Eric Sloane

2017 Dale DiMauro

Eric Sloane was a noted regional painter who lived in both Connecticut and New Mexico. He wrote and illustrated over forty books with incredible drawings depicting knowledge of some of our ancestors building methods, craftsmanship and wisdom. Over the years I have acquired many of his books, primarily for the drawings which depict farm life, a way of life fast fading. He is also well known for his oil paintings, primarily of rural life, which number in the thousands. A few years back when my wife and I were at the Smithsonian Institute's Air and Space Museum we saw his mural of the sky, depicted on a great scale, along the entry way.

This watercolor painting I did many years ago is a copy of one of his oil paintings. I was inspired by the late afternoon light draped across the New England landscape with it's compound of farm buildings. 

At this point in time, I used payne's gray as an under painting to convey depth in a picture. The depiction of the eves and shadows across the landscape solely utilize payne's gray. It is not based on a Winter scene but I like how it reads as one.

One of the elements of this watercolor that I most admire is the sky with it's unconscious explosion of washes creating both soft and hard edges. There are small random marks in the sky left from where the paper was not wet, providing a textural quality to the scene. It is hard to capture these in a photograph on this scale. 

Curbside pickup

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I started this watercolor recently because I really wanted to capture the layers of green foliage that we see in summer. I have mentioned in past posts that the color green is the hardest for me to paint. In the last year I have been attempting to improve upon my greens. At this point I do not use any right out of the tube. I do not prefer the golf course or graphic design greens, which you see in many publications or in advertising. 

Thus, for now, I have settled on three mixtures that provide varying degrees of green. For a rich, earthy green reminiscent to me of Albrecht Durer's large piece of turf, I use Prussian blue with aureolin. For a shadowy green offering a more muted effect, I prefer mixing Payne's gray with new gamboge. For large evergreens such as a spruce I use phthalo green with Payne's gray and alizarin crimson. This provides a strong sense of presence, which counterbalances the lighter areas in a picture, such as in snow. I have learned that if you add burnt sienna it will darken the color.

There is a shadow green that I purchased on our vacation to Maine this summer, which I like to mix for dark ocean effect. There are so many other greens available that I periodically use, such as viridian, olive, Hooker's, and sap but I have learned to appreciate the richness and variation from mixing my own.

Of note in the above watercolor, is that the greens seem to be the darks in the picture. I traditionally use green as a complimentary color or in a lesser role such as an accent of a feature. The brick path is complementary to the greens around it, thus creating an overall harmonizing effect. Anyway at least that is what I have noticed.

Out on the Water

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

There was this marine painter called Carl Evers, who was a master at painting water in watercolor. His paintings of the sea in watercolors, many with goache, an opaque paint, are truly amazing. Somehow he acquired a rich grasp of the waves and huge swells of water with exquisite accuracy in color and character. Some of these characteristics--in addition to our anticipated, annual upcoming summer vacation to Maine--inspired me to paint this boat scene.

I have painted water in the past and have done okay with it, particularly the placid sort. However, I wanted to expand into moving water, whether ripples or raging rapids. Recently, I got a new rigger brush, a name derived from painting the rigging on ships. This brush is a size ten, which provides a healthy belly for holding pigment and water. I used it to build up the shape of waves in the foreground and thereby strengthening the perspective of the body of water. I included the sailboat behind the lobster boat because I like the wash of color contrasting with everything else and the feel of movement. In addition, I do like the dark mass of trees, which makes the boat come forward while adding an element of mystery.

Summer in Maine

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This is a watercolor inspired by our visit two summers ago, to North Haven, a small island off the coast of Maine. My wife and I took a ferry out and spent a full day exploring by bicycle and visiting with family. As in the watercolor, it was a glorious summer day with little humidity. We bicycled past this house a few times. You wouldn't know it from this angle but it looks down upon a small cove with boats moored nearby.

I like the various shades of green against the house and sky. Green says summer to me. However, I find green the most challenging color to work with at least in watercolor. If you use a green right out of the tube the color often is dull, flat and unexciting. So I have been experimenting with different combinations of blue and yellow for some time. One of my favorite mixtures is aureolin with prussian blue which creates a rich, vibrant, sod colored green, more on the yellowish than blue spectrum. Many greens from my experience appear gray and there is a whole range of these. I have not yet, found a way to utilize these gray-greens to full advantage.