the wetlands. My goal was to paint the red poison Ivy leaves climbing the cotton woods contrasting with their green leaves. Sunlight slanted through the trunks, as the sun was already getting low in the fall sky. There was an incredible wind blowing that made me steady the easel with one hand and paint with the other. My goal was to get all that wild Continue reading

My painting, River of Time, which responded to the poem of that name, is composed of 5 stretched canvas panels. In my previous post, I posted individual or paired images of the whole. Fortunately a fellow gallery member, Jan Kather took one very wide angle shot of this, which I am pleased to post here. Continue reading