Variations on a Theme

How does one envision an image? How does one interpret that vision?

I love the coastline and spent many summers on the beaches of Long Island, NY where I grew up. Not only summers but every season really and in all types of weather. Actually, Long Island is like one giant sandbar, as my Dad used to joke!

I'm not sure if it was the wide open spaces of the beaches or the vast skies or that thin scrim of a horizon line between ocean and sky that I loved the most. Or perhaps the dunes and the waves. In the midst of February, all these images and smells and sounds fill my head.  These two works seem to evoke some aspect of those memories, yet in very different ways and methods --

Coastal Haze

This is a fairly small work done on Wallis pumiced paper with acrylics and touches of pastel, done quickly with large mop brushes.

And this one was painted with oils on a thick heavy 200lbs. acrylic paper by Strathmore, which sold a few months ago at the Hartford Open Studio weekend.

Wetlands, Orleans MA

Different mediums, different approaches -- and yet both seem to capture a sense of the coast and surrounding wetlands. And I suppose that's the best one can hope for --

In summer, the song sings itself.

~William Carlos Williams

Prelude to Summer

Oceanic
6" x 8"

thoughts of warm waters . . . glinting shards of bright light . . . pools of aqua blue eddy round my feet, caressing my toes . . . bits of sand and shell sweep back and forth and sounds of gulls careen overhead . . .

Harbor View
5" x 7"

looking across the bay, boats bob in the harbor, their masts spike the pale blue sky like minarets. The smell of tar and wet rope reaches me where I stand in a state of mesmer . . .

Sand & Shore
8" x 10"

as the sun sets, I walk back across the sands, leaving behind dreams and sighs, the sound of waves lapping the shore . . . I carry with me the taste of salt on my lips . . .

I will return.

Art and the Contrast of Topographies

Rocky Shores
acrylic & gouache
6" x 8"

Summer Crossroads
gouache
6" x 8"

Here in New England we have the wonderful ability to drive within minutes between landscapes which are so diverse -- the rocky shorelines of Connecticut up through Maine, then to wander back roads past old tobacco fields, cow pastures, mills and working farms. As a child I grew up on Long Island, which is really a glorified sand bar that stretches about 120 miles out to sea starting at the shores of New York City. Flat, flat, flat . . . I love the beaches and the (then) wide open skies but that's about it. My folks were always taking weekend roadtrips up to New England and as soon as we crossed the Throgs Neck bridge, my dad would shout, "Off that g-d sandbar!"

One of my favorite drives is up Route 7 through the Berkshires of Massachusetts right into Vermont -- wonderful! Summer Crossroads reminds me of that drive. And Rocky Shores is not unlike Meigs Point at Hammanassett Beach in Madison, CT.

Well, I'm off to the World Quilt Festival in New Hampshire tomorrow -- another road trip! Hopefully, new vistas await -- I'm packing my pastels in the hopes that I can do some sketching while I'm up there. I keep working at those pastels . . . someday it will click.

Happy weekend --

Exploring Art Techniques

"Summer River"
12" x 9"
acrylic on Wallis paper

Breaking away, exploring, experimenting, testing the waters of the strange and unusual -- sounds more like science fiction than art!

Last weekend I dedicated 2 whole days (almost) to working on some methods I had been thinking of for some time now. I wanted to combine the lush sensibilities of working on paper but with more "umph," shall we say?

I used some Japanese nujabi watercolor paper at about 185 lbs. and also had some Wallis archival sanded paper (200 lbs. also), which is meant for pastel work. Because of their heft and toughness, I felt I could truly abuse the surfaces more than usual.

"Summer River" is an example of working with acrylics, lots (!) of water and sprayed rubbing alcohol (just a bit), and continual layers of paint worked into the surface while still wet and dripping.

The acrylics seemed to love this sanded surface, although the brushes took a beating -- I learned that quickly and switched to old, stubby things just laying around.

This next painting -- "Grey Wetlands" -- was worked on nujabi paper, a handmade Japanese watercolor paper with beautiful deckled edges on all 4 sides. This I worked more thickly with less water and more opaque colors, but also using the spray method to obtain a less rigid appearance.

"Grey Wetlands"
16 x 12
acrylic on nujabi watercolor paper

On both these and other works (see my gallery "Coastlines & Waterscapes"), my vision was to achieve that hazy appearance one finds at the beach in summer when the heat drops a veil over the atmosphere and a lovely drowsiness descends, letting us drift into a state of reverie so difficult to find in the everyday world.

Did it work . . . ? I like to think so!