Blog

Opening solo show: "MONHEGAN ENERGY" Rescheduled for JULY 2nd!

For the first time in the history of the Island Inn shows, my opening reception has been rescheduled for next Wednesday from 2PM to 4PM on July 2nd, 2025. I understand that The Island Inn has experienced operational difficulties with their water and electricity and for the first time ever they had to reschedule it for a week later. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this schedule change has made and we are determined to make it work for everyone involve. I have reserved my tickets and I am very excited to meet all of you and celebrate at the Inn along with my daughter Tiana. If you have prepaid for a ticket, all of the boats will be happy to move your reservation to next Wednesday July 2nd, 2025. There are 50 plus works between the Inn and the Lupine Gallery, Plus, in addition to the paintings on display, I will be bring a portfolio of watercolors for special unframed works that will also be for sale, for those interested in buying unframed works at the Lupine Gallery. The show will still run until the second week of October on the 12th. This is a great opportunity to see most all of my available paintings of Monhegan Island and I hope to see those who can come at this special open reception at the Island Inn on Monhegan Island.

I have been going over to Monhegan Island faithfully for 36 years of my life and every year since my Monhegan Artist Residency, back then, called the Carina House Residency, in 1999. My residency on Monhegan became a pivital time in my career as a painter and a deep spiritual connection to the island and the people itself. In the 10 years leading up to the residency, I became a close friend to Ed and Ann Hubert, the sole heirs, at the time, of the James Fitzgerald estate. James Fitzgerald, who died in 1971, continues to have a profound effect on my work even today. I remember I would spend long hours in the evening with Ann talking about how Jim's work until the candles burned down, sometimes til one in the morning. We talked about his worked, what he said about his painting production, and what kind of a painter he was. The whole idea of my residency was to field-test and to capture on film, video and paintings what Ann and I believed to be Jim's methods, tools and ethics. Using the best quality materials from what I brought over to Jim's own personal supply, I was able to produce thirty-six oil and watercolors and as many drawings, of various different subjects on Monhegan. I put into practice an interview-driven discipline that allowed me to go from the familiar experiences of working in plein air on location, to the unfamiliar discipline of working totally from memory and my drawings, just as Jim did, a practice I utilize even today. Some of the valuable highlights of my residency was learning from Jim's notes, what he called his "Day Book". In it were his valuable recipes for preparing his canvases to the making of Black Oil Wax medium with Jim's nephew, Dan Brockelman; a medium that I use and make for my impasto oils even today. I was taken out on Matt Weber's and Zoe Zanidakis' lobster boats to capture images of them working and even rowing in the harbor. But the greatest image I captured was a bit of a nemesis to me, successfully painting Black Head from Memory. Monhegan Island has always been a life-changing appointment with the spirit on this amazing island. At the time, I came to Monhegan Island as a professional artist-teacher, but left an inspired painter. That will stay with me all my life and, I hope this show will reflect that visual excitement and energy that the island has been for me.

The show will end on October 12th, 2025. All of the works are for sale and I hope all who can will be able to experience it in person. Enjoy!

There is still room in My Rangeley Plein Air Watercolor Workshop on Tuesday July 14th to Friday July 18th, 2025!

How Do I Prepare For An Exciting Plein Air watercolor Painting Workshop like this one? First I consider my motivation and attitude. Many people will focus on artist materials and the latest equipment designed for painting outdoors to answer this question. Rarely will the conversation ever reach what a painter's attitude should be to get the most out of a plein air painting workshop. I thought I would share three ways I mentally and spiritually prepare for my workshops as a painter and as the instructor for my students in order to inspire and prepare them for one of my workshops in Rangeley, Maine.

The following are the three C's in attitude and practice that I go by and have noticed over the years, that make for a successful workshop experience.

1. Comfort

"The chief enemy of creativity is good' sense." - Pablo Picasso

One state of mind, as a highly creative painter, is to be willing to step outside of the the safety of one's comfort zone. I think that great plein air paintings are born out of a curtain degree of danger that the artists dares to venture out into in search of that one spectacular idea or view. Picasso talked about this as the painter who paints out of what is "good Sense", or what is "sensible." It's like a person with their feet planted firmly in the sand on the beach, only willing to dip their toes in the water, but refusing to wade deeper in the oncoming sea. If great painting comes from experience, than how can anyone paint the force of the crashing waves without knowing the ocean's power? You simply must wade in with both feet. It would be to any painter's advantage if they made up their mind that they are going to have a dangerous plein air workshop rather than a comfortable "sensible" one.

When putting together a presentation of Monhegan Painters in art history, one of the outstanding compositional traits that I observed in the paintings, that were mostly made in plein air, was just how many times these famous painters painted below the high tide line. They were definitely not being sensible, but edgy, experiencing the risk of not only being 12 miles out-to-sea with little chance of rescue, but taking calculated risks in pursuit of amazing plein air paintings. The great artist-teacher Robert Henri, who wrote the book "The Art Spirit", calls this the "Perfect Battlefield." This is because most plein air paintings of high regard are born out of hardship, struggle, grief, and yes even out of personal risk in the making. Rarely is that story ever told in a museum where the artwork is all dressed up in a gold leaf frame.

"The picture that looks as if it were done without effort may have been a perfect battlefield in its making." - Robert Henri

So what do I do and recommend as a plein air workshop instructor when it comes to painting outside my comfort zone? Maybe not to be dangerous for the sake of being dangerous, but to have the willingness to try something new in your technical painting process and physically getting close enough to your subject so that is feels like it will easily fill your whole page, making you feel like you are in the painting, wading with both feet. You need to be close enough to feel and experience the subject so that it is easier for you to represent its visual energy, influencing your painting directly, as apposed to being a spectator viewing the subject in complete control at a distance. Georgia O'keefe put it this way.

