Here are some of my students on location at Hyannis Harbor yesterday. We concentrated on working small, fast, color studies.  Our ferry boat subjects moved in and out of the harbor to Nantucket. Everyone did a great job in the heat.

I have a new 6 week class beginning at the Cape Cod Art Association on Monday June 25, 2010.

Check out some class videos on Youtube.

Email any questions.

This is the invitation to an upcoming show for the advanced painting students of my recent  Cape Cod Art Association classes. This  school of fish painting is by Yarmouth artist Willie Hayduck.

This is a Cape Cod  themed exhibition with subjects ranging from Martha’s Vineyard to Provincetown Massachusetts.

The show is going up later this week and you can check out this strong art work and get more information at

Woodruffs Art Center in Mashpee.

See you there.

Today I am posting an overcast harbor scene of  Wellfleet Massachusetts, 16×20.”

I told a dealer about this piece a few months ago and was told there was no interest in anything that might reek of  inclement weather. Then I had another dealer see it and rave about how well it comes across. This made me reflect on the art market and how things have been like this since  the beginning of time. As soon as someone begins to create, there will be  someone there suggesting what you really should  be creating.

Don’t listen to them.

You’ll be at your strongest creatively,  if you paint exactly what YOU want. Your colors, your subjects,  with no regard to the market…or what might sell. This  is the only way to go.

Painting what you are excited about will get you up early and keep you up late at night in your studio.  As artists this is the ideal scenario, heading to the studio before you do anything else.

I like capturing  the rain. I like the fog and painting snow scenes too. I remember being in Times Square in the early 1980′s photographing one cold winter morning with a close family member asking  “why are you photographing this area?”  Times Square back then was a  seedy set  of peep shows, hawk shops and XXX Dancing signs everywhere. I am so glad I kept taking those shots and did not listen to anyone’s objections. Times Square does not look like that anymore and it never will again.  With my old Fuji I caught the New York of that day, a shady neighborhood on its way out and  from those photos, I painted a killer city series of  a Times Square that is long gone, and so are all those paintings.  As the fog lifts this morning I head into the studio to paint  more unpopular subjects. Can’t wait.

A  highlight-dot of color, is how I began to insert  figures into my landscapes as a focal point.  They were so vague and uncommitted, people  would ask, “is that light spot  a figure back there?”

Over the years as my oils changed to become more comfortable depicting people, the single figure is now often a part of the crowd. This has opened up interesting  subjects for me, to the point where I am a dedicated urban painter.

I like standing in the middle of a busy street taking my shots. I do. The funny thing is though, these anonymous faces are starting to feel familiar  now.I know them. When I paint my people I think about whether that  business man’s brief-case is heavy as he is  hurries to get home, trying to make that train.  I consider the window shopper and what day of the week it might be that  I am trying to capture with each piece. Your peeps will have a different vibe when you take your reference pictures on a Saturday rather than a Monday morning commute. These are all elements that are fun to consider as you work in the studio where the imagination runs away with you.

The business man that was catching the train in Paris twenty paintings ago is now following behind a woman in red, looking in vain for that particular shop on Fifth Avenue.

Paris Figures After the Rain

sold

Fifth Avenue Shoppers,  New York  (partial closeup)

My life has morphed into one big painting.  I love to examine the day to day and edit this for the canvas.  Lately I have been revisiting a favorite subject from my past.  There is a fresh renewed interest in my minds eye for… the interior, not just any interior, no,  for the PUB.

I have done a lot of research in this area, which I will dutifully continue, because it’s my job.  Seeking out the small intimate gatherings of the locals is the first step.  Framing my subject and capturing the the spirit of a place while I am there is important, so that when I am back in my studio  painting, even if it is months later, or  years, I can hear that rooms echo. Feel that days vibe.  Smell the party.

“After Work,  Brooklyn”  2009 8×10″

I was going to just post this recent shot of my studio without comment. Because I just really want to get painting this morning. Then I thought, most people are not used to seeing this kind of organized chaos. Maybe a short post would be more sufficient.

It looks like this, because I always walk past the files, books, and notes to head right for the palette. The other things are not important,  not really.

What’s important, is the work.  Is there enough paint on the palette? Am I working on the same painting that is still on the easel from yesterday?

I will look around the studio and contemplate which painting has the best chance for  improvement  right now.  What painting do I have the answers for this dark morning?   A storm off the coast,  and a  final Sox score not worth reading. I am not painting Fenway today.

