Rockland Renaissance: Nyack Marshes and Iona

   
     Rockland Renaissance is a county wide exhibit celebrating the impact Rockland's natural beauty had on America's first art movement - the Hudson River School and which continues to inspire artists of the 21st century. This project is made possible in part with the funds from the Individual Artist Grant program of the Arts Council of Rockland and the Decentraliztion Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.
     I will be posting images of this series with a description of the location, the plein air event, and any other stories attached to it!
     

"Autumn in Nyack" : A  walk through

Step 1

 I started by laying out masses with broad strokes, determining the composition and working out a color story. I usually work out the color story on my palette. I really take a long time with this step, working out all the color nuances and seeing if the colors work together. At the same time I am thinking of what mood I want to convey and adjust the colors to hopefully reflect this.

Step 2

I then start making adjustments, working out the values.  The boats were not in front of me but I thought the composition needed something and I liked the human element. I start pushing areas back into space, bring up the foreground etc.....When I retreated to my studio, I reworked the forground, MANY TIMES!  I really wanted loose strokes of color. It was interesting working with blues and brown and trying to make them work with each other. I ended up blending colors I never would have thought of. What do you think?

                                       Autumn in Nyack   oil    16" x 20"

I really love painting the marshes. This is one of the first paintings I did for this project, and I kept on "repainting" it til the show went up a year later! I would think I had it, lay down my brushes, only to see it from a distance days later and say, "NOT YET!" But in the end it was worth it, I like it much better now then before! ....But not as much as Giffords!

Marshes of the Hudson by Sanford Robinson Gifford 1876

IONA   oil    12" x 18"

This painting was caught on an excursion I took coming home from one of my daughters cheerleading competitions in Westchester. I was fortunate to have the time to meander through Bear Mountain  instead of heading to 684 over the Tappan Zee. The lighting was perfect, no one in view for miles, I did some quick sketches and then a photoshoot. I loved the building up of paint. This piece flowed out pretty quickly. I decided to use it for the brochure and for a book, "Reflections of Rockland"

 This book is a visual diary of my return to painting and reflects approximately two years of attempting to reflect on canvas the truly wondrous landscapes and vistas of the lower Hudson Valley. Available in soft and hard cover, 30 pages. Available at www.blurb.com/books/3632956

Sunset Marsh by Martin Johnson Heade