Bar Island Sand Bar

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

These beautiful warm days with the dry ground are beginning to make me think of summer and yearn to stick my toes in the ocean. Each summer, my wife and I make the annual pilgrimage to the coast of Maine, during the heat of the season in July, to visit family. This watercolor is of a classic summertime experience on Bar Harbor when the tide is coming in as the sun begins to set. People walk into the ankle deep water or more as it pools around them creating all kinds of patterns on the shoreline and reflections in the water.

I tried to capture some of these qualities of swirling water and changing light in this picture. I do like the glow of the young man caused by the sun behind him and the varying cool tones of the water.  The picture does seem to have the colors of summer here in New England. In addition, there is something about a solitaire figure, in motion, focusing on a task against the backdrop of the coast.

Lowell Lake

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

The warmer weather has finally arrived, at least for the foreseeable future, which makes me think of summer paddling. Beautiful, sunny days with open water makes me appreciate where I live in the world. In Brattleboro, Vermont we have access to all kinds of outdoor activities such as hiking, paddling and skiing while providing beauty from our doorstep.

Paddling on Lowell Lake in Londonderry, Vermont last fall was quite a treat. My experience there inspired this watercolor just as the fall leaves were beginning to turn. I love the tranquility of the water against the undeveloped shoreline. 

I am unsettled about the distant vegetation in the middle of the picture and how to portray it. I like to establish a sense of depth in my pictures but not at the level of detail you would see in the foreground. I also don't like it when a painting is overworked and with watercolor I try to maintain an element of freshness which I believe is a strength of the medium. Is it a finished painting? In this particular painting I am on the fence, leaning both ways. Perhaps, I need a little distance so I can reflect on my impressions of the scene.

Spring forward

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This is a watercolor I did at the end of last winter. I love the angle, looking up at the house, elevating the degree of reverence to the structure, while the ground drops off the picture in the foreground. The sky lends so much to this picture with the variation of cloud cover and patches of blue contrasting with the faded, barn red color. The snow has a sort of weathered and aged look as it has largely melted off the roof and receded on the ground. Winter is largely behind us at this point, but there is a certain charm in the portrayal of the elements through the subtle warmth of color in the fence and deciduous shrubbery. 

I actually took this photograph after it was matted and framed with glass. Usually, once framed, you get glare from the glass in most photographs. So clearly I lucked out. I really like the charcoal-gray colored frame which you the viewer, cannot see, which makes a handsome complement to the off-whites, earth colors and red of the picture.

Burt Silverman

(C) 2015 Photograph Dale DiMauro

When my wife and I were in Washington, D.C. this week, we visited many of the Smithsonian Institutions (appreciating their lack of fees), and we were most drawn to the art museums. We visited the National Portrait Gallery twice, as it contains such a large collection and requires time to properly absorb the offerings.

I was particularly fond of this drawing by Burt Silverman (b. 1928) of the novelist Philip Roth. He used charcoal and white chalk on paper for this piece done in 1983. Clearly, he used toned paper with white for the highlights, to great affect.

This picture interests me in part because recently I bought several charcoal drawing pencils, which I was told do not smear. This is a revelation, because charcoal traditionally smudges and can be hard to handle without making a mess. In fact, I have much experience applying spray fixative on charcoal.

This new charcoal product comes in white, black, sanguine, and sepia from Jerry's Artarama, which claims it will not smear. So far, I love working with these pencils, but I have not finished a drawing with them. When I come up with a nice and juicy portrait, I will post for all to see.

Merv Corning

(C) 2015 Photograph Dale DiMauro

This is school vacation week for many students and faculty in our area. My wife, an English teacher in New Hampshire, certainly earned this hiatus. Thus, we decided to head south to Washington D.C. for warmer weather, spring blooms and to visit some museums. 

Yesterday, while visiting the National Portrait Gallery, we saw some amazing paintings of both historical figures and celebrities. One of the first paintings we saw along the long corridors was a watercolor by Merv Corning (1926-2006) of Johnny Unitas, a famous quarterback from the National Football League. Corning, over the course of his career, went on to paint over 200 National Football League Players.

I personally had never heard of Merv Corning nor seen his work. Yet, to see his work in person, it was evident he had tremendous drawing and painting skills. His composition captures Unitas under deep concentration while his brushstrokes are bold and direct. There is no fussing around or going back into the painting. The profile of Unitas' face and hand are convincing, while occupying the full picture with his presence. The artists choice of value, in his color selection, are spot on in achieving depth in the portrait.

A pleasant outlook

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

One evening my wife and I were watching the evening news when I started drawing this portrait from a photograph in a Vermont Life Magazine we had on the coffee table. The photograph is attributed to Chris Cammock, in the Spring 2014 edition. I liked how the drawing developed and carried it further by starting a watercolor of the portrait. Instead of using the usual 140 lb. Arches watercolor block, I decided to try it on a 300 lb. block, which is a much thicker paper that holds water more easily. Initially, I was going to paint a very different background, perhaps even just a rich dark color. 

