Wait a minute…strike that; reverse it.
This summer has been incredibly busy and I haven’t had much time to get into the studio. I was able to get away to the beach for a day and brought along my watercolor pad.
This is a quick little study of the rocks off the beach. I like the quality of the paint, but I need to work on the composition – it feels a little stage set.
Singing Beach. Watercolor. 9x12ish. 2014
So before August of last year I hadn’t done much oil painting since I graduated college in 2002. As Lance and I were packing for Acadia in 2012 I decided, on a whim, to bring along my old box of oil paints and some masonite panels. The first full day of vacation Lance and I hiked along the edge of Somes Sound – the fjord that cuts up the center of Mount Desert Island.
After a few hours of hiking we cut down to the water level and I decided that if I was going to paint, that was the time. It was awkward and windy, and the first result was clumsy, but it started me down the path to where I am today. (click photos to enlarge)
Somes Sound : Oil on masonite. 9″x12″ (NFS) Painted on site.
Last week I revisited the spot to repaint it on the one year anniversary.
The Flying Mountain trail winds along the edge of a steep embankment a few hundred feet above the water. The trail is literally cut into the rock face in parts, and offers dramatic views up the Sound and across to Nuremberg and Parkman Mountains.
Setting up my easel on the edge of Flying Mountain. 2013.
I was able to get a glimpse of my original painting site (the nearer of the two points on the right), which was under water due to the tide, so I decided to stop where I was, perched on the edge of a giant granite boulder tumble, and set up my easel.
I spent about 2 peaceful hours there. Almost no sounds except the occasional boat motoring up the fjord. I spotted an osprey hunting below me, and was visited by a remarkably curious/fearless red squirrel. The resulting painting perfectly captures the late afternoon feeling. It’s a little sweet, and the water on the right side got muddied with some stray orange, but overall I’m happy with it.
Somes Sound Overlook : Oil on board. 9″x12″ 2013. painted on site.
Earlier Tuesday morning Lance and I had gone to Sand Beach, on the eastern-most part of Mount Desert Island. The beach is a tiny channel with steep cliffs rising on either side, and a stunning view of the Beehive Mountain directly behind it. I spent a good amount of time sketching the cliffs.
Looking out from Sand Beach : Graphite 5″x7″ 2013
Looking North from Sand Beach : Graphite 5″x7″ 2013
Looking out from Sand Beach : Graphite 5″x7″ 2013
August is incredibly busy at my job, and the month ended with a much needed, and much enjoyed vacation to Acadia park in Maine. For those who are unfamiliar Acadia is on Mt. Desert Island – a weird and beautiful place, complete with dramatic mountains, rugged cliffs jutting into the ocean, gorgeous boreal forests, a fjord, and truly breathtaking views.
It is a landscape that inspired artists such as Edward Hopper, Frederick Church, and Fitz Hugh Lane. And me. I brought along my painting kit and my sketchbook again this year and spent 5 of the seven days making art.
First up is Seawall, painted on Monday morning. Seawall is a cobble beach on the lower east side of the island, staring off into the Atlantic ocean and the outlier islands. Across the road are tall, eerie pine forests and quiet marshes.
Painting the ocean is challenging. It’s always moving. It was foggy one moment, and sunny the next. By the time I finished drawing, mixing colors, and started painting the rocks in the bottom of the painting had half vanished under the tide. An hour later they were completely submerged. And, of course, the composition is a little bland, with the horizon cutting just about halfway through the painting. But still, it was the start of a very productive week!
Seawall : Oil on board. 9″x12″ 2013. Painted on site.
A panorama of the marsh behind Seawall beach.
Graphite studies of the rocks, waves, and vistas of Seawall beach. 5″x7″ 2013
A pair of small drawings from my sketchbook. I usually do a value/composition drawing before I start a painting. First is the house across the street in the glow of a streetlamp. Second is a prep drawing for my last painting.
House in Streetlight : Pencil 3″x4″ 2013
Farm Drawing : Pencil. 3″x4″ 2013
Every now and then I flip through my past sketchbooks and discover things I like that I had forgotten about.
Box Drawings. Colored pencil on colored paper. 6″x9″ each page. 2005 ish.
Fisher Skull Drawing. Colored pencil on colored paper. 6″x9″ 2005
Stairs and Snow. Silverpoint on colored paper washed with gouache. 6″x9″ 2005 ish.
When I get busy or lazy I use Moleskine sketchbooks. When I get bored with those I make my own. This is one that I had folded the pages down ages ago, but never got around to actually sewing until a just a couple weeks back. Here it is glued up before I stick it in the press for a few days to dry out.
The construction is a hybrid Bradel binding that I developed and love. The covers are a folded thick watercolor paper that is edged along the spine with thin red leather. The covers are sewn onto the text block – as though they are signatures – with a double-needle coptic stitch. Then the cover is glued shut on itself which creates a fairly stiff, but thin board, and all of the knots from the sewing are hidden inside. I cover thin boards with a material and past them onto the thin boards, and then turn in the edges over both.
This was constructed with Strathmore 400 drawing paper, waxed linen thread, and red leather, with boards covered in a re-purposed vellum document from 1822 and red french-marbled paste downs.
In a week when its good and dry I’ll pull it out of the press and start using it.
We see ‘pigeon’ as a mass. Each one is so similar to the other that it may as well BE the other. When we look at pigeons we rarely see individuality. For some reason I am drawn to pigeons (aesthetically speaking, I don’t want to have one as a pet or raise them.)
On these two occasions I saw pigeons huddled in the rain, feathers fluffed to stay warm and as dry as possible. I snapped quick photos with my cell phone and did the drawings from them. They are silverpoint on paper, from some time in 2006. Approx. 5″x9″
It’s 9:30 on a Thursday and I’m having a glass of wine and listening to some music (The Album Leaf) and sifting through some old drawings I had scanned to see what’s worth posting. I have dozens and dozens of sketchbooks filled with old figure drawings but I feel like throwing some naked men up on the screen is a cheap way to drive traffic.
So cheap it is!
I used to attend a figure drawing session nearby that was borderline legit. Which was fine, some of the sketchiness (no pun intended) appealed to me, and the models were generally very good. Unfortunately the host of the group let it devolve into a shit-show, so I ended up not returning. However, I did get some good drawings, including one of my favorite models: Edward. I have some sketch pages of him, and a nice finished drawing that is very reminiscent of the Barberini Faun.
As some of my friends know I’m rather enamored with the idea of fences. They pop up in lots of my work – from physical sculptures, to drawings, to photographs. Sometimes they are metaphorical, sometimes they are just plain real.
I’ve been working on a large drawing for the Lost series which incorporates one of my favorites: chain link. I love the durability, the industrial aesthetic, and the airy perforations which all combine to say “you can see through, but you can’t get through.”
A snippet of the larger drawing which is going ever so slowly.
Fence Progress detail
And a page from my sketchbook with a test run of the fencing:
Fence Test Run
These are a few old figure drawings I found while digging through some old sketchbooks. As you can see there are definitely some proportion issues to be worked through. Most of these are from 2005-2006. When you click a thumbnail it will pop up a carousel. Click the ‘permalink’ button for more details about the image.
2006 : Silverpoint on prepared paper. 9" x 9"
My plan is to update the sketchblog periodically through the week and make major updates as larger pieces are finished. I was digging through some old sketch-books and found this drawing from 2006. It seemed apropos for the first posting. It’s one of the first finished drawings I did in silver-point. I had a thing for pigeons at the time.
adam's art work 