Travelin’ Through. Egg tempera painting

The sound of water running over rocks through hot summer days in the Appalachian mountains inspired this egg tempera painting, Travelin’ Through.

Cardinals, Crows and Scarlet Tanagers sing and call to one another in the tree canopy as deer pass silent along shore. I perch on a rock in the middle of the South Toe river and paint small studies. Bringing them back to my studio, I lean them around my easel for reference and begin painting Travelin’ Through.

That was the summer of 2008. Over the years, I worked on the painting through times as turbulent as that mountain stream. Eventually, I set it aside unfinished.

This spring, I pulled the painting off the wall and once again set it on the easel.

I crack open and prepare an egg. With a palette knife, I mix white, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and raw umber in egg and water on a porcelain plate.

Swirling my brush in this ancient alchemy of colors, luminous hues flow, summoning memories of birdsong and cool river breezes. Remembered laughter of mountain friends and warm sunshine comes while I paint… blissfully travelin’ through the blue haze of time.

Royal Tern, oil on panel

Throughout summer, I have been working on a new Coastal Bird series of small oil paintings for Cheryl Newby Gallery.

Here are three of them out of nine in the series so far.

A Summer Song, egg tempera painting

After our American Tonalist Society inaugural show in New York City in May, we have been working on publishing our Shades of Gray catalog. However, I painted this egg tempera, Summer Song, and started a new Coastal Bird series I will share in a later post.

I began my art career painting light falling on birds. These creatures who inhabit land and air enthrall me, as does the wonder of all nature. Decades ago I donated to many conservation causes and served on a few boards until becoming overwhelmed by all our vital environmental issues.

The struggles of raising a family and running a business took precedent over global matters. Sometimes it was all I could do to keep our own heads above water. My children are now the age I was then. The intervening years brought forth an increasing amount of new evidence based environmental data.

In my studio are shelves of books by men and women who have shaped my thoughts and inspired me over the years. Artists, prophets, scientists and spiritual leaders. Each one contributing to the artist and man I became. Their ideas planted seeds that rooted and grew into beneficial forests of hope and beauty for humankind. One individual influences many.

On my easel now is a large oil painting of a scene I sketched over twenty-five years ago and birthed an idea. Like so many other beloved wild places in my native Florida, that setting is now another subdivision. Homes built so quick and cheap that major appliances need replacing in 5 years. The stately old moss-draped oxygen giving trees that would have shaded the transient arrivals homes, and provided food and cover for dozens of species, bulldozed into mountains and burned.

I did not have the knowledge to do this painting back then. It represents a circling back to my artistic roots. It’s destined for my show at Hughes Gallery next year. I will share it in the coming months. Follow me on Instagram to see works in progress.

The exhibition hall in our American Tonalist Society show was adorned with grand paintings testifying to the beautiful and spiritual embodiment’s of nature. Art students from a nearby atelier visited and spent reflective moments in front of each painting. They spoke of the spiritual void among their peers, and how these tonal landscape paintings evoked a quiet spiritual truth and beauty lacking in much contemporary art.  “They told us this was dead art,” a young student exclaimed.

To see the enthusiasm on their young faces for landscape paintings was heart warming and inspiring. I am thinking my new work will be a path to help heal the planet. A journey to wholeness.

My painting Summer Song, is available at Crossnore Gallery in North Carolina. Sale proceeds benefit the children’s Stepping Stones program.

One individual makes a difference.

American Tonalist Society Founders pictured left- Daniel Ambrose, Eleinne Basa, Mary Erickson, Don Demers

In the summer of 2016, three dear friends, Mary, Don, Eleinne and I sat around the dining room table of Nanatuck in Port Clyde, Maine discussing the contemporary plein air movement. Our talk turned towards previous schools of art that derived their inspiration from nature, and soon settled on the American Tonalist painters of the late 19th and early 20th century.

We decided to form a group dedicated to celebrating the aesthetic and contemplative ideals of the Tonalist painters. And on that summer afternoon in Maine, was born the American Tonalist Society.

On May 3, 2019 we had our inaugural exhibition, Shades of Gray, at the historic Salmagundi Club in New York City. Thirty premier artists from across America participated with 60 paintings in the show. It was a tremendous success!

Noted art historian and author of A History of American Tonalism, David Adams Cleveland presented an inspiring talk to a full house and honored us on social media with these inspiring words:

David Cleveland talk at Shades of Gray, Salmagundi Club, NYC

We are producing a commemorative catalog including 10 Founders Limited Editions that feature an original drawing from each of the four founders. Only 4 are still available. Click here for details.