However, the real issue was how to portray her hair as it got lost in the background if that were a lighter color. Ultimately, I painted it as it was in the photograph with the brick wall lending a sense of depth to the picture. I do like the individual hair strands that project from her head against the red of the brick. Believe it or not, her hair is painted with ultramarine blue.

Another issue is coming up with a name for a painting. At times the subject or atmospheric effects suggest a name. Often I just type in a name in the beginning of a post, and as the writing develops, I am able to come up with a more suitable title. What would you title this picture?

Ashuelot Park

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I like the Ashuelot Park, in Keene, New Hampshire at this time of year. In particular, I enjoy the trail that runs from the park in Keene up towards the Cheshire Hospital. Once the snow melts and mud subsides, it is a lovely walk or bicycle ride on soft ground with the Ashuelot River on one side and wetland areas on the other. Often the sound of the first peepers of the season I find here, along with the new arrivals of birds out in the sunshine. This is the embodiment of spring. 

This watercolor expresses that time of year when we finally have beautiful sun, warm temperatures, and the promise of a new season. This old tree casts interesting shadows in contrast with the undergrowth of thickets on the undulating forest floor. Over time people have carved out little trails along the river's edge while bisecting the forest.

In this painting I really tried to paint the variation of subject matter within the shadow of the tree. Instead of using a dark monotonous shadow, I attempted to suggest the contour of the land, the trail surface, and a bit of temperature in its silhouette.

I usually paddle with a buddy of mine in the Upper Ashuelot Canoe Race, which is typically the first Saturday in May. However, with my arm still undergoing physical therapy, I do not know if I will enter this year.

Back in time

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

Since today was my birthday, I figured I would go back in time and display a painting I did when I was in high school in 1982. With my mom, I took an evening art course with Gregory Lysun, a very accomplished oil painter, at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York. At the time I was inspired by Norman Rockwell's small town community scenes. My father even helped me build the picture frame out of "door stop" from the local lumber yard. We used a table saw to miter the cuts and hammered the corners together by hand.

I loved the postures and body language then, as I still do now. To some it may seem unfinished, but adding more grass blades for example, would not make much of an improvement. The picture has sort of an innocent, direct, yet unworked over quality to it. The particular wooden ladders shown above you do not see so much these days.

Although this old oil painting is quite different from my recent watercolors, there are some similarities. I am still drawn to buildings and people as my subject matter.  Relatively few of my works are the expansive landscape scenes that have been popular with so many painters. While I frequently wander in nature, I tend to paint scenes from my neighborhood.

Cedar Street

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

People have been asking me lately if I do any oil painting. Years ago, I mean decades ago, oil painting was the first medium I attempted. I had painted a snow scene and a couple of young men painting a red barn on ladders, amongst other landscapes. In high school I also did some acrylic painting, featuring downhill ski racers. For plein air painting I am interested in using water mixable oil color, which cleanup just like watercolor. You also can paint these upright on an easel which is important when painting outside.

The above painting I did a little over a year ago on a panel Gerarde Doucette had prepared for me. Gerarde hosts a small group of artists in his studio in Charlestown, New Hampshire from time to time where he goes around and gives individual advice to artists. Cedar Street is a busy side road in our neighborhood. This was painted as much with a paint brush as with a palette knife. I pretty much completed it in one afternoon, though I had transferred a line drawing to the panel in advance.

Towards the end of Winter

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I had great fun developing this painting. The scene is drawn from my neighborhood. The length of day has been increasing as evidenced from the late afternoon western light. To me there is a balance of warmth and coolness in the picture. The color of the roofs have a nice gentle warmth to them, while also conveying an element of abstraction in their geometries. The snow, street and evergreens have a harmonizing coolness. 

There are undulating woodlands in the background which I tried to really play up with washes of sepia to make the building in the sun pop forward. The bleached affect on the wall in the sun further delineates the building.

I do love the older homes, with their distinctive detail, character and how they are situated in the land. No two older homes look alike. In the changing light and shadows over the course of the day I find them to be truly wonderful. Never a dull moment! For some time I have been entertaining thoughts of introducing a figure or figures into some of the pictures. Perhaps in a window or working in the yard. I don't know at this point but you never know......

Hopeful Signs

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

This painting I did a couple years back, but it reminds me of this time of year, the time of year when looking at old snow in particular gets old, fast. It seems unusually late to have so much snow around here or at least in Brattleboro. Having said that, I realize it is receding everyday on our property of late. Against the house on the south side we have daylily and iris foliage emerging. 

To me, this painting has a degree of optimism even though it may seem toned down with browns and subdued yellows. It has the light of longer days and increasing temperatures yet to fully arrive.

