Cedar Island Fish Mongers

"Cedar Island Fish Mongers"
16 x 20
Acrylic on stretched canvas

Fall Afternoon at Shelly Lake

"Shelly Lake"
11 x 14
en plein air / acrylic on canvas panel

Camden Light

Camden Light

In 1983, my wife and I moved to Maine within a week of getting married in Roanoke, VA.  In total we spent eight long, cold, winters in Maine.  For the most part Ilene survived them by spending time in her sewing room creating a new wardrobe.   I, on the other hand, learned to cope with the winters by engaging in outdoor sports like skiing and ocean kayaking which I did year-round.  

But, no matter what we did during the cold months to make life bearable, we lived for the summers and our trips to the coast where we took great pleasure in exploring the coastal communities and their many Bed and Breakfast Inns.  One of the first places we fell in love with was Camden, Maine with its picturesque harbor filled with tall ships on the weekends, and a great French restaurant, Le Casoulet, where we enjoyed Shrimp a la Grecque every time we were there.

It also was an ocean kayakers dream destination with several islands within an easy paddle.  My favorite was Curtis Island, the home of Camden’s lighthouse where I loved putting ashore to explore, take pictures and feast on a free lunch.  Many Maine islands provided excellent habitation for large oyster beds.  Curtis Island was one of them.  There was nothing sweeter than a lunch of a dozen or so fresh oysters on the half shell, still chilled from the ocean waters.  I also learned, that the wild rose bushes that bloomed on the cliffs just below the lighthouse were generally covered with edible rose hips.  With a knife I would cut them in half and core them leaving a pulp that possessed a sweet, fruity flavor with just a touch of tartness.  I used to think of them as my dessert after a great seafood lunch. 

This painting is a rendering of one of my many photographs of Camden Light.  It was taken from my kayak on the ocean side, which is the only vantage point from which this beautiful little lighthouse can be seen.

I have many fond memories of this island.     

"Camden Light"   SOLD
16 X 20
Acrylic on stretched canvas

Skiff #1

"Skiff 1"
12 x 16
Acrylic on stretched canvas

Good Morning Sunshine

"Good Morning Sunshine"
16 x 20
Acrylic on stretched canvas

Pescadero Point

"Pescadero Point 2"
11 x 14
Acrylic on canvas panel

The Long Road Home

"The Long Road Home"
10 x 20
Acrylic on stretched canvas

'

Misty Morning

"Misty Morning"
9 x 12
Acrylic on canvas panel

At Rest

"At Rest"
16 x 20
Acrylic on stretched canvas

Pescadero Point

"Pescadero Point"
16 x 20
Acrylic on stretched canvas

Summer Clouds

"Summer Clouds"
10 x 20
Acrylic on canvas

Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections"
11 x 14
Acrylic on canvas panel

The Sentinal

The Sentinal

I grew up on a small farm situated in the geographical center of Western New York.  For those of you not familiar with this part of the state, it is called the Finger Lakes area.  If you look at a map you will immediately know the reason it has that name.  When the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago, it appears as if a giant ice age hand reached out and carved huge swaths into the land with its finger nails in an attempt not to let go.  Over time many of these long parallel valleys filled with water and the land teemed with wildlife.  The lakes vary in size from a modest three mile long Canadice to the lengthy thirty-five mile long index finger of Seneca, whose 600 foot depth reaches below sea level.  In time the Iroquois Nation of peoples evolved and claimed this land as its own.  They are the people who gave names to these crystal blue lakes, Iroquois names like: Conesus, Honeoye, Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga. 

Our farm was situated high on a hill that closed off the end of one of these long valleys.  From our vantage point we could track approaching storms for twenty miles as they moved up the valley toward us.  We could accurately estimate how much time we had before we needed to clean up our tools and get in the house before it started to rain.   

Memories of these spectacular views were the inspiration for my latest picture – “The Sentinel.”  I dream about returning home and renting a cabin on one of these lakes for the summer, and use it as a base from which I would go out into the countryside to capture the beauty of this unique land on stretched canvas. 

"The Sentinal"  SOLD
16x20
Acrylic on Canvas

The Fishing Boats of Tangalle

"Fishing Boats of Tangalle"
16x20 Acrylic on canvas

Horse Cove Creek

The Saga of Horse Cove Creek

I remember the day well.  In fact, it was exactly three years ago today.  I had been missing my granddaughter who was in her first year at Brevard College working toward a degree in vocal performance.  She had set aside the weekend so we could do some hiking in her beloved mountains in Western North Carolina.  She had decided to show me the view from John Rock, in the Pisgah National Forest.

We had done some hiking together in the past.  She knew that I had been an avid hiker when I was young, and she had even heard the family story of how I had taken her grandmother backpacking up on Mount Rogers in Virginia when we were dating.  She knew that story well.  She knew that it had been raining in Roanoke when we left for the mountain, and that I had optimistically predicted that we were driving two hours south to Mount Rogers and it would be a beautiful weekend there.  Oh, trust can be so easily lost when you are young and just getting to know someone.  My only excuse is that this was before we had smart phones that can instantly give you the weather forecast anywhere on the face of the earth in a nanosecond.  In fact, this even predates the Weather Channel, but that too is just another excuse.  Sometimes forgiveness is even hard to come by when you take your future wife off backpacking for the first time in a constant down pour.   But Leah was planning this hike and she had a smart phone and she declared that all the weather satellites were predicting a great weekend.  And she was right.

We packed up some snacks and water and off we went.  It was a well-worn trail which crossed a couple of streams in the first mile or so.  One was especially pretty.  I learned later from a USGS topo map that it was called Horse Cove Creek.  We both wanted to get a picture of it, so Leah used a series of stepping stones to reach the ideal position to take a picture of the water as it came out of the forest and tumbled over and around a series of rocks before spilling out into a shallow pool at her feet.  We must have taken hundreds of pictures that day including many from the top of John Rock with its spectacular views, but none of them equaled the beauty that Leah captured in her picture of that little stream.  For me, that picture will always be the touchstone to remind me of the glorious weekend that I spent with my granddaughter in her mountains.

It is hard to believe that that hike was three years ago.  As I am writing this, I know

that Leah is hard at work preparing for her senior recital scheduled for April 1^st.  Even at my age, I did not realize how fast these years of college would pass for us.  And what a remarkable young woman she has become.  

"Horse Cove Creek" - Pisgah National Forest
16x20 Acrylic

Smoky Hollow

"Smoky Hollow"
9x18 Colored Pencil

Koelreuteria bipinnata
Chinese Flame Tree
8x8 Graphite
Final project for Composition class

Iris sibirica
Siberian Iris 'White Swirl'

5x7 Colored Pencil

Wildflower bouquet
8x10 Watercolor

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Wildflower Bouquet

5x7 Watercolor

Iris 'nordica'
Tall Bearded Iris  - NFS
8x10 Watercolor
Final Project for Intermediate Watercolor Class

Red Hibiscus Bud
8x8 Fluid Acrylics

Chaenomeles x superba
'Jet Trail' Flowering Quince
7x9 Fluid Acrylics on canvas

Nymphaea mexicana
Mexican Water Lily
7x9 Fluid Acrylics on canvas