Provincetown street scene

Oil, 6" x 6"

Alas, I have no Christmas-y artwork to post this week, but isn't a sunny summer vacation scene better?

Clearance again

Because there was a problem with the link to my Available Painting page that I can't seem to fix, I'm posting the paintings here.



Beanpot and apples, oil, 6" x 6"
$75.00 plus s/h

Zig Zag Cloud, oil, 6" x 6"
$75.00 plus s/h

House on Pawtucket Ave., oil, 6" x 6"
SOLD

Fast Service, oil, 6" x 6"

Clearance!

"Fast Service", oil, 6" x 6"

I've chosen half a dozen small paintings, including this one, and reduced the prices a LOT.

If you're interested, head over to my Available Paintings page and check it out.

Pick your own- sold

Oil, 6" x 6"
I rediscovered the "Pick your own" flower field at the end of the summer at Four Town Farm, just a few miles from where I live, near the Massachusetts- Rhode Island line.

My Fine Art America store

Hollyhocks- sold

Oil, 6" x 6"
Back to the garden. These never fail to cheer me up.

Sketching at the Coffee Exchange

 Yesterday I got some coffee and sat and sketched people for a while, then snapped a quick photo before I left for painting reference. Below is the sketch I did while I was there of this patron reading the paper.
Oil on panel, 6" x 6"

My Fine Art America Store

Pastel portraits

A couple of recent ones, pastel on 1/2 sheets of Canson paper. Getting models to put their hands back in the same position each time- not so easy.

Figures and portraits

The Cape Cod Museum of Art is hosting a show titled "Life Studies: Figurative Artists at the Schulenberg Studio" now until Jan. 10. Yesterday they recreated, in a gallery in the museum, the figure painting group that meets regularly in artist Paul Schulenberg's studio in Eastham, MA. Above are some sketches I did while they were painting the model. Below are some photos of the group in action.There were about 20 artists painting.

Two men at the Seaplane Diner- sold

Oil on panel, approx. 6" x 10"
I did this painting from sketches and a photo taken last spring.You can see the original post here:

http://weberstudio.blogspot.com/2015/04/sketching-on-friday-morning-at-seaplane.html

It's that time of year again- when Ed and I get together at 6AM to sketch, it's dark and cold, so we have to find  someplace with heat and coffee.

Portraits in pastel

Last night's model was Jeff, and I went back to using pastels, on Canson paper.

Marsh in autumn colors

Oil on panel, 8" x 10"
Email me for price.

Ben Fenske demo

I've been admiring Ben Fenske's work for a while and had the opportunity to see him do a demo yesterday. He painted from a live model with about 25 people in attendance at a studio in Waltham, MA.

Ben sat while he painted and started off with a special paintbrush- two paintbrushes taped together to  make a longer handle so he could get a little more distance between himself and the canvas. I'm going to try that! He used Utrecht bristle brushes, mostly sizes 4, 5, and 6, long filberts and flats. Unlike me, he doesn't keep a container of mineral spirits to swish his brushes around in. Instead, he holds 8-10 brushes and uses a different brush for each color. All he had was a little container for his medium, which was linseed oil and turp.

He painted on Claessen's pre-primed linen. He had washed some color onto the surface of the canvas before he started. His favorite surface, he said, is an old painting, because he likes the unexpected colors and texture that he gets that way. He doesn't do that for demos because it would be too difficult for people watching to see what he's painting. He spent a lot of time trying to get an accurate drawing to start with, carefully measuring and comparing.

This is the painting after two and a half hours (including breaks). The last thing he did was to put in the warm red on the shadow side of the model, which really started to bring it to life. He will often put aside a painting for a few weeks so that he can look at it with fresh eyes to continue work on it.

Frost on the Pumpkins

Oil, 11" x 14"
I painted this a few years ago but never posted it. It seemed like an appropriate image for today, 35F when I got up this morning.
Email me for price.