The old fellow in the van is bundled against the cold and enjoying the hot air blower of his vehicle while having a "driveway moment," as NPR calls it, listening to the radio before venturing out into the chilly gray day once more.

The Light of Spring

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I have been working on this watercolor on and off over the last two weeks. I wasn't sure what color to paint the actual house. I was leaning towards white or off-white, like a traditional colonial home. This would offer a nice contrast with the sky. I had left this area of the picture unpainted, so that everything else in the landscape and sky had color, but the snow on the ground and on the entry roofs blended in and became lost. So I ventured to paint a blue-green which would not be overwhelming to the architectural details and shadows, yet harmonize with the dark evergreen on the left. 

The perspective, to me, gives reverence to the building, with the subtle upwards view. I like the warmth of the deciduous trees. Also, there is a stillness to the picture which I particularly like. Usually at this time of year with southern exposure, at least in Brattleboro, the snow has melted and broken up a little with some rich, exposed earth coming forth.

I used a very minimal palette, which includes paynes gray, cobalt and ultramarine blue, sepia, and phthalo green.

Portrait Painting

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

The book, Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci, by Bulent Atalay, which I just read, was fascinating. The author explores how the sciences and arts have influenced each other with nature both the inspiration and resource bank. He discusses and sites examples of the golden rectangle, the golden triangle, and the Fibonacci sequence among other phenomena in nature and expressed in paintings and building design.

However, what intrigues me most is the data on portrait painting in western culture. Portrait painters typically place one of the subject's eyes in the very center of the picture, towards the top third of the canvas, suggesting the composition of the portrait has an unwritten order. Painters typically present the left side of the face towards the viewer, moreso than the right as seen in the drawing I did above. This is true of iconic paintings including the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. This will definitely change the way I look at portrait painting.

Stonewall Jackson

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I recently finished reading Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne. When I first signed this book out from the library, after my injury, I was not sure I would read it because I could not hold a book open with one hand. However, as I got into the book it became fascinating to learn some of the events of the Civil War, in particular from the Confederate point of view. Also, on a personal note, I had ancestors who lived in Virginia and fought against the Union. 

Jackson graduated from West Point with some of the generals whom he would fight against in the Civil War. He also taught at a military school in what is now West Virginia. Many of the students who would become soldiers would end up fighting for him. He was known for getting his Confederate troops in fighting shape in short order and winning many battles against a much larger Union Army with limited resources. When he died nearly two years before President Abraham Lincoln, it was considered the first national mourning for a fallen leader in United States history.

This is not the best painting I ever created, however, it is essentially a watercolor sketch done rapidly without too much fuss. It is based on the cover photograph of S.C. Gwynne's book, taken over 140 years ago, which has the top of his head cropped off. This picture is not intended to glorify Jackson as he had a reputation for wearing tattered clothing and was wanting in appearance. 

Pencil & Paper

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

The cast on my left forearm was removed this morning. It was truly an exciting moment. It has healed nicely but needs physical therapy to get back to its usual functioning. Right after I got home from the hospital, I realized I did not want to look at my limp arm all day. So I drove to Keene, New Hampshire where there is an art group that meets on Thursday mornings. Artists bring whatever projects they are working on, whether it is a watercolor, as I usually work on, or a lovely colored pencil drawing of a still life, as a woman across from me was creating. Another person was painting a garden scene in acrylic on slate.

Since my arm is tender and it was really windy, I did not want to carry much, so I threw in my L.L. Bean bag a sketchbook and pencils. In a half hour between introductions and conversations I did this little drawing of an older woman from a photograph in Vermont Life Magazine credited to Chris Cammock. The others are quite impressed with some my watercolors, but they were not familiar with my portrait drawings! This one does seem to capture a sense of the model's presence and connection with the viewer. I did the entire drawing with one HB pencil, and it did not require an eraser. I wanted to make use of my time doing something creative and this worked for me.

The winter that was

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I am truly excited about this painting! For me it has some magical qualities. There are atmospheric affects which go beyond just mixing colors and applying paint to a surface. There are heavy cool shadows in the foreground conveying temperature change and the fading daylight. Yet there are puzzling qualities just beyond the hedge and on the right side, where there is a wall of snow which seems to roll right off the page. Perhaps the real mystery is what is going on behind the house where the light is warm and seductive.

The snow seems to root the house to the earth while the power lines connect it to the larger community. You can feel the weight and temperature of the snow on the hedge. And this is no small hedge! There is a bit of benign neglect, such as the uncleared walk and stoop, which give it a Hopperesque quality.

Throughout the fall and winter I have been deleting elements and simplifying my landscapes in search for stronger compositions and more powerful imagery. Often it is subtle changes in color or the ground plane, a shift in the horizon or eliminating a window in a house etc. The result I think is a stronger regional identity. Maybe not. What do you think?

