Paradise City Day

It has been raining since early morning but I trusted the forecast of sunny afternoon and drove to Northampton. If the rain did not stop, at least Paradise City Arts festival is in town.

Thankfully, rain stopped around noon and sky starts to clear up. I continued to work on my painting from last week. The composition did not change much, however, I added a few things on the right hand side. I purposefully did not include too much since I find it more interesting when the composition is slightly unbalanced.

After working for 6 hours on this painting today, I decided to give it a rest. It is almost complete but it might need a few lighter shades in the dark and some interesting lines to keep the space connected together. I will revisit this in a few days with fresher eyes.

October Afternoon

 



Early paintings of Northampton started in this narrow alley that reminded me of Kathmandu.  Instead of focusing on the alley, I decided to include other buildings.   During late afternoon the alley was completely covered with shadow making it a mysterious space.  I decided to include this dark shadow and changed the middle building color from green to lighter blue.  This painting is still in progress.

Portland Pier and Salon

[caption id="attachment_678" align="alignnone" width="500"] Portland Pier[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_688" align="alignnone" width="500"] Painting in the morning[/caption]

I decided to visit Portland for a painting weekend. A row of old white/gray buildings on the pier, working fishermen, fishing boats, buoys and a group of loud seagulls make Portland waterfront very lively. The geometric and abstract nature of colorful patches of woodblocks on these gray building and reconstructed windows and doors really attracted me to this place.

Saturday's weather was between sunny and cloudy but I was able to draw and paint for a few hours. I focused on the colorful abstract woodblocks. This portion of the building had at least 5 windows in a row. Since I already had many geometric colorful shapes, I had to edit most of these windows out except for a small square window. The painting turned out more simplified, but more abstract. It is still in progress.



It has been raining since early morning today. I decided to stay inside the car and painted instead of being on the pier in the rain. I zoomed in to a salon across the street and started to work on simplified geometric shapes of yellow windows and doors. I kept the lamppost but removed all the windows above the salon. The surrounding blue gray color was borrowed from the next building which seemed more suitable than the regular brick color. This painting seemed very flat at the moment and will need more work. I am planning on revisiting Portland.

Borrowing Mistress Blue

 

[caption id="attachment_675" align="alignnone" width="500"] tug boats[/caption]

Between cloud and sun, the tug boats' surrounding color kept changing from gray to blue.  Blue color however did not work well with this painting.   Lighter shade of green worked better to complement red and yellow.  I borrowed darker shade of blue from a near by boat 'Mistress' and added in a few selected places including the lines of the door on a yellow/red tug boat.  After a few hours of working today, the painting looks complete.

Colorful Tug Boats

[caption id="attachment_661" align="alignnone" width="500"] Tug boats[/caption]

New Bedford piers are full of many colorful large and small boats ranging from black to bright Magenta.  Two tug boats with combination of primary colors; yellow, red and white stripes against the blue ocean stood out as a challenge.  I spend a few hours this Saturday drawing and editing then I decided to lay down a first layer of colors.  The white vertical railings against horizontal yellow and red bands seemed attractive but a distraction.   However, I decided to keep a long horizontal bar from the railing.  Among all the squares and the rectangles, a round wheel seemed necessary.  I looked for any other small curves I could find to introduce in this space, fortunately there were plenty.  Around 5 pm I had to stop painting since the light has changed a lot and the boat seemed to be sinking as the water level was lowering down.  I can't wait to return to this place again to complete this painting.

 

Yellow Building

[caption id="attachment_624" align="alignnone" width="370"] Yellow Building[/caption]

This is at least the eighth time I painted this yellow building since 2011.   It still inspires me.  This painting has changed quite a bit from the last two sittings.  Sky has turned from a light blue to a darker shade of bluish green.  It was inspired by a car parked next to me.  Painting on site always brings you surprises, you never know what catches your eye.

I was able to catch the morning shadow of the staircase during my last sitting.  Although it was a mixture of cloud and sun this weekend, I was able to add some finishing touches.  It is very exciting to have this painting completed for the upcoming exhibition at the Oxbow gallery.

Few Summer Days in Stonington

It felt wonderful to be back in Stonington this summer, even though the painting trip lasted only three days.  Mystical fog and some rain kept the first day  interesting for photography and for painting.  I painted from looking out the window.  Every few minutes the fog would lift, my view kept on changing.

The second day I went back to my favorite ledge and focused on the dock.  Recent architectural paintings have lead the structure of this work to be more geometric.  Green trees and lawn became shapes.  Rocks, however retained its natural shapes to play off with surrounding geometric structures.   It ended up to be one of my favorite painting from Maine this year.

