Down by the River Side • oil on canvasboard 12″ x 16″ • collection of the artist
On Saturday, September 1, 1973, my grandmother’s 93rd birthday, I painted my very first oil painting, created as a present for her. I was 29 years old. In this first-ever attempt in the medium, I choose to portray sky, land, and water. Yes, that brownish-green streak in the lower mid-ground behind the foreground trees and ground-cover was the beginning of my numerous attempts to portray water in color. The spot I chose to portray was familiar to my grandmother; close to the old swimming hole on the Saco River in Dayton, Maine that flows behind the farm where I grew up. I’ve featured the story of the circumstances surrounding this event in an early blog about my second painting – Inside Looking Out #1 – which many of you are familiar with through this medium or seeing in person:
Looking at a recent painting at left lets me know that I’ve “come a long way, baby!” in the intervening 41 years, particularly in terms of handling water. For comparison take a look at these three earlier works from the 80s and 70s, and how I handled water then.
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Alden,I really like the brownish band. Reads very clearly and seems like part of a delightful spot. That’s my take. Nature trumps everything.Think man and his stuff “ruins” Eden. Was your grandmother’s vision good enuf to take painting in?