Mink Cove and the Great Blue, in Progress

Initial Composition

Adjusted Composition

I've been using facebook recently to post my daily work progress.  My facebook friends are very generous with comments, always positive.  With this work I had some questions about the great blue positioned in the center or even if the bird was too trite to include.  After posing the question with the first photo the vote was, yes, keep the heron and yes to center location.  A minority didn't care for the center location and thought placement in the upper left would work better.  I elected to go with the majority opinion but move the bird slightly left and reduce the size.  I also removed the marsh grass in the upper right and add a sliver of water above the grass on the left.  

Painting the American Goldfinch

There is a local NPR station that has a weekly program, Bird News, with Mark Faherty of Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. This week I learned that the American Goldfinch feeds its young only seed.  This accounts for their frequency at the feeders throughout the summer.  Many of our birds leave the feeders in search of insects once they have fledglings.  

Painting, The American Goldfinch a Work in Progress

Continuing with the theme of paintbrush and bird,  I began this small 6" x 6" piece today.  It is June here and the male Goldfinches have turned their bright yellow.  They are distinct among the green trees and on the feeders.  

Also on my easel are two commissioned pieces, one of orioles and one of cardinals.  They are 14"x24" and each have 6 birds perched on and near apples for the cardinals and oranges for the orioles.  I will need to ask the client if he minds posting the progress here.  

Harvesting the Oysters a Work in Progress

Harvesting the Oysters, Session 2

Mark Kurlansky wrote about oysters in his book, "The Big Oyster: History of the Half Shell".  I highly recommend it as a beautiful story tying our nourishment to the health of the natural world.  I learned from this book that the oyster spends the first 2 weeks of its life at the mercy of the currents, tides and waves.  After, it settles on a surface where it will remain.  Because of this settlement, it is the only bivalve that is not symmetrical. And, this lack of symmetry made for the ability to ship oysters around the country prior to air transport.  If the oyster is shipped with the convex side of its shell face down, the juices of the oyster will remain inside and keep it moist and living.  We regularly eat the oyster from Little Harbor.  They are succulent, briny and a delectable delight.  

Harvesting the Oysters, a Work In Progress

Harvesting the Oysters, 16" x 24"

I live adjacent to Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts.  Feeding off that bay are thousands of inlets, one of which, Little Harbor is my neighborhood.  That little harbor is quite shallow and and low tide one can walk across it.  There also is where an oyster farm is situated.  Oysters, unlike other bivalves settle into one place two weeks after birth.  So, once they are clinging to the baskets, they cooperatively await the harvest. This takes 18 to 24 months for oyster to become adults or grow to market size, approximately 3 inches. In this painting the men are harvesting for the market.  In the distance is Buzzard's Bay.

Bayou Dorcheat

Bayou Dorcheat, 2020, Oil on Panel, 16" x 24"

The Bayou Dorcheat's headwaters are near where I grew up in Southwestern Arkansas.  The Bayou runs south through Arkansas ending near Monroe, Louisiana.  It is practically inaccessible except near Dixie Inn, LA.  One needs a proper vehicle and a boat to truly explore Dorcheat.  This is probably what has protected this beautiful force of nature.  Fortunately, my brother knows every water hole and secret place in the area.  He drove me into the dense areas thick with cypress, old growth pine and high quality bottomland forest. The green was all encompassing and the slow movement of the water mesmerizing.

This piece has been submitted to the Copley Society for juried selection in their Member's Summer Show, Reflections.  The show will be virtual from July 30-August 31.  

Bayou Dorcheat in Progress

I'm not happy with the large tree on the left.  The reflection is to large and dominant.  I may lower the tree to about the middle of the panel, thus reducing the reflection,  Or, let the reflection get lost in the water toward the bottom of the panel.