"When I get close enough to the subject I want to paint, I feel like it is half painted" - Georgia O'keeffe

So in my plein air workshops in Rangeley you can expect me to model and encourage painters to create outside their comfort zone, to be safe, but be willing to paint a little on the edge, and risk being a little senselessly dangerous. Be willing to do that little bit extra, getting close enough to enter into the subject's environment, being influence by the very spirit of your subject.

2. Complacency

The second "C" is Complacency. Plein air painters can manifest complacency in their paintings in many ways. These can including a lack of passion, a fear of taking risks, or a resistance to feedback. It can hinder creative growth and innovation in painting production. Complacency is characterized by a feeling of satisfaction with current skills and a reluctance to boundary push or seek improvement beyond the status Quo. The loss of initial excitement and passion are traded for content for current levels of skill and productivity; frankly a smugness. Complacent plein air painters can even become defensive of constructive criticism by others, viewing it as a personal attack on their art, rather than a tool for improvement. These painters become afraid of the Unknown, avoiding new techniques, afraid of exploring new mediums or venturing into unfamiliar artistic territory, preferring the safety of their comfort zone. It leads to a stagnated artistic plateau that never helps to develop personal style. It can be the kiss of death to any plein air painter, because the quality of their paintings begin to decline as they stop reaching for excellence and settle for mediocrity.

Limited growth, artistic stagnation, loss of motivation, missed opportunities through collaborations and exhibit opportunities can all be symptoms that occur and negatively impact them, their work, and their potential audience. 

"My definition of art has always been the same...It is a fight against complacency. - George Bellows

So how do I guard against being complacent as a plein air painter in my Rangeley Plein Air workshops? I model and embrace feedback that seeks out constructive criticism as a catalyst for growth for my students and myself. I encourage and demonstrate a process of exploration of new techniques, encourage styles and approaches depending on which direction each painter seems to be going in. I model and encourage the plein air painters to engage with every artist in the workshop through group critiques that help them to develop their powers to represent and talk about their artwork. I also help them to discover new sources of inspiration. Each workshop will have clear goals and lessons that are specific to the Rangeley landscape and "The Artists Trail" . This is to ignite the plein air painter's passion to paint, such as, a possible exhibition or collaboration for plein air painters in this region, and down the road.

I will also model and express my passion and purpose as a plein air painter. I will encourage and show how artistic passion guides and drives our artistic journey, revealing the reasons why I paint en plein air in the first place.

And finally I will dispel the fear of making mistakes. Making mistakes are a valuable learning opportunity that embraces the process of trial and error. Imperfection and mistakes are not just common in art making, but are actually an important part in the art making process. Mistakes give you clues about what works and what doesn't, letting you experiment and learn, while moving you forward. A workshop filled with plein air painters who paint beyond their fear of painterly problems, is a very successful workshop indeed. This is because every painting has a problem for each artist to solve.

3. Confidence

Confidence is the final "C' that can effect our painting workshop. It's important in all aspects of life, but especially as a plein air painter. The French painter, Henri Matisse, famously addresses these insecurities we all have faced by simply stating:

"Creativity takes courage."

- Henri Matisse

The common questions I'm sometimes asked as a workshop instructor is, "What if I really don't know what I'm doing? or Do I have what it takes? or " Am I creatively good enough to be a plein air painter? The answer is a resounding YES. The creation of an effective plein air painting comes from that inner voice within you. If that self confidence voice is weak, then you are destined to fail right from the start. But if your self confident voice is strong, than there is very little you can't accomplish. Either way, what is happening in your mind, and how you manifest your thoughts about yourself through your words, will reveal how confidently you really work toward your painting results.

Working confidently is not working harder. It is changing the channel in our mind off what we think about our painting. Fortunately, we can change that negativity that so easily attacks our creativity in that "battlefield of the mind". We can choose to take courage, change our thoughts and start voicing positive words to describe our art process, even if we don't initially feel it. We can "fake it until we actually make it" until we find ourselves in that place we want to be in our creativity.

Perhaps this is what Matisse ment by "Creativity takes courage". Whether we voice our courage or not, negativity never will produce quality plein air paintings.

In my Rangeley workshops will model and inspire that type of courage. Whether we have painted for two months or 50 years, it doesn't matter. The truth is, we all have experienced days where we fail miserably and our confidence is shot and even derailed. It doesn't take much to get stuck in a rut and want to walk away rather than deal with it by using it as a learning experience. Instead we tend to compare and look around at other painters who all seem to be making much better paintings than us, while all we want to do is hide ours. But taking courage at this point and, changing the Chanel in your mind, is essential toward thinking correctly in order to paint in excellence. This is why it is important to realize that painting is ment to be an excellent process not a perfect one. If we go from a negative mindset to a positive one, our painting will always turn out better because we're taking courage to steer out of our rut toward the right direction. It might seem forced at first, but eventually our environment will change, even to the point where we feel excited about our painting again. Our whole perception changes when we change our thoughts, making room for endless possibilities and opportunities that we may have never considered or dreamed we could accomplish.

So my Rangeley Plein Air workshops will help you train your mind away from these black holes of thoughts, towards a real success in painterly productivity. I am excited to encourage those who have signed up for the workshops in Rangeley, Maine. But also, and for whatever reason, that I might inspire those who might be sitting on the fence. There is still room in both of my classes. To you I say, you do have what it takes. I hope this newsletter emboldens you and encourages you to step out and sign up for one or both of my workshops in Rangeley, Maine. I can promise it will be a lot of fun, a great learning experience, and that you will amaze even yourself.

I will end with one of my favorite quotes from Camille Pissaro:

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing."

- Camille Pissarro

To register click on this link: https://[email protected]