Sketchbook Pages 12/2016

Fort River footbridge. Watercolor and casein. I started in watercolor, but closed my sketchbook while still wet, causing major blemish. Went in with casein to cover opaquely.

Sketchbook pages 10/19/16

I biked out to the bike trail, which is built on an old railroad line, including a gorgeous truss bridge (a lattice truss, to be precise) spanning the Connecticut River. I rode over the bridge, then pedaled down to a dock on the river to paint the bridge from below. The bridge is somewhat tricky to draw, because although at first glance one would assume that the cross beams would be orthogonal to the sides, they are not, which means that if you draw it right, the perspective looks wrong. I was mostly interested in getting the play of light on the complex nineteenth century ironwork, foliage and river reflections.

Painting in Amherst Historical Society show

I entered a painting in a juried show at the town Historical Society and it won first place!

http://amhersthistory.org/moving-day/

I did the painting many years ago in 1989, and had it in a couple of group shows in Boston back then. It had languished in my basement ever since until the announced theme of the show, "moving in, moving out, moving on" reminded me of it.
It was inspired by the inevitable scene at rush hour in Boston's Park Street station as people trying to get off the antiquated streetcars would have to fight through the mob of blockheads pushing to get on, who seemed unable to grasp the concept that the emptying must precede the filling. It struck me as having larger resonances with the human condition - our societal battles between enlightenment and atavism, and our individual struggles to emerge into the light in the face of our own selfishness and ignorance.

Moving Day

 

Screenshot from Amherst Historical Society website (no longer available online)

Text of webpage:

Moving Day, the Amherst Historical Society’s 4th Annual Juried Art Show

Matthew Mattingly, Let the People Out, oil on canvas.

The Amherst Historical Society invites visitors to view Moving Day, its fourth annual juried art show, open now through December 11, 2016. This is the fourth annual art show hosted by the Amherst Historical Society and Museum. An artists’ reception is scheduled for Thursday, October 6th, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm at the Strong House in conjunction with Amherst Arts Night Plus. The public is invited to attend both the reception and the art show.

We asked artists to present their own visual representation of what it means to move in, move out or move on. Gilles Giuntini, our juror, awarded first prize to Matthew Mattingly for the oil on canvas painting Let the People Out, second prize to Sally Dillon for the hand felted wool piece Amethyst Brook, and third prize to Ellen Kosmer for her mixed media collage What’s Left Behind.

Sketchbook pages 9/2016

Trees at Hadley dike

Lone Wolf people 

Sketchbook Pages 7/16

Truro clouds

Dusty Miller

Pilgrim Monument, Sunset

Pilgrim Monument, Early Morning

Pilgrim Monument, Overcast

Utility Poles, Truro

Utility Poles, Truro (Gouache)

CT River Island

Pennsylvania Hay Bales

Sketchbook pages 6/16

Sketchbook Pages 5/16

Lone Wolf Interior

CT River from Bike Bridge

Sketchbook page and oil painting 4/16

Lone Wolf Interior

H₂O UMass

Connecticut River from Bike Bridge

Sketchbook Pages 3/16

Looking across a field of corn stubble at a house in late afternoon sun with Holyoke Range in background.

Cows at Cook's Farm.

Emma Swift at the Iron Horse.

Breakfast at the Lone Wolf.

Tree atop Mt. Pollux.

View of West Street across open valley.

Watercolor box labels

Built table in Excel, fiddled with fonts, sizes, and cryptic abbreviations to make it fit, and printed out. Applied strip of Scotch tape before cutting into strip and placing in paintbox.

Sketchbook pages 2/16

Hartsbrook Farm from East Hadley Road, against the light.

Hartsbrook Farm from the Bay Road side.

At the Lone Wolf having breakfast, I started sketching a rather dapper fellow sitting alone in a booth. He seemed kind of bored and despondent , and was leaning forward staring into space. Just as I was getting him blocked in, however, his friend showed up and slid into the booth across the table from him. The first guy reared back and lit up with pleasure. The very rapid sequence struck me as archetypal and I tried to get it down as quickly as I could.

Sketchbook pages 1/16

Lone Wolf People.

I was driving east on Bay Road around half past four and was struck by the sight of a yellow house brilliantly lit up by the late afternoon sun. I couldn't pull the car over right there, so the next day I returned on my bike. However, the day was overcast and it wasn't clear if the sun would come out at all. I decided to take a chance, and set up by the road and started blocking in the drawing. Sure enough, around 4:20, the sun emerged below the clouds and blasted the house with its billions of peripatetic photons. I did a little victory jig and started this watercolor.

This guy was reading and making a notes with a pencil while eating breakfast. I liked his white beard and black sweater emerging from the light and shadow of the window corner.

Farm buildings on Moody Bridge Road.

Featured on Gurney Journey!

My entry to James Gurney's Six Word Story Challenge was chosen to be among five spotlit on his blog, Gurney Journey
To see all of the entries go to the challenge Facebook page.