Summer has always been difficult for me, artistically speaking. The light is too bright and intense, over-saturating the color of the landscape most of the day, and then, when it gets interesting in the late afternoon, changes too quickly. The heat and humidity are bothersome. Before I had an indoor studio, I painted mostly plein air, and I had little desire to stand for hours in sticky, bright daylight, battling bugs and keeping the sweat off my hands. It was also too easy to procrastinate in the summer. The lure of floating on an air mattress in Curlew Pond, or taking in a Cape Cod League baseball game was just too tempting. And then there’s the color green. I’ve always struggled with the color green, never quite calibrating what I see with the mixture on my palette. In summertime in my part of the world, green is everywhere and it continues to be my personal Achilles heel.

So here it is, my first summer in fifty years flying solo, raising the difficulty level of the season even higher, and I’m doing a lot of pondering about how to approach it. Too much pondering, some would say. My late mentor, Bob Lelle would tell me to just show up in the studio with no expectations. Just show up. Something will happen. Maybe you’ll paint yourself down a path that will be exciting and thrilling. Or, you’ll waste a lot of paint on a muddy mess. Maybe you’ll take a nap. Maybe you’ll finally vanquish the “green demon.” My west coast art guru, Bob Byrne would tell me to go easy on myself and worry about art later. Take some time to get out in nature and be open to what the world presents to you. My wife, my lovely girl, would tell me to take care of myself.

I’m trying.

Plymouth First Fridays

On August 4th at 5PM, I’ll be giving a short talk and Q&A at the Howland House in Plymouth as part of Plymouth First Fridays. My subject is supposed to be “Landscape as Metaphor” but we’ll see. Come on by and say hello and check out some of my work.