Cherry trees

Branchbrook Park, Newark, NJ

Stormy weather

In creating this piece I was attempting to capture the feeling of a stormy sky and water in the morning. I started with the image below. My first versions were too sunny and I've painted this "down" a couple of times to try to capture the storminess, but I still want more dramatic contrast. I'm darkening the colors slowly. I want the sky at the back of the painting, and the boat to be really bright spots - to look like they are truly lit, but I don't want to do that by completely darkening the rest of the painting. I'll keep working on it slowly.

In the logbook of Henry Hudson's ship, the “Half Moon”, he made note of arriving at a hilly inlet on the coast of New Jersey. There's a good chance this was the Shark River Inlet, a natural harbor. The town was founded in 1872.

Passaic Bridge completed

The pivot point for a rolling lift bridge across the Passaic River. Below are some photos of the bridge.

Textures

Playing with an absorbent media that I can use to build up significant physical texture on the paper. Combined with some splattering and drybrush work it makes an intriguing rusty texture. This is an unusual painting for me as I am working from a black and white photo using my imagination to "colorize" it. I've also restricted myself to basically four colors - the primaries and burnt sienna which is creating some nice color harmonies.

The image is of an old tilting draw bridge across the Passaic river around Clifton that I took when I was bike riding last summer. Still have a couple of things to add before its done.

Commission

drawing