Plein Air Painting at Cogswell's Grant

Historic New England recently held a plein air event at Cogswell's Grant, a beautiful 18th-century farm in Essex, Massachusetts. I like plein air painting, but have done very little of it in my life, as it seems to require specialized equipment and a level of dedication that I don't possess.
However, my friend Kerrie, who in spite of having three young kids, has that kind of dedication in spades, invited me to go paint with her at this event.
Nothing works quite like a personal invitation, but what to bring? Searching around my art supplies, it found an old 8.5" x 5.75" wooden cigar box with a sliding lid. I already had a sealable plastic palette of gouache paint, and a 5" x 7" pad of watercolor paper (which just fit neatly inside the box ). I added some metal clips, a mechanical pencil, and a couple of water reservoir brushes, I grabbed a folding camp chair and headed off,  ready to paint outdoors for the first time in years. 

It was a beautiful day, the artists who were already there were spread out around the property, there were no bugs, little wind, and the company was good. Most of the artists there were using French easels and some even had luggage totes full of their paints, canvas panels, etc. 

After seeing the elaborate set ups, I felt a little self conscious about my little impromptu paint box, "MacGyvered" out of what I had on hand.

 

 The open cigar box with the pad on top

 

 

 

The cigar box contents, watercolor pad is clipped to the lid 

 

My friend Kerrie   

 

 

                                

Me

 

  

 

The view

Art in the box

 

 

The final artwork

We painted for about 2 hours. The cigar box set up actually worked quite well, and it is small and portabel enough that I can take it almost anywhere. I'm hoping to do more plein air painting over the summer. All in all, it was a very relaxing and satisfying experience.

Looking Out to Sea

Another 4" x 10" acrylic painting  on illustration board. Haven't decided weather it is done, or if I will work on it some more. My output, never prolific, has been very sparse this year dealing with the fall-out of Covid, divorce, and a bunch of other crap. But every now and then I rouse myself enough to pull together a couple of small pieces. So take that universe.

Pilgrim Monument, Provincetown

 Recent painting of the Pilgrim monument in Provincetown, MA. From a photo I took on a winter trip to Cape Cod. 5.75" x 14" acrylic on a primed wooden panel.

The Bunghole

Finally got around to finishing a painting of the well-known Salem landmark  "The Bunghole" liquor store on Derby Street, that I started 3 years ago as a companion piece to the "Steve's Market" painting I did almost 11 years ago. (I move pretty slow sometimes). They are both notable for their antique neon lighting. This is acrylic on a 12" x 16" x 1.5" wooden panel.

More 5" x 5" Paintings

Some recently completed 5" x 5" acrylic paintings. They are small and quick to do, usually only taking an hour or two.

The Sky 

The Beach

The Gate

The Red Chair

Artspeak:IMAGINE

What the gate looked like this winter.

Artspeak (www.artspeaksalem.com) is an annual concert, artshow and auction, planned by our church, Highrock Northshore. This event is one way for those of us with an artistic bent, to take a stand against injustice and to use our creativity for good.  It is a meeting ground for artists and community members, a celebration of beauty, and a way we can be part of restoration and healing.  At ArtSpeak, local artists from within and beyond our church community come together to work, to give, and to serve. All profits from the event go to fight human trafficking here on the North Shore by supporting Amirah.  Amirah (a-meer-ah) is a Boston area non-profit dedicated to providing “transformative whole-person care for survivors of commercial exploitation.” Amirah does this by mobilizing the greater community to create safe spaces that provide opportunities for healing, restoration and reintegration and by utilizing individualized approaches to address physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and vocational needs of each survivor in their care, cultivating engagement with community. www.amirahboston.org.

This year’s theme, IMAGINE, came from the words of the Apostle Paul: “Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever...”
(Eph. 3:20-21).

I had a lot of different ideas for what I was going to do for the show, (with Imagine as the theme you could literally do anything) but I eventually chose to do a painting of a dark gateway leading into a bright, green and gold landscape. This was based in part on wishful thinking, we had a very difficult and long winter in New England this year, and spring seemed like a very distant concept when I was working on the piece. It was also based partly on Song of Solomon 4:12. "You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain." And lastly, it was based on one of my favorite places to go for a hike: Bradley Palmer State Forest. There is a stone entry gate on the Hamilton side of the park. There is a beautiful little stone gatehouse that has been abandoned for years, and a large wrought iron gate. Over the years it has become very overgrown with vines.
Anyway, here is my progress on the painting by session. Sessions would be 2-4 hours long.

Session 1
Roughing in the volumes and basic values in burnt umber and gray.

Session 2
Adding in color to the sky and background. Refining color on the stones.

Session 3
More detail and color in the rocks and texture for the foreground.

 Session 4
Adding greenery and vines, refining values.

 Final
Refining the lighting, detail, adding signature.

 Popped it into a plain wooden frame painted metallic gold.

 On display at the event.