See the thing about painting landscapes is, in a moment ,  I am going to walk into that studio and  put something on the big easel and it will take me right away. My imagination leaves stormy Cape Cod for wherever that piece is.

It might be the Left Bank this morning along the Seine.  It might be Menemsha, or Brooklyn Heights.  Or maybe I will go in there and really get everything organized for once.

No, not today.

These could be two colors on a blouse. Two colors on my palette or on a scrap of someones old  discarded paper.  A deep green against a deeper blue and it takes me instantly back to  Gloucester Harbor nights .

I don’t always want to be painting the big attempt; the big effort. Sometimes it is just as worthy to explore a smidgen of an idea, a glimpse of a new direction takes you before you know it, and you are excited about a new series.

The smallest fresh combination of colors can lift you to a fresh direction if you are open to it.

Do you know when you are painting well?

Do you know when you are in trouble?

Do you know when it’s time to take it up a notch with your work?

A few weeks ago I had an idea for a class where I would have all the students work the same size; 18×24.” So…  after we laid them all in we could put each students painting in my 24k gold leaf frame. Then I could show them that it is not enough to paint well, you must package it well for the galleries too. Meaning no dark thick signatures , no cheap frames, no cardboard canvas.

We started a Tuscany painting that day and everyone got “it.” Everyone had a strong start and proudly I put each and every students painting into the frame  from my studio. A professional, beautiful frame. And we took the time to discuss the importance of  each frame choice. Especially since some of my students  recently getting new, great gallery representation and the others  soon will. I pointed out how a gold leaf frame will elevate ones work and how an inferior frame will bring you down. Which way do you want to go?

Needless to say as a teacher and educator it was a fine day for me. Sometimes teaching can be so rewarding.  I feel it was an important class for my students too, because they saw the future, they saw their own potential as artists. The had the chance to see their good efforts elevated with the fine framing.

Sometimes when you are spending money, you are actually making an investment.

Next advanced oil painting class starts June 29, 2009  at the Cape Cod Art Association

Every week of every class I have ever taught a student at some level has expressed their urgent needs.  Yes they are all in a rush, to what I wonder?

To paint well? The best they can?

To finish every start as quickly as possible?

To sell their paintings? Yes especially this one.

Hey the truth is we all want our art to sell. But if you are rushing the process it’s going to end up in your own collection.

I preach about taking your time with each stage, building slowly. Problem solving.

We are talking about the finish here. Finishing up our work strong. The right way.

And the right way for me is to live with my work. Put it on the wall. Bring it in the kitchen while I cook. Put it in a new frame or two and see how it looks. Turn your canvas upside down and check for false notes. You must look for trouble here. Be your own best critic. Be tougher on your art than anyone else.

Because your client is going to hang your piece in their home or business and live with it, for many years. I want to keep getting the feedback that my work looks great in different times of the day. That my work shows well with the lights off too.

I don’t want to just sell my work. I want  to have it collected.

So I study these strong paintings in my studio, living with them for the last few days before delivery… or not.

Taking my time here.

I have gotten used to looking like an idiot  while taking  my photos a long time ago. So when I go to Fenway and stand in the street framing my reference shots for my paintings, if I am stopping traffic, well…then I am stopping traffic.

I do this alone. Whoever I go with I just say, catch you in a little bit;  meet you inside. While I go off and try and frame up the best compositions of the most festive of Boston neighborhoods.

Fenway was beautiful yesterday with the threat of rain that never came. Everyone outside Fenway Park looks so familiar to me. Like it’s the same crowd at every game I have ever gone to. The same crowd that I paint in all my Fenway paintings.  These are my peeps and I am here among ” The Nation.”

I listen as Dad after Dad bring there little ones over to the condiments where I am pausing and say  “look, this is the mustard, this is the best part.”  The air is thick with the smells of hot dogs, sausage and peppers and people are drinking in the streets which I  still  cannot get used to. I really like what they have done outside here. It was just a few years ago, we were dodging cars on Yawkey Way. Now it’s all festive galore with red everywhere. With as many t-shirts professing their love of the Red Sox as their distaste for the pinstripes.

I move away from the mustard and look for some smokers to stand by and smell the  forbidden aroma. Cigarettes, sausage and the announcer’s voice starts from within the hallowed walls, that sound calling me into the game, where the views just improve.