collage: unnamed (bunny limb) © Studio-Middle

collage: unnamed (blue window) © Studio-Middle

sketch: limb in mottled light and leaves © Studio-Middle

painting 57. snow trees. blue 2 6×6 © Studio-Middle

And another “oldie” from early 2010. Another snowscape for my state of mind. This one is slightly abstract, and I think it captures the range of colors in a stark snow scene, plus the motion of the still and silent light snow fall.

painting 7. snow. foot prints. leaves © Studio-Middle

This is one of my “oldies but goodies.” I wanted to re-post this one because it’s been my state of mind lately — not because there’s nice, white, sun-shiny snow outside, but because there’s NOT. It’s been such an odd winter with weather, that it made me think of this winter scene that I painted a couple of years ago.

It makes me smile.

dog portrait. golden retriever. 6×6 acrylic on canvas © studio-middle

This is another painting that I completed some time ago but had not posted.  This is outside of my numbered series, as it was a pet portrait commission.

I think the power of the painting, as separate from a photo, is the way in which the spirit of the subject can be translated through color and impression.  Something in the movement and tones of the brush strokes and colors suggests the emotions and movement of spirit that can’t be captured in a realistic picture or painting.

painting 85. seagulls. fog. 6×6 acrylic on wood © studio-middle

And here is my first new painting of 2013!

It was a very foggy weekend last weekend here on the Maine coast, and I went out to snap some nice fog images.  Here is a rendering of one of the sights from that day, two seagulls trying to stay warm and dry on iron pilings.

This is my first small painting on wood — I picked up a couple of nice cradled-wood-panels last month.  It was an interesting experience to paint on this wood.

This is also a somewhat-new composition for me — the iron pilings are unusual.  I tend to stay away from man-made features being prominent in my paintings.  I think the fog and impressionistic atmosphere helps to soften these.

painting 84. vessel and lemons. 6×6 on canvas. © studio-middle

I painted this a long time ago but never posted here. This “vessel” was a family hand-me-down I received, and I painted this as a thank-you to my aunt who kindly passed it on to me.

For those of you who have browsed my other paintings, you’ll probably notice that this is a very different composition for me.  It was definitely a challenge.  The end result is a very impressionistic, emotional effect.  The colors (in the vessel and background) are more fauvist than impressionist, which is probably not a surprise, since I’ve been leaning towards that style of surprising use of color for a long time (especially in this one).

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 1,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 3 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

painting 83. Popham Beach rocks II © studio-middle

I’ve been thinking about returning to this subject again for a while.  I painted this perspective of Popham Beach in 2009, and its an image that has stuck with me strongly.  I love this beach and I love painting rocks along the shore.  This pile of rocks was brought purposely to help stop some of the beach erosion that was happening at the time.

So I’ve painted this again, with some slight variation in color palette and brush stroke style.  The actual composition is very similar, in terms of point of view. This surprised me — I thought my new version would show some drastic changes in my vision, technique, palette . .. something! Only slight differences though.

I’m inviting my artist network to discuss this on my Facebook page — please join the conversation!