Still Working on this-- List of 25 places I've painted around US, added Louisiana, and Padre Island, TX recently.
1 Nova Scotia
We were invited up to Philip Glass' Summer place in Nova Scotia. I had been up there in 1984 and visited a friend who was Richard Serra's assistant. We had a house on Iona Island which was totally isolated. Eagles flew all around and were nesting there. Those older artists had gone up there in the 60's and bought land very inexpensively.
Nova Scotia still has the feel of the 60's somewhat, although we tried to buy lobsters and as they were fished out and they came from Maine. Painting one of these, Philip came up behind me and said, "Boy I wish I could do that" Sometimes I take it all for granted. I kind of painted like I was the string quartet out on the grass entertaining, it all seemed very natural.
2 Vermont
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I've been going to the Vermont Studio Center for some time. I've painted there in all the seasons. This in the spring, I also have them in the Autumn, great because of the leaves, of course. The winter is so that my paintings are rather slight, snowing and very cold the whole time I was there. My work in the summer was similar to the above.
I was just posting two paintings of each place at first . I'll have to get the others up. At the time of Thoreau most of the trees in Vermont were cut!
3 Berkshires Mass
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It is interesting that up state New York is such that unless there is farmland there is little landscape. It goes to show how aesthetically minded the farmers of the Hudson River painters times were. I havent painted much because of that, one is mostly in the trees and can't see out.
I hope to paint more there as it is beautiful. I like the Berkshires they are nice as the birch and pine begin here going north.
4 Long Island
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I've painted in Long Island since the 1970's. I painted there with Fairfield Porter and Paul Georges, my lifelong friend. Jane Freilecher also paints there. My style derives from those painters and locale. It is very flat there though the light is beautiful because of the humidity.
I've painted mostly on the beaches of the bay and ocean. Montauk is the most wild still, which is the first painting. The second is Barcelona Neck looking back to Sag Harbor. It's hard to paint out there any more, there is no parking in most places which were home to me for many years.
5 Asheville North Carolina
I was invited to paint in the Balsalm Reserve a Golfing development they have tried to keep Green. The hills look out on the Smokies. I was there for a week painting everyday. It was spring and there were birds everywhere in the woods. I painted a waterfall and the interior woods also.
Here too I painted mostly where the trees had been cut. A strange irony, which points to the fact that the management of nature, with a responsibility for an aesthetic is important. This composition with the cut trees in foreground comes from the same idea of the 1800's precedent of a clearing for a house or farm.
6 Spring Island South Carolina
Spring Island is another development with a Green idea of preserving the environment. It is near Hilton Head where I probably wouldn't paint any more, though looking out to the sea is beautiful there. The landscape is remarkably varied from savannah to interior oaks with moss hanging, and grass wet lands.
7 Everglades Florida
Florida is very wild once one gets out of the condos. Though very buggy making some painting impossible. I got bit to a level that I ceased to care and seemed finally immune but I wouldn't look forward to that again. I wore a white brooks brothers shit buttoned up and long sleeves. I had bug spray sprayed on my hat and then my hands and face were at the mercy of the bugs.
The birds are amazing and I spent most of my time drawing and would like to go back to do more of that. I became involved in a quest for a Roseate Spoonbill. And finally found it at Ding Darling at Captiva Island. I made paintings there to make a larger work at home.
I painted in the Keys at Bahia Honda where there are palms on the beach.
8 Pensacola Florida
Pensacola National Seashore is one of the most beautiful places Ive ever been and the oil slick from BP is headed there. Last year I was there and it had been closed for three years awaiting repair from the slow to act Bush administration. This will be more than a disaster, one can't believe how light green and white the sand is and the black oil will be quite --well a tragic disaster.
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9 Austin Tx
10 Big Bend Tx
11 Roswell NM
I have been in Roswell twice for 6 months at the Artist in Residence Program there. This is southern NM and is white west Texas more than hispanic mythic northern NM. It is hot and that has a beauti as the heat makes a white light dry air allows the view to be crystal.
My favorite was painting the sunset behind Capitan the main feature of the landscape besides the ongoing plains of burnt grass. The sky here is the main feature and the drama of the thunderstorms each day.
When I used to drive to California each spring from NY New Mexico was the place I would always stay a little longer. In the big western landscape NM is the most welcoming. I like the hispanic flavour in New Mexico and the mythic quality it adds to the landscape.
The pinon landscape is different and the snow covered mountains add a interest. It is brown but the sky or clouds makes a varied color of dark and lights that dance in the mountains and along with the thunderstorm activity each day is enormously varied each day from the next.
13 Aspen, CO
13 Maroon Bells, Aspen, CO
14 Monument Valley, Az
15 Grand Canyon, AZ
16 Zion, UT
17 Deep Springs, Nevada
18 Death Valley Ca
19 Joshua Tree Ca
20 Yosemite Ca
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21 Big Sur Ca
22 Hollister Ranch, Ca
23 Santa Barbara Ca
24 Oregon, Crater Lake and Bandon Beach
I had rented a car in Portland.
I drove south to Crater Lake driving through 12' tunnels of snow. I climbed up the bank of snow to glimpse the view.
I had my paint with me and the view was amazing. As I painted it snowed on my palette from quick passing clouds.
I packed up and drove to Bandon Beach on the coast.
When I got there the sun was just beginning its descent and I painted again. Probably the most amazing juxtaposition of landscape I ever painted in a single day.
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The next day I painted the wild Oregon coast near Coos Bay.
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