The third day I wanted to do a painting of the houses in town.  I started out with drawing and composing each house carefully.  The painting was not complete and it needed a lot more editing.  I would have to go back some time later this year to finish it.

Ladder and Stairs Opening

      

"Ladder and Stairs" will be at Oxbow Gallery this August 7 - 31st in the back room.  There is a group show in the front room featuring six other wonderful artists: "Confluence". 

The opening reception is on Friday, August 8th which coincides with Arts Night out in Northampton.  The gallery is also open every Thursday to Sunday from noon to 5:00 pm.

 

Ladder and Stairs

August 7 - 31, 2014

 

Opening Reception: Friday, August 8, 5-8 pm

 

Oxbow Gallery

www.oxbowgallery.org

275 Pleasant Street

Northampton, MA 01060

Hours: Thursday - Sunday noon - 5

 

Yellow Building in a Bright Summer Day

[caption id="attachment_604" align="alignnone" width="361"] yellow building[/caption]

Three months without working on a outdoor painting  seems like a really long time.  However, I had a good start drawing my favorite staircase yesterday and today.  All surrounding buildings have been removed; these are just a background noise.  In retrospect, this is iconic yet bit simple and flat right now.  There seems to be a lot more work a head to make this more interesting.

 

One Chimney

Yesterday finally felt like Spring has arrived.  Between the sun and a few scattered showers, I spend some time drawing and painting.  Although I have always avoided painting this plain white building, convergence of two buildings into it seemed interesting.  None of the windows in this building caught my attention.  However, I added only one window from other building that echoes the surrounding shapes.  The chimney provided minor curves and a dark shape in the midst of rectangles, lines and muted atmosphere.  Looking back today, it may have been an unnecessary distraction.  Lets see what else can be removed next time around.

 

Warm February 2014

[caption id="attachment_461" align="alignnone" width="500"] View from a Parking Lot[/caption]

It was a warm and sunny February afternoon. I was happy to be painting in Northampton again. Revisiting a painting from a month ago, the sky seemed too dark. It was not working with the overall surroundings. After adding some light on the top, the dark sky morphed into a dark shape in the background. The door was moved more to the right until it was removed completely except for a few lines as a reminder. After a few hours of work, I realized this painting might not get any better. It is finished.



It is sometimes fun to see how a painting changed and evolved.  Here are 4 progress stages from different days of December last year and the final painting yesterday.

February Opening

[caption id="attachment_240" align="alignnone" width="276"] January Snow, 2011[/caption]

Treasures Large & Small, Group show
Zullo Gallery
February 8 - March 23 2014
Reception: THURSDAY March 6, 5:30-7pm
456A Main Street Medfield, MA
hours: 12-5 Saturday & Sunday

Little more Texture

 

There were 3 major structures that did not seem to fit in this painting. The yellow wall divided the house into 3  similar horizontals. There were no other shapes echoing or complimenting a big triangle roof of a middle house. The blue house on the left is a dead space, not very useful. These all have been removed or cropped.

Paints in my palette were drier than usual. Instead of making a fresh color palette, I started using the drier paints. It was harder to apply and I had to extensively use a knife.  I usually smooth out the texture created by the knife.  This time however, I loved the texture from dried paint crumbs. From this experience, I am planning to explore texture  for future work.

Orange Excavator In Progress

[caption id="attachment_350" align="alignnone" width="500"] Orange Excavator[/caption]

This is the first painting I have worked on that needed a lot of orange. A few hints of architecture was painted on the background. It has been removed since it made the painting a little busier. I was worried about orange overtaking the whole painting; however, a large, quiet and empty white space actually worked. It made the excavator iconic. It is still work in progress.

Excavator from Hitachi

[caption id="attachment_343" align="alignnone" width="394"] Orange Excavator[/caption]

Orange excavator is standing taller than the buildings on the background; striking and iconic. Drawing this for a few hours today made me realized that its structure is a lot more complex than it looked.  I tried to keep the shapes generic.  However, nuts, bolts, intertwined wires and other smaller structure connecting cab, arm and the bucket made the whole excavator a work of art.  I could not ignore these details.  It was time well spent.

First painting of 2014

The shape and the color of the boat looked abstract from certain angle. Although, I have always avoided using cerulean or turquoise blue, with a big dark blue shape and a line of red next to it, it looked appealing. I tried to keep the abstraction of the shapes that drew me to this composition. This has been a good start for a beginning of new year.

January Openings

[caption id="attachment_368" align="alignnone" width="500"] Lual[/caption]

Landscape/UrbanScape, Member's Alcove
Galatea Fine Arts
January 1-29, 2014
460B Harrison Ave
Boston, MA 02118