Cayucos

Cayucos
8" x 10" oil on board
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Traditional fishing boats of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.

Monocacy River Train Bridge

Monocacy River Train Bridge
8" x 10" oil on board
$70 plus shipping

Sadly, I am writing this post on the final day of summer vacation before I return to teaching and the stress of the school year. Summer photos have been uploaded and now it's time to scroll, achingly back through the wonderful experiences that I shared this summer and reassure myself that good times will return.

This painting is a reminder of one such experience. I was allowed out of the house for a day of fishing and painting, so I chose the Monocacy River, never having fished it before.  The Monocacy is beautiful and filled with fish.  I paddled upriver for a mile or so, casting along the way and catching tons of decent sized smallmouth bass. Once prime fishing hours had passed, I set up my easel in front of this train bridge and did my best. Amtrak passenger trains rumbled by occasionally as I painted, and when I was finished, I took a swim.

Piankatank Sunrise

Piankatank Sunrise
5" x 7" oil on board


The mattress in my room at the river house is probably as old as the house. It's like sleeping in a creaky hammock with springs poking you on either side.  As usual, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to catch the sunrise. All in all, this took about 10 minutes to make. Hopefully, that's obvious in a good way, not a sloppy, ugly way. If you look closely, you can see a gnat flying into the heart of the sun.

Violette's Lock

Violette's Lock
5" x 7" oil on board
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I took a personal day last Wednesday, June 17th, even though it was a week before summer break because...well, because I felt like I deserved a day after SOL's, SOL remediation, and SOL retakes.  Plus,  it might have been the last chance I'll have to take the kayak out, or paint, before our baby is born.

This was an ambitious little adventure. I decided I would fish for a few hours after sunrise and then paint once the fishing slowed down. So I packed an oversized dry bag with my travel easel and painting supplies, thinking it would fit in the hold of my kayak. It didn't, so I strapped it to the back of the kayak and paddled off into the dark at Violette's Lock on the Maryland side of the Potomac River, a few miles west of Potomac, MD. Normally, the rapids around Violette's Lock are nothing to fear, but I realized as I put in that the river was up a bit.  The biggest rapid that you have to navigate at Violette's Lock is in the narrow inlet, immediately after you put in. There's a sizable drop located on a sharp bend and in the dark with the water up, it's a little scary. However, I made it through, and I caught some nice smallmouth along the broken down dam that stretches across the river next to the lock. This is an ideal fishing/paddling trip for lone paddlers because it doesn't require a shuttle.  You float down a mile and a half or so, hop over to the C&O Canal and paddle back to the starting point.

Painting was a little more difficult. As I daydreamed about my fishing/painting adventure during my off-periods leading up to my day off, everything was so much easier.  Idyllic scenes abounded, the ground was flat, and my paintings were fresh and beautiful.  As usual, reality did not match my delusions.  In fact, I dropped my painting completely under water twice!  How it arrived home not completely ruined is a miracle. And if you plan to purchase, beware that there may be some specs of Potomac River sediment embedded in the paint. Character...

Got One?

Got One?
5" x 7" oil on board
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I've been trying to paint outdoors as much as possible lately, but the last couple of weeks have been ridiculously cold.  This image is from our trip out west a few years back.  The scene is Echo Lake near the base of Mt. Evans, outside of Denver, Co.

Oregon Inlet Surf

6" x 8"
Oil on Canvas Panel
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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.

Morning and Evening

8" x 10"
Oil on Canvas Panel
'Evening'
$35 each - $65 for both

I had a bunch of paint left over after I finished "River Kayaking" so I squinted my eyes at a couple of photos and slapped on the paint as fast as I could in a loosely representational style.



8" x 10"
Oil on Canvas Panel
'Morning'

This one's really abstract, but I like it.  These would look nice side by side in wooden floater frames.

'Belle Isle Footbridge II'

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas
Commissioned:  Sold


I received a request for a second, much larger, version of my original Belle Isle Footbridge painting and I was happy to oblige.  The larger version allowed me to expand on the detail of the original, pictured below:



I think it turned out well.  I only used three colors to mix the entire original painting as sort of an experiment, but I went with a full palette on the new version.  I think the expanded palette helped me to create more of a contrast between the shadow areas in the foreground and the brighter areas in the riverbed.

I'm searching for more commissions so let me know if you have any requests.

'River Chairs'

5" x 7" Oil on Canvas Panel

I was anxious to use my new travel easel over the Memorial Day weekend at the river-house, but also anxious to fish, kayak, windsurf, catch crabs, ride bikes, and...relax. So, I designated two hours of my Sunday afternoon at the river for painting...Painting counts as relaxing so I killed two birds and downed a few Coronas in the process. Quite enjoyable I must say.

As for the painting...Conditions were tough, but such is outdoor painting. I mixed my paints beforehand because I wanted to get the scene down quickly before the light changed, but as soon as I had mixed my colors, the sun went behind the clouds. I tried to compensate, but may have overcompensated. Either way, I enjoyed it and I left the painting at the river-house for others to enjoy as well.

'Small Boat Dock - Alexandria'

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas Panel
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I picked this image from a stack of reference photos at the Herndon Art Space where I recently finished a painting class. I painted this over the span of a few weeks and one day, while the painting was still in process, I was looking through the art instructor's website, and I discovered that she had painted the exact image. Here is a link to my instructor's version of the same painting, which was painted outdoors, on site:

http://www.blehert.com/gallery/pages/Small_boat_dock_Alexandria.htm

You might have to copy and paste the link because I don't know how to embed a working link...

In other news, I sold three paintings at my latest exhibit in Poolesville, MD. Pretty good considering the cafe where the paintings were hanging just recently opened and is still not well known.

I'm hoping to do some outdoor painting any day now, although my motivation is lacking of late. Inspirational comments appreciated!

'On the Beach'

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

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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.'

'My Favorites'

8" x 10" Oil on panel

My wife, my dog, the river...What more do I need? Maybe a photography class to teach me to take photos that actually resemble my subjects (i.e. paintings)? And while I do love the subjects, I'm not so sure about the painting. It felt like a paint by numbers, like I was just matching colors and painting a photo. Is it more virtuous to paint in nature, face to face with a subject than to paint in a studio from a photo? I know that every artist uses photo references, but I'm struggling a bit with this idea. To be continued when I'm not so tired...

"River Day-lilies"

11" x 14" Oil on Panel

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Made it down to the river-house in Mathews County, VA for Memorial Day this past weekend. We had an amazing time - there is really no way to paint or write about this place that can adequately describe it.

For this painting, I worked from a "color-capture" photo that my wife took of some of the day-lilies that are scattered throughout the field and along the lane leading up to the house. She captured the reddish-orange of the day-lilies so that the lilies are the only colorful part of the photo, everything else is black and white. I think this helped me to capture the correct values in the painting - I painted it first in different shades of burnt umber (dark brown) to match the values and then mixed colors to match the values and painted over the browns.

I like this one - hope you do too.

"Cool Shadows on Lake Fairfax"

11" x 14" Oil on canvas panel

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This is Lake Fairfax in Reston, VA. Lake Fairfax is within walking distance from my house. I took the photo that I worked from for this painting two weekends ago during a walk with my dog, Riley. Fairfax County stocks the lake with rainbow trout from the end of March through the beginning of May and there were quite a few people fishing on the lake this day. I planned to work a fisherman or two into the painting, but decided against it.

I worked with four colors (crimson, ultramarine-blue, pthalo green and cadmium yellow light), not including white. I tried to create contrast between the cool colors of the lake shore and what is actually an open field and then more trees beyond. Hope you like it.