Adamsville Landing, Westport - sold

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
Lovely spot to spend a morning painting, as the tide goes out.

The ferry to Prudence-sold

Oil on board, 6" x 6"

From a trip on the Prudence Island ferry this summer. 

 

I did some sketching while we waited to leave...

Octoberfest

You don't have to be German to enjoy Octoberfest, you just have to like bratwurst, sauerkraut, and beer. And of course, when I saw men dressed in traditional outfits, I had to do at least one painting.

Meadow near sunset

Oil, approx. 12" x 6"

Another landscape from the Rayner Wildlife Refuge in Barrington, RI.

Portrait Class at the Portsmouth Arts Guild

My portrait class at the Portsmouth Arts Guild will be starting next Wednesday morning,October 7,  9AM-noon. It's a class that's geared to people who are beginners or intermediate, so if you've wanted to try portrait painting but don't know how to start, this is a good class to learn. We work from live models each week, with a limited palette. Oils and acrylics.

Garden Clubs Art in Bloom

It's nice to be back- our computer crashed and has spent the last week and a half the Apple store being fixed. It's felt like missing an arm!
Last week I was part of a show and anniversary celebration held by the Rhode Island Federation of Garden Clubs. Fifteen pieces of art, mostly paintings, were interpreted by an equal number of floral designers. Above is my painting "Forsythia" and the interpretation by talented floral designer Candace Morgenstern. (It was held in the greenhouse at Roger Williams Park in Providence, hence all the palm trees in the background. Makes it a bit hard to isolate the floral piece.) It was fun being part of this and seeing how Candace interpreted what I painted, as well as seeing the other fourteen pieces.
(And I guess they liked my piece because it made the front page of the newsletter!)

The painting is oil on canvas, 20" x 20" unframed, and is for sale. Email me if you're interested.

Portrait class at PAG

Next week I start teaching a 2 week portrait drawing class at the Portsmouth Arts Guild, a warm up for the portrait painting class to follow (although you don't have to sign up for both!) It's on Wednesday mornings, and it's always a good time. All levels, even beginners, so don't wait to sign up. I promise not to make anyone draw eyeglasses, even if they're cute blue ones.

Meadow with goldenrod

Oil on canvas, approx. 7" x 14"
Trying to take advantage of the waning days of summer to do some landscape painting. This was painted at my new favorite wildlife refuge on a gray, slightly foggy morning. The color's not quite right in this photo, but it's as close as I could get.

Think Pink- sold

Oil, 6" x 6"
'nuff said.

Nockum Hill Fields- sold

Oil, 8" x 10"
Funny how you can live somewhere a long time and still not know all the little tucked away places. I just discovered the Rayner Wildlife Refuge aka Nockum Hill in Barrington and spent a lovely couple of undisturbed hours there painting this road through the farm fields.

Painting plein air - sold

"Hazy day in Middletown" oil, 11x14- sold
I'm actually pretty happy with this one, painted yesterday morning. And the opening for the plein air group show in Newport is this Saturday night. I'll be there. The details:

Spring Bull Gallery, 55 Bellevue Ave., Newport RI
SpringBullGallery.com  401-849-9166

Opening Sept. 5, 5-7PM

Hollyhocks

So if you've liked the hollyhock paintings I've done recently, you can now get prints of them at Fine Art America. I have to say, I really like the way these look together. You can get them as notecards or framed pieces to hang on the wall, among other things. They look pretty cool as tote bags...

Show at Spring Bull Gallery

"Morning, Newport Harbor" oil, 8" x 10"- sold
Group show of Plein Air Paintings, opening Saturday, September 5 at the Spring Bull Gallery in Newport RI.

Sun and Shadow-sold

More hollyhocks!
I'm realizing more and more how important it is to paint wet into wet to get the look I want. But sometimes you have to walk away for an hour to let the paint get tacky, so you can put paint on top of wet paint without having it lift off. This seems to be most important with with transparent colors like alizarin crimson.