Watercolor figure study

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

Like most American households, my wife and I receive many alumni magazines in addition to all the mail order catalogs. The University of Oregon's school of allied arts sends out their alumni magazine every so often and usually there is an active outdoor scene on the cover. However, the recent cover does not depict some great western scene but students helping out with construction of a new building on the campus in Eugene, Oregon. This was the source of inspiration for this little figure study.

I mentioned in an earlier post when I have limited time I like to do little figure studies often on remnant watercolor paper. The posture, body proportions and color of the clothes seem to express everything in this watercolor. These little pictures do not have the build up of watercolor washes as a finished watercolor may have. I often use a handful of pigments at most. There is not much detail in the faces, hands or feet. I mix yellow ochre with quinacridone rose and the color simply reads as skin tone. The shadows are painted in payne's gray, depicting the direction of the light source and providing depth to the objects in the foreground.

Andrew Wyeth's Campfire

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

In twelve days my cast will be cut off, freeing me to be truly active again! Yea!!! Again yea!!! For those of you unaware of my condition, I broke my left wrist in the beginning of February, in not one but two places. Fortunately, it was reset expertly at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, here in Vermont, in the emergency room. It was reset so well that no surgery was required! It has progressed to the point where I played two matches of racquetball recently. After weeks of minimal activity I was desperate for exercise. I even have a handsome blue cast, in the cerulean blue color range. The nurse offered a swatch of colors to choose from as if selecting wallpaper patterns!

In the meantime, our living room is littered with pencil drawings of faces, figures and feet. I even have a little portrait of my wife. Since my stamina was limited, I did a small knock off of an Andrew Wyeth's painting called Campfire. Many artist friends who live in New England, I find, have a book or two of Andrew Wyeth. Well, I have one called The Helga Pictures, published in 1987 with much controversy to follow, but I won't go into that here. I like this painting because it is direct, abstract, and applied with wet washes. It is even understood that Wyeth used a straw and blew air to create the nodules and uneven edges on the branches in his picture. 

I find the sky in Andrew Wyeth's watercolors to be of particular interest. There is a lot of atmosphere in his sky with little pigment used. This sky is warm in temperature, using a small amount of yellow or even a drop or two of red into a wet wash.

I had a square watercolor block kicking around that I think has perfect proportions for doing little portraits. It is small in size so as not to allow for too much detail, yet the sheet enables me to get the essence of the scene. I only focused on one area of Wyeth's painting, which included the backside of Helga, the model's head. I was interested in mixing colors to match what he might have used, with techniques he may have applied. However, I did not use a straw in this case, even though I have tried in the past because, I failed to consider it at the time. 

Changing seasons

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I have been working on this watercolor on and off since Christmas. It is of a neighbor's house right outside my studio window. I like to observe the changes in the landscape throughout the seasons, from the emergence of plant life pushing up from the soil to the colors of fall foliage and finally snow accumulating.

I got off to a great start with nice rich washes of pigment but set it aside as the bustle of the holidays picked up. When I came back to it, I was more tentative and some areas became more overworked than I prefer. I like the little old garage building with the natural light filtering through and around the curtains. The silhouette of the trees behind the garage look too evenly spaced, providing an unnatural appearance. 

However, there are many other things I like about this watercolor. I like the warmth of light projecting from the windows in the house. I love the warm glint of light coming off the clapboards just below the eaves on the front of the house. The large, draping evergreen seems to glue all the elements of the picture together and add an element of mystery. Next time, I would use a cool blue such as ultramarine blue to push back the groundcovers in the foreground with less opaque greens. 

What do you see or what would you imagine? Sometimes I get in a zone and paint in a seemingly random sequence. Is it finished? Sometimes I know right away but with this one not so much.

A summer's day

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

I figured I would give you the reader and myself a break from this winter with a late summer scene. Put the snow aside at least for a day!

Last summer the Brattleboro Outing Club had a paddle on Lowell Lake, which is near Londonderry, Vermont. It was a beautiful day on a lovely, clear, clean body of swimmable water with wildlife to boot! We saw a blue heron, an eagle, and painted turtles sunning on a downed limb hovering above the water. There are no year-round homes on the lake, so it generally is quiet and peaceful. We weren't the only paddlers, but all were respectful of the surroundings.

This watercolor is a detail of a study I made and added to recently. It is a tall, narrow, sheet of watercolor paper, a remnant as such from a prior painting that had been kicking around. This photograph cuts off much of the top and some trees but the camera simply could not capture it all, with such narrow proportions. This sheet lends itself to a slice of nature with its vertical orientation, which is what I intended, from the paddler to the sky. I plan at some point on doing a near full sheet of this emphasizing the vertical orientation so that water, vegetation, and sky are all included, but on a more generous scale.