Newport, RI Cliff Walk and Childe Hassam

Here are some photographs from the Cliff Walk in Newport I took a few days ago. The Cliff Walk is a great path on the Atlantic Ocean side of Newport, that parallels the mansions. Though the mansions were stunning, I was more interested in the rocky coastline. I had never seen anything like it in New England, let alone the East Coast. It looked like something from another country, or the West Coast.




Now I understand better what American Impressionist Childe Hassam painted. He was constantly painting the rock ledges of New England.


I adore the way Hassam paints. He is one of my favorite artists of all time. I wrote a paper on him in college in which I suggested that the rocks he painted were symbols of the permanence of American tradition. They are massive and unchanging to me, although the landscape is always changing around them.


You will be sure to see future paintings inspired by the Newport Cliff Walk and the rock ledges on the coast. I have been working on 3 small paintings on canvas board here, all of the Newport Harbor. I will post them soon after I return to Virginia.

Newport, Rhode Island

I am currently visiting Newport, RI for Easter weekend and for the next couple of days. Although I heard the weather in Washington was amazing this past weekend, I wanted to get away with my family for a bit to explore a new place.



April is the off-season, so as you can see from the photographs of Newport Harbor, the docks are empty of of seafaring folks. Despite this fact, Newport is beautiful this time of year. Every day has brought good weather, with different skies and dazzling colors each day.

Beautiful Landscape: Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC

I took the Metro in and spent Saturday at the Tidal Basin in Washington DC, for the first day of the 98th Annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. Every year I go and it is more beautiful (and a lot colder) than I remember from previous years. I don't spend enough time appreciating the landscape of DC, so this is always a great opportunity to take a look around and appreciate the beauty all around me. I think I walked about 5 miles all over the city. Every time I go I get a renewed sense of pride in being from the DC area. It really is a nice city, but I believe it is under appreciated. While I love to travel and adore all the different landscapes that make up America, I do love home.

Here are some more photographs I shot for inspiration, maybe even for future semi-abstracted landscape paintings:

Dreaming of Old Lyme

Everyone here in the DC area has Spring Fever! Like them, I'm waiting with great anticipation for the cherry blossoms to bloom, but I am also dreaming of the summer in Old Lyme, Connecticut. During a meeting I was doodling some of my favorite scenes that I have committed to memory:

Current Paintings in Progress

I'm coming back on my hiatus from my first year of teaching art, and have several works in progress. Though I am busy as ever, I am trying to get on a regular painting and posting schedule again. Here is a glimpse of what I am working on now:

Paint Out

I am shocked that I only have one more week here in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Though I don't feel that the summer has gone by too quickly, the month of June was mostly pretty much lost to be painting-wise, because of the uncharacteristic rainy cloudy weather every day. So I didn't feel that the summer truly started until mid-July, when we started to get normal summer weather again. Since the weather became beautiful, I have been painting a lot, using my new french easel. I have been in Kittery, Maine quite a bit, painting with the Kittery Art Association and with the New Hampshire Plein Air Group. This weekend I painted en plein air at the Wentworth Coolidge Historic Site in Portsmouth, sponsored by the McGowan Fine Art Gallery.

Update and Sketchbook Peek

Here is another peek into my sketchbook from another trip to Old Lyme, Connecticut in July:
This one is a quick sketch I did of the sand in front of my chair, the miniature dunes it formed from people walking across the beach.

This one is the view across from me at the time, of the front of a home with dune grass and trees in the background.