I seized them greedily, as this picture displays. Yes, they break but I like the weight of them. I like that they were eaten off of by my aunt for years. Now they live in the studio and soon a couple small plates will make it to Dublin in my paint box for a trip abroad.

Have you seen what they are selling in art stores for palettes?  What  a waste of money. Round plastic saucers with no place to mix your colors.

This shot is of my easel and the bottom of a Manhattan painting in progress. With the display of my aunts dishes, which mirror this paintings colors. To me it displays a comfort zone of a work station showing studio tools of the trade.

By Monday I will be in Ireland with my portable studio, ready to work under unforeseeable conditions and subjects.

I am still young enough to hike around the moors and go trespassing, after a long day of driving on the other side of the road. It will not be a successful painting trip, till some farmer hollers at me from across his field. These trips are all about pushing it and getting out of your comfort zone, and having fun.

I will be posting from Ireland about this trip, my fifth here and most likely my last last to the Emerald Island.  The world is so big and there is so much to see.

Many of my students come to me after full successful careers in other fields. These special students have been painting in their minds for years, getting ready to begin. I am often  amazed at how quickly they learn the basics and can begin creating paintings in their own unique style.

I just lost one such student; Herb Donlan. Herb was late for every one of my classes. He tried to slip olive oil by me one day when he ran out of linseed oil. He brought the smelly raw turpentine to class and made us all ill. Every week he forgot at least one crucial tool for painting and had to borrow from someone.  But every week he brought in new work from home and every week we all could see the progress and effort this disorganized late bloomer displayed. He got better and better. He worked harder and harder. He traveled and studied art museums  abroad, showed his paintings locally, and matured as an artist.

Sometimes with my students I see such great emerging  potential and talent that has been waiting to come out and it’s very satisfying for all of us.  Sometimes I see my students’ paintings  improve and think if they had just started earlier…

The truth is we all have a finite number of paintings to paint in this life. It’s all about quality not quantity anyway.

It’s all about doing the best work you can and getting out of your comfort zone at the easel .

The lesson here for all of us is that if you are thinking of ever painting, if you are thinking of beginning to get serious about doing the art you have been dreaming about and imagining, NOW is the time to begin.  Don’t wait.

Most people that have been thinking about painting for years are so ready to make the commitment, they turn out to be very strong students and painters like  Herb, and maybe you?

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