Beach Reader

8" x 10" oil on board
Inquire by email

This is my Aunt, Diane, reading on the beach at Pawleys Island, SC. My hope is that it could be any beach reader

Oregon Inlet Surf

6" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Panel
Sold!

Per usual, we were left with a four-hour window of time after driving to the Outer Banks, NC, buying bait and beer, and checking in to our lodging, to fish.  Turns out this would be the only window of fish time available to us thanks to freezing temperatures and 40 mph winds the following day. One, unidentifiable fish was caught. Despite the weather, we found ways to amuse ourselves.  This painting is my recollection of Thanksgiving weekend in the Outer Banks and that four-hour window of unproductive surf fishing.

Pemaquid Point

6" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Panel
$35 plus shipping

Ironically, I painted Pemaquid Lighthouse years before I ever visited Pemaquid Point, ME, and it turned out to be one of my favorite paintings.  Sarah and I drove out to Pemaquid Point on a whim as part of our trip north from Boston to Bar Harbor, Me., this summer, and it was incredible.  The ocean is full of color regardless of the coast, but I have never seen anything like this.  My painting does not do it justice.  I'm going to apply a heavy varnish to the painting once it dries a little more to bring out the colors and give it a wet look.

'On the Beach'

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

Sold!

I've said this before, but there comes a point in every painting when it may not be perfect, but any further attempt at perfection will have the opposite effect.  I like this painting a lot, but as always I reached the point where I felt like I could do better - in this case, I knew better than to go on.  I think that's a step forward for me actually...Some of my best paintings might have been better if not for my obsessiveness.

I thought about calling this painting, 'The Ocean,' but I think the painting is less about the strength and cold indifference of the ocean as commonly depicted in art and literature and more about a warm, shimmery, day at the beach.  Maybe if I do a painting of one of the 15 foot, Hurricane Earl waves that we saw during the same beach trip, I'll call that one 'The Ocean.'

"Four Gulls"

5" x 7" Oil on canvas
Sold!

My wife and I, along with my older brother and his wife hiked the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and Assateague National Seashore this past weekend. Chincoteague and Assateague are barrier islands off the coast of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland. There is no hunting, fishing, camping, pets or vehicles allowed in the Wildlife Refuge so the beach and the forests are pristine. There are two populations of wild ponies that roam the islands, one on Chingoteague and one on Assateague, that are separated by a fence that spans the width of the island.

The hike is 24 miles round trip; we started in Chincoteague, VA and hiked 12 miles to Assateage, MD, where we camped for the night on the beach and hiked back to Chincoteague in the morning.

Although the terrain is flat,the hike was much tougher than we anticipated. Hiking on the sand for a good portion of the 24 miles and using the same leg muscles the entire hike as opposed to mountain hiking with elevation changes that call for different muscles, made us so sore by the last mile that we literally could not take another step. I tried not to let the exhaustion take away from my enjoyment of the scenery.

Looks like that big gull in front is pretending that his feet don't hurt, but I know better.