Mount Desert Island

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

There is no better place to hike than on Mount Desert Island. I truly mean that. Except this year the trails were overpopulated. My wife and I read the National Park Service is going to limit private vehicle access by instituting an extensive bus service in the future.

This is one of those late afternoon hikes we took to escape the heat of the day. This year in particular, the heat felt unrelenting day after day, even in Maine. 

The views of the water are always captivating. It always a pleasure to see one of the large schooners glide by with their mast peeking above the tree line or glide behind a clump of evergreens.

This is a classic landscape subject with sky, trees, rocks and water. There is an intimate quality to the foreground space with the larger landscape in the background. I like it when the whole story is not revealed in one glimpse. It is better to leave something for the imagination.

Finished & Signed

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

With the help of Gerarde Doucette, my art mentor, this watercolor is finished. The shadows in the foreground were simplified and edged in a way to make the contours of the snow suggest shape. It was more about extending the values than adding any color. This simply makes the land more legible.

On such a hot spring day as today it feels refreshing for me to look at this watercolor. The composition conveys a calming quality. I don't know if it is sun on the tree trunks and snow or the space between the trees.

Where to sign a painting and with which color is a challenge in of itself at times. I chose a sepia as a color which echoes the values in the tree trunks for signing my name. It was also signed in the shadows as not to compete with the light on the snow.

Brattleboro Retreat Woods

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

Late in the week I was fortunate to join an art group in Newfane, Vermont. With this group I did some more work on this winter scene, primarily the trees in the background. The thinner tree in the foreground had masking fluid applied early on, high up on the trunk. This was removed then. Raw sienna was added to the same trunk to exaggerate the contrast with the snow.

Overall, I like how this picture has come together. Originally, I was struck by the stunning light on the snow, when I came upon this scene, in the middle of the woods. I pre-stained the paper with a yellow pigment before I truly started painting. This area with the warm glow has the least amount of paint on it.

After meeting with this group, which I figured was about half way to Grafton,VT, I went cross-country skiing in some of the best conditions of this winter season.

Retreat Woods

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

This watercolor is inspired by a snowshoe through the Brattleboro Retreat woods in late January. I was struck by the warmth of the light on the snow and the bark of the nearby trees. There is this quality etched in my memory of the glow from the sun at a point in time like no other. In contrast, the background of woods has a cool yet preserved quality to them.

I started this picture before my wife and I went on a trip to Washington, D.C., last week. In my mind this watercolor was moving along nicely. However, right now I am little stalled with it's progress as I come back to it. Part of the issue is that most of the winter-like qualities that stir in my mind had begun to disappear as much of the snow around here has shrunk.

There is more to do to get this picture to where I would like it to be. However, when it comes to depicting nature I try to be true to the source. The spatial patterns and colorations I cannot make up or at least, I try to learn from, being outside in nature.

Digging out

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

This watercolor pretty much describes what the winter was like in early January, at least in southern Vermont. A weather reporter in the New England area mentioned we had around twenty days of temperatures which did not go above freezing. The bitter cold and low sunlight comes across clear in this picture with many blues and grays from the palette.

However, I love to paint snow. The fresh blanket of snow gives the landscape a new perspective. Otherwise, the ground is dark in winter. I like the distant tangled shrub border with it's irregular massing adding an element of mystery.

I am increasingly intrigued by the atmospheric qualities one can convey in watercolor. Whether it is achieved through various techniques such as misting or the use of color, there is a rich variety of moods an artist can convey unlike any other medium.

Cross-country ski hut

(C) 2016 Dale DiMauro

Last winter I did not get to cross country ski as much as I usually do because of our lack of snow. Late in the season I even purchased new skis with metal edges in an attempt to improve my chances for next season. I volunteered to help elementary school kids as I usually do, embrace the outdoors. Still, like many outdoor people I was waiting for snow to come and it didn't.

This little watercolor is a memento of winter, that you could slide into your wallet to remind of you of what winter is like in Vermont. This was painted on Arches 300lb watercolor paper. This thicker paper I find gives me more time to work the color in to the paper as it stays wet longer.

The natural light of late winter projected on the landscape and the warmth of the earth colors appeal to me in this picture. Also, I like the shadows of the undulating landscape and how they describe the quality of the land. 

Sign of the Times

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This spring Vermont experienced a prolonged dry period before it finally rained early this week.  I went kayaking with a friend a few weeks ago. To reach the water we drove down a dirt road between cornfields, and the dust our vehicles kicked up was unbelievable. I have spent my life mainly in the Northeast and the Northwest, two areas with plenty of rain and humidity.  This dirt road in the dry spell made me think of the Dust Bowl.  

The painting above looks like the Midwest due to the isolation of the house, the flat landscape, and the dry dirt road running along its side. In fact, the house stands in a village in central Vermont. I have exaggerated the Midwestern qualities in this picture because this spring has felt so different, somewhat foreign. People have said this looks like an Edward Hopper painting, perhaps because his work often creates that sense of alienation and isolation, which was common in modernism.

I intentionally isolated this building from the neighboring houses to heighten its starkness. I usually paint very blue skies but attempted a varied sky with streaks of rose and Winsor blue, which show on the painting but not so much in the photograph. The house clearly is unoccupied and the "for sale" sign emphasizes its precarious future. 

However, to me, there are a lot of positive aspects to this picture. First, it is spring, which brings promise. I like how the distant lawn rolls off the horizon and makes you wonder what lies beyond. I also like the upper window where you can see through the glass and back out into the sky. The unusual rock in the foreground was likely found from the nearby river and brought to the site to mark the property boundary, perhaps over a century ago.

For this watercolor I used Arches 300lb watercolor paper which is a thicker and heavier weighted paper than my usual 140lb. This thicker paper can take repeated washes with scraping and lifting of pigment but dries more slowly.